Heyyyyyyy! Remember me? I haven’t forgotten about you, I’ve just been you know, a wee bit crazy. But writing two months of book reviews is just too much, so I’m going to try harder (so much harder) to write them monthly – even if it’s just a couple of books. I even have my first book review for April already written (happy dance!).
I read some great books over the last couple of months and I can’t wait to tell you about them, so let’s dive in!!
Reminders of Him: 5 Stars!
After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna returns to town hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter, Diem – whom she has never met. She immediately meets Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and a very important part of Diem’s world, but everyone is determined to keep Kenna as far away from Diem as possible. When things heat up with Ledger, the lines that were once drawn in the sand become very blurry.
CoHo is like coming home. When I dream of writing, it is her words that inspire me most. She pulls on my heartstrings. She makes my stomach ache and my heart soar. She makes me giddy. She makes me want to call in sick and binge read while simultaneously locking up the book to force myself to savor the story.
Reminders of Him was no exception. I loved every minute of it, even when I was crying on page 139. This is a book about mistakes and forgiveness, about being human. Life is not lived in black and white, but so many shades of grey (fifty, perhaps?), but as humans we are so quick to judge and blame and I loved how Hoover walked us through both sides of a hard situation. And oh Ledger, you are so dreamy! If you love to swoon and have your heart shattered into a million pieces, don’t miss out on this one!
“We’re all just a bunch of sad people doing what we have to do to make it until tomorrow. Some of us sadder than others. Some of us more willing to forgive than others. Grudges are heavy, but for the people hurting the most, I suppose forgiveness is even heavier.”
My other 5 star favorites from Colleen Hoover:
It Ends With Us
Ugly Love
All Your Perfects
The Charm Offensive: 5 Stars!
Dev is a believer of fairytales and happily-ever-afters, so much so that he is a producer on the reality dating show, Ever After. Charlie, a disgraced tech genius, is the newest Prince Charming on Ever After and he doesn’t believe in true love and is only on the show to rebuild his public image. In order for the world to believe Charlie is the real thing, he needs Dev to teach him how to open up emotionally and create sparks with the contestants. But behind closed doors it becomes clear that Dev and Charlie a better match than any of the women competing on the show.
I ADORED this book! It made me smile from page to page and I never wanted to put it down. This book was packed full of representation… Mental illness including clinical depression, OCD, and anxiety as well as diverse and genderqueer characters. The characters were loveable, and the story was well written with lots of heart and humor. I highly recommend it.
I’ve only read one other M/M romance before – Fresh Catch by Kate Canterbary, so I definitely want to try harder in this category.
Other M/M Romance that I want to read:
Hot Head by Damon Suede
Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Temptation Series by Ella Frank
The Midnight Library – 4 Stars!
Nora Seed is struggling with her life – full of regrets and missed opportunities, she is estranged from her family and friends, and bad things keep bringing her down. She makes the decision to end her life, but rather than dying, she’s transported to the Midnight Library.
“Between life and death there is a library… And within that library, the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”
In the Midnight Library, we meet Nora’s elementary school librarian Mrs. Elm, who helps Nora choose another book, another life. When she opens the book, she is transported to a life where she made a different choice in the past. I loved exploring the idea of parallel universes, maybe there is another life in which I made a different choice that sent me down a different life path – so intriguing! But the biggest take away for me, was that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side! I really enjoyed the magical realism, but I just didn’t connect as emotionally to Nora and her story.
“Every second of every day we are entering a new universe. And we spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad.”
Other Books about Books:
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry – 5 stars
The Reading List – TBR
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore – TBR
The Thursday Murder Club – 4 Stars!
This was our March book club pick. You know when you go into a book with low expectations, mediocre at best, and then you come out on the other side pleasantly surprised? Meet The Thursday Murder Club! Four unlikely friends in a retirement community enjoy cracking cold cases together. When a murder takes place within the local community, this group is determined to help solve their first live case.
The first part of the book was slow for me, and I wasn’t sure that I would have the energy to finish the book before our book club. But then I hit part two and another murder occurred, and I was determined to see these geezers through to the end. I loved that they had connections and sources to reach out to for help. I loved that when the police were frustrated with their “investigating,” they simply rolled their eyes and allowed them to continue. I loved that whenever the group questioned a suspecting individual, they would open up and tell them the truth, because they were older and warm and who wouldn’t trust them?! I loved that every time I said “Oh, he definitely did it!” they would prove me wrong on the next page and kept me guessing. Ultimately, I finished the book with a warm heart. The characters were lovely and the mixture of diary entries and multiple POVs made the book interesting and the pages turning.
Other books with elderly characters:
A Man Called Ove – 5 stars
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café – 4.5 stars
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – TBR
Year of Yes – 3 Stars
About five years ago, I watched Shonda Rhimes give a TED Talk, and immediately ordered her book. I found her extremely inspiring, and I wanted to say YES more. Shonda is a TV writer, most known for Grey’s Anatomy, who always said no to everything, so she went on a yearlong quest to say yes to everything. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the book to be nearly as inspiring as her talk. The talk focused more on the struggle of balancing work with her family life, but the book was approached differently, and I just didn’t feel as connected.
Looking for more book recommendations? Check out all of my book posts here!
What was your last 5-star read? Do you have any that you would recommend I add to my TBR?
Kim Sodervick
Ashley! I too was so happy to see this email in my in box! You always inspire me to make better use of my time and read more! xoxo ~ Kimmy
ASHLEY
Thank you, Miss Kim!! I sure miss all of our reading discussions! We read some pretty fantastic books together. ❤️😘
Becca @ Life’s A Pearl
I was so happy to see this in my inbox this morning! So many great reads! Sorry the Year of Yes didn’t work for you. I also remember the concept being inspiring but her opportunities were far outside what’s relatable for most of us non Hollywood types.
ASHLEY
Aww, thanks babe! 🙂 Yes, definitely harder for us everyday folk. I even re-watched the TED Talk last night and it’s still super inspiring, I just think the book went in a slightly broader/different direction than I was expecting.