Everything I Read This Summer

My rating: A- / Genre: Rom-Com / Women’s fiction

Abby Jimenez is one of my favorite writers. I’ve called her the queen of dialog in the past and that continues to hold true in her latest novel, Just for the Summer. She manages to write conversations between characters that feel realistic yet incredibly witty and often laugh-out-loud funny.

Her romantic novels have more depth than your average beach read and I love the way she so clearly researches the topics she chooses to address and the battles her characters face in a way that (at least for me) leaves me feeling like I have a deeper knowledge of what it might be like for someone struggling with a certain particular set of issues in the real world. She does just this in Just for the Summer and while this book is probably my least favorite of the books I’ve read by Abby Jimenez, I still loved it and really loved the way characters from her Part of Your World novels popped up in the most unexpected places throughout the story. If you love Abby Jimenez’s past books, I have no doubt you’ll love Just for the Summer, too.

Justin and Emma are both plagued with a similar curse: Every person they date goes onto find their soulmate in the next relationship they have after they break up with Justin or Emma. It would be funny if it didn’t like every relationship Justin and Emma enter into is destined to fail. But then they come up with a plan to break their curse wide open. They’ll date each other and break up. Each of their curses will cancel out the other’s curse and they’ll both finally be free to find their true love after a bit of fun. 

And then Emma’s mother shows up, bringing drama and years of hurt along with her, and Justin assumes guardianship of his younger siblings and saddening the “fun” they’re having feels very real. They have to work through serious issues and when they begin to do so together, relying on each other and realizing they might very well have real feelings, they begin to wonder if this relationship might be more than just a plot to break a curse.

• Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

My rating: B+ / Genre: Mystery 

Sally Hepworth is one of my favorite mystery/suspense authors. Her books are not scary but they are dark and twisty and instantly enthralling. (If you’ve never read any of her work, my favorite Sally Hepworth novel is The Good Sister and I would absolutely start there!) I love the way her characters often have a little more depth than what you might expect from a suspense novel and Darling Girls was no different. That being said, it’s a tough one to read as it includes child abuse (a theme throughout the novel), and had I not downloaded it to read on the plane, I might’ve abandoned it only because I do not like to read books where horrible things happen to children. I say all of this to say I do think it’s a good book, though a heart wrenching one.

Darling Girls is a novel about three women who were first brought together through foster care when they were children. Norah, Jessica and Alicia met at Wild Meadows, a beautiful farming estate, under the care of their foster mother, Miss Fairchild. On the outside, Wild Meadows is picturesque and lovely, but Miss Fairchild has a dark side splattered with conditional love, unpredictability, unreasonable rules and horrific consequences the girls experience regularly throughout their childhood.

Years later, the girls are now adult women. When human remains are discovered under the house they called home as children, they’re questioned and forced to relive their horrific childhoods. But are they being questioned to help uncover the truth about the body or because they are suspects in a murder mystery?

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

My rating: B / Genre: Fiction

This book has been on my radar for a looong time, as it’s been recommended repeatedly by so many people. My expectations were sky-high, despite the fact that the premise didn’t really intrigue me. As I began reading, I felt the potential of this book begin to swell. I started to care for the characters and felt invested in them… and then I found myself thinking, “Okay, let’s get on with it.” Nothing big was really happening and I wasn’t sure where the book was going, despite appreciating the author’s skill for writing and capturing the complexity of relationships. The book felt unnecessarily long in parts but then, a little more than halfway through the book, something big happened which made me realize how much I actually did care for the characters in the novel. I was immediately roped back into the novel, fully invested and captivated once again.

From Amazon: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.

These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

• The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay

My rating: B / Genre: Historical Fiction 

As an avid reader of historical fiction, I’ve read surprisingly few novels set during the Cold War. The Berlin Letters instantly intrigued me. The novel follows the present-day life of CIA cryptographer Luisa Voekler. With flashbacks to the life her father, Haris, a journalist whose eyes were slowly opened to the horrors of postwar East Germany, led before they were separated. Luisa recognizes a symbol from her childhood on a letter her coworker brings her way, her world is flipped upside down. Hidden beneath the floorboards of the home she now shares with her grandmother, Luisa discovers years of correspondence between her grandfather and her father, a man she believed died many, many years ago. As she pages through the hidden letters, Luisa begins to question everything and is more determined than ever to learn the truth.

There was so much I loved about The Berlin Letters, especially the well-researched approach to a plotline that centered around the Berlin Wall and the dual timelines. And yet for some reason the book failed to really capture me. I found myself feeling a little indifferent about the characters, despite knowing I should feel more for them. And I just never felt all that invested in the book though it was bubbling over with potential. I still enjoyed reading The Berlin Letters but would have a hard time wholeheartedly recommending it to other fans of historical fiction.

• Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

My rating: B / Genre: Young Adult Romance 

Talk about a turnaround of a book! The first half of this book was a bit of a sleeper for me. The relationship (which was, admittedly, very predictable) took for-ev-er to unfold but the second half of the book was just plain fun. I loved the banter between the characters and though the book was, in a word, adorable. The main characters are high school students which puts it firmly in the young adult novel category but it’s just all kinds of sweet and transported me back to high school dating days and all of the magic and newness that comes along with first loves, crushes, etc. At times I felt a little silly reading it (I’m definitely way older than the target market for this novel) but if any of you out there have high school kids in your home who love to read and like romances, this would’ve been right up high school Julie’s alley! Also, I’ve had some requests to share books that are romantic but not too “spicy” or graphic and this one fits the bill for sure. It was recommended to me by a friend who says she likes only the “lightest of the light” books in terms of everything (suspense, thrillers, romance, etc.) and she loved it!

The book begins when Liz Buxbaum’s childhood crush, Michael, moves back into town. Her world stops when she sees him in their high school hallway and she’s convinced her happily ever after awaits her, if she can just make sure he notices her and sees her as more than just “Little Liz,” the quirky girl he knew when they used to be neighbors. Liz enlists the help of her longtime rival, Wes Bennett, the handsome if not annoying prankster next door, who just so happens to be friends with Michael. Will Wes be able to help Liz get closer to Michael? And is there more to Wes than the boy next door Liz battles for the best parking spot in front of their houses every day?

• The Burnout by Sophie Kinsella

My rating: B / Genre: Women’s fiction 

I was a huge fan of Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series in my early 20s. Her writing style was so fun and bubbly and funny and I was excited to check out The Burnout when I saw Gina mention it on her blog a week or so ago. I started it before I began All the Colors of the Dark (above) and I’ll be honest, about 40% of the way through this book, I almost didn’t finish reading it. I wasn’t at all invested in the characters or the plot but since both the audiobook and the real book were available through my local library simultaneously, once I was done with All the Colors of the Dark, I found my way back to the book since I was in the mood for something lighter after a heavy read. The second half of the book was definitely more enjoyable than the first and I found it charming and funny. It still wasn’t my favorite read, but the second half of the book saved the book for me.

The book begins when Sasha is unbelievably overwhelmed at work. Her life is her job and her job is becoming increasingly unenjoyable and demanding. After a breakdown that has her debating joining a convent, Sasha finds her way to the beach she loved so much as a child in hopes of finding some peace and tranquility in her life again. Only it’s a little hard to find peace when she continually runs into a rude and grumpy yet annoyingly handsome man named Finn who is also seeking solitude after work burnout.

As messages addressed to Sasha and Finn start appearing on the beach, a door is opened for conversation beyond rude comments and the two begin to connect and realize they have more in common than they imagined.

• Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

My rating: B- / Genre: Mystery

I hit what I refer to as the library jackpot with this book — both the book and the audiobook were available to download at the same time. This fact, coupled with the sticker I noticed denoting the book as a previous Reese’s Book Club selection, was all I needed to give the book a shot. As I began reading, the book had so much potential. Complicated relationships, a murder, little clues to pique my interest… but from there it just kind of dragged. I liked the story enough to read it (and it wasn’t short at all). But I feel lie a full third of the book could’ve been edited down and I would not have missed a thing. The book felt unnecessarily long which detracted from the plot. It had me wishing it would move along at a faster pace.

Mother-Daughter Murder Night begins when Lana Rubicon, a successful businesswoman living in Los Angeles, is diagnosed with cancer. Having prided herself on her independence and success for years, she’s reluctant to admit she needs her daughter, Beth, during her treatment. Lana moves 300 miles north to Beth’s small town and into the bedroom of her teenage granddaughter, Jack. She’s bored out of her mind until Jack is roped into a homicide investigation following her discovery of a body during one of her kayaking tours. Lana is determined to prove Jack’s innocence in the murder and solve the mystery herself. Lana’s amateur investigation ends up involving her daughter and granddaughter. And as the women begin digging deeper, they uncover secrets lies that could put all three of them in serious danger.

• The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

My rating: C+ / Genre: Mystery

I hate to drag down a book when I could never do what authors do for a living but this one was just not my favorite. I listened to the audiobook and found myself annoyed almost the entire time. In fact, I was annoyed by the characters, annoyed by the plot and annoyed by the ending. And yet I felt the potential of this book thrumming away the entire time. The premise of the book was so creative but the execution felt jumbled and lacked depth and intrigue. I just didn’t like anyone enough to really care what happened to any of the characters in the book. And the “twists” were more eye-roll inducing than gasp-inducing.

From Amazon: As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

Question of the Day

Book worm friends, what was the best book you read this summer? Any other recent reads you’ve been loving lately?