Well. September was… a LOT of books.
I cranked through three books alone while I was out in Albuquerque for my work conference. I couldn’t really do a whole lot since I drove an agency vehicle out there, so while a lot of my cohort got to brewery hop every night, I spent most nights reading in my hotel room.
My goal for the month was five books, which I easily reached two weeks into the month… which is great, because I’ve been SO busy with a work assignment this and last weekend that I haven’t touched a book in a few weeks now.
However, I did end up reading six books in September: mostly a combination of historical fiction, thrillers and modern romance novels.
This month was a lot of 4/5 star books, which seems to be my default. If you have any suggestions for 5/5 star books, I’ll gladly take em at this point!
(As a reminder: I always track my reading both on Goodreads and via Instagram stories.)
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“Carrie Soto is Back” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
4/5 stars:
Carrie Soto scratched and clawed her way to the top of the tennis charts, shattering every world record before an injury forced her into retirement. But, when a young athlete comes dangerously close to topping all Carrie’s records, the tennis star makes the decision to come out of retirement at age 36 to reclaim what’s hers.
Tennis. Tennis. TENNIS. If you decide to pick this book up… man, I hope you like tennis. Because it is ALL tennis. With that said, I’m not the world’s biggest tennis fan, but I did really enjoy this book, even if I found myself glazing over the very in-depth play-by-play narration of tennis match after tennis match. I couldn’t decide whether I loved or hated Carrie, but I found myself cheering for her regardless, and the plot unspooled quickly enough to keep me engrossed.
“Hidden Pictures” by Jason Rekulak
4/5 stars:
Mallory, right out of rehab, takes a nanny job for an artistic 5-year-old boy named Teddy. Soon after Mallory’s arrival, Teddy’s artwork becomes more detailed, complex and sinister. Mallory believes Teddy is being possessed by a ghost, and the drawings are the key to piecing together an unsolved murder.
SPOILERS: I didn’t hate every single character in this thriller, which was refreshing! It was really easy to get through if you’re looking for a quick attention-grabbing read. I didn’t really love this book, but I also didn’t really hate it. I’ll probably forget the plot in a year, but when someone brings it up, I’ll remember that I did read it.
“The Turn of the Key” by Ruth Ware
3/5 stars:
When Rowan accepts a job as a live-in nanny, it almost seems too good to be true. She moves into a renovated old house, a mesh of old victorian architecture and modern design, outfitted with top-of-the-line technology, and begins caring for four young girls. But, soon after Rowan moves in, she ends up in prison for murder, and starts writing to her lawyer from prison about the unexplained phenomenon she encountered in the old Scottish house.
The ending was SO unsatisfactory to me. Ruth did a lot of work writing a backstory for the house and its prior inhabitants, almost going so far as to create a subplot with it. But, once the ending came around, I felt misled and like there were a lot of loose ends. It just felt like Ruth was trying too hard to create twists and turns and everything coming together felt very disjointed. I do like the format: Rowan writing the novel as though she was writing a letter to her lawyer fit the plot very well! But all the loose ends were just too much for me.
“It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover
4/5 stars:
After Lily Bloom decides to open her own flower shop — she does have the right name, after all — she encounters an attractive neurosurgeon named Ryle. Shortly after she begins to date Ryle, she runs into her first love, a formerly homeless man named Atlas. Lily must choose between her new love and her old love while carrying the baggage from her parents’ relationship.
SPOILERS: OK, I am not a diehard Colleen Hoover fan. This is only my second book from her. (“Verity” was my first, and I didn’t LOVE love it.) “It Ends With Us” was pretty easy to breeze through (I read the whole thing in a single day), but trigger warning: The book centers around a physically abusive relationship. Unfortunately, I could relate a little too well to a lot of the content in the book, but that left me upset and confused by a lot of the decisions Lily made.
“After I Do” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
4/5 stars:
After almost a decade of marriage, college sweethearts Lauren and Ryan have realized they can’t stand each other. They decide to separate for a year with no contact to decide whether their marriage is worth saving.
SPOILERS: I didn’t love this book as much as other TJR books I’ve read, but —as someone who has had several long-term relationships — it was definitely relatable! I loved how realistic Lauren and Ryan’s relationship was. I really liked how TJR managed to weave in so many perspectives about love by featuring numerous characters in satisfying forms of relationships, and none of them were cookie cutter. But, the ending was a little unsatisfying to me. TJR spent a lot of time focusing on different types of relationships only to dismiss all those types of relationships at the end by throwing every character into a happy traditional long-term relationship.
“The It Girl” by Ruth Ware
4/5 stars:
Rich, pretty, outgoing, smart and talented April is murdered partway through her freshman year at Oxford. April’s roommate and best friend, Hannah, is left traumatized. A college porter is found guilty and jailed, but — 10 years after April’s death, Hannah finds herself second guessing the verdict of the murder trial.
A lot of Ruth Ware books leave me feeling disappointed and unsatisfied at the end, but I was actually kind of surprised this one didn’t. Everything fit together nicely, Ruth did a great job keeping me on my toes as she gave all of April and Hannah’s friends and acquaintances a motive, nothing felt out of place, and the novel pulled me in quickly and kept my attention.
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Having time to read has been so nice lately! I’m hoping to keep up with my goal of five books a month. I have a huge pile of books that friends and family members have recommended to me, as well as some actual PHYSICAL books that have been sitting on my bookshelf for years.
