Magnolia Mamas : Book Club: February 2021

It's our favorite day of the month...book club day! We are constantly texting each other about book recommendations and sharing our favorites during the month, so we love when we get to share our hits (and misses) with you all, too.

WHAT WE READ...

CARRIE BETH

I was on a roll this past month and pretty much had my headphones in my ears nonstop which meant I was able to finish 4 books. They were all really different from each other and a couple of them were also different than what I normally read, so hopefully a little something for everyone who might be looking for a new book recommendation.

Up first was A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler. I had actually seen another blogger share about this book and it sounded really interesting to me. It's about professor of forestry and ecology who is a single mom raising her teenage son in a very quiet, close-knit, North Carolina neighborhood. All is well until they get some new neighbors. From their big expensive home to their flashy cars and the complete disregard of the trees that border the property line, things just go downhill fast. Add in a biracial teenage love story between the kids of the two families and it's a recipe for disaster. Honestly I had really high hopes for this book and wanted to love it, but I just didn't. I wasn't a fan of the way it ended and the entire book was just OK to me.

I loved hearing Jen tell me about A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson and loved that she said it sort of listened like a crime podcast so I was excited to give it a try. It was so fascinating and I loved trying to follow along with the clues and secrets that get uncovered as a high school senior turns a local crime story into a school project. I actually just realized that it is the first in a trilogy so I'm excited to give the other two a try also! Good Girl, Bad Blood is out now and and Good as Dead is scheduled to be released later this year.

Speaking of a trilogy, after reading The Promised Land by Elizabeth Musser last month I realized that it was actually the 3rd in a series. My friend texted me about The Swan House saying it was one of her all time favorite books so I decided to add it to my wish-list. This book is a historical, Christian fiction, coming of age story. I think my only complaint was that it felt really long. It dealt with heavy topics of racial tension, family dynamics, mental illness and loss, but it also felt light and happy at parts, too. This story is set in Atlanta and although the story is fiction, the author references so much Atlanta history and landmarks that it really feels like it could be real. I was born and raised in Atlanta so I loved hearing all of the Atlanta ties. The story is about a teenage girl who has taken her family's wealth for granted her entire life. That is until she experiences a terrible tragedy and ends up helping her family's maid in the inner city to take her mind off of her grief. She ends up becoming friends with a boy who comes from a completely different background and her eyes are opened to the civil rights movements as she is also learning secrets about her mother that she never knew. If you are from Atlanta I would definitely recommend this book because I think anyone would enjoy all of the familiar references!

Last, but not least I decided to totally switch gears and go with a little teenage vampire story. After reading Midnight Sun I couldn't wait to start the Crave series by Tracy Wolff. There are ultimately going to be 4 books in this series and seeing as how I flew through the first one in about 2 days I think it's safe to say I'll be listening to all of them. Think Twilight series with a little more fantasy which is not my style AT ALL, but this book makes it work and had me listening non-stop.

JEN

This might be the first month in awhile I physically read all the books I am going to review. I am listening to a book series with the kids and it's really good, so my Audible has been taken over by them temporarily. (It's the Keeper of the Lost Cities series if interested.)

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Winter Break was this past month, but we stayed home this year. With a free week full of cold/snowy/rainy weather, I was able to actually hold a book to read. I was able to get three in that week alone, and then one the rest of the month. However, one of these might be in my top three for the entire year. I'm calling it now!

First up for the month - Shipped by Angie Hockman. It's safe to say I am OVER Winter. So, when I saw this book and read about it's tropical romance bliss, I was in. The story follows two co-worker vying for the same job. They are given the task of cruising to the Galapagos Islands as sort of a final interview. The hard part, they both dislike one another.

Or do they???

The story was super cute, and is the perfect beach read if you have an upcoming Spring Break trip planned. Throw this one in your beach bag, and enjoy!

A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins is what I grabbed next to read. This was my Bridgerton fix for the month. It's a period murder mystery romance novel. It's cheeky at times, and the romance is that of the slow burn kind, but the story is fun and easy. I think without the mystery part of the plot, this book would have lost my interest. I enjoyed it, but I just needed something a smidge more somewhere.

Next up was the The Diplomat's Wife by Pam Jenoff. Okay I am torn on this one. Last year, I loved The Lost Girls of Paris. So much so that it made one of my top books of the year. The Diplomat's Wife grabs you right from the first page, but there are just a few parts I wanted a little more detail about. The story follows Marta, a young woman found in a Nazi concentration camp at the end of WWII. She is rescued by an American soldier and from there endures loss after loss after loss. She makes choices based on her tragedies and circumstances and your heart just reaches out to her. Without giving too much away, there is a big twist to the love interest in this story and you will be shocked at how Jenoff ties all the details together. If you love historical fiction with a romantic twist, this is one to add to your cart. You can also read this as a stand alone, but I realized later it is part of a series. The Komandment's Girl is the first book in the series, and a lot of these characters make appearances in The Diplomat's Wife.

Last up for the month is Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren. I almost don't know where to start with this book. I've read a few Christina Lauren novels over the years, but somehow missed this one. The novels are typically romance based with tons of humor and great characters. This rings true for Love and Other Words as well, but this one has a lot more "meat" to it if that makes sense. And oh my goodness - I loved it! I stayed up waaaaaay too late one night reading it, just to get to the end.

The story follows Macy, and has duel time lines to explain her relationship to her former best friend Elliot. Elliot popped into Macy's life after her mother passed away. It's often said through out the book that he was her "everything". But fast forward 11 years, and you realize something happened one tragic night that caused Macy and Elliot to no longer speak. They run into each other at a coffee shop, and pretty quickly running into each other brings forward feelings of the past. I can't say anymore without giving too much away. But the story is fun, tragic, and heartwarming all rolled into one. I cried at one part, cheered at the ending, and am totally recommending you add this to your reading pile.

WHAT'S UP NEXT...

CARRIE BETH

I figure while I'm on a roll I'll continue on with book two of the Crave series by Tracy Wolff, Crush.

JEN

I've already got my next read ready to go. I chose to start the month with Love at First by Kate Clayborn. I enjoyed reading her last novel so much. So, when I saw that she had a new one out I scooped it right up!