I found a new author I love in the month of November courtesy of a recommendation from my mom. Linda Castillo writes mystery/thriller/suspense books set it Amish Country with a cast of repeating characters. She's written tons of books, but I've never read anything by her, so I went back to the beginning, requested the first book in the series from the library and could not put it down. I can't wait to read the rest of the books she's written over the next several months. 

I read a handful of other books in November too. More on those below. 

Five Stars

Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has been ages since I tore through a book in just over a day, hating to set it down and looking forward to picking up again, and that's exactly what happened with this book. The opening was dark with a very grisly murder and it was hard to read parts at night because it was a bit creepy, but I was sucked into the story of a serial killer in Amish country and the formerly Amish female chief of police tasked with hunting down the killer. As soon as I finished this, I immediately requested the next book with this character from the library, and I look forward to working my way through them all.

Four Stars

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars, but I rounded up because I thought the book got pretty good at the end after a slow start. It took me a little bit of time to get into this story. In Eden, Kentucky, there's a creepy and mysterious house that no one ever seems to come and go from. Opal walks past it most days on her way to work at the Tractor Supply Store, and she finds herself drawn to it. She meets the owner, and he offers her a job cleaning. The more time Opal spends in the house, the more it calls to her when she's awake and in her dreams. But at the same time there's a faction in town that wants to destroy the house to mine under its land. Opal is torn between wanting to protect the house and wanting to protect her family from the powerful forces looking to control that land. This isn't normally the kind of story I'm drawn too, but I found myself unable to put the book down toward the end wanting to know what happened to Opal.

Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a fictional account of the women who worked in munitions factories in Europe during WWI. This story follows four different women from very different life circumstances that find themselves working in the factory. While the men are gone, the women not only do the work, but they also form a professional soccer league, playing games against other mutionettes to raise money for charity. I feel like most historical fiction I've read has been set during WWII so this was a nice change from that!

My Murder by Katie Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't know what rating to give this book because I liked it, but it was so weird. Lou is part of a serial killers survivors group -- and by survivors, it means everyone in the group was murdered and then brought back to life as some sort of clone. So you have to walk into this book suspending all sense of reality. It's hard to write too much of a summary without giving some key plot points away, but this was a weird, but enjoyable read.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really lovely book about mothers, daughters, their relationships, and grief. At times it was hard to read because it's impossible to imagine the pain of losing a mother to cancer.

Three Stars

Playing the Witch Card by K.J. Dell'Antonia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was looking for something fun and Halloween-y to read around the holiday, and I had really enjoyed another book by this author. This book however moved a little slow until the very end, then it picked up and I appreciated the extra action. I guessed the twist pretty early on (which I don't always mind), and it felt like there was an extra storyline that wasn't totally necessary. I also kept wanting to yell at the main character because she seemed to never learn as the book went on. So overall kind of only felt so so about this one.

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I had several more DNFs in October -- I'm clearly getting better at putting down books I'm just not that into. But I also read some really great books this month. Demon Copperhead was long, and took me at least two weeks to read, so my number of books read definitely went down a bit this month. But that book was worth it. Here's what else I read (and finished) this month.

Five Stars

The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved everything about this book. First off, I almost always love anything by Jennifer Weiner, she just tells the best stories. And secondly, I particularly loved this storyline of a woman finding herself, her confidence, her path forward through sports/athletics. I was sad to put this down when I finished it because reading it just made me so happy.

Four Stars

Forever Hold Your Peace by Liz Fenton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was such a fun and fast read. A young couple gets engaged in Italy after knowing each other for only a few weeks. When they get their divorced parents together for a meet-the-parents moment back in California over brunch, things go extremely sideways and not just because at least two of the parents think the engagement happened much too fast.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A modern take on David Copperfield, set in in the heart of the opioid epidemic in Appalachia. This was a great and heartbreaking book, but it was really long, which is why I only gave it four stars instead of five. There were a few parts of Demon Copperhead's story that I thought could have been condensed a bit, but overall, I wanted to keep reading because I wanted to see if Demon ever caught a break in life.

Wicked Witch Murder by Leslie Meier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This cozy witchy murder mystery was perfect for this time of year. After failing to finish so many books last month, I was happy to find a book that I was excited to pick up again every time I had to put it down. The book opens with the mysterious death of the leader of a local Wiccan coven. Lucy Stone is a reporter intent on getting to the bottom of the mysterious death before any more trouble gets stirred up.

Three Stars

Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby To Love Good Food by Gill Rapley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up because in like two months we have to figure out how to introduce solid food to our kiddo. I wished this book had a bit more how-to and bit less theory/convincing that this was the method to use. (I was already fairly bought in to this method, so this book was probably better for someone that wasn't sure which approach they wanted to take).

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don’t know if it was just me, but it took me a minute to realize this was a story in a story, and for the first bit of the book that left me kind of confused. Once I got past that, I enjoyed Lara telling her daughters the story of her romance with a famous actor when she was in her 20s. I liked the way the author didn’t need to beat you over the head with Covid to know this book was set during the pandemic and it’s what brought all Lara’s daughters home

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At the end of August, I wrote a blog post about what I was doing to rebuild my fitness after my C-section. Back then, I was pretty happy with the progress I was making. The scar massage was really helping with mobility around my incision, and I was starting to build back my strength and endurance by lengthening my walks. I was hopeful I'd be able to start easing back into running.

But my body wasn't healing properly after the C-section. At my 6-week follow up appointment with my OB, my doctor told me to monitor a few of the symptoms I was still having and if they hadn't resolved by 8-10 weeks, I'd need to come back in for an ultrasound. 

Unfortunately for me, those symptoms didn't resolve on their own. So in early September, they got me in for an ultrasound, which showed something abnormal near the internal incision from the C-section. In order to get better imaging and give my doctor a better sense of what was going on, I had to go for an MRI. 

After waiting for a week to get the results of the MRI, I had another appointment with my OB to talk through the options. Going into the appointment, I knew I'd need another surgery, and the MRI would dictate how major of a surgery it would be. Because the theme of this pregnancy and postpartum period was that I have the worst possible luck, I of course found out I needed the version of the surgery that amounted to another C-section, aided by a camera inserted through my belly button. It was both a laparotomy and laparoscopy.  

To say I was devastated would be a huge understatement. 

I couldn't believe I was going to have to go through another major abdominal surgery and start the healing and recovery process all over again. 

But that's what happened. I had the second surgery at the end of September. It was outpatient this time so I got to sleep in my own bed instead of a hospital bed this time around. The doctor was able to make the abdominal incision on top of my existing C-section scar, and the belly button incision is not noticeable at all. The anesthesia made me puke multiple times again -- once in the car on the drive home. And there's really nothing like the pain of puking after your abs have been sliced open.

Recovery has been long and hard both mentally and physically the second time around. My kiddo is bigger, and I wasn't allowed to lift him for about three weeks post-op. I was incredibly sore for the first week and had to do the same rotation of ibuprofen and Tylenol every three hours like back in July. We luckily had lots of help from my parents, Ben's aunt and Ben's mom. But there is nothing more heartbreaking than hearing my little guy cry and not be able to pick him up to comfort him.

When I had a follow up appointment with my doctor two weeks ago, he was happy with my healing process this time around, which is good, but I'm still not cleared to do any real exercise yet beyond walking. 

So here I am, starting my recovery all over again. I'm doing the scar message and core engagement work, but I'll be honest, I'm not as good about remembering to do it as I was the first time around. It was just really demoralizing to take such a huge step back in the program that I was following, and some days my heart just really isn't into it. 

I am slowly rebuilding my walking endurance. Walking at least gets me out of the house for fresh air. I'm up to three miles of walking now which is great, but not really close to the five miles I was walking pre-surgery. 

And at this point postpartum, I thought I'd be back to running and all my regular activities again. My mom and I had even picked out a race we were planning to do together in December. But now, I have two more weeks of waiting to even get cleared to begin regular exercise again, and that's tough. 

My little guy is almost four months old, but my body is only healed as if I were five weeks postpartum. This has all just been really hard. I know some day it will all be just a blip of a memory, but it has been really frustrating having all my progress wiped out and starting from zero again.

September was not the best month of reading. I started reading so many books that I didn't finish because they just weren't keeping my interest. The few books I did finish this month were a mixed bag. A couple were quite good, others were only so so. 

Five Stars

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has been sitting on our bookshelf for years, and I finally got the nudge to pick it up and actually read it, and I'm so glad I did. I didn't know much about the Osage murders before reading this book, and Grann told the story in such a gripping way, it was almost hard to believe it was a nonfiction book. Highly recommend.

Four Stars

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish I could give half stars because I think this book lands as a 3.5 for me, but I'm rounding up here. I've been to Post's DC Hillwood estate and have really enjoyed the gorgeous grounds and her wild collection of fine art and jewelry, and I was excited to learn a little more about her through this book. While I overall enjoyed the story, I thought there were some parts that were a little slow, and I sort of hated that the book was broken into parts that were based around the men she was married to. In some ways I felt this reduced her a bit too much. But if you can get past that, reading about the fictionalization of the life she lived during the time she was alive was really interesting.

Three Stars

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was a bit hard to read, maybe because it's too close to being true with everything going on in this day and age, and I kind of struggled to get through it. Book bans and children being stolen from homes was maybe just a little darker than I was hoping for when I picked up this book.

Without a Hitch by Mary Hollis Huddleston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought I'd like this book more than I did because it seemed like it would hit the right notes for me, but I struggled a bit because I didn't love the main character. Lottie is a bit lost in life. She had big plans in college, but then got sidetracked by her relationship with her college boyfriend. When that relationship blows up just before graduation, Lottie isn't sure what to do with herself. She falls into a job at florist and eventually finds her way to a wedding planning firm. This was a mix of Lottie trying to find herself and a bit of a romance. The romance parts were sweet, the Lottie finding herself parts fell a bit flat for me.

The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book on the heels of a few other suspense/thriller type books and kept wondering when the murder would happen. Turns out that wasn’t the plot of this book. Instead a group of friends heads to a destination wedding where a secret threatens all their relationships. This book was a bit slow, though toward the end I wanted to keep reading to see if I guessed the twist.

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I read 10 books in August, which is way more than a typical month, and I continue to have late night baby feedings to thank for all the reading I've been getting done. 

My Kindle has been a real work horse lately, and I've developed a newfound appreciation for it. It's just so much easier to read by the light of the Kindle in the middle of night and it's much easier to read that one handed than a physical book at the moment. 

I also continue to reach for lighter, faster and easier reads because my brain can't really process much heavier these days. 

So without further ado, here are the 10 books I read in August -- largely mysteries, thrillers and light-hearted fare. 

Five Stars

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book certainly lived up to the hype, and I tore through it. High schooler Asher lives with his mom Olivia, a bee keeper, in a small town, and he loves his girlfriend Lily. This book is told through the perspective of Lily and Asher's mom after Asher is arrested for Lily's death. Lily's story is told backwards in time while Olivia's is told moving forward. It's hard to say too much without giving away one of the bigger surprises in the book, but boy this was so good, and I'm so glad I finally got it off the waitlist at the library.

Four Stars

Pretty Guilty Women by Gina LaManna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book pulled me in from the first page and I totally flew through it. A man is killed at a wedding and four different women confess to the crime. But their stories don't quite match the evidence. The book jumps back and forth in time starting from the moment that guests arrive to the lavish wedding and wrapping up with all of them being interviewed by the police. Really enjoyed this as a fun and fast suspense book.

Birth: Three Mothers, Nine Months, and Pregnancy in America by Rebecca Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book super interesting perhaps because I’d just given birth myself. It followed three pregnant woman all of whom hope to give birth at a birth center as opposed to in a hospital. It follows each of their pregnancies as well as looking into how we ended up with the current maternal health situation that we have in this country.

A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the rare books I liked even though I could not stand the main character. She is pretty much insufferable through out the entire book, and I really got sick of the giant pity party she was throwing herself, but the characters surrounding her were so weird and so quirky and the book's storyline was kind of out there, and yet I found myself flying through this book pretty highly entertained.

Three Stars

While Justice Sleeps: A Novel by Stacey Abrams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Supreme Court Justice Wynn’s health has been deteriorating and he ends up in a coma two weeks before the end of the court’s term. With major decisions hanging in the balance, he chooses a questionable POA to carry out his wishes. This was a great thriller, but some of the science parts of the plot got a bit technical and were a bit hard to follow until later in the story, hence only three stars instead of four.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I usually tear through Emily Henry's books, but this one was only so so in comparison to some of her others. I think the main reason I wasn't quite as into this book is because I didn't love the main character. And since this book really centers around only two characters, not liking one of them made it hard to love the book overall. It was still a light and fast read, but I'd recommend most of her other books before this one.

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In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I feel like this book came highly recommended at some point, but I only felt meh about it. The main character was highly unlikable and was trying too hard to prove herself basically the entire time. A group of friends heads back to college for a reunion. While they're there, they're forced to reckon with the murder of one of their friends that has remained unsolved to this day. The title of this book also didn't make a whole lot of sense to me because there was no knife. The murder weapon was a pair of scissors. I stuck with the story because I was invested in finding out who had done it.

Between Two Strangers by Kate White
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I usually love Kate White's mysteries, but this was just so so for me. A woman gets a call from a lawyer saying she's been left a large inheritance from someone she doesn't know. As she tries to figure out why she's been left this money, strange things start to happen, her apartment gets broken into, her art studio is targeted. By the end of the book, she's eventually able to put the pieces together, but this just moved a little slower for me over all.

The Only One Left by Riley Sager
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Several years ago, tragedy struck the Hope family when the matriarch and patriarch are found stabbed to death and one of their daughters is found hanging in the dining room. Police arrested the other daughter Lenora, but never had the evidence to convict her. Fast forward in time, Kit is hired as a home health aid for Lenora who still lives in the family home, but has suffered a stroke and needs around the clock care. The previous health aid disappeared without a trace, and Kit immediately experiences stranger sounds and noises as soon as she moves in. I usually love Riley Sager's books, but this one was a little slower than some of his others, hence the three star rating.

Must Love Flowers by Debbie Macomber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a sweet book about two woman who've suffered losses trying to determine what their lives look like and how they move forward. Joan is a widow who lost her husband four years ago, and has never been able to move forward. Maggie struggles to deal with an alcoholic father after her mother dies. The two woman form an unlikely friendship as they help each other move forward. This book was just a very cozy and comforting read.

This title might come as a surprise to some since I never blogged about being pregnant. The past year was full of complications, and there was never really a time that didn't feel scary to share the news. 

The birth was full of complications too that landed me in the ICU. Suffice it to say pregnancy and childbirth were not at all what I imagined they would be like. 

Here's one of the few pictures of me pregnant. This was me enjoying my last float in the pool the day before our baby was born. 

Now that I'm generally cleared for physical activity again, I'm slowly starting to find my way back to an exercise routine, and let me tell you, it looks a heck of a lot different than anything I did before.

I was slapped with exercise restrictions at 20 weeks pregnant. No more running, no heavy lifting. I could basically swim, walk or do yoga. It was a pretty devastating blow since I was just getting back to running after my hip injury. 

Once my favorite activities were off the table, I lost a lot of my aerobic endurance fitness, but I focused on what I could do. I got into a nice swim habit and spent a lot of time training my deep core and pelvic floor, knowing that would make postpartum recovery easier. 

Because of said complication, I was medically required to have a C-section. Having your abdominal wall and like seven other layers of stuff cut open requires some major recovery time followed by some major rehab work. 

In the first two weeks postpartum, I focused my efforts on deep breathing and reconnecting my brain to my core muscles. I was in quite a bit of pain, and other than sitting on the sofa, breathing and trying to go for some short walks around my house there wasn't much more I could be doing. Oh and trying to keep a tiny human alive on like no sleep. 

By week three, much of the soreness from the surgery had started to fade. At my two week doctor appointment, my OB was happy with how the incision was healing and encouraged me to start scar massage to help prevent the build up of scar tissue. 

So I added that in, along with some gentle core engagement work and slowly began to increase the distance I was walking. (We're talking going from like a quarter mile to a half mile, and then eventually progressing up to a mile).

My goal each day was a daily walk to get me and the baby some fresh air (assuming the weather was decent), some time spent breathing and doing those introductory core engagement exercises plus my scar massage. It maybe sounds like a lot, but I was only a few weeks post-major surgery so everything was really short durations and low intensity.

I'm about 8 weeks out now, and I've slowly started lengthening my walks and increasing some of the load on my core exercises. For example I've progressed from doing a wall plank to a plank on an elevated surface. I've also done a handful of strength training sessions with dumbbells. Again these are very short maybe 20 minutes or so that I can fit in during a nap. It also helps that I'm following a plan from a physical therapist that helps me map out how I should be progressing different things.

I'm itching to start running again, but I'm forcing myself to spend the time on the rehab first, and to try not to rush. A C section is major surgery, and the last thing I want is to injure myself because I jumped back into something too soon. I know I need a strong core to stabilize me while I run (and just exist day to day). I have big hopes of running some races later this year and into the spring, so I'm forcing myself to spend time building a solid foundation so that I don't suffer further set back when I start running again. I'm super impatient so this isn't easy,  but I keep telling myself it will pay off in the long run.

I wasn't sure what reading would look like in July what with a newborn to take care of and all. But turns out all those late night feedings leave a lot of time for sitting around and reading a Kindle in the dark. So I got through plenty of books in July. 

I kept things mostly light. The book needed to have a fast moving plot and not make my completely sleep deprived brain think too hard. Most of the books I read seemed to meet that target. 

Four Stars

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was another easy summer read from Elin Hilderbrand. Every time I read one of her books, I'm sad she's planning to retire next year. This book centered around Hollis Shaw after she loses her husband in a car accident. She decides to bring together four friends from different points in her life for a "five star weekend" on Nantucket. The women don't know each other well and so their weekend together has so of the highs and lows you might expect when a group of strangers get together. A fun and fast summer read.

What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Can't remember who recommended this to me, but I love a book set in/near DC, and this one delivered. Alexis and Sam are eager to move out of their DC row home to one of the more exclusive neighbors in the suburbs to make room for their growing family. But the 'burbs are expensive and they settle on a falling down home, still outside their price range, in an elusive neighborhood that they think will be safe. But soon after they move in a neighbor dies on a running trail and Alexis starts to learn that everything in their fancy neighborhood isn't all it appears.

The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've enjoyed the last several of Megan Miranda's books, and while this one was good, I didn't love it quite as much as some of her others. In this book, a group of friends gets together each year to commemorate a tragic accident that happened when they were in high school that left them as the only survivors. But recently two of the survivors have died mysteriously and so when the group gets together this year things are tense as they strive to figure out what is happening to them.

The Senator's Wife by Liv Constantine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I tore through this twisty book that opens with two senators and their wives on vacation together. By chapter one of the senators and one of the wives are dead and the other two eventually marry. The remaining wife has major surgery planned and brings in in home care to help her recovery, but her condition gets worse instead of getting better. This was a fast and suspenseful read set in DC.

Three Stars

Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was another fun summer book about a group of people that spends the summer on Fire Island every year. The book opens with a little kid finding a dead body that has fallen off the boardwalk, then you jump back in time to the start of the summer when all the families are just arriving. There's lots of gossip and backstabbing and a young good-looking tennis pro that draws lots of attention. The book is told from multiple character's perspectives and all of them could have a motive and all of them could be the one that ends up dead at the end. A light summer read.

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was on the waitlist for this book for a really long time and had been looking forward to reading it, but it was a little bit slower than I expected. Emily and Chess head on a girl's trip to Italy. They've been friends for ages, but don't keep in super close touch anymore. Chess has become a famous self-help author/influencer, and Emily writes cozy mysteries. They both plan to use the time at the house to work on their writing. But the house has secrets waiting to be uncovered and Emily and Chess have secrets of their own. This book was interesting, I was just hoping for a slightly faster pace.

The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book started a bit slowly, but picked up toward the end. Four friends are invited to one of their grandmother’s chateaus in France 20 years after they spent time studying abroad there. The grandmother claims she has to set the record straight on a few things, but is murdered before she can. The friends struggle to figure out who did it, unsure if they can trust each other at all anymore.

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June was the month of my family beach trip, which is always a great week of reading for me. This year, I didn't read quite as many books on vacation as normal since I was busy playing in the ocean and building sandcastles with my nieces. But I still read seven books, and most of them were fun and fast reads. 

Five Stars

Happy Place by Emily Henry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Emily Henry's books are just the best and most fun reads. I was so excited when I got this book off the library waitlist so quickly, and I tore through it in a day or so. A group of friends have been vacationing together in Maine since college. When they come together this year, things have changed. One is engaged, and one is keeping a secret that they no longer are. As the friends spend more time together, some of the secrets come out. The book has a happy ending, but I'll leave it there to not spoil it.

Four Stars

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I flew through this book wanting to know what happened. Isabella’s son was taken from his crib one year ago and the investigation to find him has grown cold. In order to help, Isabella agrees to be interviewed by a true crime podcaster. Fast and twisty, this book often had me trying to guess what exactly was going on.

It's One of Us by J.T. Ellison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved the premise of this book and the way it asked what if about modern fertility medicine. What if a couple couldn’t have kids and had tried fertility treatments for years? What if during that process the police show up to say the husband’s DNA proves a local serial killer is his son? And that he has a wide-reaching number of offspring from when he donated sperm in college. I enjoyed both the thriller angle of this book and the relationships impacted by the husband’s sperm donation. Flew through this book on vacation.

The Daydreams by Laura Hankin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is about a teen TV show getting rebooted in modern times, and it was a perfect beach read. The cast was inseparable as kids during the height of the show, but no longer speak to each other as adults after a disastrous live finale years ago. But they’re coming together for a reunion and all the drama that entails.

Three Stars

The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gabe and Pippa live in a house overlooking gorgeous but deadly cliffs. Gabe has repeatedly talked people off the literal edge. He’s never failed until recently and this person is someone Gabe knows. Pippa wants to know what’s going on, and finds more than she bargained for. A good read, but not as good as Hepworth’s other books.

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took me a while to get into this audiobook. It started pretty slow and it took a while for the six adults (a set of siblings and their significant others) to get to the creepy cabin in the woods. Once they're there, the summary promised a thriller where no one felt safe. The book did eventually get there, but it just took a while. By the end, I was curious to see what would happen and how things would resolve, but I wish this one would have had more action from the start.

Two Stars

The Guest by Emma Cline
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I liked Emma Cline's last book quite a bit and had been looking forward to this one coming out, but The Guest fell pretty flat for me. I didn't find any of the characters particularly likable and the ending felt like a bit of a letdown after I'd stuck it out to see what happened. This was an incredibly fast read, I finished it in one day by the pool, but it just didn't land for me.

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After really struggling with a reading rut in April, I found myself breaking out of it in May. I indulged in lots of easy reads and thrillers. There's nothing like an engaging page turner that makes me want to keep picking up my books and reading into the night. (Multiple times this month, my husband had to pull my Kindle out from underneath where I'd fallen asleep on top of it in bed). 

I also found myself enjoying several audio books this month as the weather got nicer and I was more inclined to go outside at lunch time for a walk with a book to break up my work day. 

Here's what I read. I gave almost everything this month four stars.

Four Stars

The First Husband by Laura Dave
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Annie was feeling pretty grounded in life until her long time boyfriend comes home one day and decides to end things. The announcement sends Annie reeling and she eventually rebounds with a chef she meets on a night out trying to console herself. She doesn't expect to fall in love, but she does, and she moves with him to rural MA where he hopes to open a new restaurant. At the same time, Annie's old boyfriend comes back full of regret and she gets a great job offer overseas. Really enjoyed this as a fast and light read.

Meet Me in Paradise by Libby Hubscher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an Ashley Spivey recommendation that helped pull me out of a book slump. Marin and Sadie are sisters that had completely opposite reactions to their mother's death. Marin buckled down and became a caretaker to Sadie isolating herself from the world and never taking a risk. Sadie on the other hand became a world traveling photographer. On a break from work, Sadie convinces Marin to take a girls' weekend to a small island for relaxation. Marin reluctantly agrees, but then Sadie misses the flight, and Marin is off on her first solo trip. This was a super fast and enjoyable read.

The Guncle by Steven Rowley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was such a fast read and the characters really pull at your heart strings. When Maisie and Grant lose their mother and their father suffers a health scare of his own, they're sent to live with Gay Uncle Patrick in Palm Springs. While Patrick has always loved his niece and nephew, he feels out of his league raising them, while dealing with their grief and his own grief over the loss of their mother. Despite the sad situation that throws them together, this book is heartwarming as Patrick, Maisie and Grant all manage to find their way by leaning on one another.

The Wish by Nicholas Sparks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have not read a Nicholas Sparks book in ages, but when I saw this on the shelf at the library, I snapped it up knowing it would be an easy summer read, and it did not disappoint. When Maggie was 16 she found herself pregnant in high school, her parents send her across the country to live with her aunt in North Carolina until the baby is born. Her aunt hired her a tutor to help with the school work and the two grow close over the year. Maggie is now an adult living in New York and the book jumps back and forth between the present day and back in 1996 in North Carolina. A fast and enjoyable read.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book came with rave reviews, but it honestly took me a while to get into because of the two main characters' personalities. They were both a little jarring and until I settled into them, the book itself felt jarring. By the end of the book though, I was really appreciating Elizabeth and her style and attitude and kind of loved watching her inspire others throughout the book.

How to Survive Your Murder by Danielle Valentine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You've got to suspend a lot of your disbelief for this book, but it was interesting enough as an audio book that I kept wanting to go for walks to find out what happened next. Alice is the only witness to her sister's murder, but on the day she's set to testify in court against the killer, she gets knocked out and jumps back in time to Halloween 1 year ago -- the day her sister was killed. She's given a second chance to save her sister's life and find the real killer. There's some weird stuff that happens in her time travel, but if you can get past that, this book is decently suspenseful and I found it to be good company on long walks.

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I generally love books that are twists on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. In this case, an estranged family gathers on a remote island for Nana's 80th birthday and when high tide comes they are isolated until the water recedes and cars can reach the island again. But overnight, family members start dying one by one. The story jumps back and forth in time between the present and the past as you try to figure out who is killing off each family member. The only thing I didn't love was the twist at the end. If I say more than that I'll spoil things, but it felt a bit like an easy way out or something. Still decently enjoyable overall though.

Three Stars

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Compared to many other Ann Patchett books that I've loved, I thought this book was good but not great. It's broken into three sections and told from the voices of three different characters. I found the first character the most interesting, even though she was also the most unlikeable to me. By the end of the book, I found myself wanting more of her perspective rather than hearing from the other characters.

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