…armed with SO MANY new releases, my head in spinning! Here’s what I’ve been reading lately…
–Marissa
How to Write a Love Story by Catherine Walsh was an audiobook listen (I highly recommend listening so the accents come to life!) and a romance read that I just sank into. Ciara is tasked with writing the last novel of her beloved father’s fantasy series, and her editor Sam is tasked with flying to Ireland from NYC to keep her on track. This had a charming village, enemies-to-lovers, a slow burn, two POVs, all the things you want from a cozy romance to listen to in the summer. 🙂
The Butler by Clare Mackintosh is not her usual fare – clocking it at only 208 pages, this was a zippy story of rich people behaving badly in the south of France, a suspicious death, and the butler trying to hold the whole situation together! From the way this ended, it seems like it might be a new series? Easy, fast!
The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson was an automatic read for me after I loved Pineapple Street, and is another story where nothing happens and everything happens. 🙂 Caroline moves to a small town in Massachusetts to finish her novel and falls fast for Van… but with Van comes his coterie of friends, whom we get to know. We have an unexpected pregnancy, a relationship breaking down, marriage secrets, kids being raised, weed gummies being eaten, all the things! The story is told from the point of view of all the characters with Jackson’s easy writing style, filled with both angst and humor. I enjoyed it!
The Au Pair by Teddy Wayne features Steven and Lucy – Steven is a formerly famous writer, and Lucy is his work-obsessed wife, and they need a new nanny. Enter Astrid, a Norwegian beauty that Steven quickly becomes infatuated with. Enter a strained marriage, an affair, a death, and a whole lotta navel-gazing from Steven. This is a quick read with an ambiguous ending that kept me engaged throughout.
Superfan by Jenny Tinghui Zhang was an audiobook listen that was part coming-of-age, part thriller, part squealy boy band culture, part sinister fan culture… it’s hard to categorize this one! If you’ve ever gotten infatuated with a particular item of pop culture, if you’ve gone to college and felt lost, or want a peek behind the curtain of what boy bands go through, you’ll find a lot here. I found a lot of the writing kind of stilted and underwhelming, and didn’t get resolution on quite a few things. Let’s give it a 3/5.
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