Five-Star Predictions for Books Released in 2021

I’ve made two other five-star prediction posts that I’m aware of, and out of all of the books on those lists, I’ve only read one. Can you guess the rating?……..FIVE STARS! It was He Started It by Samantha Downing. She really came through for me with that one. Should I read what’s on those lists before I make ANOTHER list? Probably. Am I going to? Ha ha, no. I think I might focus this on upcoming releases in 2021. I’m sure you’ll know from the title what I end up doing. Anyway, let’s get into it.


The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

Publication: 4/27/21

“A heartwarming debut novel for readers of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, following three lonely strangers in a rural Oregon town, each working through grief and life’s curveballs, who are brought together by happenstance on a local honeybee farm where they find surprising friendship, healing–and maybe even a second chance–just when they least expect it.”

This one sounds right up my alley. I’m hoping I’ll find another favorite group of friends, and maybe learn about a honeybee farm and how it’s run. Who knows? The world is Eileen Garvin’s, and we’re just living in it. Also, that cover is just cute as a button.

I have this one on NetGalley, so thank you to Dutton Books and NetGalley for the early digital copy.


What Could Be Saved by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz

Publication: 1/12/21

“An enthralling, redemptive novel set in Bangkok in 1972 and Washington, DC, in 2019 about an expatriate child who goes missing, whose family is contacted decades later by a man claiming to be the vanished boy.”

I’ve never read a story like this, especially one set in Bangkok! Again, sounds right up my alley. I love a good hard-hitting adult fiction novel. They’re always bound to be AT LEAST four stars. I have high hopes for this one!

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway, so thank you to them and Atria books for the early physical copy!


Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Publication: 6/1/21

“Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind.”

I’m a little nervous to include this one. I loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but I truly didn’t care about Daisy Jones & The Six. I think she’s going to be a hit or miss author for me, but I’m really hoping this one will be a hit. It sounds like something I’d pick up regardless of who the author was. Fingers crossed!

I was able to receive an early digital copy from NetGalley and , but I also pre-ordered it on Amazon.


When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

Publication: 4/13/21

“A detective hiding away from the world. A series of disappearances that reach into her past. Can solving them help her heal?”

I loved Love and Ruin by this author, and I believe I own two other books by her that I want to read. This one isn’t historical fiction, so I’m hesitant, but I have high hopes. I’ve read some reviews that said it wasn’t like her other novels.

I have an early digital copy from NetGalley.


The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Publication: 2/2/21

“From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras—the Great Depression.”

I’ve never read anything by Hannah, but this one really called out to me—even more than The Nightingale. It’s almost 500 pages so that makes me weary, but I’m excited to get to it, regardless.

I have an early digital copy from NetGalley!


I’m excited to get to all of these even if they don’t end up being five stars. There are so many good books coming out in 2021 that I couldn’t figure out which ones I wanted to focus on. Are any of these on your five-star predictions list?


If you enjoyed this, then give it a like and follow my blog and other social media. Be respectful and happy reading!

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Blogmas Day 16: Favorite Authors

Happy BLOGMAS Day 16!

I never talk about who my favorite authors are. I don’t know if you have to read so many books from a certain author to consider it a favorite, but I don’t really want to follow the rules. These are the authors I have read book(s) from and loved. I will also link the Goodreads page to the book(s) that made me love these authors.

P.S: I apologize these posts have been so simple. I definitely expected more out of myself, but my internet has been out and I’ve been working. I get them written/scheduled when and if I can. I hope you all understand. There are 15 more posts to come, so I hope you all stay excited!

William Kent Krueger

This Tender Land

Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Evidence of the Affair

Christina Lauren

Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating

The Unhoneymooners

Claire Lombardo

The Most Fun We Ever Had

Rachel Kadish

The Weight of Ink

Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere

Riley Sager

Lock Every Door

Final Girls

Paula McLain

Love and Ruin

Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner

The Sea Prayer

J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Honorable Mentions

A.S. King

Everybody Sees the Ants

Dig

Catherine Chung

The Tenth Muse

Samantha Downing

My Lovely Wife

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit

The Fellowship of the Ring

Alex Dahl

The Boy at the Door


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February 2019 Reading Wrap Up!

This month was not as successful as January, but who is actually surprised? This month has been rough for me in terms of mental health, and I truly apologize…AGAIN for not posting as much as I should. This month I finished three books, and over half of another.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid – ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer – ⭐⭐ 1/2

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson – 70% complete.

I know this was quite short, and sweet, but I figured I would let you all in on the progress I have made. Hopefully March will treat me a little bit better. I’m going to try my hardest to read more. I definitely want to, that’s for sure.


If you enjoyed this, then give it a like and follow my blog. Be respectful, and happy reading! 

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Book Review: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid *Minor Spoilers*

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Published: June 7th, 2016 by Washington Square Press

ISBN: 9781476776903 (Paperback)

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Amazon | B&N| Goodreads

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Emma Blair, a simple girl who’s parents own their own bookstore, marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse, in her twenties. They end up traveling the world together, but it all comes to a halt when she notices the kind of life her sister, Marie, lives. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse takes a trip in a helicopter that ends up disappearing somewhere over the Pacific.

Emma quits her job and moves back home, taking over the bookstore. While she’s back, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, at a music store. Sparks ignite, and they end up getting engaged. Emma feels like everything is starting to fall into place. That is until she receives a call from Jesse, and now she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. Now she has to figure out who she really loves.

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I have now read two books, and a novella by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This is probably my least favorite of the three, but it was still an entertaining book. I gave it four stars for goodness sake. I don’t read romance, and I think that is why I didn’t enjoy it as much. I will say that TJR’s writing has improved since this novel.

This book had me turning pages, and I finished over half the book in one sitting. It just roped me in from the beginning. The story is definitely intriguing. The issue for me was the characters. The only person I enjoyed was Sam. He was Emma’s friend from high school that she ended up being engaged to. I just felt that he had the most raw emotion out of all of them. He genuinely cared for Emma in high school, her twenties, and her thirties. He accepted her for her. I understand why he was upset about how Emma pretty much led both of them on after Jesse returned.

Emma made me so upset throughout the entire story, but I was satisfied with her choice in the end. I’m glad she wasn’t a total ditz.

Jesse is probably one of my most hated fictional human beings. He only wanted Emma for certain reasons. He didn’t love her for who she became in her thirties. He wanted to think that she would eventually go back to who she was. I just wanted to slap him every time he appeared in the story.

One little detail that made me happy was that her parents owned a book store. Obviously, I love books with my whole heart, and details like that make me giddy. Stepping into a book store is one of the best feelings in the world. It’s comforting, and relaxing. I loved that even after Emma’s parents let Emma run the store, they still wanted to come in a see customers that they have interacted with for years. If I ever ran a bookstore I would do the same thing. Connecting with another person is a wonderful feeling. I’m glad TJR could provide all of this in a three hundred page novel. It’s little, but it makes a worlds difference.

Some other tender side notes is that Emma’s nieces were deaf. I hardly read anything that involves that. Emma’s friend, Olive, is bisexual, and I think TJR handled it well.  The book didn’t focus on either of these details, but as a reader I didn’t feel left out. I thought that it was there without being a big deal, and I loved that.

I will, no doubt, end up reading all of TJR’s books. I will enjoy more than others, but that won’t stop her from being one of my favorite authors. She is a beautiful writer, and the characters are always so flawed. It helps readers relate to them better. I recommend this novel, because it is extremely fun to read. If you are interested, go ahead and give this a go!


If you enjoyed this, then give it a like, and follow my blog. Be respectful, and happy reading! 

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Five 5-Star Reading Predictions!

I watch YouTube all the time, specifically BookTube. I see a lot of them make 5-star reading predictions and I never thought to create a blog post about my 5-star predictions! What is wrong with me? I’m picky when it comes to finding my next favorite book, and even giving it five stars sometimes doesn’t mean it’s a new all-time favorite. That means that it was a fantastic book and I would reread it in the future. If you all want to know some of my all-time favorite reads just let me know in the comments, and I will make that a future blog post. Anyway, let us move on to the predictions, shall we?

  1. House on Fire by Bonnie Kistler. The story deals with family, death, and mystery. The novel is comparable to the bestselling tradition of Jodi Picoult and Celeste Ng according to the Goodreads synopsis. I’ve never read anything by Picoult, but Celeste Ng wrote one of my favorite books of all time (spoiler alert lol). 
  2. Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This is a novel about a band that splits and nobody knows why. I adore Taylor Jenkins Reid and her writing. She has very original ideas, and I have to read everything she has written thus far.
  3. Wool by Hugh Howey. This book has fantastic reviews on Goodreads, and when I read the synopsis, I immediately wanted to read it. It’s a post-apocalyptic novel about a community that lives in a giant silo underground because the air outside is toxic. Why would that not intrigue you?
  4. The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. The synopsis to this book is odd, and a little bit confusing but it honestly just seems like the main character is just trying to find himself in the midst of all the chaos. 
  5. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Again, this has excellent reviews on Goodreads. It’s about classmates that grow up and stick with each other even though they all have issues. There is trauma that they need to overcome in this novel, and I don’t think I’m ready.

If you enjoyed this, then give it a like and follow my blog. Be respectful and happy reading!

WWW Wednesday! (10/3/18)

If you don’t know the rules of WWW Wednesday, go check out the blog that hosts it: Taking on a World of Words

What are you currently reading: 

I hate that I am in the middle of three different books, but life goes on.

It by Stephen King (Buddy read with TurningthePages)

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham

What did you recently finish reading?

Letter 44 (Vol. 1: Escape Velocity) by Charles Soule: 4/5 stars

Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid: 4/5 stas

What do you plan on reading next? 

Oh there are so many options! I almost feel like I can’t choose.

  • The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
  • Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
  • The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
  • Letter 44 (Vol. 2: Redshift) by Charles Soule

If you enjoyed this then give it a like and follow my blog for future WWW Wednesdays! Be respectful and happy reading.

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*Spoiler-ish* Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

By: Taylor Jenkins Reid

ISBN: 9781501139239 (Hardcover)

400 pages

Published: June 13, 2017 by Atria Books

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Rating: 4/5 stars

Amazon | Barnes and Noble


Synopsis:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is about glamour and fame as well as love and finding out who you truly are.

Evelyn Hugo is a movie star and icon in Hollywood. In the beginning of the novel you learn that Evelyn wants to tell Monique Grant, a magazine reporter for Vivant, her life leading up to the present. No one really knows why she chooses Monique, but they roll with it. Of course, Monique isn’t having the best time with her own personal life. Her husband leaves her and the only possible success with her career at the moment is the story about Evelyn Hugo. The story starts in the 1950’s and ends in 2017. There are seven husbands along the way, friendship, heartbreak and betrayal. In the end you will realize that Monique and Evelyn aren’t complete strangers. Their lives are intersected in a very bazaar and tragic way.


Review:

I enjoyed this novel a lot, and it deals with issues that I wasn’t really expecting to run into. The book was published in 2017 so I don’t know why all those issues didn’t cross my mind. I’m sure a lot of these problems existed in the 1950’s but no one talked about them for obvious reasons.

The characters were all very morally grey. None of them were perfect and that’s one thing I really enjoyed about this novel. I’d say there is some truth in the depiction of Hollywood. Not everything is perfect and pristine as celebrities make it seem. You never know what they are really going through behind the scenes. Evelyn Hugo wanted everyone to know that her life wasn’t what everyone dreamed of, and after 70 years she finally realized it herself.

The story starts off with an article talking about Evelyn Hugo auctioning off some of her dresses to a place called Christies for breast cancer research. No one knows the reason for it, and at the end of the book you pretty much figure out why. I’m trying not to spoil anything. I’m sure some of you have already put two and two together. Anyway, it’s a good example of how you don’t really know what a person, including a celebrity, is actually going through. It’s not always glitz and glam for some people no matter what you may think. It’s hard to think about when you only see someone on TV.

Characters:

There are quite a few characters that you can fit into the LGBTQ+ community. These characters described below can’t really figure themselves out, therefore struggle to actually come out.

There is Evelyn Hugo, the main character, who you can’t really consider a lesbian, but she also doesn’t consider herself bisexual in the story. She loves who she loves. She did marry seven men. Seven men that I did not like besides maybe one. At the time, the men wanted to control the women, but Evelyn was not about that life. She was independent and strong (or so you think). I’d also like to add that she eventually has a baby believe it or not.

There is Harry Cameron. He worked with her on set of some of the movies she starred in. He married Evelyn at some point (for I believe 15 years). You kind of get this feeling from him that he is hiding something, but you can’t quite figure it out. Evelyn sees it eventually. He ends up with a few men. That’s all I’m going to say because some tragic events happen and I was not happy about it. Moving on.

Celia St. James, stars in a movie with Evelyn and at some point is considered a little bit better than Evelyn. They end up becoming best friends, and then it’s an emotional rollercoaster from there. She is a little bit more open and honest with Evelyn. She doesn’t really want to hide their relationship, but Evelyn is only worried about how she is portrayed to the public.

Monique Grant is the journalist writing the story for Evelyn Hugo. She is having struggles herself with her boyfriend leaving her and her job isn’t very successful up until this point. Her only option is to manipulated Frankie, her boss, and Evelyn into giving her what she wants. I like that Monique learns from Evelyn. She knows how to get what she wants, even though Monique has a little more self-control. Monique and Evelyn aren’t strangers. Monique had no idea that there was a reason Evelyn chose her to write the story, but it’s definitely heartbreaking. It’s a plot twist in the book that I wasn’t expecting. You’ll have to read it to find out.

Disclaimer: There is a tiny section of the book that deals with abortion. 

Overall:

The story was good and I would recommend it to everyone. There is definitely something to take away from it. There was grief and tragedy that helped make it realistic, considering life isn’t always rainbows and butterflies. There is love and friendships that help balance all the sadness and guilt. It does drag a tiny bit in the middle, but you just have to push through it. It’s worth it. I’ve only heard good things about this book and it wasn’t a total bust! I especially loved the writing of Taylor Jenkins Reid. I will have to read some of her other books.

If you enjoyed this then give it a like and follow me for future book reviews. Be respectful and happy reading!

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