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Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t Read
There have been so many books I was super excited about but ended up not reading. These are some of the ones I’m still excited about and still want to read as soon as possible, but haven’t yet for some reason or other.
Top Ten Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t Read
The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan – I love Stephen P. Kiernan’s books and I’m really excited to read this one too, but his books are the kind that require savoring and that means I have to find the right time and mental head space to read them.
Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane – Mhairi’s books are categorized under romance, but they’re not quick, fun and silly romances. They tend to highlight serious real life issues as well and I love that about them, so I want to be fully present when I read this.
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin – I loved the two previous books I’ve read by MM, and I know I’ll love this too. They’re just pretty heavy because of the subject matter, but they’re also hopeful and heartwarming, and I’m looking forward to reading this soon.
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder – I think the thing holding me back with this one is that there are at least six books in the series and I’m just scared of starting a new series when there are so many I haven’t finished yet.
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck – Nothing holding me back with this one, I just haven’t gotten to it yet.
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan – Another one in the queue I intend to get to really soon!
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson – And this one too! I meant to read this and the above book this month, but I had other time obligations!
Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman – I’ve got a planned buddy read for this series in June, and I’m anxiously awaiting it! It’s a reread for me, but it’s been a while and I’m excited to revisit the nostalgia!
Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie – I very recently finished the first two books in this series and I would’ve immediately started the next one, except my book buddies want me to wait for them. They’re supposed to have the book in a couple of weeks, but if they take longer than that, all bets are off!
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent – I was so excited about this and I still am, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Soon!
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings.
A Good, Good Life
Hey friends, I’ve missed you all since the week before! I’m still catching up from all I’ve missed; I’ve got a ton of laundry to do, work I haven’t done, and a couple weeks’ worth of blog visiting and commenting! Please bear with me while I get myself caught up!
As for my friend’s visit, it was awesome! We had lots of fun and did a lot of stuff (and I had to take a couple of days to rest from all the activity I was not used to!) – I took her to the zoo of course, and to the annual big book sale in Calgary, signed her up for our public library tour – she’s a friend from my online book club so she was thrilled with all the book-related activities, I promise!
She was also very happy to meet my cats, the pictures above were all taken by her. They had fun hanging out with her although they were wary at first. We also did some tarot readings, had long chats and some really big laughs, enjoyed a few meals together. It was a great time and I was sad when it was time for her to leave. There were tears! 😭
All the happy things:
It was so nice to hang out with my friend! This is actually the first time we met in person after years of hanging out online, and it was just a joy!
I grabbed lots of great books from the book sale!
I have always loved the zoo and the library, but I have a new appreciation for them, and other local fixtures, after seeing them through a visitor’s eyes.
There have been more walks around the neighborhood with the husband on nice days.
And another dance party while cleaning the kitchen together!
I made more cookies!
My book haul! There were several more, but these are the ones I’m excited about and I hope to read them sooner rather than later.
The Books
Books I read last (two) week(s):
Funny Story by Emily Henry – I think this might have become my favorite of Emily Henry’s books. I loved the banter, and it made me laugh out loud several times. It was just so fun to read.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – I loved this book but for very different reasons. It’s heavy and difficult to read emotionally, but it was very good, and I feel like this is one I’d come back to and find new things to take away.
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Another favorite from TJR. One of my top TJR books is Malibu Rising, and we first meet Carrie Soto there in a cameo. We get to know her better in this book and I’m definitely a fan.
The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth – My book club buddies were talking about this book and I couldn’t resist buying into their hype. I’m glad I did because it was really good. I finished it very quickly.
The Woman In Me by Britney Spears – I grew up with Britney and really enjoyed her music. It’s horrifying to find out all the ways she’s been used and exploited because of her success. I have so much respect for her strength. I know I couldn’t have handled half the things she went through.
What Happened To Nina? by Dervla McTiernan – This had been on my radar for a while and I finally finished it. It’s such an interesting look at the things we’d do for our loved ones. How far would you go? I think the social horror aspect of it is what scares me most.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – Many of you recommended this book after I finished reading Clap When You Land, and I’m glad you did because it was so good. I loved Xiomara’s voice and listening to it on audio, narrated by the author, made it all the more powerful.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells – Just finished today! I’ve been waiting a long time for the audiobook and it’s worth the wait, but I feel so impatient to read them all, so now I have a dilemma – read them all quickly on ebook? Or wait for the audiobooks to be available, one by slow one? 😩
Books I’m reading:
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley – On a physical copy. This is a reread. Robin McKinley is one of my favorite childhood authors but for some reason I only rated this one two stars at the time. My book buddies have told me unequivocally that I’m wrong and it’s great, so I’m trying it again. To be fair, it’s been so long I don’t remember anything about it at all, so I might agree with them and shake my head at my younger self’s bad take.
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center – On ebook. I’ve been meaning to read it for months! It was on my TBR before The Bodyguard, but I finished that some time ago so I thought I should finally get to this.
Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft – On audiobook. I’ve seen a lot of recommendations for this book on some subreddits and it came up recently while I was browsing Libby’s catalog, so I thought I’d read it. It’s been pretty eye-opening so far but I’m only 20% in.
Finish all the books I’ve already started, but I think I also have to catch up on some book reviews, and updating my books read on Goodreads and The Storygraph. I feel like I’ve also lost sight of some of my reading challenges, so I’m going to try to get back on track and focus on the books I wanted to read.
How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!
Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.
Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.
With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.
Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.
I recently listened to Elizabeth Acevedo’s Clap When You Land, and several people recommended this book as well. So I listened.
The Quotes
“And I think about all the things we could be if we were never told our bodies were not built for them.”
“Burn it! Burn it. This is where the poems are,” I say, thumping a fist against my chest. “Will you burn me? Will you burn me, too?”
“She tells me words give people permission to be their fullest self and aren’t these the poems I most needed to hear?”
“When your body takes up more room than your voice, you are always the target of well-aimed rumors.”
The Narrator
Narrated by the author herself. It was wonderful and I loved how expressive she was.
My Thoughts
I thought it was brilliant and so beautifully expressed. The story, and the narration, pulls you right in, and I can just feel Xiomara’s essence oozing through the words. I’m not sure I like the ending though. I feel like it ended too conveniently and it didn’t feel realistic. Things don’t just work out that way overnight. But still, I loved the experience of listening to this audiobook.
My Feels
I don’t read poetry often enough, but I find that I’m really loving Acevedo’s works. Xiomara’s voice is so powerful, her story is so powerful, listening to her speak and express herself is so powerful. I felt so deeply, everything that she talked about, her experiences, her discovery of her self and her voice. I’m so angry with her family. Her mother, especially. How can a mother do such horrible things to her child? It resonates very personally for me.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
An emotional novel of suspense about two families at war.
Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family’s cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home.
WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?
Nobody knows. Simon’s explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn’t add up. Nina’s parents push the police for answers, and Simon’s parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign.
HOW FAR WILL HIS FAMILY GO TO KEEP HIM SAFE?
Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fueled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories and illustrated with pretty pictures taken from Nina’s social media accounts. Journalists descend on their small Vermont town, followed by a few obsessive “fans.”
HOW FAR WILL HER FAMILY GO TO GET TO THE TRUTH?
Nina’s family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters—finding their daughter. Out-gunned by Simon’s wealthy, powerful family, Nina’s parents recognize that if playing by the rules won’t get them anywhere, it’s time to break them.
I was craving a good mystery thriller and was intrigued by the premise. I’ve read one of Dervla McTiernan’s books before and liked it so I thought I’d try this one too.
The Quotes
“I just want to say, a thing can be crystal clear with hindsight, but just about as clear as mud when you’re actually living it. Also, sometimes it’s the walking away that gets you in trouble.”
“I tried to tell myself that I was letting my imagination run away with me. That there was no need and no reason to think the worst, but fear welled up inside me, and it refused to be pushed back down.”
“I knew my son. I knew him. He was not a murderer.”
“I started to get angry. The anger made the fear a lot smaller.”
My Thoughts
This book is scary because it happens in real life, and in fact, the scariest part of the book is the shitshow that is social media. It’s so easy to influence other people with misinformation, lies, wild speculations, and it’s so easy to turn people into angry mobs and witchhunters. It’s scary how some people refuse to see the truth even when given absolute proof, just because they are so invested in the narratives they’ve constructed in their own minds. It’s crazy to see when it happens in real life, and I thought it was very well portrayed in the book.
One of the things I like about Dervla’s books is also that the main characters aren’t always likeable. No one is perfect, and even the “good guys” can be flawed and make mistakes. In fact, it’s easy to get caught up in strong emotions, and there are times I wonder what I would do in that position, and I’m pretty sure I’d come out a lot worse than most.
My Feels
I was on the edge of my seat and so anxious to find out what happens next. There were several heartbreaking scenes, frustrating scenes, scenes that made me feel scared for the characters. I was afraid that we wouldn’t get a satisfactory ending, but I feel like I got what I needed in the end.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.
Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.
I grew up with Britney and enjoyed a lot of her music. I was aware of the drama and all the criticism she faced, and I’ll be honest and say that I bought into a lot of it as well. I don’t know why I decided to read this book, but I’m so glad I did because I learned a lot about myself even as I learned about Britney.
The Quotes
“There have been so many times when I was scared to speak up because I was afraid somebody would think I was crazy. But I’ve learned that lesson now, the hard way. You have to speak the thing that you’re feeling, even if it scares you. You have to tell your story. You have to raise your voice.”
“If no one is used to you being assertive, they get very freaked out when you start speaking your mind.”
“I wanted to hide, but I also wanted to be seen. Both things could be true.”
“Everyone thought it was hilarious. Look how crazy she is! Even my parents acted embarrassed by me. But nobody seemed to understand that I was simply out of my mind with grief. My children had been taken away from me.
“Think of how many male artists gambled all their money away; how many had substance abuse or mental health issues. No one tried to take away their control over their body and money. I didn’t deserve what my family did to me.”
The Narrator
Michelle Williams. I think she did a great job. The way she narrated Britney’s story felt full of emotion and compassion, and at times, I felt like I was truly listening to Britney’s voice.
My Thoughts
I was a fan of Britney’s music but only ever just a casual fan. I didn’t really follow her career past the few couple of albums, and I have to admit I believed a lot of what the media said about her. All the criticisms and misogynistic opinions, including those that came from people very close to me, made me feel like they must be true. Reading this book made me examine my own thoughts about Britney at the time, and other female celebrities and women in general, and wonder why I never realized the double standards. To be fair, I did apply those double standards to myself too because of the social expectations and cultural beliefs in my world. I’m still unlearning a lot, and relearning new things.
The bottom line is that Britney’s story is horrifying. What her family did to her was horrifying. What she went through was horrifying. And the fact that she went through so much of it publicly, without empathy or compassion from the media, that’s horrifying. We made fun of her, yes I did too, for her public meltdown, but I know that if I went through half of what she went through, I wouldn’t have half the strength she had to get past it.
My Feels
I have so much love and respect for Britney. She inspires me to keep going, to keep fighting for myself no matter how tough it seems and no matter how alone I feel. She reminds me to advocate for other women, to check myself of my learned prejudices, to remember that there is a person beneath the public persona. She reminds me to extend that compassion to myself, remember that I’m also a person, a flawed human being.
I’m horrified at what she went through, but I’m inspired by her journey and I’m glad she’s doing better now. I wish her so much love and happiness, and I hope things keep getting better for her.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
A thrilling, addictive novel about marriage, betrayal, and the secrets that push us to the edge…
Picture a lovely cottage on a cliff, with sloping lawns, walking paths, and beautiful flowers. It’s Gabe and Pippa Gerard’s dream home in a sleepy coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Over the past several months, Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge.
Until one day, he doesn’t. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral. . . .Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa’s life, her soulmate . . . lie? As the perfect façade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel. Because sometimes, the most convincing lies are the ones we tell ourselves.
Several people in my online book club was reading it and I got enticed by their comments about it.
The Quotes
“Sometimes,” I said thoughtfully, “the road to our destination leads us in a direction we don’t want to take. But does it matter, in the end, if it gets us where we want to go?”
“We trust people based on the strangest, most arbitrary things, none of which have any bearing on whether or not you are inherently good.”
“The thing about marriage a lot of people don’t understand is that you don’t get everything. Some people get passion, others get security. Some get companionship. Children. Money. Wisdom. Status. Then there is trust and fidelity.”
My Thoughts
I loved the whole ride! There were so many twists and turns and you don’t know who to trust and what is actually going on. I really enjoyed speculating and coming up with the most outlandish theories, and yet there was a lot to the story that was meaningful and important. I loved that it spoke to relationship dynamics, blind love, communication, trust and fidelity. The characters were flawed and stupid and I loved that for the story. It’s very human, and we all do stupid things.
My Feels
This book made me frustrated and angry at times. I feel like there’s so much unnecessary tragedy and unresolved issues but I also recognize that sometimes you don’t get everything all wrapped up nicely. It worked out in the book and it was a great story and very well told. I had a lot of fun reading it!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.
By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.
But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.
At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the ‘Battle-Axe’ anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.
In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.
I first met Carrie Soto as a side character in Malibu Rising, which is one of my favorite TJR books. I didn’t think I’d like this book because I’m not a tennis fan and I know nothing about it, but I should’ve known that TJR would make me fall in love with Carrie.
The Quotes
“We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.”
“Grief is like a deep, dark hole. It calls like a siren: Come to me, lose yourself here. And you fight it and you fight it and you fight it, but when you finally do succumb and jump down into it, you can’t quite believe how deep it is. It feels as if this is how you will live for the rest of your life, falling. Terrified and devastated, until you yourself die.
“One of the great injustices of this rigged world we live in is that women are considered to be depleting with age and men are somehow deepening.”
“People act like you can never forget your own name, but if you’re not paying attention, you can veer so incredibly far away from everything you know about yourself to the point where you stop recognizing what they call you.”
“No matter how good I was on the court, I was never good enough for the public. It wasn’t enough to play nearly perfect tennis. I had to do that and also be charming. And that charm had to appear effortless.”
The Narrator(s)
Stacy Gonzalez, Mary Carillo, Patrick Mcenroe, Rob Simmelkjaer, Brendan Wayne, Max Meyers, Reynaldo Piniella, Vidish Athavale, Tom Bromhead, Heath Miller, Julia Whelan, Sara Arrington.
Stacy Gonzalez is the main narrator and the voice of Carrie Soto. The other narrators voice commentators and articles in the story. Stacy Gonzalez is a pretty good narrator but there were parts where I felt like the inflections didn’t fit the intention. I still enjoyed listening to the book very much though!
My Thoughts
I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. Carrie is such a stand-out character that I even noticed and remember her from her tiny cameo in Malibu Rising. Trust me when I say I normally don’t remember stuff like that, but Carrie was too memorable a character. I also love that she was almost in her 40s when she decided to get back into the competition. There were many instances in the book where the double standard between men and women sportspeople were called out as well, and I’m totally here for that.
My Feels
Carrie’s drive and will to win is palpable in the story. You can feel it through the pages, you can feel just how important her goal is to her, and so it becomes important to you as well. The way the story was told, going through her journey with her, discovering what’s important, learning to love and trust other people, all of it was so impactful. This book is a contender for my most favorite of TJR’s work!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
“Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.”
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.
I’ve been hearing so many great things about this book, and I’ve also been wanting to read David Copperfield but haven’t gotten around to it. Now that I’ve finished this one, I’d like to read David Copperfield soon!
The Quotes
“The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.”
“At the time, I thought my life couldn’t get any worse. Here’s some advice: Don’t ever think that.”
“Actual fact: you could make an entire second world out of what people throw away. The landfill is where I figured out one of my main philosophies, that everybody alive is basically in the process of trading out their old stuff for different stuff, day in day out.”
“I think most of humankind would agree, the hard part of high school is the people.”
“When your parent clocks out before you clock in, you can spend way too much of your life staring into that black hole.”
The Narrator
Charlie Thurston. He was pretty great! I enjoyed his narration, was able to follow the story well, and I have no complaints.
My Thoughts
I had no idea what to expect going in. The only thing I knew about the book was that it’s a retelling of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and the only thing I knew about David Copperfield was that it’s supposed to be Dicken’s favorite book that he wrote. I feel like the subject matter isn’t something I’d normally be interested in, but people kept praising the book and David Copperfield is also one of those classics I knew I wanted to read someday, so I decided to dive in. I’m so glad I did because I got completely immersed in Demon’s life. The story was so well-written, so compelling, and it made me feel so many things.
My Feels
Empathy, anger, compassion, helplessness, hope, fear, heartbreak… it’s all here. It’s a roller coaster of emotions and what a ride it was! There were parts where I got so overwhelmed with the anger and heartache, I had to take a break and come back. There’s so much about this book that I can’t articulate as well as I wish I could, but I feel like it’s one that I’ll come back to and get more out of each time I do. I’m also really looking forward to reading David Copperfield soon.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common.
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
It’s Emily Henry, of course I had to read it! And of course I waited for the audiobook because it’s Julia Whelan narrating it!
The Quotes
“You can’t force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don’t.”
“It’s a library, Daphne. If you can’t be a human here, where can you?”
“I’ve been reading since I was six. I’m getting pretty good.”
“You can’t untell someone your secrets. You can’t unsay those delicate truths once you learn you can’t trust the person you handed them to.”
“I believe you should and will have everything you’ve ever wanted, if you’re not too scared to go after it.”
The Narrator
Julia Whelan. She’s the perfect narrator for this book. I loved her interpretation of it and I’m just awed by her voice acting. The inflections and emotions that went into every single scene of the book was just perfect. I felt every feeling!
My Thoughts
This might be one of my favorite Emily Henry books! I love the jokes and the chemistry between the two MCs and I literally laughed out loud several times! I read this book with my book club buddies – it wasn’t a buddy read, we all just happened to get the book at around the same time, and it was so fun to see everyone reacting to and gushing about the book.
My Feels
It was just a plethora of feelings. Julia Whelan’s narration definitely did help with making me feel like I was right there and witnessing everything Daphne was going through; the good and the bad, and all the funny parts as well. It’s just so perfect and I loved it.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Authors I’d Love a New Book From
I’m not sure that I have ten authors for this list. There are definitely a few I’d love more books from, but in general, there are so many authors I love whose works I haven’t finished reading yet, so I feel like it’s unfair to want more books when I haven’t finished the ones they’ve already written!
Authors I’d Love a New Book From
Madeline Miller – She’s at the top of the list because I desperately need more myth retellings, and from her because she writes them so well!
Yangsze Choo – This might be unfair because she just published a new book this year, The Fox Wife, but I’ve already finished it, and I need more!
George R.R. Martin – I know some people have given up on him, but I haven’t. I’m still holding out hope that we’ll see A Song of Ice and Fire finished. Also, I think he might still be publishing other books, but I really need new books for the ASOIAF series specifically.
Stephen P. Kiernan – He’s an underrated author, and I’ve loved all his books I’ve read! He’s got one new book published last year that I haven’t read yet, but I would still love more books from him so that I can have a whole bunch of them to look forward to.
Taylor Jenkins Reid – I haven’t read all her books yet, but she’s just an author I love who needs to also provide me with a whole bunch of new books to look forward to!
Christopher Pike – One of my favorite authors from my childhood years, but he also writes adult novels and I loved them. He hasn’t published anything new in years, and I really wish he would!
Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games is one of my favorite books and I think she needs to write more. So much more!
Have you read any of these authors? What did you think of their books? Would you read more from them?
