WHAT I READ – JUNE & JULY 2018

I think I must have had my head stuck in the clouds when June ended because I completely forgot to write my What I Read blog post. So this month, I’m recapping what I read in June and July. I just started a brand new book to kick off the month of August…yes, I know I’m already several days in, but to be fair, I’ve been traveling and had a big work project bogging me down. But enough of regular life, let’s talk about these books! I’m sharing about the “New-to-Me” authors & the authors I returned to this month plus all of the books I read with my Star Rating underneath the title. If you want more recommendations, check out what I read in May or what made my Must Read List for Spring!

NEW TO ME AUTHORS THIS MONTH

1. Savannah Page
2. Ella Carey
3. Jamie Lynn Braziel
4. Eliza Gordon
5. Claudia Winter
6. Lisa Lim
7. Vanessa Greene
8. Lindsay Emory
9. Natasha Lester

AUTHORS I RETURNED TO THIS MONTH​

1. Kris Calvert
2. Isabel Wolff
3. Janet Evanovich

BOOKS I READ

When Girlfriends Make Choices
by Savannah Page

 3/5

ABOUT THE BOOK:
A novel about forbidden love, the choices you make, and discovering what’s important in life.

Lara Kearns has it all. She has her MBA, a successful career in advertising in Seattle, and she’s even living with her best friend and single mom, Robin. Reliable, dedicated, and eager, Lara is the resident go-to-girl, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Lara’s that girl who has everything going for her…everything, that is, except for true love. With the big 3-0 on its way and no man in sight, Lara wonders if she’ll always be married to her career, or her cat, and never find the One.

But then, when she least expects it, a handsome and suave executive at her firm, Paul Mackenzie, makes a pass at her. Hesitant at first about striking up an office romance, Lara eventually finds herself falling for her charming colleague. And the best part? Paul is falling in love with Lara, too!

What happens, though, when the man of your dreams loves you…and his wife?

Battling with what the head and the heart want, Lara finds herself in a precarious situation. Life is spiraling out of control, but with the support of her therapist and friends, Lara must make a choice. Is she really prepared to chase after love…at all costs?

This is a provocative story about struggling between right and wrong. About what you will or won’t do for true love. About what happens when girlfriends make choices.

Sex Lies & Lace
by Kris Calvert

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
On the surface, King Giles’ life seems quiet. But underneath his Southern charm, lies a badass American hero—a hero that will never be known to the world.

Managing a busy medical practice and working on Alzheimer’s research, the undeniably charming doctor is committed to saving lives—millions of them. A Non Operational Cover (NOC) Agent for the government, he spends his days caring for his patients and his nights and weekends keeping tabs on operational terror cells. But when an ex-girlfriend shows up dead in his front yard with lace panties shoved in her mouth and his address in her hand, the FBI wants answers, and his secret life and next mission are compromised.

Beautiful and smart, Reagan Weatherford is a new graduate of the FBI Academy with everything to prove. The daughter of a beat cop, she’s been raised and trained to trust no one—especially tall, dark and handsome men. But King’s innately charming ways are hard for Reagan to deny and as she investigates the case and his clandestine life, she finds King Giles so cloaked in mystery, the lines of right and wrong become blurred beyond the bedroom and recognition.

Now working against the clock, a man sworn to secrecy over his identity will need to win his true love’s trust before dismantling an imminent attack or risk losing everything—including both their lives.

From a Paris Balcony
by Ella Carey

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
Heartbroken and alone, Boston art curator Sarah West is grieving the recent deaths of her parents and the end of her marriage. Ultrasensible by nature, she’s determined to stay the course to get her life back on track. But fate has something else in mind. While cleaning out her father’s closet, she finds a letter from the famous Parisian courtesan Marthe de Florian, dated 1895. The subject? Sarah’s great-great-aunt Louisa’s death. Legend has it Louisa committed suicide…but this letter implies there’s more to that story.

Determined to learn the truth, Sarah, against her nature, impulsively flies to Paris. There she’s drawn into the world of her flatmate, the brilliant artist Laurent Chartier. As she delves deep into the glittering Belle Époque to unravel the mystery, Sarah finds that her aunt’s story may offer her exactly what she needs to open up to love again.

Following Sarah in the present day and Louisa in the 1890s, this moving novel spans more than a century to tell the stories of two remarkable women.

Declaring Spinsterhood
by Jamie Lynn Braziel

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
Emma Bailey is thirty years old and single. No problem for her, but a point of round-the-clock contention for her mother, her family, and too many of her friends. In Jamie Lynn Braziel’s Declaring Spinsterhood, the terminal illness known as “old maid” is explored from every angle, and the result is a compassionate, compelling, and wickedly funny novel. Emma may stand up before all and declare her intention to never marry, but what about that little place in her heart reserved for Brian Davis? Sure, Brian’s seeing someone, and Emma is not a vixen who breaks up relationships, but would it be so terrible if Brian returned the interest? Rather than bide her time, Emma dates…and dates. Some of the men are charming, others less so. With her vow of spinsterhood more a noose than a friend, Emma musters her courage and moves on. That is, until the unforeseen throws up the biggest obstacle of her life: love.

Dear Dwayne, With Love
by Eliza Gordon

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
Wannabe actress Dani Steele’s résumé resembles a cautionary tale on how not to be famous. She’s pushing thirty and stuck in a dead-end insurance job, and her relationship status is holding at uncommitted. With unbearably perfect sisters and a mother who won’t let her forget it, Dani has two go-tos for consolation: maple scones and a blog in which she pours her heart out to her celebrity idol. He’s the man her father never was, no boyfriend will ever be—and not so impossible a dream as one might think. When Dani learns that he’s planning a fund-raising event where the winning amateur athlete gets a walk-on in his new film, she decides to trade pastries and self-doubt for running shoes and a sexy British trainer with adorable knees.

But when Dani’s plot takes an unexpected twist, she realizes that her happy ending might have to be improvised—and that proving herself to her idol isn’t half as important as proving something to herself.

Apricot Kisses
by Claudia Winter

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
Hanna has a foodie’s dream job: as a culinary journalist, she gets to travel across Europe to write up the Continent’s finest restaurants. But after penning a scathing review of a restaurant nestled in a Tuscan apricot grove, her boss informs her of a big problem: when the restaurant’s owner read the article, she keeled over dead from a heart attack. Now the owner’s grandson, Fabrizio, has filed a lawsuit against the magazine, and if Hanna can’t convince him to drop the case, she’ll lose her job.

Determined to keep her career off the chopping block, Hanna returns to the restaurant to apologize. But upon her arrival, she finds that the little old lady’s death has created more than just the usual grief, since Granny’s will stipulates that Fabrizio will inherit the restaurant if—and only if—he’s married. With time running out for them both, the young man offers a crazy deal: he’ll drop the lawsuit if Hanna agrees to be his bride. As things heat up in and out of the kitchen, the two wonder: Could Granny’s scheme turn out to be a recipe for romance?

The Very Picture of You
by Isabel Wolff

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
At thirty-five, Gabriella “Ella” Graham is a successful portrait artist in London. She captures the essential truth in each of her subjects’ faces—a tilt of the chin, a glint in the eye—and immortalizes it on canvas. But closer to home, Ella finds the truth more elusive. Her father abandoned the family when she was five, and her mother has remained silent on the subject ever since. Ella’s sister, Chloe, is engaged to Nate, an American working in London, but Ella suspects that he may not be so committed. Then, at Chloe’s behest, Ella agrees to paint Nate’s portrait.
 
From session to session, Ella begins to see Nate in a different light, which gives rise to conflicted feelings. In fact, through the various people she paints—including an elderly client reflecting on her life and a woman dreading the prospect of turning forty—Ella realizes that there is so much more to a person’s life than what is seen on the surface. And as her portraits of Nate and the others progress, they begin to reveal less about their subjects than about the artist herself.

Confessions of a Call Center Gal
by Lisa Lim

 4/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
Bridget Jones’s Diary meets The Office. Madison Lee is a fresh college grad, ready to take on the world of print media. But she has zero luck landing a job. Unemployment is at ten percent and on the rise. Desperate and left with no other options, she accepts a position as a service rep at a call center in Pocatello, Idaho. At the Lightning Speed call center in Spudsville, Maddy plunges into the wild and dysfunctional world of customer service where Sales is prided over Service and an eight hour shift is equivalent to eight hours of callers bashing her over the phone. Oh sure, the calls are bad. But Maddy manages to find humor on the phone and off the phone. And with all the salacious drama behind the calls, there is never a dull moment at the Lightning Speed call center.
Lately . . . Maddy has been pining for her smolderingly gorgeous co-worker Mika Harket. Now things are heating up on the phone–and elsewhere. Don’t hang up on this novel. Working at a call center has never been this garish . . . or this delightful.

***DISCLOSURES: If you find politically incorrect shows like The Office, South Park and Chelsea Lately detestable, juvenile and offensive, then this book is probably NOT for you. 

Dangerous Minds
by Janet Evanovich

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
Buddhist monk Wayan Bagus lost his island of solitude and wants to get it back. The island was about two hundred miles northeast of Samoa. It had a mountain, beaches, a rain forest, and a volcano. And now it’s gone. Poof! Vanished without a trace.

Brilliant and boyishly charming Emerson Knight likes nothing better than solving an unsolvable, improbable mystery. And finding a missing island is better than Christmas morning in the Knight household. When clues lead to a dark and sinister secret that is being guarded by the National Park Service, Emerson will need to assemble a crack team for help. Since a crack team isn’t available, he enlists Riley Moon and his cousin Vernon. Riley Moon has a Harvard business degree and can shoot the eyes out of a grasshopper at fifty feet, but she can’t figure out how to escape the vortex of Emerson Knight’s odd life. Vernon has been Emerson’s loyal and enthusiastic partner in crime since childhood. He now lives in an RV behind Emerson’s house.

Together, this ragtag, mismatched trio will embark on a worldwide investigation that will expose a conspiracy one hundred years in the making.

The Vintage Tea Cup Club
by Vanessa Greene

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
At a car boot sale in Sussex, three very different women meet and fall for the same vintage teaset. They decide to share it – and form a friendship that changes their lives.

Jenny can’t wait to marry Dan. Then, after years of silence, she hears from the woman who could shatter her dreams.

Maggie has put her broken heart behind her and is gearing up for the biggest event of her career – until she’s forced to confront the past once more.

Alison seems to have it all: married to her childhood sweetheart, with two gorgeous daughters. But as tensions mount, she is pushed to breaking point.

Dealing with friendship and families, relationships and careers, highs and lows, The Vintage Teacup Club is heart-warming storytelling at its very best.

The Royal Runaway
by Lindsay Emory

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
For fans of The Princess Diaries and The Royal We comes a fun and daring novel about a modern-day princess who teams up with a spy to find out what happened to the fiancé who left her at the altar—and who just might get her own fairytale in the process.

Princess Theodora Isabella Victoria of Drieden of the Royal House Laurent is so over this princess thing.

After her fiancé jilted her on their wedding day, she’s finally back home after spending four months in exile—aka it’s back to press conferences, public appearances, and putting on a show for the Driedish nation as the perfect princess they expect her to be. But Thea’s sick of duty. After all, that’s what got her into this mess in the first place.

So when she sneaks out of the palace and meets a sexy Scot named Nick in a local bar, she relishes the chance to be a normal woman for a change. But just as she thinks she’s found her Prince Charming for the night, he reveals his intentions are less than honorable: he’s the brother of her former fiancé, a British spy, and he’s not above blackmail. As Thea reluctantly joins forces with Nick to find out what happened the day her fiancé disappeared, together they discover a secret that could destroy a centuries-old monarchy and change life as they know it.

Funny, fast-paced, and full of more twists and turns than the castle Thea lives in, The Royal Runaway is a fresh romantic comedy that will leave you cheering for the modern-day royal who chucks the rulebook aside to create her own happily-ever-after. 

The Things We Don’t Say
by Ella Carey

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
A beguiling painting holds the secrets of a woman’s past and calls into question everything she thought she knew about the man she loved…

Nearly sixty years ago, renowned London artist Patrick Adams painted his most famous work: a portrait of his beloved Emma Temple, a fellow bohemian with whom he shared his life. Years after Patrick’s death, ninety-year-old Emma still has the painting hanging over her bed at their country home as a testament to their love.

To Emma’s granddaughter, Laura, the portrait is also a symbol of so much to come. The masterpiece is serving as collateral to pay Laura’s tuition at a prestigious music school. Then the impossible happens when an appraiser claims the painting is a fraud. For Laura, the accusation jeopardizes her future. For Emma, it casts doubt on everything she believed about her relationship with Patrick. Laura is determined to prove that Patrick did indeed paint the portrait. Both her grandmother’s and Patrick’s legacies are worth fighting for.

As the stories of two women entwine, it’s time for Emma to summon up the past—even at the risk of revealing its unspoken secrets.

The Paris Seamstress
by Natasha Lester

 5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK…
For readers of Lilac Girls and The Nightingale comes a World War II novel that spans generations, crosses oceans, and proves just how much two young women are willing to sacrifice for love and family.

1940: As the Germans advance upon Paris, young seamstress Estella Bissette is forced to flee everything she’s ever known. She’s bound for New York City with her signature gold dress, a few francs, and a dream: to make her mark on the world of fashion.

Present day: Fabienne Bissette journeys to the Met’s annual gala for an exhibit featuring the work of her ailing grandmother – a legend of women’s fashion design. But as Fabienne begins to learn more about her beloved grandmother’s past, she uncovers a story of tragedy, heartbreak and family secrets that will dramatically change her own life.

“The Paris Seamstress is a gorgeously rich and romantic novel about young women finding their way in the world.” -Kate Forsyth, author of Bitter Greens