Whatcha Been Reading?

Hiya! I feel like I’ve been all over the place on my reading lately, with some hits, and more than few misses. Let’s get into it!

–Marissa

The Marriage Sabbatical by Lian Dolan felt like less a “take a break from our marriage and bone other people” story and more like two people who go on adventures and do their own thing, mostly focusing on wife Nicole moving to Santa Fe and living a dream life while husband Jason (who doesn’t get much of the story, honestly) goes on a motorcycle trip around South America. I enjoyed the sojourn to Santa Fe, and this was pleasant enough, but didn’t stick with me long after I closed the cover.

A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh was a must-read since I’ve loved all of her standalone novels, but this one is a loose sort of sequel to her novels featuring Welsh detective Ffion Morgan. This time, we have a twisted game show being filmed in the Welsh hills, and of course, mayhem, mischief and murder all feature in the telling. I still stan Mackintosh, but find that her Ffion books aren’t her favorites of mine. :-

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth was another must-read, since she puts out such compelling family suspense stories. Jessica, Norah and Alicia were sisters raised by a foster mother twenty years ago that, from the outside, looked idyllic but was far from it. Now, all these years later, a body has been discovered at the home where they grew up and they must return to sort out what happened, and what they’ve chosen to forget. Hepworth still writes an easy page-turner, but again, this one wasn’t my favorite of her titles, nor the most memorable.

Good Material by Dolly Alderton was an audiobook listen, and I couldn’t wait to listen every time I picked it up! Andy and Jen have broken up, and Andy narrates this tale as he reels from this sea change, and tries to rediscover dating, his career in stand up comedy, coming home to his family, and himself in the wake not being a couple anymore. Much of this is so funny (especially when narrated) and engaging, and yes, you want to slap Andy at times, but this was just charming (despite the lack of a strong throughline of a plot), especially when you hear from Jen… right at the end of the novel.

Funny Story by Emily Henry means summer is almost here, as Henry has consistently put out a “beach read” every year since, well, Beach Read! This time, Daphne, NOT a Michigan native, has uprooted her life to Michigan for her fiancé Peter, only to be left virtually at the altar when Peter decides to pursue his childhood best friend Petra. Reeling, Daphne moves in with Petra’s ex Miles since she has nowhere to stay…. and you know where this is going. Funny, warm, sexy, and a love letter to midwestern summers, this was a perfect Saturday morning read.🙂

Njuta by Niki Brantmark is subtitled “The Swedish Art of Savoring the Moment”, and it was delightful.🙂

Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman is a tough women’s fiction title to summarize (we’ve got snails, a Pacific island, a wayward father, family drama, romance, drama, you name it!), but I just loved it. Waxman is always funny and warm and charming and I flew through the pages!

Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham is a tale of college-age female friendship gone so, so wrong. We’ve got snark, envy, sidekicks, fraternity boys, betrayal and murder. I listened to this one, and it was engaging enough as a suspense novel.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead by Jenny Hollander was bad timing, since I ended up listening to, then reading one, novel about college campus murder (oops). While Willingham’s was present-day, Hollander’s murder story took place 9 years ago, and this is a “revisiting to see what really happened” story from one of the main classmates from the campus death. It was… fine.

The Silence In Her Eyes by Armando Lucas Correa was an audiobook listen and had a promising premise by my god, was written so poorly written, slow, and repetitive I bumped it to like 17x speed to get through it.😉

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang has been *everywhere* this spring (buoyed, no doubt, by the fact Kuang is adapting Emily Henry’s Beach Read for the screen) and was a pleasant enough romance novel. Grant and Helen haven’t seen each other in a dozen years, until they land in the same writer’s room in LA to adapt Helen’s YA novel with Grant as one of the writers – except they have something from their past standing in the way of them even being cordial to each other. This was unique, a great view of inside baseball for writer’s rooms, warm, and definitely an enemies-to-lovers vibe.

I Want You More by Swan Huntley was a one-evening read that was giving very Single White Female vibes as Zara – a ghostwriter – is hired to write the memoir of celebrity chef Jane in the Hamptons. But as the days go by, Zara starts to assimilate into a Jane clone, and of course, they fall in lust and love before things… take a turn. This was twisty and disquieting and you know it’s going to end badly, but still, so readable!

The Wives by Simone Gorrindo is a memoir of Simone’s experience as an Army wife and trying to navigate this foreign world of rules and regulations and friendships, almost entirely while her husband was on frequent deployments. This world is so foreign to me, so it was so interesting to “peek behind the curtain” of this life, while also feeling her anguish and worry and anger at her husband’s deployments and changes, and the friendships that propped her up throughout.

I also had some misses/did-not-finishes in the last few weeks, including People to Follow, The Intern, The Interpreter, and The Princess of Las Vegas. C’est la vie… not every book is the right book at the right time, or the right book at all. 🙂