August 13, 2019

Books in 2019 (#6)

I'm doing something a little different this month. I'm pulling my IG stories into this post, just to show what I thought of the books in real time. If you want to follow in real time, find me here!

Basically, reading for me this year has been up and down: some months I am overly-motivated and some months I barely make it through a book.

July was a motivated month.

BUT since this month's SUYB link-up is pretty much in the middle of the month, I'm going to just include what I've read in the beginning of August as well.

And I'm feel particularly unmotivated when it comes to reading at the moment. I'm in the middle of a pretty good book but it's the last in my current library stack and it's not due until 8/20 and it's verrrrry possible that I'll drag it out til then.

TL; DR: A Hundred Summers was probably my favorite.


Also, if you are new here, I DNF books a lot and I almost never feel bad about it. So for the amount of books I completely in the last month, 4 DNFs is about right.

And all of these books came from the local library, one half mile from my house, except for the NetGalley ARC.


The Wife by Alafair Burke


I enjoyed it. It was better than "passed the time just fine" but not quite where I couldn't put it down.



Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes


Looking back, I felt bored. I skimmed a lot. It was a good story (so, 3 stars), it was well-written (3 stars), but it just didn't flow or make for easy, enjoyable reading. I can't really describe it better than that. It tried too hard to be literary? 
And oh my gosh, the baseball. I don't do well with books that focus on sports. I'm positive this is why I didn't like Beartown (I don't care what you say: it WAS about hockey). 


The Forgotten Hours by Katrin Schumann

I DNF'd this a month ago-ish and I barely remember what it's about. I do remember the Goodreads reviews saying a lot about how the main character was really unlikeable. 


Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson



Circe by Madeline Miller



A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams




Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus




The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine




I loved The Last Mrs. Parrish. I couldn't put it down. It was so twisty.
With this book, I kept thinking, Surely this is so boring because there's going to be a twist. I will keep going.
There was no twist. It was just boring. Kate was privileged and unlikeable. So was Blaire. I cannot believe that the same sisters who wrote Mrs. Parrish also wrote this. It was awful.

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson (Netgalley ARC)



The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren


I couldn't get on board. As you'll see below, I've had it with "quirky girl" characters and the main character's trope of always having bad luck while having a twin who had all the good luck was just eh. Also, as I say for another book below, if it's a romance and I'm not on board with the characters immediately, I don't care about the story. I felt like this story was a plot constructed of 3 or 4 misunderstandings just waiting to collapse on each other. 


The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth



The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary





Whew. 

What was the best book you've read lately?



Linking up with Jana and Steph!

13 comments:

  1. Two Can Keep A Secret being better than One of Us is Lying makes me want to read it!

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  2. Okay I totally feel like The quirky girl main character is totally a thing right now! And while I like some of that, that's not all I want to read! I agree that Two Can Keep A Secret was better than One of Us is Lying, such a better story and less angst. I also really need to read Circe and Before She Knew Him, both have been on my TBR for awhile now!

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  3. I still need to read Two Can Keep a Secret, and I want to read Circe too.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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  4. I'm waiting on the Joshilyn Jackson from the library.

    A Hundred Summers is one of my favorites.

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  5. I LOLed over your wishing someone would murder the main character. Been there, wished that too. I am over the quirky girl in romances too. Regular women have romances too. You don't need to be quirky or goofy or klutzy or dreamy or whatever. The caveat - I also sometimes like quirky girls if they are well-written versus feeling tropey. My hold request on Evvie Drake just came in and your baseball talk has me a bit nervous now. Hopefully knowing that baseball is a component will help me power through because I am not into it at all.

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  6. I love how you did this post. I am always lookingat your IG story reviews too but like you've saved them all here for one big post.
    I still cant get my hands on Two Can Keep a Secret - everyone at the library must wanna read!

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  7. I've got the joshilyn one to read next!

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  8. bummer about the flat share, i adored it. it gets pretty heavy/intense later on. i don't mind quirky heriones, if they are actually fleshed out... i don't like the 'she's quirky because XYZ' and then we don't actually see any of those qualities. A Hundred Summers is soooooo good!

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  9. I really really really enjoyed Circe! One of my faves for the year. Greek mythology always gets me.

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  10. Two was definitely better than One. Totally agree with you on that.

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  11. You read a lot! And a lot of these I have read/am reading/or are about to read so yay!! I need to read A Hundred Summers!

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  12. The Wife, Before She Knew Him and Never Have I Ever have all been on my to read list. It's good to hear that you like them. I also read A Hundred Summers this month and enjoyed it. I recently put the Unhoneymooners on hold. I love Christina Lauren and I haven't read this one yet.

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  13. Glad you like Two Can keep a Secret. I'm impatiently waiting for her 3rd. I just added MIL to my TBR. It sounds like my kind of book.

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