WHAT I READ IN APRIL 2023

Here’s what I read last month. Honestly one of my better reading months and I hope you find a title or two you want to add to your TBR pile.

ADELAIDE by Genevieve Wheeler

4.5/5 Stars

This was an excellent book that felt very “real.” I can actually see people finding the characters, namely the partner Rory, too real. I feel like we all have experience dating someone like Rory or have a friend who dated a Rory. Adelaide is working abroad in London and gets swept up in a romance with a “real life prince charming.” But…. is it really the best romance? Rory is kind of a flake and a bad boyfriend, but Adelaide can’t seem to see the light. The book was frustrating to read– but in a real life way. You just want to sit Adelaide down and have an intervention.

HAPPY PLACE by Emily Henry

4.5/5 Stars

I absolutely loved Happy Place. I really like reading Emily Henry’s books and this was no exception. This was another example of book with pretty real-feeling characters. In Happy Place, a group of college friends get together at their favorite place, a cottage in Maine owned by one of the friends’ parents. With the sale of the house looming, they all get together for one last hurrah. But for years they’ve gotten together so well and now, well, they seem to be drifting apart. I thought this book tackled issues that so many of us face as we move into adulthood…. when close friends start to grow apart and life paths start to deviate. All while taking place with a charming Maine backdrop.

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT by Avery Carpenter Forrey

3/5 Stars

I had to relook up what this book was really about to write this post…. I just couldn’t get super into it. A little boring. The blurb about the book was great and I was so excited to dig into a book with juicy drama around weddings and the differences between what we see on social media with weddings/the people involved and what reality is. I really wanted to like the social media angle, but it ended up just being a little cheesy and could have gone a little deeper!!

PINEAPPLE STREET by Jenny Jackson

5/5 Stars

Pineapple Street is Jenny Jackson’s debut novel and I will be the first in line to read whatever she writes next. I couldn’t put down Pineapple Street! (I was desperately trying to carve out more time to read even just a page or two more, which is such a good sign!) It’s not the most plot driven book in the world, but the characters (a multi-generational wealthy family and their partners) come to life within the pages. You get little snippets of every family member’s life and the challenges they are currently facing, all while poking a little bit of fun at the nuanced, quirky lives of the uber-wealthy. My only complaint is that I wish it had been longer! It left me wanting more.

HOMEBODIES by Tembe Denton Hurst

3/5 Stars

Homebodies is another novel I read where I loved the blurb and ended up wanting just a little more from the actual book. Mickey is a Black writer with a sought after role at a buzzy media company in NYC who is unfairly laid off. She writes a letter detailing the unjustness of the firing, but doesn’t publish it…. Instead she goes on a break with her longtime girlfriend and moves back home to figure things out. Most of the book details Mickey’s life while she’s down…. and only picks up right at the very end! I wanted more of the last 5% of the book!

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE by Meg Mitchell Moore

5/5 Stars

Okay if you like books by Elin Hilderbrand, you need to read this! I couldn’t put it down!!! Usually I have the hardest time keeping track of books with a million characters and this one has a lot. It’s about a mom and daughter who move to the tiny coastal town Newburyport, Massachusetts and disrupt an existing “squad” of moms/daughters…. Guys, the drama! But under the surface, it’s really about friendship and (my favorite) the relationships between mothers and daughters. It really explores moms, daughters, how they interact with each other, and how they simultaneously live in their own little worlds, too. The moms all have their own set of problems (like dating after death), and the teenagers all have their own set of problems (like getting ditched by longtime friends right at the end of high school), and the middle schoolers all have their own set of problems (like being tagged on Instagram pictures of birthday parties they aren’t invited to). It’s fast paced, a little cheeky (the way Moore lumps the group of moms together as a collective voice is genius), and also surprisingly moving.

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