So usually I feel like I will always have a book in my month that I’m just not a fan of, and then everything else is good…buuutt August was just kind of a big fat disappointing book month for me haha, which I know makes you want to read on, right??? One book I loved, one was pretty good, others were so so, and others just had too much bad language in them for me to enjoy, you know – the kind that get you half way through just fine and then I guess because the book is climaxing and getting more intense, the language picks up and kind of ruins it for me. I suppose this month may be more along the lines of what NOT to read hah! (Minus “Lost Roses,” definitely read “Lost Roses.”)
I read “The Aviator’s Wife” a couple of years ago and really, it was one of the books that made me think I needed to start reading more again. I loved the novel and couldn’t put it down…the historical information about Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne was super interesting too. So when I saw that Melanie Benjamin had written “The Mistress of the Ritz,” too I was excited to read it. Maybe my expectations were too high because I had a hard time getting into this book and it just didn’t keep my attention. I enjoyed the story of the couple who lived and ran the fancy Ritz hotel during WW2, and their story of how they participated in the war was helpful but the majority of the book felt vague, which after reading the notes at the end was because their just wasn’t a ton of information about these people. Overall I respected their story and liked the book as a whole but it wasn’t my favorite.
Y’all know historical fiction is my jam, and when I saw that the author of “Lilac Girls” has written a new novel, I was really excited! “Lost Roses” is somewhat of a prequel to “Lilac Girls,” which I loved and highly recommend as well. This book takes place in Russia for the most part, telling the story about Russian aristocracy and how the civil war which integrated into WW2 tore apart the hierarchy in place. The book focuses on a group of girls and their personal stories, their struggles to get out of Russia to Paris and find one of their sons. There was a lot of tragedy in this story but also a lot of triumph and spotlighting human resilience. The book connects to the “Woosley” women in Lilac Girls, and I think I read in the book notes that she will be writing one more book even further back dating the Civil War, to cover the previous generation of Woosley women.
Every now and then I like to throw a psychological thriller into the mix, nothing too intense but something with a twist that holds you in suspense for a while. “The Silent Patient” has an interesting plot to it, a woman found standing over her dead husband, supposedly just having murdered him, stunning her to silence. A psychotherapist takes her case, convinced that he can help her understand what happened and talk again. My biggest complaint about this book was the profanity. There was so much that I literally skimmed through this book trying to ignore it all, but the bad language really took away from how good this book could have been because the twist at the end was actually really good. It’s just so disappointing to me when authors do this, it’s so unnecessary, and made me want to quit reading multiple times. This book could have been really good if it weren’t for the language, so it goes on my “not recommended list!”
For the most part I enjoyed reading “The Quiet One,” another somewhat of a psychological thriller, more of just a suspenseful story, but more or less just a story about a man who’s working in a girl’s dorm at a private school, how he gets involved with a couple of the girls there, and how that pans out. Probably if I would have known that ahead of time, I wouldn’t have read it, because being a former teacher, those kinds of stories just really bother me. As adults, if you are put in charge of students in any capacity, they should be able to trust you…so I just really struggle with those kinds of things. The whole premise of the book certain around twin sisters, and which one ends up being “the quiet one”… there is a lot of sadness to this story, it was pretty predictable, and there were a number of times I wanted to shake characters for not doing the logical thing (lol…) but as far as flow and keeping my attention it was fine. I will also add that this book had a decent amount of language in it, I don’t remember it being too bad until about half way through when things started getting more tense, but it’s also dealing with high school students so maybe that was the issue as well? I don’t know, I’m on the fence about recommending this one.
Again, my naivete shines through full force with this one haha… I was like oh, “The Summer Wives,” I wonder what this is about. Whew. Summer wives. Affairs, love triangles, summer flings… So thoughts on this… Another book I wish I would have just put down and not finished. It is SO hard for me to not finish books once I get into them, I just really struggle with that. This book had a lot of bad language in it, and it just wasn’t “wholesome.” So this book jumps between a few different decades, between different characters, and it was actually a little hard for me to keep it all straight because of the huge gaps between the decades. It made more sense the more I read, especially once you piece together the puzzle of the relationships that leads to a murder, someone confessing and serving time, another pining away for that person…it’s just a lot. I feel like I’m not even explaining things well haha… I guess bottom line, is that a lot can happen in the summer, when rich people come to the island and intermingle with the locals, and this book tells you all about it. Not recommending this one though.
“Next Year in Havana” salvaged the month for me. Somewhere along the line this book came up as a recommendation, and because it normally wouldn’t be on my radar, I decided to give it a read. I really enjoyed this book, there were spaces in it that I felt like the characters talked to much or over explained things, but I enjoyed the story and learning more about Cuba’s history and culture. What a difficult and challenging history those people have endured…I know very little about Cuba so this was an interesting read for me. Cute love stories, good writing and very clean. I’ll take it!
OK whew, this month was emotionally exhausting for me in the book department HAH. I’m like what in the world, when did choosing books and reading them become so complicated! Bring back “The Babysitter’s Club” and “Nancy Drew” please!!!!
As always, comment below of what you are reading or if you have any good recommendations! Would love to hear what you are reading! If you’re interested in what I’ve read over the other months, check out these links below!
What I’m Reading – February 2019
What I’m Reading -January 2019
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