Whew. July’s reading momentum hit a major roadblock at the beginning of the month. I got hit with a nasty flu-version of Covid that took me out of commission for about 6 days. At the beginning, it was the kind of sick where even an audiobook was overstimulating. I couldn’t get out of the brain fog enough to comprehend a paragraph at a time. Yowsa. But I’m happy to report that I got back on track big time! And while I started out with more “fun” books, I fell back into weirdo/murder books. I need to continue my quest to lighten up!!
I also broke this year’s record for the most quits in a month. Life is too short, friends. Enjoy your books!
Audio: 5
Physical: 7
Mix: —
Quit: 6
Format: Physical
Rating: 4/5
I read it because: I needed an easy read to come out of a sickness-induced reading slump.
Warnings: Language, partial 2020 Covid setting, Brief open door scenes and some graphic sexting. Whoopsie doopsie.
I would recommend this to: fans of classic romcoms
The characters had a lot of baggage to unpack and were pretty annoying. However, this is a fast read with entertaining banter (I’m a sucker for flirting via email). It’s a second chance grumpy(her)/sunshine(him) romance, and does that thing where the book uses romance tropes while explaining romance tropes during the narration. After all, the main character is a rom-com screenplay writer, because of course she is. The plot spans a bet over the course of 5 years with a lot of will-they-won’t-they and it was a decently paced rom-com to binge in the last day of my sickness marathon and break the reading slump.
Format: Physical
Rating: 3.75/5
I read it because: husband recommendation
Warnings: animal death, uncomfy family tension
I would recommend this to: readers that really wanted to like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and A Man Called Ove but hated both of those books. This book is similar vibes but way better.
This was one of the more unique books I’ve read this year and will not be for everybody. It starts out as simple and charming with a neurodivergent main character trying to solve a pet murder, but then it gets really uncomfortable. I mean, it’s a pet murder mystery that takes a turn to complicated family relationships. However, it was intriguing enough that I also devoured this one in a day (I was still pretty sick, guys. Reading was about all I could do for a couple of days.)
Format: Physical
Rating: 4.5/5
I read it because: I enjoyed her other books
Warnings: language, brief but graphic open door scenes, grief/loss
I would recommend this to: fans of small town Hallmark movies or the TV series Schmigadoon.
I think this makes me an official Ashley Poston fan? I’m also a fan of mixing a typical romance book with any kind of sci-fi element – and she has written three very creative takes on the genre. She’ll be an automatic add to the TBR list for me in the future. This time, the main character gets lost and winds up in the fictional town of her favorite romance series. It’s cute and adorable with some clever twists and nods to her other books. It was even cuter after just reading The Dead Romantics last month. I could be really picky about some things that I didn’t like, but I refuse. It was adorable: the end.
Format: Audio
Rating: 2.5/5
I read it because: it looked cute!
Warnings: Cancer, teen angst
I would recommend this to: middle grade readers that need a next step after the books mentioned below…
This is the book if The One and Only Ivan mixed with The Wild Robot. However, it wasn’t as good as either of those. D’oh! Overall, this was a solid middle grade book with themes of family and science and perseverance. However, a lot of it was disjointed. Giving a Mars rover the inner dialogue of a young child was tiresome after a bit. Beeps and boops. The other perspective was told over the span of 17 years through one-sided pen pal letters written to the robot from a scientist’s daughter. This built in all the angst of a coming of age tale mixed with exploring Mars? It didn’t really do it for me, but that’s okay.
Format: Physical
Rating: 4.5/5
I read it because: I wanted to give Ruth Ware another try.
Warnings: Gruesome injuries, Diabetic complications, Storms, Drowning, Emotional and Physical Abuse, and more!
I would recommend this to: fans of reality dating shows and murder?
It had been a while since I enjoyed the writing of a thriller. I thought Ware’s Zero Days was decent, but I didn’t love the overall plot. Once again, I could pick this one apart, but I’m feeling generous with my stars in July after such a stinker month of June. This one was tense with good suspense and twists, if you can stomach all the ick that getting stranded on an island. It kept me up past my bedtime and made every sound in the house spook me…..so five stars for the page turning aspect alone!
Format: Physical
Rating: 2.25/5
I read it because: I liked The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
Warnings: Grief, Death of a parent, Near-drowning, Cancer, traumatic brain injury, absolutely horrendous communication styes
I would recommend this to: readers that need a fast book and toxic characters
Oh my. On one hand, I could read this book like a movie, it had funny parts, and it was a super fast page-turner. On the other hand, if you stop to think about the main characters too hard, you will hate them. He’s a jerk, she plays games, and they both are in need of lots of trauma informed therapy. Heidi’s generous ratings streak is over. I’m mad.
Format: Physical
Rating: 3/5
I read it because: The author was quoted on the back of The House in the Cerulean Sea
Warnings: Gore/murder, estranged family
I would recommend this to: readers wanting Alice in Wonderland to have gore?
The premise was phenomenal: what happens to the kids that fall through magical portals once they come home? This book answers that question by providing a home for children that get labeled as crazy or are desperate to return to their magical land. However, this amazingly weird found family story starts in a very interesting way and then suddenly morphs into a serial killer murder mystery with super gore? What. Just. Happened.
Format: Audio
Rating:3/5
I read it because: it’s on all the trendy lists right now
Warnings: Lying, car accidents/death
I would recommend this to: fans of undercover work and scam artists that aren’t actually really good at their jobs.
I’m usually pretty good at remembering books, but the details of this book completely disappeared from my brain while I waited to write this summary after a week of putting it off. I actually had to go back to the Goodreads write up to remember the plot, and then I remembered that I was super annoyed with this book. Oops! This was an okay “thriller”, but there was a LOT going on with time jumping and aliases. The twists weren’t twisting very much and at the end I was like, “well, yeah. I mean, obviously…” Hahaha. Once again, I am obnoxiously giving a mediocre review to a book everyone loves. Welcome to my favorite past time!
Format: Audio
Rating: 3/5
I read it because: Friend Recommendation
Warnings: Murder (obviously)
I would recommend this to: fans of the genre “old people ignoring police”
Before I started my reading habit a couple years ago, I had no idea the amount of murder mysteries featuring nosey seniors solving crime. But hey, if it works for you, you have options! This one was entertaining but exhausting. There was a good narrator and fun twists at the end, but I just can’t get over the many plot lines I have read lately of the police being charmed by the elderly. No, they should not be on the case. I know I read books about dragons and sentient objects, but this is apparently what trips me up while suspending my disbelief. Dragons are awesome – Ethics violations are unacceptable. Hahahaha.
Format: Audio
Rating: 4/5
I read it because: Library Challenge: Classics
Warnings: Extremely dated and offensive language, murder
I would recommend this to: fans of the classics and people that want an entertaining audio book that makes them think in the cadence of “by golly them there doggonit fir sure you betcha”.
In hilarious news, I wanted to read this to prep for another book, James, that is on the popular lists right now. As it turns out, I read the wrong book. I was supposed to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Oh, well! To be honest, I only knew this story from a play when I was younger and watching Wishbone. It’s amazing how many scenes I remembered, but there were plenty of new (and offensive!) things to check out in this classic. Overall (other than the n word and insensitivities toward Native Americans and women), this was a charming read about a real impulsive little a$$hole. Tom Sawyer really sucked, but his adventures made for an entertaining time capsule into American literature.
Format: Physical
Rating: 3/5
I read it because: I had a book club with the husband!
Warnings: death and confusion
I would recommend this to: people who loved the movie Babe but wished it was more murder-y
What a weird and unique (ewe-nique?? I crack myself up.) little mystery. If you like the above mentioned “old people take it upon themselves to solve murder” genre, you might also like this “sheep take it upon themselves to solve murder” tale. Reading from multiple sheep perspectives was extremely cute and entertaining – but massively confusing. This book took a lot of work to figure out, and the pay off was not nearly as satisfying as I wanted it to be. However, if you are looking for a cozy mystery that would break you out of your current genre, this would do the trick.
Format: Audio
Rating: 1.75/5
I read it because: it was a tiebreaker book to see if Katherine Center was my jam (sorry, KC, we might be breaking up)
Warnings: Tons of trauma – miscarriage, child drowning, abandonment, alcoholism, divorce, suicide attempt – and more! And none of it is really even relevant to the main plot! Huzzah!
I would recommend this to: someone that needs a good pity party palooza
This was a slog of a book watching an insecure woman struggle. I should have quit this one too, but Ellie Kemper was the narrator so I gave it way too many chances and then it was over. Yay! The romantic storyline was paaaaaainful. It’s really hard to root for a couple where she thinks he’s gross/stupid/tooyoung for 30% of the book, she doubts how he feels for 40% of the book and can’t imagine him liking her like *that* (she was a 32 year old woman that acted 15), and then he’s not even in the book for the last 20% before they – poof – have a happily ever after. It was 100?% weird. This was my third Katherine Center book, and it might be my last (at least for a while). I like her writing, but I have closed three of her books going “yikes, those people should not be together. This is not going to work.” D’oh!
July’s Quit List: A new record! They weren’t all bad, but they just weren’t for me. And some were bad.
The blurb did not fully set up my expectations for this book and I had to call it by 17%. Tough love! But, you need to be in a very specific mood for extremely wordy 1800s magical tale with flowery prose. The premise was interesting, but the execution was so confusing. If the point of a curse was to kill off a family line by not allowing them to be in love – but the grandma had already found a loophole by making her own baby with magic – then what is the point of the curse anymore? Also: an extremely graphic midwife/miscarriage scene. There was a trigger warning on the first page, but I didn’t expect it to be that bad. It was bad. I’m out.
I did not expect a fantasy mystery to have this much heavy world building. Once again, it was a me problem. I tried. If you like the character of House (you know, the medical mystery doctor), you might love the quirky detective in this book. It’s pretty funny at times and the murder is intriguing, but it is dense. I needed something much lighter at the time. DNF @ 23%.
After going through two chapters of no plot except for introducing miserable characters, I finally called it when she compared a woman to “a rabbit on coke” and described the last box in the shipment truck “like a limp penis overpowered by pubic hair”. I’m out. DNF @ 9%.
This was a cute set up and there wasn’t anything really wrong with it. But after I thought I had been listening it for a super long time and noticed there was THIRTEEN hours left, I decided I wasn’t invested and didn’t have it in me to go on. Apparently it’s a murder mystery – but 90 minutes in and there was barely anything established without a sign of anyone dying anytime soon. DNF @ 11%.
I really tried to like this one, because her other book (The Helsinki Affair) was interesting. However, this one was painful and slow. The fictional president in this book was obviously comparable to a certain current presidential candidate – and since thinking about that former president brings me zero joy, DNF @ 26%. Life is too short.
I needed a memoir/biography for the library challenge, and this looked cute. It was. It just wasn’t for me. I definitely felt like my subcategory: elder millennial. DNF @ 7%.
That’s all for July. I’m in the middle of three quirky and interesting books right now, so the August blog is looking promising. Here’s hoping! If you have gotten this far and have advice for sneaking in a LIGHT AND FLUFFY “beach read”, please message me to add to my August reading list. I want an easy book where the leads don’t have to unpack anything. Give me emotionally healthy people having fun while they fall in looooove. Thanks!