I’m back (at school!) Coming off of winter break and back to starting school has me in that transition period of finding my routine again. Instead of having a normal syllabus week, we started with no school Monday for Martin Luther King Day and then a snow day on Wednesday, so this week is really my true first week of school. I meal prepped breakfast burritos and vegetables this afternoon, so I’m set for the rest of the week.
I always pick up a lot of books to read over the winter break and then end up reading more once I go back to school. The Libby app is my favorite – it connects to your library card and you can read books on the app. It’s super user-friendly and I like the interface. I love physical books from the library to read at night, but since I’m normally on the go, I tend to borrow most of my books in the digital format. I also have a really bad habit of not remembering to return my books on time, so digital is great because it does the work for you!
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi – 2 stars
This had really good writing, but I couldn’t get into the plot itself. I thought that it was okay until the two main characters started texting and the texts were written into the book. I understand that’s part of the whole premise, but it was really hard to follow which character was texting because the fonts/colors didn’t change at all. I couldn’t finish it before I had to return it to the library (and didn’t really mind not finishing it!).
For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.
Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.
When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory – 3 stars
This was super cute and a very easy and quick read. I liked it for a while but didn’t love the ending or how the characters acted toward their relationship in the end. However, it was easy enough for me to get through in a couple days. P.S. This isn’t the same story as the 2004 movie!
Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.
On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…
After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…
They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want…
The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory – 3 stars
Had to read the sequel…until I realized it wasn’t the sequel. My fault for not checking the summary in advance. Still, it was another cute, easy read. I liked The Wedding Date better! I don’t think I’ll read her third book, unless I need a beach read type of story.
When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn’t the hard part–they’ve only been dating for five months, and he can’t even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans…
At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik’s rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He’s even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik’s social media blows up–in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can’t be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and more. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes…
The Choice by Nicholas Sparks – 1.5 stars
Not a fan. It was just okay? Maybe I’d appreciate the movie more, but I thought I might like the story. It kind of fell flat for me. I can’t really discuss the main issue I had with the ending without spoiling it, so message me if you want to know my real qualms with it!
Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life – boating, swimming , and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies — he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, THE CHOICE ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?
The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks – 1 star
Not sure why I wasted my time on another Nicholas Sparks book after reading The Choice! This was so boring and another cookie cutter Nicholas Sparks plotline, not to mention it was all over the place. The ‘villian’ character was way too predictable and was so static. Some of his movies are great (I’m obsessed with The Longest Ride) but most of them fall short for me. I did just find out that Zac Efron stars in this one though…so I’ll probably end up watching it anyway.
When U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside. Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying the photo in his pocket. Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck—winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph—his lucky charm.
Back home in Colorado, Thibault can’t seem to get the photo—and the woman in it—out of his mind. Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the country to find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina—Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son—to be the girl he’s been waiting his whole life to meet. Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all-consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart—destroying not only their love, but also their lives.
Books I’m eyeing:
Normally I’m not big on reading romance books, so I was surprised to look back at my books this month. Below are some books that are definitely on my list to read next. I also have all my book picks to read on my Goodreads. I don’t rate books on there, but I like keeping track of the books that I’ve read and it’s an easy way to have a running list of books that interest me.
Sadie by Courtney Summers
I was initially super drawn in by the cover – I’m a sucker for good design. But this plot seems really interesting. I’ve listened to a few true-crime podcasts (Dr. Death, Dirty John) and really enjoyed them, so I’m curious to see how the podcast will play out in literary form.
A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she’s left behind. And an ending you won’t be able to stop talking about.
Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.
But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.
When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
I never got to read this at the height of its popularity because it was always taken at the library, but I want to read this before the movie comes out with Cate Blanchett! The movie comes out March 22nd and I hope it lives up to the hype of the book.
Bernadette Fox has vanished.
When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces–which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where’d You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter’s love for her mother.
What books have you been reading lately? I’d love to know!
xo, Hannah