Today’s post covers the second half of the books I read in June 2023. I shared what I read in the first half of the month here. I shared my five star reads here. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Title: The Drowning Woman
Author: Robyn Harding
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 6/13/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This book is about Lee, who is living in her car. She meets Hazel when she overhears Hazel crying on the beach and sees her waking into the ocean. Lee saves Hazel and while Hazel is angry at first, the two become friends. The viewpoints alternate between the women and each one reveals more about the women and the men who treat them badly.
“Lee Gulliver never thought she’d find herself living on the streets—no one ever does—but when her restaurant fails, and she falls deeper into debt, she leaves her old life behind with nothing but her clothes and her Toyota Corolla. In Seattle, she parks in a secluded spot by the beach to lay low and plan her next move—until early one morning, she sees a sobbing woman throw herself into the ocean. Lee hauls the woman back to the surface, but instead of appreciation, she is met with fury. The drowning woman, Hazel, tells her that she wanted to die, that she’s trapped in a toxic, abusive marriage, that she’s a prisoner in her own home. Lee has thwarted her one chance to escape her life. Out of options, Hazel retreats to her gilded cage, and Lee thinks she’s seen the last of her, until her unexpected return the next morning. Bonded by disparate but difficult circumstances, the women soon strike up a close and unlikely friendship. And then one day, Hazel makes a shocking request: she wants Lee to help her disappear. It’ll be easy, Hazel assures her, but Lee soon learns that nothing is as it seems, and that Hazel may not be the friend Lee thought she was.”
I mostly enjoyed this thriller and how you find out more about the characters after each section of the book!
Title: The Paris Daughter
Author: Kristin Harmel
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 6/6/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
I found this a difficult read in terms of its WWII setting and depictions of loss. Juliette owns a bookstore and has three children when Elise must go into hiding due to her husband’s politics. She must leave her young daughter with Juliette.
“Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change. When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life—her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it. More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble—and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time.”
I thought the twist in the story was fairly obvious and the middle section dragged as the reveal approached, however the ending section captured my attention well.
Title: The Girls of Summer
Author: Katie Bishop
Genre: Contemporary / Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, 6/6/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
I had heard some mixed reviews of this one, but it held my interest even while it covered some disturbing topics. Taking place in the UK with flashbacks to a summer spent in Greece, Rachel is traumatized without awareness of what actually happened back then. She had just turned 18 and she believes that she still loves and was loved by Alistair, who is quite a lot older than her. When she reconnects with some of the others who were there that summer, she begins to consider what happened and her feelings about it now.
“Rachel has been in love with Alistair for fifteen years. Even though she’s now married to someone else. Even though she was a teenager when they met. Even though he is twenty years older than her. Rachel and Alistair’s summer love affair on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen, obliterating everything in its wake. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, she reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island, where the nights were long, the alcohol was free-flowing and everyone acted in ways they never would at home. And as she does so, dark and deeply suppressed secrets about her first love affair begin to rise to the surface, as well as the truth about her time working for an enigmatic and wealthy man, who controlled so much more than she could have ever realized.”
This book contains grooming, exploitation, sex trafficking, suicide, assault, and drug use. Definitely not a light summer read!
Title: The Celebrants
Author: Steven Rowley
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio, 5/30/23
Source: Audio Publisher
Why I Read It: Loved his previous book
My Rating: 4 Stars
The Celebrants is about a group of college friends who reunite when one decides they need the others at low points in their lives. When they reunite, they hold living funerals in order to show each other how much they are loved.
“It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living ‘funerals,’ celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves. But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.”
I have to say I was unprepared for the seriousness behind the reunion of these friends, and yet there were a lot of very funny parts. I especially loved the Circle Line cruise excursion! There were also some surprises along the way.
Title: Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge
Author: Helen Ellis
Genre: Memoir in Essays
Publisher: Doubleday, 6/13/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This is a memoir of essays about marriage, with stories and tales about the author’s family and friends. My favorite was “An Email to Our Cat Sitter” which was a hilarious description of her cats’ personalities.
“Welcome to the Coral Lounge, a room in Helen Ellis’s New York City apartment painted such an exuberant shade that a Peeping Tom left a sticky note asking for the color. It is in the Coral Lounge where all the parties happen: A game called “What’s in the box?” makes its uproarious debut, the Puzzle Posse pounces on a 500-piece jigsaw of a beheaded priest, and guests don blindfolds for a raucous bridal shower. When the pandemic shuts down the city, the Coral Lounge becomes a place of refuge, where Helen and her husband binge-watch Joan Collins’s Dynasty, dote on two spoiled cats, and where Helen discovers that even twenty years into marriage, her husband still makes her heart pitter patter.”
This book wasn’t long but it kept me smiling throughout.
Title: Zero Days
Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Gallery Books / Scout Press, 6/20/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Zero Days is about Jack, who along with her husband Gabe runs tests to see if they can infiltrate companies’ security. Jack comes home to find Gabe murdered and when she realizes she is being framed for the murder, she runs from the police and tries to find the true killer.
“Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her. Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer.”
I thought it was easy to tell who should be suspected but the ultimate motive was interesting. I also thought Jack was supposed to be an expert, but I realized something she didn’t! After the middle, the book moved quickly and was entertaining, although I didn’t love it as much as The It Girl.
Title: Invisible Son
Author: Kim Johnson
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Random House Books For Young Readers, 6/27/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This Is My America was a wonderful book that I loved. As a follow up, Invisible Son was a bit long with some uneven pacing in my opinion. It begins with Andre returning from being at a facility as a punishment for a crime he didn’t commit. He moves in with his grandparents, across the street from his friends, a family formed through transracial adoption. One of his friends, Eric, is now missing. And did I mention the book takes place in 2020?
“Life can change in an instant.
When you’re wrongfully accused of a crime.
When a virus shuts everything down.
When the girl you love moves on.
Andre Jackson is determined to reclaim his identity. But returning from juvie doesn’t feel like coming home. His Portland, Oregon, neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying, and COVID-19 shuts down school before he can return. And Andre’s suspicions about his arrest for a crime he didn’t commit even taint his friendships. It’s as if his whole life has been erased. The one thing Andre is counting on is his relationship with the Whitaker kids—especially his longtime crush, Sierra. But Sierra’s brother Eric is missing, and the facts don’t add up as their adoptive parents fight to keep up the act that their racially diverse family is picture-perfect. If Andre can find Eric, he just might uncover the truth about his own arrest. But in a world where power is held by a few and Andre is nearly invisible, searching for the truth is a dangerous game.”
While Andre and his crush Sierra (Eric’s sister) try to find out what happened to Eric, Covid comes to Oregon. There are people getting sick, lockdowns, etc, and then George Floyd is killed. Protests and unrest begin in Portland, where this book takes place. So as you can see, there is a lot going on. I think it’s a worthwhile read, but you’d have to be in the right headspace to relive that very difficult time, all through the eyes of a boy with his own very difficult situation.
Title: Big Gay Wedding
Author: Byron Lane
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Macmillan Audio, 5/30/23
Source: Audio Publisher
Why I Read It: Heard it was good
My Rating: 4 Stars
Barnett’s mother doesn’t approve of him being gay, much less want to host his wedding on her farm.
“Two grooms. One mother of a problem. Barnett Durang has a secret. No, not THAT secret. His widowed mother has long known he’s gay. The secret is Barnett is getting married. At his mother’s farm. In their small Louisiana town. She just doesn’t know it yet. It’ll be an intimate affair. Just two hundred or so of the most fabulous folks Barnett is shipping in from the ‘heathen coasts,’ as Mom likes to call them, turning her quiet rescue farm for misfit animals into a most unlikely wedding venue. But there are forces, both within this modern new family and in the town itself, that really don’t want to see this handsome couple march down the aisle. It’ll be the biggest, gayest event in the town’s history if they can pull it off, and after a glitter-filled week, nothing will ever be the same.”
This was funny but contained a lot of homophobia from the small town where Barnett grew up, as well as an ending chapter I could have passed on. I really enjoyed the narrator!
Title: Time Out
Author: Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, Carlyn Greenwald
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 5/30/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3 Stars
Barclay comes out at a pep rally and faces major homophobia and a lack of support. He ends up quitting basketball and getting involved in the school board election.
“In his small Georgia town, Barclay Elliot is basically a legend. Here basketball is all that matters, and no one has a bigger spotlight than Barclay. Until he decides to use the biggest pep rally in the town’s history to come out to his school. And things change. Quickly. Barclay is faced with hostility he never expected. Suddenly he is at odds with his own team, and he doesn’t even have his grandfather to turn to the way he used to. But who is Barclay if he doesn’t have basketball? His best friend, Amy, thinks she knows. She drags him to her voting rights group, believing Barclay can find a bigger purpose. And he does, but he also finds Christopher. Aggravating, fearless, undeniably handsome Christopher. He and Barclay have never been each other’s biggest fans, but as Barclay starts to explore parts of himself he’s been hiding away, they find they might have much more in common than they originally thought. As sparks turn into something more, though, Barclay has to decide if he’s ready to confront the privilege and popularity that have shielded him his entire life. Can he take a real shot at the love he was fighting for in the first place?”
I didn’t like how badly Barclay was treated after coming out, including being told how he shouldn’t have done so at the pep rally and blamed for letting the basketball team down, when they were the ones who treated him awfully. There is also a bit of a romance thread in the story in which Barclay falls for the only other gay character in the book. I had hoped to enjoy this one more than I did.
There you have it, the rest of my June reading! This post included 9 of the books I read in June. Of these books, 7 were print and 2 were audio books. Genres included thriller, historical fiction, contemporary, memoir, and rom com. Two of these were YA.
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?
