Whew, what a month! I finally have a fully functioning kitchen again, and boy am I on cloud nine!!! This means my reading life took a back seat. My body was exhausted and my brain was in a fog for most of the month. I think I started and stopped three different books, but my focus still remains on summery and light titles, and my library hold for The Guncle just came in. Here’s to hoping that August allows for more books (and that pesto recipe I’ve been promising since last year).
The Dead Romantics – 3 Stars!
Florence Day is the ghostwriter for a best-selling romance author, but after a messy breakup she no longer believes in love, and can’t possibly make her deadline on her next book. After begging her new uber-handsome editor Ben for an extension (which he denies her) she receives a terrible phone call that she must return to her hometown, because her father has died. Florence’s family owns the local funeral parlor and her and her father shared a gift of seeing ghosts in transition – ones with unfinished business. When Florence opens the door at the funeral home and sees a very dead and confused Ben, she is left to process the loss of her father while helping Ben with his unfinished business and learning to believe in love after all.
This one didn’t quite live up to my hopes and expectations. I adored Ben, he was the perfect hero, but this story was more about grief than romance and at times it was really heavy (which I was really trying to avoid). I found the plot very intriguing and I enjoyed the banter between the characters- I just wanted it to be more of the plot! I was worried about how their story would end, given that Ben was already dead, but the author worked it out perfectly!
Other books that take place after death:
The Midnight Library – 4 stars
The Lovely Bones – 4 stars
In an Instant – TBR
The Names They Gave Us – 4.5 stars!
Lucy is loving life, until her mom’s cancer reappears and her life feels like it’s falling apart – her steady boyfriend puts her on pause, she questions her faith in God, and Lucy’s mom wants her to be a counselor at the summer camp across the lake from the church camp her parents own. Daybreak is a camp for kids that have been through a lot – death, abandonment, foster care/adoption, teenage pregnancy, etc. and Lucy feels like she can’t relate to any of them, which makes it hard for her to be their counselor. What follows is a summer full of amazing friendships and experiences that Lucy didn’t know she needed.
This book has been sitting on my shelf for FIVE years (I’m sorry, Nicole!) and I picked it up on a whim hoping that YA would snap me out of my reading funk – and I’m so glad I did. I loved that there wasn’t a villain type character in this book – no one to hate or blame at the end. All of the characters were wonderful and perfectly flawed and yet I didn’t feel like anything was missing. The story was real life and therefore the conflict/tragedy was relatable. As a non-religious person I have struggled with faith my entire life and I related to the feelings that Lucy was battling given her mom’s cancer diagnosis. I loved that the campers at Daybreak all came from hard lives or homes and Lucy was able to learn something from each and every one of them.
If you enjoy YA fiction and need a little summer escapism, I highly recommend picking this one up.
Other books that take place at summer camp:
Say You Still Love Me – 4 stars
The Odds of Loving Grover Cleaveland – 4.5 stars
The Interestings – TBR
Looking for more book recommendations? Check out all of my book posts here!
Have you read anything that I should add to my TBR for the summer?
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