August Endings…

The reading slump this summer has been *real*, y’all, but I’ve just kept wading through as best I can! Here’s what I’ve managed to strike from my TBR lately…

–Marissa

Unreliable Narrator by Araminta Hall is a psychological suspense novel featuring Hope, who takes a job with a reclusive author and his glamorous wife as an assistant, but we know from the prologue that things went badly wrong and Hope has shut herself away from the world at large for a decade, so what happened? This novel unfolds very languidly (meaning it felt hella slow to me!) over the course of the time Hope spends at the manor “Shadowlands” as that assistant, and we see what happened (or did we?) to make her run away. This was a VERY slow burn to me, and I found myself struggling to lock in and finish. Sigh.

Big & Lily by Lisa Roe is a “sisters” novel – Bridget (Big) has the kids and husband and bustling home while Lily has a great business and adoring husband… until she discovers he’s cheating. Lily then convinces Big to go with her to Alaska on a survival trek, and of course, chaos ensues. I love a “us against nature”, sisters, Alaska, adventuring novel with pretty low stakes, and at 304 pages, this was easy to dip in and out of. Easy reading!

The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian had a quicker pace for me, and pulled me in straightaway. Mira is a phenom golf player who, in 1978 while shooting at the driving range, hits and kills a caddy by accident. The rest of the novel unfolds around Mira – her lovers, the accusations against her, her family travails, and eventually, the trial of this “promising young woman”. I loved Mira’s spikey, IDGAF style, as well the through story that one action can change everything. This was a standout Bohjalian title for me!

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 1 by Beth Brower was a delight from start to finish! I plan to listen to all of these on audio (each is only 3-4 hours) and spend time with Emma in 1880’s London. These titles have been everywhere, and now I see the hype. 🙂 I can’t wait for Volume 2 to be available on Libby!

You’ll Love It Here by Natalie Sue is the follow up to her very fun, very funny “I Hope This Finds You Well”, and I found this one equally witty and warm. Mona hates her apartment building and all the, uh, quirky neighbors, but when her life implodes, she finds she’s now the building’s very reluctant super. We have eccentric neighbors, a budding romance, a needy dachshund, all the things that I needed to get me out of a grand reading slump – I simply loved this. 🙂

Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister was an audiobook listen, and McAllister is always a solid choice for suspense! This time, English mother Simone is going to Texas to visit her daughter Lucy when Lucy is… kidnapped, and Simone must do increasingly harrowing things to try and get her back. Need a solid thriller? Go with McAllister!

Proof of Progress by Elizabeth Castellano was a delight from start to finish and at only 240 pages, a novel you can inhale in one go if you like! Maria Astorini, a B-list actress, is 37 years overdue in turning in a book manuscript of her life, and now is the time for her to start writing it, so in short, snappy chapters, you trace Maria’s life from earliest beginnings to present and all her marriages, roles, toils, and troubles along the way. I LOVED her writing style, and delighted in this and it’s wit, heartache, matter of factness, and authenticity.