What I Read in June 2022
It’s a good thing I started out June on a strong note because I don’t think I’ve read anything in the past couple of weeks. Again, thanks to audiobooks I was able to read 7 books in June!
A Season for Second Chances by Jenny Bayliss
Bookshop Synopsis: Annie Sharpe's spark for life has fizzled out. Her kids are grown up, her restaurant is doing just fine on its own, and her twenty-six-year marriage has come to an unceremonious end. Untethered for the first time in her adult life, she finds a winter guardian position in a historic seaside home and decides to leave her city life behind for a brand-new beginning.
When she arrives in Willow Bay, Annie is enamored by the charming house, the invigorating sea breeze, and the town's rich seasonal traditions. Not to mention, her neighbors receive her with open arms--that is, all except the surly nephew of the homeowner, whose grand plans for the property are at odds with her residency. As Christmas approaches, tensions and tides rise in Willow Bay, and Annie's future seems less and less certain. But with a little can-do spirit and holiday magic, the most difficult time of her life will become...a season for second chances.
My Thoughts: A Season for Second Chances follows Annie Sharpe as she leaves her adulterous husband of 26 years for a new life as a winter guardian of a historic home in Willow Bay.
Fair warning: It’s a slow-burn, insta-love romance. The love interest doesn’t appear until almost halfway through the book. I’ve been reading a lot of this sort of cozy women’s literature set in a Stars Hollow-esque town style of writing lately and I don’t hate it! It’s a style of writing that lends itself to being read slowly and savored. And I really mean savored— there were major foodie vibes.
So many people on Bookstagram recommended this book over the holidays and I’m glad I waited until now to read it. Even though the book took place in the months leading up to Christmas, it wasn’t overly Christmasy, except for some of the town’s festivals. The writing transported me to the small seaside village.
There was a great cast of quirky characters. Some of the interactions between Annie’s book club members had me audibly laughing! I loved the way their tiny girl gang really had each other’s backs and supported Annie through a huge life transition.
I really liked that the chapters were short and managed to keep the plot going. If you’re looking for a book that meanders a bit, this one’s for you! Try it on audio… the narrator, Ell Potter, is lovely! I’d also recommend this book if you’re looking for a Christmas in July book to read this month.
Guide & Grow: Baby's 1st Year: A Monthly Guide to Development, Milestones and Activities to Support Baby's Development by Sharon Drewlo
Amazon Synopsis: The first year of life is one of the most important stages for your baby's brain growth and development!
With over 30 years of experience in guiding parents in their child's development, pediatric occupational therapist Sharon Drewlo brings you GUIDE & GROW: Baby's 1st Year, an easy-to-navigate monthly guide to understanding and supporting your baby's development throughout the first year.
This book provides you with:
A thorough list of monthly milestones and development in 9 areas:
Fine Motor, Gross Motor , Social-Emotional, Self-Help, Communication, Cognitive and Play, Visual, Visual-Motor, and SensoryA wide variety of easy-to-implement activities and strategies in each month that can be incorporated into daily routines to support baby's development
Examples of developmental concerns to discuss with your health care provider
A Baby Development Tracker Template for you to record baby's achievements and memorable moments
A page for notes at the end of each chapter - use the notes and tracker to refer to at appointments with your health care provider
With GUIDE & GROW: Baby's 1st Year, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of your baby's development and have a wide variety of activities and strategies to help support your little one's development all the way to their 1st birthday!
My Thoughts: Guide & Grow is a great introduction to milestones you can expect in a baby's first year of life. I found the activities particularly helpful. The author includes a lot of ways to engage with your baby that require minimal effort. I read a few chapters at a time to refresh my memory with baby #2 and get ready for what was to come. This is a book that you'll want to bookmark and come back to from time to time. Perks— This one is included with your Kindle Unlimited subscription!
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Bookshop Synposis: One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming...
Nora Stephens' life is books--she's read them all--and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.
Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters' trip away--with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she's convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they've met many times and it's never been cute.
If Nora knows she's not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he's nobody's hero, but as they are thrown together again and again--in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow--what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they've written about themselves.
My Thoughts: First things first, this is a book about books written by a book lover for book lovers aka it's a little heavy on the book analogies, but in a way that’s very self-aware and poking fun at itself. There are a lot of references to popular movies and books that can very easily go over the average reader's head.
Emily Henry is so great at describing small-town settings in a way that’s completely believable if you’ve ever lived (or vacationed) in one. I especially love that this book is set outside of Asheville, NC, one of my favorite places to visit! She's also brilliant at writing dialogue. I've never encountered a love interest quite like Charlie. He says all the right things at the right time but it still comes off as genuine and believable. There is so much banter between Nora and Charlie! It had me smiling from ear to ear in a way that only Emily Henry's writing does.
I did not expect this book to take me on such a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Book Lovers isn’t just a romantic love story. Nora and Libby’s sibling bond is so strong, which is something I loved reading about and related to so much. Some of the flashbacks to Nora and Libby’s mom are heartbreaking... and then there's Charlie's obligation to his parents to grapple with as well.
My one complaint is that the pacing was off. The beginning was really strong. A lot of conflicts started happening all at once around the 75% mark but at the same time the pace slowed for me and I lost interest for a minute — probably because I just wasn’t all that interested in Libby’s drama… until it was revealed, that is. I did not expect the plot twist when it came to the true reason for Nora and Libby's sister getaway. And around the same time, Charlie just disappears from the pages? Um, hello... things were just getting hot and heavy. I needed more.
Book Lovers isn't perfect, but it was a fun, quick read to kick off my summer reading challenge!
You might remember this was one of my most anticipated Spring 2022 book releases!
Not Exactly What I Had in Mind by Kate Brook
Bookshop Synopsis: Hazel and Alfie have just moved in together as roommates. They've also just slept together, which was either a catastrophic mistake or the best decision of their lives--they aren't quite sure yet. Whatever happens, they need to find a way to keep living together without too much drama or awkwardness, since neither of them can afford to move out of the apartment.
Then Hazel's sister, Emily, and her wife, Daria, come for a visit, and Hazel's and Alfie's feelings about each other are pushed to the side in the whirlwind of their arrival. Recently returned from abroad, Emily and Daria are excited for a new life in a new town, and ready to start a family of their own.
As the lives of Hazel, Alfie, Emily, and Daria collide, a complicated chain of events begins to bind them all together, bringing joy and heartache, hope and anxiety, and reshaping their relationships in ways that no one quite predicted. Warm, clever, and devastatingly relatable, Not Exactly What I Had in Mind is by turns funny, heartbreaking, and a painfully true-to-life story about family, friends, and everything in between.
My Thoughts: Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Reader Copy! When I first started reading I was really excited. One of my first notes was "So far I'm enjoying the characters, the pacing, and the setting! I can tell this will be a quick read." After a strong start with Alfie and Hazel's roommate romance drama, the love quickly fizzled. I expected a romance novel and a women's fiction with every cliche and modern life drama you can imagine was not exactly what I had in mind. The plot was all over the place. Spoilers/Content Warning incoming... There was a vegan lesbian couple using a donor to have a baby, a miscarriage, revenge porn, starving artist cliches, politics, and a pandemic lockdown in the epilogue. It was a messy family drama, at best.
Counterfeit by Kristin Chen
Bookshop Synposis: Money can't buy happiness... but it can buy a decent fake.
Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home--she's built the perfect life. But beneath this façade, Ava's world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn't been used in years, and her toddler's tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.
Enter Winnie Fang, Ava's enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business--someone who'd never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.
Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish and feminist caper with a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life.
My Thoughts: Maybe I don’t understand what a Mystery Thriller is because this certainly wasn’t one. Counterfeit by Kristin Chen reads more like women’s lit. Nothing particularly interesting happens to drive the storyline. There are no unexpected twists. The characters are flat. I probably should have quit this book at the beginning but the one plus is that it’s incredibly short. Skip this one and pick up Crazy Rich Asians instead! Thank you to Libro.fm for the Advance Listening Copy. This book has had pretty mixed reviews so maybe it’ll be a better fit for you!
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Bookshop Synposis: Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.
As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different people: one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future--and the future of a world in turmoil.
My Thoughts: Everyone was right... ACOTAR wasn't my favorite but this was GOOD. I didn't see any of this coming, Sarah J. Maas.
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
Bookshop Synposis: Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's actions and learn what she can about the invading king threatening to bring her land to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit. One slip could bring doom not only for Feyre, but for everything-and everyone-she holds dear.
As war bears down upon them all, Feyre endeavors to take her place amongst the High Fae of the land, balancing her struggle to master her powers-both magical and political-and her love for her court and family. Amidst these struggles, Feyre and Rhysand must decide whom to trust amongst the cunning and lethal High Lords, and hunt for allies in unexpected places.
My Thoughts: To be honest, this book could have been half as long and it would have kept my interest more. There were some interesting chapters with tense action but the majority of it lacked any substance to propel the story. After enjoying A Court of Mist and Fury, this was a real letdown.
Shop this post
(◡‿◡✿)
Shop this post (◡‿◡✿) Shop this post (◡‿◡✿)