July Books!
I failed with my July book post! Eek! I blame summer!
So, so sorry! However, I read some real gems that you will want to add to your TBR list and that is for certain!!!
The Sarah Finds a Deal book club pick for July was One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle. It’s a story about love, loss, moving on and figuring out where you belong. It was a little out of my comfort zone but I still enjoyed it. Read about the book and our discussion of the book HERE!
Next up was Always in December by Emily Stone. Oh my goodness, my tears were flowing with this book. My heart was ripped out, broken in half and NOT put back together again!!! I have seen some mixed reviews and it seems like people with negative reviews thought that it should have been classified as Romance instead of Literary Fiction. Without giving too much away, the main character, Josie, was orphaned at a young age around Christmastime. Every year since, she has written and mailed a letter to her deceased parents on the anniversary of their death. This year, an emotional Josie is biking to mail the letter when she collides with a stranger we come to know as Max. And here begins their unlikely and unsteady relationship. Gah….I loved Josie and I loved Max and I loved them together. The only thing else I will say is that it is HEARTBREAKING but I would still read it again. Let me know your thoughts if you have read it!
Next I listened to The Bodyguard by Katherine Center. If you have not read any books by Center, I highly recommend Happiness for Beginners and Things You Save in a Fire. They are 2 of my faves! But…The Bodyguard may just jump right to the #1 spot! We are introduced to tiny Hannah who you would never suspect is a bodyguard. She is hired to protect heartthrob Jack Stapleton! We’re talking THE Jack Stapleton—-mega-star! Jack has come back to his family’s ranch in Texas to be with his sick mother during medical treatments and he DOES NOT want his family to know about his stalker. Hannah has been hired to do whatever it is that Jack needs to protect himself and his family, so here comes the #fakedating trope! You will absolutely fall in love with Jack, and his heartache over the loss of his younger brother will bring you to tears. He is so vulnerable yet so guarded. You will also love the quirkiness that is Hannah. You will really just love the book. Go immediately to Amazon and #addtocart. Thank me later!!!
Next up was The Temporary Roomie by Sarah Adams. A few months ago I really enjoyed the prequel, The Off Limits Rule, so I was excited to follow up with The Temporary Roomie. The bad news is, I did not enjoy it nearly as much. The storyline was fine but I felt like the main characters were really whiney for a big chunk of the book and their pranking each other was pretty immature for grown adults. I didn’t hate it, but I definitely didn’t love it either.
Oh, how I love Elin Hilderbrand! When she releases a new book, I HAVE to read it! The Hotel Nantucket is a bit different than the Hilderbrand that I am used to, but I am here for it! We meet Lizbet Keaton who has been hired to manage the Hotel Nantucket—-a hotel that was once a true gem amongst hotels but never quite came back after a fire took the life of a chambermaid decades ago. Billionaire, Xavier Darling, is determined to bring it back to the top and will spare no expense in doing so. Meanwhile, Lizbet and the staff (all of which have interesting backstories) are motivated by their goal to achieve Instagram Influencer Shelly Carpenter’s highest praise—-a 5 key rating! There is lots of drama and we are given an extra point of view from the ghost of the chambermaid that died in the fire. I am usually not a fan of the supernatural in books, but I kind of liked hearing from Grace. =) Let me know your thoughts about this book and also how you feel about ghosts in books!
See all of the books I’ve read in 2022 here, 2021 here and those I read in 2020 here!
