What I read this Spring (’21)
Friends and Strangers, What Comes After, What could be Saved, People We Meet on Vacation, The Last Thing he Told Me, The Intimacy Experiment, The Friend Zone series- Life’s Too Short, Get a Life Chloe Brown / Take a Hint Dani Brown, Soulmate Equation
With three weeks left of the school year, the thing I am looking forward to the most about summer is just getting to sit and read on the beach. I cannot wait to be plopped down with my stack of books – and yes, there will be physical books, as I am trying to limit my screen time as a summer goal, including my Kindle, which I often end up reading on my phone. But before I dive into summer reading, and my list that I will absolutely keep you updated with as I go (I usually post any books finished during the week in The Weekly every Monday), I wanted to share with you all of the books I read this Spring.
I’ll share with you the books I read, a brief synopsis from my POV (those book jackets are awfully deceiving these days…), as well as what I thought about it with a rating out of five. As a reminder, I share most of my links through Bookshop.org, a site that helps purchase books from small business bookstores, instead of Amazon, as it’s a small ethical choice I can make in my routine. The books ship relatively quickly (unless it’s out of stock), and it’s worth the wait to see the money you end up saving for local bookstores to stay afloat, now more than ever. I will share an Amazon link too (I know lots of us only really read on Kindles these days), but if you can, please push yourself to make the switch to saving our neighborhood bookstores.
Let’s dive in…
Friends and Strangers, by J. Courtney Sullivan
Elisabeth is a Brooklynite who loves the city and all it has to offer, until she isn’t anymore. In a tough decision, she and her husband leave the city to purchase a house upstate with their new baby, in an effort to be closer to her in-laws. But this college town has little to offer a writer and journalist like herself, and does nothing to ease the looming anxiety of a bad financial decision she is hiding from her husband. She hires a babysitter from the local college, Sam, who she becomes attached to in a way that crosses professional lines very quickly. Enter blurred lines and slipped secrets, and it starts to feel like you’re watching a train wreck that you can’t look away from.
This book reminded me a lot of Such a Fun Age, with commentary on socioeconomic identity and the politics around it across generations, that are so deeply ingrained in us with the means by which we grow up. While I enjoyed this read and couldn’t put it down towards the end, there was something anti-climactic about the ending that left me looking for more closure from Elisabeth’s character. Overall, it’s a 3.5/5 for me.
What Comes After, by Joanne Tompkins
I’ll start off by saying I am not really into thrillers, but this one was an intriguing exception. What Comes After is really the story of Evangeline and Isaac, two strangers until the murder-suicide of two teenage boys, who Evangeline found herself wrapped up with days before their shocking deaths. Evangeline, pregnant and abandoned by her mother, seeks out Isaac, the father of the murdered boy, a devout Quaker, divorcee and high school teacher, who takes her in despite the bizarre circumstances and raised eyebrows of his close friends, and the truth starts to come to light as Evangeline edges closer to giving birth to a baby as a teenager.
This is a book about the elements of religion that are often forgotten in modern politics – compassion, forgiveness, and introspection before judgement. The star of the story is Evangeline, whose lot in life has left with a lot to fear and to face on her own. This one was a 4/5 for me – I loved the multiple POVs used to narrate the book, that wove together the details of the two boys’ deaths and the way we treat others has a great impact on our relationships with ourselves.
What Could Be Saved, by Liese O’Halloran Schwartz
I love a book about a family drama/scandal, and this book was that to a tee. It’s about a family who moves to Thailand for the father’s job in the 1970s, and flashes between the past and present as they attempt to put together the pieces of what happened to the son, who goes missing in Bangkok, and seems to be found in the present by his younger sister, Bea. But not everyone is convinced it’s really him after years of scams and attempts to find him, and no one knows how it all happened, or where he’s been for the last few decades of their lives.
This book was complicated, and had so many plot lines and pieces of drama. The story goes deep into the dynamics of siblings, and the roles we take on in familial life, especially after trauma. A little slow-moving and some of the character’s stories felt slightly unfinished, especially since there were so many of them. In the end, I would give this a 2.5/5.
People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry
Moving away from the more contemporary and heavier fiction, I was so excited that Emily Henry released this book following, Beach Read, from last summer. I would classify her books as rom-coms with depth – I enjoy the story and the writing, and she really digs deeper into characters than many other authors in the genre do. People We Meet on Vacation is about a set of close college friends who celebrate their friendship through adulthood with a yearly trip on a tiny budget, and later on the dime of Poppy’s job as a travel writer for a magazine. Their friendship is amazing, until it crosses a line that changes things forever, and leaves a rift between Alex and Poppy for a few years. Until Poppy makes the decision to try and win her best friend back with a low-budget vacation for old times sake. And it doesn’t go according to plan, but ends up in a very enjoyable and entertaining storyline.
I love this author, and this book was easily a 4.5/5 for me. Romance will always be my favorite genre to read, and I love that Henry does it with some skill. If you’re looking for a great beach read, definitely pick this up!
The Intimacy Experiment, by Rosie Dann
Another repeat author for me, I loved Rosie Dann’s last romance, The Roommates, and immediately picked up her newest release. Naomi, the main character is familiar from the last book, but she’s a sex-positive leading lady whose past in the pornography industry leaves a lot of insecurity and challenges in her relationships. And when she meets a rabbi, of all people, Ethan, she is clearly unsure of how to proceed given her reputation preceding her. She decides to accept his offer to teach a modern intimacy course at his synagogue, which he is attempting to modernize and shift the demographics for, they build a very obvious chemistry that leaves Naomi caught up in her own issues with herself.
I thought this was just as great as Dann’s first book, and would give this a 4/5. Another author that offers a bit more depth and character charisma, I think this is a quick and dirty (actually, less so than I thought based on her first book) read, perfect for a summer book.
Life’s Too Short, by Abby Jimenez
The third book in the Friend Zone series, Abby Jimenez does not disappoint with this quick read, romance. Vanessa lost her mom and sister to ALS, and now her younger sister has decided she can’t take of her newborn baby, so she leaves her at Vanessa’s house one day. Vanessa’s neighbor, who also happens to be her hot landlord, Adrian, is not thrilled to be sharing thin walls with a newborn baby. But instead of being a dick when he bangs on her door to check in on the baby who has been wailing for hours, he decides to help Vanessa out, because clearly she needs it. The two form an unlikely friendship as Vanessa takes a hiatus from her YouTube stardom to figure out parenthood and help her family get it together before it’s too late for them, as she knows she won’t live long enough to help them forever.
This was a bizarre storyline that somehow really worked, and I loved every minute of it. Weaving in the details of the incurable disease, ALS, Jimenez is another author actually building some depth into her books. This series is a great place to start if you’re looking for something to sustain you for a few days or weeks of summer. I give this one a 3.5/5.
Get a Life, Chloe Brown, by Talia Hibbert
Another book series that you can easily fall into, this is the first installment about three sisters, the Brown’s, who each have some serious obstacles to intimacy and relationships. You start with Chloe Brown, the oldest of three sisters, who suffers from a chronic illness that overwhelms her physically and emotionally, all of the time. She appears to others, including her landlord, Red, as a stuck-up asshole who doesn’t really care for the wellbeing of others. But really, she’s just trying to maintain any sense of wellbeing for herself, a fact that is quickly discovered by Red, an artist with his own baggage, who feels like the most unlikely pair for Chloe. But as the endeavor to complete Chloe’s bucket list that’s been at the back of her mind, they start to figure out that you never know what’s going on beyond the surface of others sometimes.
So far, I’ve read this one and it’s follow-up, Take a Hint, Dani Brown, both of which were really wonderful and fun, with very different protagonists and plot lines. It’s a 4/5 for me, as I do love a series where each book as is as good as the next, and it’s nice to see some diversity in characters in this genre!
The Soulmate Equation, by Christina Lauren
This one is hot off the presses, and comes from one of my favorite romance authors, Christina Lauren. If you haven’t read her books, I love almost all of them, and snatched this up as soon as it came out a few weeks ago. It’s the story of Jessica, a single mom who is just getting by with the support of her grandparents, who helped to raise her and now her own daughter. As a freelance statistician, she doesn’t have time for romance, but her friends and family won’t stop nagging her to take some time for herself and make space for someone special. They nudge her all the way into the start-up dating company that uses genetics to help you find your “Diamond Match.” And after sending her spit samples on a whim one bad night, she ends up matching with the man she can’t stand from her local coffee shop, who also happens to be one of the co-founders of the company. And they don’t quite hit it off at first….
While this wasn’t my favorite of Lauren’s plot lines, I enjoyed this quick read. I’ll give it a 3/5, but it’s only in comparison with her other books, which I have just enjoyed a little bit more. I wouldn’t hesitate to read this one if you’re looking for something laughable and light-hearted.
The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave
Saving this for last as it’s the book I just finished yesterday, and it had me engaged from the first page, something I feel like rarely happens these days. A Reese’s Book Club pick that is all over all the reading lists right now, it’s the story of Hannah and Bailey, an unwanted stepmother and an abandoned daughter who are forced to work together after Hannah gets a letter from her husband Owen that simply says, “Protect her.” She knows it means to protect his daughter, Bailey, but as his company comes under fire by the SEC for fraud and his business partner is arrested by federal agents, the mystery of where Owen went leaves Hannah and Bailey on the hunt to figure out how to move forward in hopes of finding him, but having to prepare for life without the person they both love the most in life.
I could not put this book down – I woke up early before work and couldn’t wait to get home to finish it, and I really enjoyed the mindless read with a lot of action. I can see why this one is all the rage right now, and I’m coming in with a 4/5 for this one! I didn’t love how all of the dots got connected so happenstance at points, but I loved it the entire way through, especially the main character. It’s going to make a great summer read with all that suspense!
Looking forward to sharing more reads as I enter into my busiest reading season with lots of travel and beach time on the agenda! Up next for me? Malibu Rising, and, The Other Black Girl. Can’t wait to share the details with you!
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