It's Book Club Day!!! How are we already almost half way through November? The first two weeks flew by and now we are looking at Christmas right around the corner. We definitely need to get on it when it comes to Christmas shopping, Christmas decorating, and just prepping for the holidays in general, but we'll worry about that later because day the talk is about books!
We've got a wide range of books to share with you today!
WHAT WE READ...
CARRIE BETH
As soon as Jen finished reading
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London she texted me to put it on my list and it was the very next book I listened to.
I loved it! This book was so cute about a plus-size young woman who ended up on a reality date show similar to the Bachelorette. It focused a lot on on body image, showed a bit of what behind the scenes would be like on one of these shows, and had me rooting for the main character the entire time. She was very relatable, funny, and it was great to see her journey through this experience. I would definitely recommend this one!
Next up for me was another book Jen read. I'm quite the follower this month if you can't tell. I'm not sure what I was expecting with
The Inheritance Games by Jenniver Lynn Barnes, but I was pleasantly surprised.
This book follows a girl named Avery who is homeless, living in her car, and going to school just to try to get ahead and all of the sudden she finds herself inheriting the fortune of a BILLIONAIRE she didn't even know. However, in order to get the money she must move into the estate with the grandsons of the late billionaire. The story follows her interactions with them as they find and solve riddles, games, puzzles and codes throughout the house that their grandfather was known for. They believe these clues will help them find out why the money was left to Avery. It turns into a real life game of trying to solve the mystery and it kept me listening just to find out the back story. I was SO surprised by the ending and the reasoning for her being the chosen one to inherit the fortune!
The end of this month I binged The Royals book series by Erin Watt and this is my total guilty pleasure. This series is classified as Young Adult Romance, but as I told Jen, there is nothing very young adult about this except the fact that the main characters are in high school.
It's very rated R, very cheesy in parts, and has nothing to do with actual royalty like I assumed from the titles. But, oh my, I could NOT stop listening and finished each book in about two days. It was one of those that I listened to every second I possibly could just to find out what happened.
Paper Princess is about a 17 year old girl, Ella, who grows up without a father and who's mother died of cancer a few years ago. She is living on her own, supporting herself by stripping, and all of the sudden gets swept away from her hard life by her new guardian, a friend of her father's that she never met. She finds herself living in a mansion with her guardian and his 5 teenage sons. They all have more money than they know what to do with and enough issues to match due to the recent overdose of their mother. Ella has a hard time navigating the super posh prep school she has to start attending and her new role as "sister" to these 5 boys. One of the brothers, Reed, she is drawn to and ultimately becomes romantically involved with. There is SO much going on in one book, but it is SO good!
Broken Prince follows the the same characters, Reed and Ella, and switches back and forth between their points of view as their relationship develops. More of the same as book one, and more for me to love. Again, this book is for sure rated R for language and romantic content, but I couldn't put it down.
Twisted Palace keeps the story going as Ella's gets introduced to her biological father (who everyone thought was dead) and the two of them try to figure out their father/daughter relationship. Without giving too much away, one of the characters is killed and the prime suspect the police are targeting is Ella's boyfriend, Reed. I couldn't wait to see how it ended up and the person who ultimately admitted to committing the crime shocked me. I got so sucked into these characters and just wanted to know more about their relationships and how things ended up for them so I finished them all very quickly.
JEN
Last month I was on a reading roll. This month...not so much. I read two books and neither one of them I was really "wowed" about. They were good, but not "can't put them down" great. After last month's selection, I think my expectations were a little high.
First on the reading list for the month was
Troubles in Paradise. This is the third book in the series and I was excited to see how the story wrapped up for the characters. The plot follows Irene and her sons on St. John after they learn her husband/their dad died in a mysterious helicopter crash. The crash holds a lot of questions for them, including a secret family and millions of dollars. Intriguing right? The first two books I loved, but
Troubles in Paradise kind of fell a little flat to me. I can't put my finger on why. I like how it ended, but getting there was kind of tough. I remember thinking throughout the series that the husband and his island girlfriend would just pop up at some point. But, everything wraps up in a nice little bow, and while not every question is answered about the mysterious crash, you do get a lot of closure on the story.
Second for the month was
One By One by Ruth Ware. This story follows the board members of a music app on their annual company retreat. This year they decide to go to a French mountain chalet to enjoy skiing the Alps in between board meetings. An avalanche occurs and one by one the board members seem to be disappearing or dying. I enjoy Ware's books because the story usually keeps the murder parts pretty light (gruesome is not my thing), and keep you guessing until the very end about the whodunit part.
One By One held to the same recipe, but I figured out the whodunit part about half way through the book. The cast of characters is huge and there are a ton of secrets and new information given as the story unfolds, but the murderer becomes obvious early on. I enjoyed it, but it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat like the last few of her books did.
WHAT'S UP NEXT...
CARRIE BETH
I might sound like a broken record, but I'm 3 books in so I figure why not go ahead and finish series by Erin Watt.
Fallen Heir focuses on one of the other brothers, Easton. He deals with addiction issues, can kind of be a jerk, but is also lovable and wants to win the attention of a new girl in school. The new girl, Hartley, has no interests in him at all because she says he needs to grow up.
Cracked Kingdom, the final book in the Royals series, follows Hartley's story. After this one I might finally be able to get something else done in my life, but I have to finish it and see how things end!
JEN
I had Nicholas Sparks' newest book - The Return - ready to go for last month, but I just never picked it up. I'm going to try to dig into that one over Thanksgiving Break. Until then I'm going to try to keep it light I think. I have this Audible ready to go...
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman. It was recommended to me and after reading the synopsis, and seeing the reviews, I went ahead and hit "download".
What have you been reading lately? Any recommendations for something we absolutely need to put on our reading list? Share with us!
BOOK CLUB 2020
HAPPY READING!
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