This month I’ve had the chance to read so many amazing books, that if I was asked to pick a favorite it would be impossible. In The Year of What If, we meet Carla Carter who family is known for being unlucky in love, in fact some say they might be cursed. Next, we have a fun read by Emily Henry, Funny Story where two people find each other under the most unlikely of circumstances, followed by a post-WWII story about two women struggling with loss, suspicion and betrayal in Beyond Summerland. Finally, we have a seriously twisty (and exciting) ride set in the English countryside, where secrets and ‘myths’ collide in The Midnight Feast.
The Year of What If
Phaedra Patrick
Carla Carter’s family is known for being unlucky in love. With the exception of her grandmother all of the women in the family have failed relationships, marriages, etc and when Carla prepares to walk down the aisle for the second time, she wants to be certain that she’s walking towards the right man. She founded a dating agency ‘Logical Love’ which is how she matched with Tom, but after her sister and grandmother take her to visit the family fortune teller, it’s revealed that Tom might not be the love of her life.
From there Carla takes a journey to meet all the men she met during her European gap year – 21 years ago including a visit to her first husband. In the process, she discovers not only important details about her family history, but she finds someone she didn’t even know existed in the process.
The Year of What If makes a perfect read for a long plane ride, or a warm afternoon by the pool. You won’t want to put it down until the very end!
On the verge of her second marriage, Carla Carter knows she’s finally found the one. She and her fiancé, Tom, met through Logical Love, a dating agency she founded for the pragmatically minded, and she’s confident that, together, they will dispel an old family curse claiming Carter women are unlucky in love.
For peace of mind, Carla’s family insists she visit a fortune teller before she ties the knot. Except the tarot unexpectedly reveals that the love of Carla’s life is not Tom, but one of the several men she briefly dated during her European gap year—twenty-one years ago. Only weeks away from her big day, Carla sets off across Europe to track down her exes from that unforgettable year, desperate to prove the fortune teller wrong. From Spain to Portugal, Italy to France, will one be her perfect match? And can a face from her past help Carla rewrite her entire family history—forever?
Funny Story
Emily Henry
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m discovering that there isn’t a single Emily Henry book that I don’t love, and Funny Story has to be one of my favorite books yet. When Daphne’s fiancé leaves her for his childhood best friend (Petra), she has to move out of the home they bought together in a hurry. She soon finds herself living with the only person who can truly understand how she feels, Petra’s ex, Miles. At first, Daphne keeps to herself, going back and forth to the library where she works as a children’s librarian. She keeps to herself so well, that her coworkers think she is either in witness protection or works for the FBI.
As time goes on, Daphne finds a friend not only in one of her co-workers but after a night drowning their sorrows, she learns there’s more to Miles Novak than she previously realized.
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
Beyond Summerland
Jenny Lecoat
Jenny Lecoat’s latest novel is set on the Island of Jersey off the coast of England, known as Summerland to the Nazi forces who invaded it. The story begins in 1945 following the liberation from the Nazis and Jean Parris and her family join the locals at the liberation gathering. The only thing is they don’t feel any of the hope the others around them seem to feel. Jean’s father was deported early on in the war, and when they received the news of his death, all implications pointed to one woman. Hazel Le Tourneur who lives above Jean’s father’s old shop.
In the end, they must join forces to reveal the truth, and buried secrets won’t stay secret for long.
While many books have been written set during WWII, Lecoat’s novel explores the aftermath of the Nazi invasion of the island of Jersey. A must-read for all lovers of historical fiction.
Jersey 1945. In the immediate aftermath of Liberation from the Nazis, Jean Parris and her family wait anxiously for news of her deported father.
But now a different kind of war is unleashed – a war amongst the islanders themselves. And as Jean, now a young woman, begins to question everything, she soon discovers not only the truth about her family, but the full implication of her own deceptions.
Beyond Summerland is a page-turning story of ordinary people in extraordinary times, and a tale of long-buried family secrets. It explores suspicion and prejudice, female friendship, and the fictions we cling to when we cannot afford to let them go; it is also a story of survival and the dangers of finding oneself on the wrong side of history.
The Midnight Feast
Lucy Foley
The Midnight Feast is the first Lucy Foley book I’ve had the chance to read, and wow was it an exciting and twisty ride. Told through the perspectives of several characters and jumping between the past and the present, this book will have you at the edge of your seat. Set in what at first appears to be an idyllic boutique hotel in the countryside, the owners of The Manor, the locals working for them, and even the police are not who they seem. Each time another twist and revelation is revealed, you can’t help but say, “Wow!” aloud. Definitely a summertime must read.
The deliciously twisty new locked room murder mystery from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List and The Paris Apartment.
It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests’ healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.
But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.
THE FOUNDER * THE HUSBAND * THE MYSTERY GUEST * THE KITCHEN HELP
It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at…The Midnight Feast.
Leave a Reply