Was it a good reading month? Was it a bad reading month? I don’t think I can measure that… but I did meet Boo Boo Stewart at The Ripped Bodice and that was a highlight of the year!
30 days has… JUNE! And I finished 8 books
FORMAT: 6 audiobooks, 1 ebook, 1 paperback
June 1st: 24 hour read-a-thon
Belinda and I decided it would be fun to read for 24 hours straight. I don’t know what we were thinking. But you can read about that adventure in a previous post!
The books I finished in the first 24 hours of June
THE NEXT BEST FLING by Gabriella Gamez
My Rating: 3.5 stars
[Thanks NetGalley & Forever Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review - and thanks Casey for requesting this book “for me” without my consent]
I loved the plus size rep and the insecurities and experiences our FMC had. I loved the big hunky football player falling first and falling HARD for our curvy & nerdy librarian. Mainly I really enjoyed Gabriella Gamez's voice. Her sense of humor and bookish references were on point. (and her spicy scenes were HOTTOGO)
However, the story was not my favorite thing. A lot of the drama and conflicts felt overly dramatic, juvenile, and unrealistic. A lot of drama, descriptions, and internal monologues were stretched out and repetitive to the point that I put this book down multiple times (it took me 4 months to finish it). (the first third I plowed through like cotton candy - I eat cotton candy really fast).
While this did not end up being my favorite book, I am excited to read the next book from Gabriella Gomez. I mean she had me falling for a blond man. Theo really scratched that itch of "I'm looking for a man in love with my body, who is tall, buys me books"
GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES by Tracy Dobmeier & Wendy Katzman
My rating: 3 stars | Audiobook narrated by Mia Barron
My Atlanta book club read this book and I wasn’t able to complete it in time for the club, but after hearing everyone rave about the ending, I had to finish it!
By the end of the book I was ON BOARD! However, the first half was kind of painful. It's not because it's bad, it's just not my genre. If you like mama-drama and the college admissions antics at a cut-throat private school, you'll love this! Honestly, it just disgusted me.
But it was fun and most of the second half I did not want to stop!
Enter her historical audiobook era…
So I saw a reel by Eloisa James about Review Geek including Born to be Wilde (#3 in this series) on their 10 Best Historical Romance Novels of All Time list, so I had to check it out. You can read more about that journey and the following epiphanies I had in my recent post.
BORN TO BE WILDE by Eloisa James
My rating: 4 stars | Audiobook narrated by Susan Duerden
Eloisa James historical fiction books have been hit or miss with me, so I was excited to know a good one to grab. (Although Lizzie & Dante, the contemporary novel she published as Mary Bly is sooooooo good and I won't shut up about it.)
Anyway it was a rough start... I was listening and thinking how is this on that list? It's not just not good, it's bad. Well I swear the first half and the second half were DIFFERENT BOOKS! It's on me for jumping in to the middle of the series, but it was hard to understand who the main characters even were and what their existing relationship was. But then you get it. They're not friends. BUT BOY DID I FALL HARDER THAN PARTH DID FOR LAVINIA!
Last night I didn't take my earbuds out until I finished it, and I really wanted to read Leather and Lark or watch Castle. I loved the characters and DEFINITELY need to listen to the next one because the Jeremy & Betsy angst was angsting and I loved the premise that they set up in the last chapter.
Not my favorite book, but definitely lives up to the hype and I understand how it could make a top ten of all time list (edited by someone else). All I'll say is if you're not feeling it in the beginning, carry on because boy did it take a turn.
I just loved how self-aware Lavinia was of her needs in a husband. And that she flipped the switch of "he's going to think I'm ridiculous no matter what so I'm just going to be myself and he can buzz off" which then made him fall even more and grown to UNDERSTAND and love and respect the parts of her she hid behind as frivolities in the past. UGH
SAY NO TO THE DUKE by Eloisa James
My rating: 4 stars | Audiobook narrated by Susan Duerden
I really need to start a shelf of books with "peace" by Taylor Swift vibes because YES!
I LOVE THIS BOOK! I really hated how much internalized shame there was around female pleasure and sexuality. Like a different level than the "purity culture" most historical romances have. But then when she entered her reputation era it hit that much harder!!!
I might like this one better than the first? Definitely cemented this as my favorite Eloisa James series!
SAY YES TO THE DUKE by Eloisa James
My rating: 4 stars | Audiobook narrated by Susan Duerden
I love how Eloisa writes these men down bad. Viola’s social anxiety was mad refreshing. I like the theme in these books where the women are like “blast it. He’s not an option for me anyway so let me just be myself” and then they’re unfiltered irresistible
Rounded out the month with a mediocre galley and then two books I already know will be on my “top of 2024” list!
LADIES’ DAY by Lisa Williams Kline
My rating: 3 stars | Audiobook narrated by Rachel L. Jacobs and Xe Sands
[Thank you NetGalley & CamCat Books for the free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.]
I have been wanting golf books for a long time now, and here I have been blessed with two in one year. While this was not the steamy, hot, tear-your-glove-off romance I'd been manifesting (I can thank Tessa Bailey granting that wish with Fangirl Down), this did have some on-the-course romance while diving deeper into the lifestyle of amateur golfers.
Beth's quest for her daughter, and now grand-daughter was interesting and I was rooting for them throughout, but it just wasn't really my jam. It's a bit of a downer in how true-to-life it is. Beth is not over her ex-husband, she has a thin relationship with her son because of how he became second fiddle to her search for her runaway daughter in his youth, her new beau can't commit because of his own family commitments to his son, and it's just bleh.
I didn't need a cheesy happily ever after for an extremely complicated web of characters, but I would have loved for Beth to have been able to move on with Barry and for Sky's father to get a little more appreciation. I think he was the real hero of this story and he's just treated like trash.
I don't really know how I feel about this book, but I did love the golf elements. I could see this being expanded into a really strong family drama film or series. Ultimately the weekend after I finished this I was watching the US Open at Alexander’s apartment and said, “I just finished another golf book.” To which he replied, “Did you like it?” “Yeah!” after a minute I said, “Actually no, I don’t think I liked it.”
LEATHER & LARK by Brynne Weaver
My rating: 4.75 stars
bra-vo Brynne. bra-freaking-vo.
If Taylor Swift puts narcotics into all of her songs, Brynne puts them in all her books. The magic of her dark romantic comedies is truly remarkable.
If you liked Hit Man, DEFINITELY read Leather & Lark.
The way the timelines of the three books overlap in this series is so intriguing and unique. I can't wait to see where the next one goes. Fionn and Rose are already setting up camp in my heart.
NO THIRD ACT BREAK UP!!!! and it's so hot. Just like Butcher & Blackbird it's a slowwww burn, but then it's a bloody inferno. FERAL!
OUT ON A LIMB by Hannah Bonam-Young
My rating: 4.5 stars | Audiobook narrated by Victoria Connolly
Hannah Bonam-Young did it again. Y'all told me this was a book that would make you okay with the pregnancy trope... you didn't prepare me for how freaking good it is!
This is also the first novel I've read with amputation representation I'm pretty sure, and DEFINITELY the first book I've read with a small hand. Everything was handled so purposefully, and just well done.
Win and Bo are my everything now. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
It's super hot! and also laugh out loud funny. I don't think I've ever giggled or gasped this much at a book in the office. I didn't touch it for a couple weeks between the first 2/3 and the last 1/3 and it was strange how immediate the giggling started again and Will would just look over like wtf dude.
Hyper-fixation du jour:
The Brooklyn Navy Yard
My first job in New York was in the Brooklyn Navy Yard at Steiner Studios. I worked in the 25 Washington building on West Side Story in 2019 and in that same building through the pandemic in on tick, tick…BOOM! through 2020 and into 2021. So I was pleasantly surprised to find out my first show back after SEVEN MONTHS out of work due to the strikes, I would be back in the same building. This time for the Netflix mini-series Zero Day. (I’m sure y’all will know what that is next year.)
Anyway! I’ve always been fascinated by the Navy Yard. Before the Navy Yard NYC Ferry stop opened in May 2019 (I was one of the first riders and definitely remember being in the b-roll of some local news coverage that I can’t find now), I would take the ferry to South Williamsburg and walk. Here is a selfie I took that first week with a tow truck that [kinda] shares my name.
Then when the Brooklyn Navy Yard stop opened, there was a new side of the Navy Yard for me to explore. And by tick, tick…BOOM! when I embarked on my citiBike journey, the rest became my playground. I used to love getting lost in the dark on my way to the Manhattan Bridge.
ANYWAY, this is my last week here for this show, so my friend Will and I took a little walk to a part of the Navy Yards we’ve never explored. It’s a special part right behind the stages that still seems to be in it’s semi-original condition. (Kicking myself for not taking more pictures.)
It turns out the big building at the top of the stairs is the remnants of the Brooklyn Naval Hospital. And the Surgeon’s Residence and some of the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters still stand as well.
Will might kill me for sharing these videos… (we only took them to send to our friends Emily and Natalie).
Brooklyn Navy Yard Book Recs:
CITY OF GIRLS by Elizabeth Gilbert
My rating: 4 stars | Audiobook narrated by Blair Brown
Okay I finished this book on March 3, 2020, so needless to say some things happened in the world that made me forget it pretty quickly. But I just remember there were some scenes in the Brooklyn Navy Yard mess hall or something…
MANHATTAN BEACH by Jennifer Egan
On my TBR! | Audiobook narrated by Norbert Leo Butz, Heather Lind, Vincent Piazza
Will told me about this one on our walk. Here are some some clippings from the description:
Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men, now soldiers abroad. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war.
With the atmosphere of a noir thriller, Egan’s first historical novel follows Anna and Styles into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men. Manhattan Beach is a deft, dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men, of America and the world.
peace & love