Summer, Summer, Summer reading

July keeps rolling on, and so does my reading! Let’s do this!

–Marissa

Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley was… all over the place! We have a dizzying array of characters, about a dozen plots weaving in and out, a timeline all over the place, and no one to really “root” for, since everyone is shades of grey in their way. I was up for the premise: a manor (major influencer vibes) on opening weekend, secrets, enemies from the past, a murder, and a great setting, but it just didn’t coalesce the way I was hoping. I wanted to love this suspense novel more than I eventually did.

College Girl, Missing by Shawn Cohen was a quick nonfiction read about the disappearance of Lauren Spierer from Indiana University. Spierer is still missing (no spoilers there), but the whole tale is fascinating based on how many people interacted with Lauren that night. Cohen talks with the family, her friends, and visits Bloomington to try and shed light on the investigation. There are a lotta characters to keep track of if you haven’t followed the case, but definitely an interesting read!

Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight has a lot going on: alternating first-person narration, shifting timelines, emotional suspense, murder, and of course… the complications of being a mother and daughter. Mother Katrina is assumed missing when her daughter Cleo comes home to find her mother missing, and a bloody shoe nearby. From there, the story rockets off into learning more about both women, solving a missing persons case, and the lengths we go for each other. Recommended!

The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard is a weighty tome, but her writing is always so immersive and lovely. The setting was my favorite character… a hotel and immense garden nestled in South America, taken over by Irene after only being there a few weeks. This has drama, tragedy, betrayal, romance, magical realism… all the things. If you love Joyce, you’ll love this!

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio was getting a lot of buzz at publication, and I finally got ahold of it, and tore through it! Lauren returns home late one night to find… a husband she doesn’t remember having. When Michael goes into the attic… a new husband emerges, and Lauren is off to the races on changing husbands, finding out who she is and what partner she wants, and of course, confusion, hilarity and raw emotion. This had funny moments, heart-rending moment, and an easy prose that was fast to fly through!

Summer Pact by Emily Giffin is… fine. College friends, reuniting years later and remembering a shared tragedy, jet-setting, inevitable romance, Giffin plays the greatest hits, but I was never *invested* in these characters. The romances were telegraphed a thousand miles away, the plot slim, the characters kinda flighty and immature, and it was just kinda… forgettable. I loved Giffin’s early work, but maybe it’s time I moved on from her novels.😕

A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson is the third in the “Lily Kitner/Harry Kimball” series, and has newlywed librarian Martha suspecting her husband of… maybe being a serial killer? She calls her old friend Lily, and then we’re off to the races! This was fast and fun, if you like the first two, you’ll like this!