The last half of summer vacation meant soaking up as much pool time as possible! And, wow, does no one prepare you for how awesome it is to go to the pool when your kiddo is a great swimmer (plus lifeguards). I got to just sit. And rest. And read so many more books.
I tried to embrace the "beach read" vibes of summer and stick with lighter plot lines and atmospheres. Some of these were fine, but I also got to enjoy some real winners! Here's short reviews of everything I read in July.
FYI: These are in order as I read them. I hit the good ones at the end of the month!
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
Okay, the interwebs recommended Katherine Center to me while I was searching for "Authors like Sophie Kinsella." I love Sophie Kinsella's novels, and I am so sad about her passing. I wanted to know that I could find that same buoyant, playful, earnest kind of story somewhere else.
This book is perfectly fine, but it's not what I was looking for. I ran through it in a day, and then promptly moved on to another book. It didn't stay with me at all. It's the kind of book you don't really mind if you have to put it down to go do something else.
READ INSTEAD
Anything by Sophie Kinsella. They're better rom-com books. The women are more human and interesting. My faves are Twenties Girl, Wedding Night, and Can You Keep A Secret.
The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown
Honestly, I'm surprised I even finished this one. You get a bit of the main character's story about her leaving her unhappy marriage and some of her grandmother's story about life in Paris after the war. The grandmother's story was interesting enough for me to stick around. But it just kept feeling like nothing happened and everyone was in stasis. Skip this book.
Read Instead
Literally any other book about Paris. Try Paris by Edward Rutherfurd. Try The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Read the scripts from Sex in The City season 6 episodes 19 and 20.
Or read Eleanor Brown's other novel, The Weird Sisters, which was fantastic and relatable and quirky.
The Mistake by Elle Kennedy
Okay, I binged season one of Off Campus on Amazon Prime. Then, I thought about how cruel time is and how long creating something takes because it's this great collaborative process between humans. Then, I said, just buy the next one and read it now.
So that's what I did. It was fast, fun, and it didn't ask a lot of me. Exactly what I want in a summer beach read. It's, like, mid-level spicy in parts. Nothing crazy. But the characters felt like real people making real decisions, which counts for a lot in contemporary romance where the love plot line is really the only thing going on.
I'll probably read the rest of the series, and I'll def watch it.
You May Also like
Honestly, contemporary romance is not one of my oft-read genres, so I don't know if I can think of any similar ones off the top of my head.
But, read Sophie Kinsella, you'll like her books!
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
I wish I'd read this one before reading Hello Stranger! This one was so much better! The characters felt more thought out and fleshed out. They drove the story as much as the low stakes stalker plot line.
The interactions between the two main characters are fun even if sometimes they get a little expected. A normal person falls in love with a famous person, so you know they're going to have some obvious issues with that relationship we've seen before. So while the characters don't really deal with that in an interesting way, they do handle it in a way that feels realistic.
Read Instead
I actually think this book is worth the read, and you can breeze through it enjoyably!
The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
I have read Kate Quinn's entire bibliography, and I will happily buy one of her books without even reading the jacket anymore.
This book, while it was a vastly different direction from her usual historically informed novels, was still the excellent quality, great pacing, and great story the rest of her books are.
It's a book for book lovers! If you're a reader, you can 't go wrong with this one. It's playful and like getting a treat before dinner.
You Make Also Like
If you want to really get inside some books, read Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. She's a literary detective and has to regularly jump into books to solve wilder and wilder cases.
Teach The Torches To Burn by Christina Dodd
Look, I have two theatre degrees. I am a Shakespeare stan. So, the premise of this series - that Romeo and Juliet lived IRL and their romantically challenged daughter solves mysteries - is right up my alley.
This series is so fun. The mysteries are quirky and tied up in the characters, tangled webs of personal drama. This is the third in the series, and there is more romance (and spice) that before. It's been a great build up of character relationships and more difficult mysteries.
I recommend this series if you love a more cozy style mystery or like some plot with your romance.
You Make Also Like
The Veronica Speedwell mystery series by Deanna Raybourne. They're historical mysteries (with a romantic duo as the leads) set in late Victorian England that have a similarly off-beat-not-too-dark tone.
Lady of Lincoln by Rachel Elwiss Joyce
I picked this up on a whim because I love an historical novel that follows a woman who truly existed. And this one gets bonus points because I've never heard of Nicola de la Haye before, and her story is incredible.
I really enjoyed the pacing of this book because she manages to capture both the quiet slowness of Nicola's early life and then the increasing tension and troubles. Knowing what's looming ahead in the historical line of success for the English throne, I can only image Nicola's story gets more harrowing. It looks like this will be a trilogy, so I'm excited to join in on the rest of the story.
You May Also Like
The First Princess of Wales by Karen Harper. Another historical novel about a royal English woman. But also, there's something in the literary style of Joyce that reminded me of Harper.
It was a great summer of books! Between June and July I got to enjoy several books that I will mostly likely reread at some point. And, several of them will have more in the series, which gives me something to look forward to. And, I'm always so grateful to the authors that they took time to write down a story. Even if it wasn't my favorite, it might be someone else's. We're all just making things for ourselves and each other.
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Artist. Designer. Creative Adventurer.
We are called to a life of creativity, and I’m trying to show up for that every day. When I’m not designing website templates or illustrations, I’m getting my glitter shoes metaphorically muddy with my own artistic pursuits. I’m a maker, a quilter, a Christmas enthusiast, a baker, and a truly abysmal (but passionate) gardener.
Hi, I'm Emily.
