I don't claim to be a good book reviewer. I have a hard time saying what a book is about without feeling like I'm giving too much away.

So with that said, this is more a place to share what I'm reading, what I liked about it, and what I want to read next.

Summer Reading Suggestions:

Next Year in Havana, One Italian Summer, Malibu Rising, The Villa, Such a Quiet Place

2023:

Twice In a Lifetime: Time travel, gets me everytime. Interesting concept and not actually what I expected with this one, but I enjoyed it.

Before I let Go: Probably the most salacious book I've read yet! This one had a lot of heart and and a lot of other stuff. It was very predictable and had me rolling my eyes a good way through but worth a read.

"my whole world fit on this four by 6 photo, the boundaries of my happiness inside the frame."

"and I think i'm most thankful for time, which doesn't always heal all wounds, but teaches us how to be happy again even with our scars."

"people don't become perfect when they become parents. if anything, parenthood gives us more chances to screw things up, just with higher stakes"

The Villa: I loved how this one was written and it might just be my favorite of the year so far. A little past, present, articles, music lyrics, books, it was just...different +set in Italy which just seems to make any book better. 

Daisy Darker: After "before I let go" which drug on and was so long, I wanted quick reads so right after 'the villa', I jumped into another thriller.

I'm still reading it, but so far, I'm liking it.

" Pity fades with age, hate is lost and found, but guilt can last a lifetime"

"The unexplained oceans of our hearts and minds are normally the result of a lack of time and trust in the dreams we dreamed as children. But adults forget how to believe that their dreams might still come true."

The Soulmate/Sally Hepworth

This book was a book of the month pick and I almost skipped, but am so glad I read this one. It was such a good book and a fast read. I was hooked and finished this one in just a few days. 

Along with some I never got to in 2022, here's what's in my TBR:

Georgie, all along/Kate Clayborn

Wrong Place/Wrong Time

2022...

The Golden Couple- I enjoyed this story and it's def. a book up my alley. Bit of a mystery, you might figure it out before the end.

The School for Good Mothers: Possibly the weirdest book I have ever read. I'm not sure I would even recommend this one. It was Jenna's pick for January, but goodness was it strange and a bit disturbing. It was dystopia, so I expected it a bit, but this one just didn't feel right.

The People we Keep: This is a slow read that I read in the car line this winter/spring little by little. It has a music background also and just a good story all around following the life of a young girl as she figures it all out.

"I wonder if maybe all you do is meet people and lose them and your smile fades the further you go because you have to carry the space they leave. Maybe it all just turns into old pictures on a bookshelf, engraved rings, memories of sticking stars to a cieling, and maybe the space gets bigger and heavier every year"

Reckless Girls- Fast read! Twisty kind of ending you might not expect. Also perfect to read in the long hot days of summer.

The Christie Affair- Reese pick and its so good! I really enjoyed this one-historical fiction-Ireland/London

"love and reason have never been well aquainted"

Darling Girl- May BOTM-based on the beloved 'Peter Pan'. Holly Darling, the grandaughter has a much different and more evil idea of Peter Pan! Yes, Peter is the bad guy here and this story really kept my interest and I had to finish.

"But I don't want eternal life-how terrible would that be? I want to experience life, really live it, before I die. I want strange new countries and whatever comes with them, whether it be late-night flying lessons, pirates, or faries. I want the moon and the silver stars and the midnight sky all to myself, when everyone else is asleep."

This Time Tomorrow: Just finished this novel about time travel and it's so good.

"he had been young, and she had been young-they had been young together. Why was it so hard to see that, how close generations were? That children and their parents were companions through life"

The Measure-If you had the choice to know how long your life would be through the size of a string in a little box, would you look?

Such a unique concept for a book and I can see this one being a movie. I kept feeling like something more, something big was going to happen so it did fall a little flat, but it overall had such a good message. You get one life, love hard, make memories and don't take a single day for granted.

One Italian Summer- This one will have you craving wine and pasta, white fish and bread dipped in olive oil! I seriously felt so hungry everytime I read this book. It's very descriptive of Positano as well and I feel like I took a trip to the Amalfi Coast myself. It did drag in the middle just a bit, I mean I would be so homesick after so many days on the beach and in a foreign country, but I'm so glad I stuck it out b/c the end has a bit of a twist you might not expect. I loved the way it all came together and I think this is such a perfect summer read. As descriptive as the book was of Positano, I wish the cover was more detailed of the magical place it described. I like the cover, but man, it could have been so much more.

"One summer is a summer. It can be a watercolor of beach days. It can change your life"

"In time you will discover. And in the meantime, enjoy."

Recursion: Woah! That's how all Blake Crouch books leave me...like woah. They're so good and suspenseful & read like a movie.

Other Birds: A good story, a little magic and a good ending rounded out this one. 

"You're good at sweeping people up into your enthusiasm"

"So Zoey understood that mothering was in the details you never saw. And the lack of it was the things you always noticed"

Someday Maybe: A bit sad and a certain mood, but I'm glad I read this one.

" Love reveals you"

"some people coast through life, barely causing a ripple, but Q was a tidal wave all his own"

...

Want to read:

The Four Winds

We Are the Brennans

The love of my life

Bittersweet

Reminders of Him

Bright Burning Things

The Shimmering State

Upgrade

Recursion

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

....

2021

What I read in 2021

Joyful-I've read this already but I have started to read it again. This time, I'm just picking through it though because it's the type of book that makes it easy to do that. Joyful is a just a wonderful book to motivate you in a new year and I will always recommend it.

The Wife Upstairs-Rachel Hawkins-One of those can't put it down, suspenseful thrillers! 

People Like Her-Ellery Lloyd- Social Media, influencers, the highs the lows...a thriller, kind of dark, another hard to put down, need to know what happens book.

Firefly Lane- The book is so much better than the netflix series and honestly not really the same at all! Read the book, you will love it.

The Push- This is GMA's Jan pick. It will hook you from the start. Suspense, thriller, kind of dark...it's a good one you won't be able to put down!

"A mothers heart breaks a million ways in her lifetime"

Malibu Rising-This was a great summer read. I love almost anything by this author.

"she knew that childhood is made up of days magnificent and mundane"

The Last Thing He Told Me-This was sort of a mystery, I got through it fast wanting to know what was going to happen.

The Midnight Library-Feb 2021. Such a sucker for novel about time travel. Very thought provoking and enjoyable.

Such a Quiet Place- Neighborhood drama, 'who dun' it'. I enjoyed this one.

The Husbands-This was the GMA pick one month this year and was a fun one to read. 

Mary Jane-I picked this one up at B&N this summer b/c I loved the cover. I love a book with a music background and this one had that.

A Little Hope: Book of the month in late 2021. I enjoyed this one. Multiple storylines that cross each other. 

"you never know what can break you. What you can fix, what you can stand up to. you never know what time will do, what will defeat or surprise you. you never know"

Lucky: Reese's Dec. pick. I'm hit or miss with her picks lately, but this one looked interesting. I got through this one quick wanting to know what happened. Quick fun read for sure.

...

Want to read...

The checklist manifesto

Quench

Faye, Faraway

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue-

The Age of Miracles

The Devines

Good Neighbors

Everything After

The Shimering State

That Summer

Breathe: the new science of a lost art

Regretting You

The Guest List

The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary

The Wrong Family

Happy Reading...

2020

If Only I Could Tell You (Hannah Beckerman) -TEAR JERKER, but I loved this book.

"it's the greatest trick people play on themselves, allowing their fears to destroy their ambitions."

Chasing The Brightside (Jess Ekstrom)- So Motivational and I loved her story. GREAT book for January

My favorite quote from the book:

"instead of trying to paint the same sunset as the person beside you, find the white space that's untouched"

and then:

"meaningful moments do not need to be validated with likes and comments. They just need to be felt with purpose and passion"

Girl On Fire (Cara Leyba) - short read that I breezed through but I enjoyed the kick in the butt

To Love and Let Go-Rachel Brathen-Another memoir. This was on sale at target and looked like something I may like. Also a kind of sad read but not as tear jerky as the first one listed above.

"Just like the moon, life waxes and wanes in cycles-what comes, must go, and come again-but also, every night the moon rises"

The Scent Keeper(Erica Beaumeister)- This is Reese Witherspoons Feb. book club pick and as soon as I saw that, I put it on hold and it came available so quick! I finished it this past week and truly loved it. It's a great little story and I loved the way this author writes. It's also now available in paperback, but I LOVE the hardcover's cover, don't you?

"I always thought fall was like that, nature tucking everything in"

"words were like scents that way; they changed the very air you breathed"

OOna Out of Order-Margarita Martimore- Such an interesting novel about time travel and maybe one of my favorite books! One of my big things in 2020 was stepping away from social media. Since Oona goes from one year forward to years back, it was neat how she knew about cell phones, but when she went back in time, she noticed how people were looking up, living their lives instead of being glued to a screen all the time or curating their lives for the internet.

" Find the happy medium between being daring and responsible. Cultivate the blance. Do your best. Be good to yourself, even when-especially when-life isn't being good to you"

Evie Drake Starts Over-Linda Holmes-Just a kind of feel good easy read for summer.

Still Alice-Lisa Genova-The book is so much better than the movie so be sure it read it first, but it was still neat to watch the movie after. It dives into the seriousness and realness of alzheimers at a young age.

Everything I never told you-Pretty good read. I got this one from a booklist. Not my top choice for 2020, but I enjoyed it.

The Bright Hour-Nina Riggs-A memoir of a woman dying of breast cancer. It was very real and raw.

"when you fall in love with your kids, you fall in love forever"

In Five Years-Rebecca Serle-This was recommended b/c I read OOna out of order. It kept my attention and was interesting. A little twist at the end.

One of my favorite quotes from it:

"you mistake love. You think it has to have a future in order to matter, but it doesn't. It's the only thing that does not need to become at all. It matters only insofar as it exists. Here. Now. Love doesn't require a future."

Untamed-Glennon Doyle- There was a lot to digest from this book. The cover drew me in. Lots of good stuff to write down, but here's one:

"in my thirties, i learned that there is a type of pain in life that i want to feel. It's the inevitable, excruciating, neccessary pain of losing beautiful things: trust, dreams, health, animals, relationships, people. This kind of pain is the price of love, the cost of living a brave open hearted life-and I'll pay it"

I'm taking it way back this month and I've started Ps. I love you (Cecelia Ahern) b/c the sequel 'PostScript' is out now and I can't wait to read it!--UPDATE...I never finsihed PS or started PostScript. Can you believe that. 

Joyful by Ingrid Fitel Lee

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Fun Formula by Joel Comm

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

Lucky Code by Gaynete Edwards

____________________________

....

The Light We Lost by:Jill Santopolo

The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Girl Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

Ghosted by Rosie Walsh

....

A few of the rest of 2019:

Daisy Jones and the Six(taylor jenkins reid)- This was such a fun read for me and I enjoyed following along the bands journey.

The Dreamers(Karen Walker): This was such an interesting book that I had a hard time putting down. It gave me so much to think about.

The Whisper Network(Chandler Baker)-Another Reese Pick in 2019. Nothing earth shattering, but it was a light and easy read.

The Last House Guest(Megan Miranda)-A suspenseful can't put it down type of book. 

Signs:The Secret Language of the Universe(Laura Lynne Jackson)-I find this topic so interesting and it's something I enjoy reading about to mix things up between novels.

What Alice Forgot(Liane Moriarty)-One of my favorite books I read in 2019. Nothing heavy, this one just really stands out to me as one of my favorites last year.

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