Welcome to my August 2023 Favorite Books post! This monthly post is where I share the 5 star books I’ve read so far each month. I did not have that many 5 star reads this month so this won’t be a long one! You can see the first half of my August reading here and I will share the rest next week. 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.
Title: Tilly In Technicolor
Author: Mazey Eddings
Genre: YA Rom Com
Publisher: Wednesday Books, 8/15/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
I have enjoyed Mazey Eddings’s adult books, but I loved this YA even more! This book is about two neurodiverse teens navigating a world that isn’t designed for them while getting to know each other as well as themselves. Tilly, who has ADHD, goes to Europe to help her sister with her nail polish start up business. There she meets Oliver, the other intern, who has autism and finds joy in color theory. They are somewhat opposites of each other but some forced proximity and learning from each other leads to an adorable relationship and sweetness.
“Tilly Twomley is desperate for change. White-knuckling her way through high school with flawed executive functioning has left her burnt out and ready to start fresh. Working as an intern for her perfect older sister’s start up isn’t exactly how Tilly wants to spend her summer, but the required travel around Europe promises a much-needed change of scenery as she plans for her future. The problem is, Tilly has no idea what she wants. Oliver Clark knows exactly what he wants. His autism has often made it hard for him to form relationships with others, but his love of color theory and design allows him to feel deeply connected to the world around him. Plus, he has everything he needs: a best friend that gets him, placement into a prestigious design program, and a summer internship to build his resume. Everything is going as planned. That is, of course, until he suffers through the most disastrous international flight of his life, all turmoil stemming from lively and exasperating Tilly. Oliver is forced to spend the summer with a girl that couldn’t be more his opposite―feeling things for her he can’t quite name―and starts to wonder if maybe he doesn’t have everything figured out after all. As the duo’s neurodiverse connection grows, they learn that some of the best parts of life can’t be planned, and are forced to figure out what that means as their disastrously wonderful summer comes to an end.”
This book had me smiling! On a personal note, I could definitely see my boys in both of these characters, which maybe made me love them more.
Title: Give Me A Sign
Author: Anna Sortino
Genre: YA Rom Com
Publisher: Listening Library, 7/11/23
Source: Publisher Audio App
Why I Read It: Sounded good
My Rating: 5 Stars
I loved this story about Deaf culture set in a summer camp for kids with hearing and sight loss. Lilah is a junior counselor who feels caught between the Deaf and hearing worlds. She meets Isaac, a cute counselor, and becomes acquainted with the way Deaf people can be treated when they misunderstand expectations due to their disability.
“Lilah is stuck in the middle. At least, that’s what having a hearing loss seems like sometimes—when you don’t feel ‘deaf enough’ to identify as Deaf or hearing enough to meet the world’s expectations. But this summer, Lilah is ready for a change. When Lilah becomes a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind, her plan is to brush up on her ASL. Once there, she also finds a community. There are cute British lifeguards who break hearts but not rules, a YouTuber who’s just a bit desperate for clout, the campers Lilah’s responsible for (and overwhelmed by)—and then there’s Isaac, the dreamy Deaf counselor who volunteers to help Lilah with her signing. Romance was never on the agenda, and Lilah’s not positive Isaac likes her that way. But all signs seem to point to love. Unless she’s reading them wrong? One thing’s for sure: Lilah wanted change, and things here . . . they’re certainly different than what she’s used to.”
I felt kind of funny about listening to an audio book about Deaf culture, but the audio was done well, including mumbles when Lilah didn’t hear things and the author signed along while the audio was recorded!
Title: The Breakaway
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Atria Books, 8/29/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
I was excited to read The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner, one of my long time favorite authors. I had an arc copy from a swap I did and then the finished copy arrived. This is about Abby, a plus sized woman who is in a relationship with her former summer camp love, Mark. They met at a weight loss camp and now Mark is much smaller than he was then. While Abby worries he isn’t right for her because he doesn’t bike, while biking is her favorite hobby, I thought he was a jerk in the way he silently judged her food choices. Abby gets the chance to lead a two week bike tour and takes the opportunity to consider the relationship. She is surprised when a previous one night stand that she hasn’t stopped thinking about turns up on the trip.
“Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she’s lived since college still looks like she’s just moved in. But she’s got good friends, her bike, and her bicycling club in Philadelphia. She’s at peace with her plus-size body—at least, most of the time—and she’s on track to marry Mark Medoff, her childhood summer sweetheart, a man she met at the weight-loss camp that her perpetually dieting mother forced her to attend. Fifteen years after her final summer at Camp Golden Hills, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, it feels like the happy ending she’s always wanted. Yet Abby can’t escape the feeling that something isn’t right…or the memories of one thrilling night she spent with a man named Sebastian two years previously. When Abby gets a last-minute invitation to lead a cycling trip from NYC to Niagara Falls, she’s happy to have time away from Mark, a chance to reflect and make up her mind. But things get complicated fast. First, Abby spots a familiar face in the group—Sebastian, the one-night stand she thought she’d never see again. Sebastian is a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away. In spite of their undeniable chemistry, Abby is determined to keep her distance. Then there’s a surprise last-minute addition to the trip: her mother, Eileen, the woman Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she’s still trying to undo. Over two weeks and more than seven hundred miles, strangers become friends, hidden truths come to light, a teenage girl with a secret unites the riders in unexpected ways…and Abby is forced to reconsider everything she believes about herself, her mother, and the nature of love.”
While this is more of a romance than Weiner’s recent books, it does focus on multiple characters and stories as is her style. Themes addressed include mother daughter relationships, abortion, infidelity, etc. It also includes Jewish rep. I loved this book but I do think some editing was needed – there is a couple on the trip who were left off when they all made introductions, and there is a POV that starts with the named character but switches after a page or so. These mistakes were not fixed in the finished copy.
Title: Dark Corners
Author: Megan Goldin
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, 8/8/23
Source: Book of the Month
Why I Read It: Chose as my July BOTM
My Rating: 5 Stars
My July BOTM was Dark Corners by Megan Goldin, which is the 2nd book about podcaster Rachel Krall. You definitely don’t need to have read The Night Swim to read Dark Corners. This one is about what happens when Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison and he meets with social media Maddison Logan, who then goes missing. The FBI asks Rachel to help with the case.
“Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his release date approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped―or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? And why was she visiting him in the first place? When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel Krall’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems to only exist on social media; she has no family, no friends, and other than in her posts, most people have never seen her. Who is she, really? Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal. When police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail―identical to a tattoo Rachel had seen on Bailey’s hand―the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krall herself. Suddenly the target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.”
I think it was more a mystery than a thriller but I still can’t really tell you much without giving it away! I really enjoyed this read, despite the fact that the characters say each other’s names too often!
Title: The Do More Club
Author: Dana Kramaroff
Genre: Middle Grade in Verse
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books, 8/29/23
Source: Storygram Book Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
I loved this book in verse about antisemitism in a small town and a boy who is scared to reveal he is Jewish. After an antisemitic event at school, group counseling sessions allow Josh to meet new friends – and to find out who may have been behind the attack.
“Ever since twelve-year-old Josh Kline found an antisemitic note in his family’s mailbox in third grade, he has felt uncomfortable about his Jewish identity. At a new school where he’s pretty sure he’s the only Jew, he’s hoping to just keep religion out of everything . . . until the morning someone sprays swastikas all over the building. That’s when everything changes. In one of the school counseling groups set up in response to the attack, Josh finally reveals that he is Jewish, and quickly finds out there’s more to the other kids in his grade too: All of them have their own struggles. Maybe Josh can do something to help—to ‘repair the world’ as his rabbi teaches, by starting a Do More club to spread kindness. But making a difference is never simple, even when you have new friends by your side.”
Josh and his friends start a club to spread kindness but he isn’t sure he can make a true change. He learns about who he is, the privilege of being able to hide that he is Jewish, and the benefits of being the change and being kind.
Come back next week for the rest of my August reads!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read this month?
