I think I say this every year, but this time of year takes a toll on my reading habits. School is back in full swing, and hog show season is officially underway, so I don't have as much free time or mental capacity for reading.
However, this quick roundup of what I've been reading since school started back a little more than two months ago has got some really good titles in it. In fact, you'll see a few these again at the end of the year on my best books list.
Like I said earlier, my reading slows down quite a bit this time of year, which is absolutely reflected in the number of books I'm sharing with you from the last two months. That said, I think the list of books and series I didn't finish is the longest I've ever shared with nearly a dozen titles on it, including one of my book club picks (much to my chagrin). I've been struggling lately to find new series, especially magical ones, that I actually want to finish.
I also wanted to give a quick nod of appreciation to the series I've been rereading,
Faerie by Mercedes Jade. I'm not going to do a full review of this one since the plot is kind of complicated (and I'm pretty sure I've reviewed it before), but I did want to keep my promise of sharing the books I reread with y'all.
I've got eight standalone books and two series to share with y'all from the last two months, or what I've read since school started back. Technically, a few of these were read in the first two weeks of October, and the final book I'm sharing is actually par of my Fall Reading Guide.
Atmosphere
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
And she redeems herself! The last TJR book I read was kind of a letdown, especially after The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six. Atmosphere is right up there with those two books for me, so you can probably expect to see it on my end-of-the-year best books list. It made me cry, y'all! Set during the 1980s at the start of NASA's space shuttle program, it specifically focuses on how women were breaking into the space industry at a time when women were not widely welcome in the STEM fields. This one was so good, y'all. I vividly remember the space shuttle program, although my perspective is from the 90s moreso than the 80s, so this one was full of nostalgia for me. I liked that it was written in third person limited instead of first person. I related a lot the main character, Joan, especially in the sense that she never quite fits in 100 percent even though she can acclimate and blend in pretty much everywhere she goes. It's one of those feelings I can't fully explain, but TJR definitely put that feeling into this story via Joan.
The Housewarming
Author: Kristin Offiler
My August book club pick was a true crime style mystery. It's about four friends who are torn apart by the unsolved disappearance of their friend, Zoe. Five years after she went missing, Callie, Lindsey, Tess, and Meg agree to return to Block Island for a memorial, but it's mostly because the blogger-turned-true-crime-podcaster who nearly destroyed their lives all those years ago is back and writing a book, once again pointing her accusatory finger at the four women. I will tell you that this was a book that I enjoyed while also being unsatisfied with the ending. Read my full review here.
The Arcanaeum series
Author: Marie Mistry
I really like this author a lot. This is the third series of hers that I have read, and I really appreciate that all three of them are incredibly different. From the worlds she's built to the characters, Marie Mistry isn't recycling the same ideas, but rather giving us something fresh each time. And this particular series was different from any other magical series that I've read to date. When Kyrith is sacrificed by power-hungry necromancers to sustain their magical library, the spell backfires and Kyrith becomes part of the library. After being trapped as a ghost for centuries, the time has finally come for Kyrith to unite the six founding families to save the both library and all of arcandom.
The Gifted School
Author: Bruce Holsinger
Wow. This book. I had literally zero expectations going into this one because I had never even hears of it before. But as soon as I saw it on my library's shelf, it called to me, and boy am I glad I listened. This book was fantastic and so far from the types of books I typically read these days. At 462 pages, it was not a quick read. In fact, it took me the better part of a week to read. It's set in a small, elitist community in Colorado before the pandemic. The community is home to one of the best public school districts in the country, so when a gifted academy is slated to open there for the next school year, things get testy. The story itself revolves around a group of four female friends who each have children about the same age. It's told through several points of view including one of the moms, one of the dads, and three of the children. While this book is fiction, it is absolutely based in truth and did not shy away from the prejudices, biases, and misinformation that always twists around gifted education programs. It was also incredibly frank in the way it approached the pressures felt by both gifted students and their families, as well as those parents and children who don't get to join the so-called gifted club. As a former gifted student who is raising a gifted child and also teaches gifted middle school students, this book was incredibly relevant, and I highly recommend it.
Love and Ruin
Author: Paula McLain
Y'all, I finally finished it! Please don't let my having taken so long to read this historical fiction novel discourage you from picking it up. It really was so good, but most of it takes place during war time so at times it was quite solemn, and I needed breaks from the seriousness of it. This is the story of Martha Gellhorn, one of the first female war correspondents as she blazes a trail in a male-dominated industry not only for herself but also female journalists everywhere (If you couldn't tell, she's one of my heroes). The story starts during the Spanish Civil War and ends with World War II. A huge part of this story is Marty's romance with Ernest Hemmingway, which began as an affair in Spain while they both were covering the conflict and ended during World War II when Marty's career began to really blossom while Ernest's withered.
Boston Magical Academy series (books 1-4)
Author: Jennifer Chance
I really enjoyed this magical series. It's about a group of mages who are competing in a series of trials to determine the next generation of wizard leaders. The Trials are set in a parallel, magical realm that isn't supposed to be real. Except the magic from the trials keeps leaking into the real world. Case in point: Madigan has the power of a war mage, something that should only exist inside the trials. She joins the Mage Runners team to not only compete but also to fix what's gone gone wrong in the trials.
The Starfish Sisters
Author: Barbara O'Neal
Oh, y'all. Barbara O'Neal has done it again. This one made me cry. It's about two friends turned sisters finding their way back to one another after going through some pretty difficult life situations that cause a rift between them. Suze grew up in an ultra religious, abusive home with a semi-famous preacher father who essentially started a cult. Her life is upended even more when she gets pregnant in high school and her father nearly beats her to death. She manages to get emancipation and eventually becomes a mega famous actress known for being outspoken about the issues she believes in. When her outspokenness lands her in the hospital after being nearly beaten to death again, she returns to her hometown to heal and confront everything that's happened between her and Phoebe. Phoebe, for her part, had a much easier childhood. She lived in a nice house and had loving parents. Her struggles came in her self-confidence and jealousy and her parents' divorce when she was in high school. She dropped out of art school when she got pregnant and married the father, who she ended up divorcing. Now she's a successful artist and children's book author struggling with the reality that her daughter and granddaughter are moving to London. She's also been keeping a huge secret from Suze that will come to light in their reunion and threaten to completely ruin their relationship for good this time.
The Sirens
Author: Emilia Hart
This was not your average mermaid tale (see what I did there?). This was a story within a story within a story. I enjoyed it very much. I'm not sure I can give the best summary here without totally ruining the best parts, but I'll do my best. Lucy, the main character, wakes up to find her hands around the throat of the boy who shared her intimate photo with his buddies who then posted it online. Terrified of the consequences, she flees to her sister's remote cottage for help, only to find that Jess is gone. While there, Lucy is having vivid dreams of twin sisters being transported to Australia aboard a convict ship. Those sisters and the ship were real -- it sunk just off the coast of Jess's home. Not only that, but according to the journal Lucy found in Jess's things, Jess also dreams of the sisters, and they're the subject of her next art exhibit. As she tries to unravel what it all means, Lucy discovers some very painful truths about her family and realizes that Jess is legitimately missing.
The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare
Author: Kimberly Brock
This book was another totally random find at my local library. Set during World War II in Georgia, this historical fiction novel explores the mystery of the lost colony of Roanoke through the supposed descendants of one of the survivors, Eleanor Dare. Alice and her father fled Evertell estate after the death of her mother, leaving behind almost everything, including Eleanor's book of wisdom that has been passed from mother to daughter for generations. Alice had no intention of ever returning, but when her father dies and she receives the deed to Evertell, Alice packs up herself and her daughter, Penn, to go spend a few weeks getting the property ready to sell. But once there, Penn blooms and Alice begins rediscovering herself. There's also Sonder, whose been there waiting all this time. This book was truly wonderful. Told in multiple points of view between Alice, Penn, and Eleanor (sparingly), it was a tale of the bravery and resilience of women.
Stranger Things Have Happened
Author: Kasie West
I hesitated before including this book from my Fall Reading Guide on this list, since that list has been live for less than a week, but once I started reading this one, I couldn't stop! I literally read it in one day (I'm on Fall Break). This was a fake-dating book, which I don't read all that often since they're pretty predictable, but I absolutely loved this one, and it was exactly what I needed this past week. Sutton agrees to pretend to be Elijah's fiancé to prove that a good therapist would be able to tell if the couple s/he's counseling are strangers. If they do, Sutton's friend and Elijah's brother, who really are engaged, will do pre-marriage counseling. You already know where this is going, so that's all I'm going to give you from the plot. What I will tell you is that I related to Sutton so much, and I absolutely adored Elijah. If you like fake dating stories, don't skip this one.
Books/Series I Did Not Finish:
- Lightning in a Mason Jar -- This was my September book club pick, and I was so disappointed. I tried to read it, y'all; I really did. I just couldn't get through it. Read my full review to see what made it so unreadable for me.
- The First Ladies -- I wanted to love this one, but ultimately I wasn't a fan of the back-and-forth swapping between the points of view of the two main characters. It felt very disjointed and was a little hard to follow.
- The Four Winds -- This is definitely going to be an unpopular opinion, but I couldn't read this book. It was just so depressing.
- The Nightwatch Academy series -- I read several of the books in this series, but ultimately I found myself wanting the story to be over. It felt like the story, which was an interesting premise, was just being drug out unnecessarily.
- Hunters Moon Ritual series -- I usually really enjoy this author's work, but I just wasn't feeling it with this one.
- Theirs to Protect -- I should have known better. I know I don't like post-apocalyptic.
- Lost Legacy series -- This one was way too insta-love for me.
- Apex Elite Academy series -- I found the MFC to be annoying instead of funny, which is what I'm sure the author was going for. Honestly, I think I'm done trying books by this author. I never make it very far.
- Her Guardians -- This one had way too much angst for me. Also, I don't like prison stories, so it was an odd choice for me to begin with.
- The Covenant series -- This one had so much promise, but ultimately there was something missing in it for me, and I didn't finish the first book.
- Tarot Arcana Mysteries series -- This is the second time I've given this series a shot, and I do think I made it further this time, but I just couldn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment