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Out of Love by Hazel Hayes My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a sweet, heartbreaking and honest story of a relationship. Instead of seeing the story unwind into the future we see it unwind into the past. Knowing the ending of how it falls apart, the author slowly walks back in time for us to see it come together. It's beautiful and heart breaking all at once. Reminded me of Why We Broke Up View all my reviews

Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke My rating: 5 of 5 stars Burke's book is unflinching, kind, vulnerable, heart-wrenching, and inspiring all at once. It is the story of her own childhood and the unspeakable things she's had to endure. It's the story of her work and activism in speaking up for others who have had to endure unspeakable things. Her work that is so much more than a hashtag and so much more than a moment in time. She is vulnerable and open as she shares her own journey and her own learnings and moment of opening up as she does her activism. Her own journey with motherhood and all that it teaches her about being a mother and a person in the world. Her point about capacity and desire as a mother was a huge revelation for me as a mother. I will not forget this book for a long time. View all my reviews

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks My rating: 4 of 5 stars I swallowed this book up in a single sitting. The characters were each interesting and explored just enough to get to know them and their motivations and to leave room for intrigue and the possibility that there's more going on than one might think. In fact, there were a few instances where I felt disappointed to find out that more ominous things weren't going on with the characters. This is definitely a plot-driven story about a married couple that go to see an ex-therapist who has a fool-proof ten-step method to "cure" her patients. As it is with these books, there's more than meets the eye, of course. There's an ominous feel the whole time you read the book. Both of the characters who tell the story are jumpy and not comfortable in their skin so they constantly are on edge and so is the reader as a result. Even though I guessed the ending a bit before it unravel...

The Suite Spot by Trish Doller My rating: 4 of 5 stars I read and really enjoyed Doller's "Float Plan" so I was excited to request "The Suite Spot" hoping it might be just as sweet. I was not disappointed. The Suite Spot is about the other Beck Sister, Rachel, and most of the story takes place on an island on Lake Erie which sounds and feels magical throughout this lovely story. The characters, the dialogue, the friendship and the love are sweet, kind, and just what you'd like to see in a romance novel. It's hard not to love these flawed and yet kind characters who grow and open up throughout the story and support and love each other. My only complaint with the story is the beginning and the ending. It opens with what I think is an unnecessary scene where a complicated and triggering issue is introduced without really being handled at depth and also ends with another complicated issue that gets wrapped up too easily an...

The Selfless Act of Breathing by J.J. Bola My rating: 3 of 5 stars "Like homes, we also need to be taken care of as much as we can; and to have something live inside us in order for us to live. But regardless, in the end, we eventually go back to nature, back to death, submerged by the will of the earth. And, in our most earnest moments, maybe we are all just homes, burning, and love is the water that saves us. And maybe, love is that someone who still sees, in all the burned down brokenness of our house, the beauty in us—the stories and memories that we hold inside, and restores us and makes us home." This is the story of Michael Kabongo, a teacher in London. We see him in two timelines: when his plane is landing in San Francisco where he's arrived with a few thousand dollars left to his name and he is determined to end his life once he runs out of money and when he's in London in the past so we can see what his life used to look l...

Already Enough: A Path to Self-Acceptance by Lisa Olivera My rating: 4 of 5 stars "We so easily forget that accepting ourselves isn’t about reaching some final destination but is more about doing the deep work of slowing down, turning inward, and gently reintroducing yourself to parts of you that you were told you should fix." What a joy and gift this book was to read. Lisa Olivera is a kind and gentle voice throughout this book as she walks you through the journey of unpacking your own stories and finding your way back to yourself. Lisa guides you to spend time seeing and understanding the stories you're telling yourself so that you can put the distance you need between yourself and the stories and can see the distortion they cause in your life. This book doesn't contain absolutes, quick fixes or easy answers. "Looking for confirmation of our stories is a way of consistently validating the belief that they are true, which mak...

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain My rating: 3 of 5 stars I am clearly in the minority on this one. I have read and loved many of Diane Chamberlain's books but alas this one never connected with me until the very end. This story is told in alternating timelines, one with Kayla, a single mom who lost her husband in a tragic accident recently, in present day and one with Ellie, an activist who enrolls in a program to help Black citizens register to vote, in 1965. I connected with Ellie a lot more, especially once she was in the program. But, for me, there was something off in the dialogue and the characters from the very beginning. The dialogue felt a little too over the top and disconnected from the characters. Usually with Chamberlain's books, I find myself immersed in the characters' world as if I am there living with them. In this one, I could not feel that connection no matter how much I tried. I kept reading because I ...

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars. Enjoyed this story quite a bit. It's romance but it's also about academia and it's also about friendship. Quick read. View all my reviews

The Arrangement by Kiersten Modglin My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book was super over the top and that it has a bunch of crazy twists and narrators that are somewhat unreliable. All of which is usually a combination I am not fond of anymore but this book was clever and the twists all made me smile. Quite enjoyable to be honest. View all my reviews

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie My rating: 3 of 5 stars I have so many things to say about this book. I think there were a lot of very interesting and valuable learnings in this book but I wish so many of the stories didn't center around alcoholics and some of it was around the milder versions of codependency. It still left me with a lot to think about. View all my reviews

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty My rating: 4 of 5 stars While I found this story quite long, I did enjoy the time I spent with it. The tennis family in the story and all the research Moriarty clearly must have done was interesting. Several of the characters were also interesting but, of course, the marriage and the relationship between the two main characters was the best part. Some of it felt a bit unbelievable to me, but overall I still enjoyed it. View all my reviews

Take Me with You When You Go by David Levithan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I loved this story of two siblings who are writing back and forth to each other while one of them has run away from home. There are many trigger warnings for this story, especially around domestic abuse but in the end, it's a story about resilience and sibling support and making your own family in the world. View all my reviews

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney My rating: 2 of 5 stars meh. this was interesting for a while and i kept waiting to see what was going on. The twist was interesting, but it was all so over the top. I am done with these super over the top stories. View all my reviews

Heart Smart by Emma Lee Jayne My rating: 3 of 5 stars i read this sweet, cute story in a flash. it was fun and sweet and i liked the characters. it likely won't stick with me for a long time, but it was a wonderful way to spend a day. View all my reviews

The Maid by Nita Prose My rating: 4 of 5 stars I loved every minute I spent with this novel. This story is told from the perspective of a Maid who works at a fancy hotel. She finds one of the guests in his room, dead. The story unfolds from there to tell you the before and after. This maid, Molly, has a very ordered, specific life she lives and her life and the order the clings on to is completely upended as a result of her discovery. Molly is very, very good at what she does and she lives by a strong work ethic and moral code. She is unusual and doesn't always follow what's going on or understand enough of the world to read between the lines. This means that sometimes people can take advantage of her. This story has a little bit of everything. There are unexpected twists and turns. There is joy and kindness and disappointment and deep unkindness. It's a story with so much heart that it's not possible not to love it. with gratitude to...