Images from Goodreads

[75] One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
Fiction / Contemporary Women, Book of the Month ad, then heard about on podcasts

Synopsis: Bea Schumacher is a plus-size fashion influencer and fan of the Bachelor-esque reality show Main Squeeze. When the new season airs with no representation of body diversity, Bea goes off on a Twitter rant, which eventually gets the attention of the producer and lands Bea the role as the star of the next season. Bea agrees to go on but promises herself she won’t actually fall in love, since she’s recovering from a major heartbreak.

Review: I didn’t love Bea at first (for spoilery reasons I won’t share), but I warmed up to her, and ended up LOVING this book, and had a stupid grin on my face while reading most of it. I loved how ridiculous the show was, all the surprise moments, and trying to figure out who Bea would choose at the end of the show. The book has a lot of excerpts of email, text, chat forums, articles, podcast transcripts, etc., and that took me a while to get used to, but I did, and it made the reading faster. And I don’t think it was lazy story-telling – it was essential to see how the public reacted to the show! This was a fun, light read, and exactly what I was in the mood for when I read it.

Recommend? Yes, yes, yes!

[76] Beach Read by Emily Henry
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, saw on @alltheradreads Instagram story

Synopsis: January Andrews has until the end of summer to write her fifth romance novel, but with her personal beliefs on love and happy endings recently upended, she’s struggling. She makes a deal with her next-door neighbor, fellow author, and college-rival Augustus (Gus) Everett to help them both out of writing ruts, and promises him one thing – she won’t fall in love with him.

Review: This book is fun, and I loved the pop culture references and look inside January’s writing life, and the lessons/dates she takes Gus on to teach him about writing romance, but something about their romance fell short for me. He’s so unavailable and closed up and it takes forever to find out why, and eh, I wasn’t super in to it. I think if I hadn’t just read One to Watch I would have liked this more! Also, both January and Gus are immature about the way they deal with some personal issues and it was just ANNOYING. Like, January, read the letter you’ve had for a year from your deceased father. Gus, tell January what is really going on. Talk about real things. Geesh. All that being said, I still gave it four stars because I enjoyed it!

Recommend? Sure!

[77] All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Fiction / Family Life, @anniebjones05 Instagram post

Synopsis: After Astrid Strick sees an acquaintance get hit by a bus and killed, she starts to rethink her life, especially how she raised her three (now adult) children.

Review: This may be my favorite genre – character driven family novel, with lots of secrets and dramz! We get Astrid’s story, her three children’s, her grandchild’s (who’s living with her for the year), and a grandchild’s friend’s. Astrid was a distant, cold, non-interested, non-encouraging mom who raised all three kids differently and it shows. Despite two of her kids living in town, they’re not close at all and Astrid is finally asking herself WHY. This book is all about family dynamics and what shapes who we are and what makes us an adult (if it’s maturity and common sense I’d say the grandchild is the most adult!). I love messy family dramas like this!

Recommend? Yes!