It’s time for my first half of July book review post! I am sharing what I read in July so far, although I am skipping my 5 star reads to share later in the month. 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: All The Summers In Between
Author: Brooke Lea Foster
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Gallery, Simon Audio, 6/4/24
Source: Publisher, Audio Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars, Rounded up to 4 Stars
All The Summer In Between is about friends Thea and Margot, who met in 1967 and reunite in 1977. We know that something happened in the earlier time line, but we aren’t told what until later.
“When wealthy, impulsive summer girl Margot meets hardworking and steady local girl Thea in the summer of 1967, the unlikely pair become fast friends, working alongside one another in a record store and spending every spare moment together. But after an unspeakable incident on one devastating August night, they don’t see one another for ten years…until Margot suddenly reappears in Thea’s life, begging for help and harboring more than one dangerous secret. Thea can’t bring herself to refuse her beloved friend—but she also knows she can’t fully trust her either. Unfulfilled as a housewife, Thea enjoys the dazzling sense of adventure Margot brings to her life, but will the truth of what happened to them that fateful summer ruin everything? Testing the boundaries of how far she’ll go for a friend, Thea is forced to reckon with her uncertain future while trying to decide if some friends are meant to remain in the past.”
This was a character driven coming of age type story. The audio helped me get through it. I enjoyed the music references and the look at women in each time period. There is also a look at the difference between the girls because of their wealth – Thea isn’t as well off as Margot – and the story contains sexual assault.
Title: Do Me A Favor
Author: Cathy Yardley
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Montlake, 7/23/24
Source: Literary Media Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars, Rounded up to 4 Stars
In this sweet rom com, a widowed cookbook writer and a divorced handy man in their 40s discover that it’s not too late for a fresh start. Willa lost her husband and inherited a house. She discovers a dog hiding in her garage and a cute meet cute with her neighbor Hudson follows. The dog belongs to his son. With this fun beginning, I was invested.
“Willa Lieu-Endicott moved from California to the Pacific Northwest to start over. Since her husband’s death, she’s been struggling to get back her old career as a cookbook ghostwriter. Unfortunately, her latest project―ghostwriting for a viral cooking sensation known more for his washboard abs than his meals―has her stuck. Until she meets her new neighbor. Hudson Clark, the handyman next door, lives on a farm with his parents and two adult children. He’s the opposite of everything she’s ever known. His happily chaotic life includes biker barbecues, an escape artist dog, and adorably menacing goats. He’s also got a sinfully sexy smile and a rumbling bass voice that makes her shiver. He inspires her. From their first meeting, the two fall into an escalating cycle of favors, paybacks…and attraction, even though Willa’s trying to keep her distance. They both have their own pasts to deal with. Now, they just have to figure out if they have a future.”
There seemed to be some conversations missing between the two main characters – they knew about each other’s pasts without ever discussing them with each other – and their falling for each other seemed a little fast, but Willa doesn’t like asking for help and Hudson always seems to be there for her! This certainly leads to their developing relationship on her part. I enjoyed reading about characters close to my own age! And I of course loved the dog!
Title: The Briar Club
Author: Kate Quinn
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: William Morrow, 7/9/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars, Rounded up to 4 Stars
I have never read Kate Quinn’s books before and had heard so many good things about them. I did see many saying this one was different from her norm, so maybe that explains why I didn’t fully love it. This book is about the boarders at a DC boardinghouse for women in the 1950s. From the beginning we know someone has been killed, but not who it was.
“Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; policeman’s daughter Nora, who finds herself entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Beatrice, whose career has come to an end along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare. Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?”
There are long chapters about the boarders including a mother with post partum depression, a former baseball player, a woman whose boyfriend is a gangster, etc. In between these chapters are sections told by the house itself. Because the women meet weekly for dinner, recipes are also included. I found the author’s historical note at the end to be the most interesting part! But don’t read it first because of spoilers!
Title: The Herd
Author: Andrea Bartz
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Random House Audio, 3/24/20
Source: Print – Publisher, Audio – Library
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 4 Stars
The Herd by Andrea Bartz had been on my shelf since 2020 and I finally listened to it this month. It is about sisters Hana and Katie, as well as Hana’s good friends Eleanor and Mikki. Eleanor started a women’s only co-working space which she, Hana, and Mikki help run. Katie is a journalist and she joins the group just as Eleanor suddenly goes missing.
“As CEO of the Herd, an elite women-only coworking space, Eleanor Walsh seems to have it all: close friends, a sweet husband, and the most glamorous and successful female-empowerment-based company in New York City. Then she vanishes on the night of a glitzy press conference—and the police suspect foul play. For Hana, the head of PR for the Herd and Eleanor’s best friend, this is a nightmare. For Hana’s sister, Katie, a journalist, this is the story that will make her career. But when the sisters launch their own investigation and begin to learn what Eleanor was hiding, they must also face the secrets they’ve been keeping from each other—and confront just how dangerous it can be when women’s perfect veneers start to crack.”
The mystery as to what happened to Eleanor is one that kept me interested, though I felt that the reveal came suddenly. Also revealed are secrets from the past and their effect on the present. This is a book about toxic friendships. The story also includes drugs and addiction as well as violence.
Title: This Used To Be Us
Author: Renee Carlino
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Dial Press, 7/9/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3 Stars
A long time ago I read a previous book by Renee Carlino and thought it was good, so I was excited to read this one as well. Unfortunately, I did not love this one! It is about Dani and Alex, who are married but not getting along. They divorce and try to find themselves.
“After twenty-two years together, Danielle and Alex are getting a divorce. Once fiercely in love, they can barely stand the sound of each other’s voice. Instead of shuttling the kids between two broken homes, Alex and Dani decide to share a nesting apartment while swapping days with their two teenage boys at the family home. In the apartment, Dani and Alex, on their own, begin to reflect on the last two decades—why they fell in love and why the marriage fell, spectacularly, apart. With the newfound space and time, they are given a chance to rediscover their autonomous selves again. They both get back in the dating pool. Dani finds major success at work as a showrunner on her own TV project, while Alex faces the challenges of a new relationship. Still, they find that they just can’t stay away from each other, and somehow, the distance allows them to remember (for the first time in years) what each used to love about the other. When a family crisis draws them back into each other’s orbit, Dani and Alex are once again put to the test, which leads to a dramatic conclusion that will have readers weeping.”
I found the writing to be not so great and the dialogue was unnatural. My pet peeve is when people repeat each other’s names every sentence! Dani was really mean to Alex and Alex was a pushover who insisted that Dani cheated on him even though she denied it. It is mentioned many times that Alex is partially deaf / hard of hearing and I am not sure what benefit that had to the story. Anyhow, the two eventually fall for one another again, but I disliked them both enough that I didn’t care about that or about the so-called dramatic conclusion.
Title: There Is No Ethan
Author: Anna Akbari
Genre: Non Fiction
Publisher: Hachette Audio, 6/4/24
Source: Libro.fm
Why I Read It: Sounded interesting
My Rating: 4 Stars
Seeing There Is No Ethan shared on Instagram made me very curious about America’s so-called biggest catfish. This was the fastest I finished an audio book in a while as I just couldn’t seem to stop listening! This book is about the author and how she fell for Ethan, an online chat partner who would never talk on the phone and always canceled when meant to meet up with her. She eventually finds two others who had the same experience as her and they team up to uncover Ethan’s true identity.
“In 2011, three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and charming Ethan Schuman. Unbeknownst to the others, each exchanged countless messages with Ethan, staying up late into the evenings to deepen their connections with this fascinating man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did last minute trip cancellations. After all, why would he lie? Ethan wasn’t after money — he never convinced his marks to shell out thousands of dollars for some imagined crisis. Rather, he ensnared these women in a web of intense emotional intimacy. After the trio independently began to question inconsistencies in their new flame’s stories, they managed to find one another and uncover a greater deception than they could’ve ever imagined. As Anna Akbari and the women untangled their catfish’s web, they found other victims and realized that without a proper crime, there was no legal reason for ‘Ethan’ to ever stop.”
As this was in the early days of online chatting and things were pretty low tech, it is somewhat understandable how the author didn’t uncover Ethan’s identity sooner. However, what was surprising was how multiple women were tricked by the same person. What confounded me the most was WHY the person did this and HOW they are still living a normal life now. The person’s true name is revealed in the book and they are easily googled – I even came across their address. It’s almost like the person who inflicted the psychological abuse and gaslighting on the victims could have a case against the author for revealing their identity! Another thing that bothered me was how much it was stressed that Ethan was Jewish. I wondered why that was necessary, though I suppose the dialogue was directly quoted from online chats! If you want to read the full story without reading the book, there is a long form article previously published as well. The author narrates the book with the help of a male voice who reads Ethan’s lines. And in case you were wondering, I don’t think Ethan was America’s biggest catfish, though he was quite a big one!
Title: A Novel Summer
Author: Jamie Brenner
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Park Row, 7/16/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
A Novel Summer by Jamie Brenner is called a beach read, as is the book that its main character Shelby publishes. Shelby’s characters seem to resemble her friends, which causes rifts in some of her oldest friendships. She returns to Provincetown to help her friend run her book store and tries to make amends with those she has hurt.
“Author Shelby Archer found inspiration for her first novel while living on the picturesque shores of Provincetown on Cape Cod. When she comes to the town to celebrate her new bestseller, she is expecting a warm homecoming. But instead she is confronted with the cold shoulders of friends and neighbors who feel exposed and betrayed. Heartbroken, Shelby tries to move on and focus on her next novel. But then an unexpected call comes: her dear friend who owns the beloved Land’s End bookshop needs help for the summer. Shelby reluctantly returns to the Cape to manage the store. Back at the beach, Shelby sets her focus on the tiny seaside shop, getting lost in the shelves of steamy romance novels and dusty classics and trying to right the wrongs of her past. With every page turned and every customer served, Shelby comes closer to gaining back the trust of those she hurt. But as her manuscript deadline nears, she is again forced to choose between her own success and a second chance at love and belonging.”
This story is told from various viewpoints including Shelby’s friend Hunter (a woman named Hunter was confusing to me…), her ex boyfriend Justin, and Justin’s mom Carmen. There were a few subplots and my favorite was the one about Justin’s sister. While this does include a bit of a second chance love story, that is not the main focus of the book. As a light read, this one served its purpose!
Title: The Hollywood Assistant
Author: May Cobb
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Berkley, 7/9/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
The Hollywood Assistant by May Cobb is about Cassidy, who becomes an assistant to a couple and falls for Nate, who is married to Marisol. Cassidy spies on Marisol and becomes a suspect when a murder occurs – we know there was a murder, but not who was killed.
“Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life, and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA. The Sterlings are warm and welcoming. A perfect couple. All Cassidy has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury: Designer clothes. A sparkling pool. Great pay. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. Nate is sexy and talented, and Cassidy can’t believe her luck. Clearly, Marisol doesn’t know what she has. Maybe that’s why the two are always fighting when they think Cassidy isn’t around. But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.”
Somehow I keep forgetting that May Cobb’s books are too over the top for me. Cassidy came off as not very smart and I kept rolling my eyes at her. The word “soused” was overused and when Cassidy and the dialogue was full of slang. The characters actually said “ha!” quite often. At the same time, I had suspicions, but did not guess the killer.
Title: Watch Us Rise
Author: Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA, 2/12/19
Source: Print was a gift, Audio from library
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 4 Stars
I picked Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan off my Backlist list and listened to the audio, which I thought was pretty well done, as listening to poetry always helps me understand it more! This is about friends Jasmine and Chelsea who start a feminist club at their school. Through the club, they publish a blog with poems, essays, and lists about their experiences as women in New York City.
“Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission–they’re sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women’s Rights Club. They post their work online–poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine’s response to the racial microaggressions she experiences–and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices–and those of other young women–to be heard.
These two dynamic, creative young women stand up and speak out in a novel that features their compelling art and poetry along with powerful personal journeys that will inspire readers and budding poets, feminists, and activists.”
Jasmine is Black and plus sized, experiences sexual harassment, and is dealing with her father being ill. Chelsea? I don’t know. She was the white best friend, I guess. I thought it would have been nice if she shared some of the hardships with Jasmine. I think this book would work with discussion around activism and intersectionality, because the basis is in the book, if not the actual learning.
This post includes 9 of the books I read this month. 5 were print books and 4 were on audio. 8 were adult books and 1 was YA. Genres included historical fiction, rom com, thriller, contemporary, and non fiction.
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?
