LIFE'S A PEARL

The middle of the month means it’s time for a new Quick Lit post! Every month around the 15th one of my favorite book blogs, Modern Mrs Darcy, hosts a link up for fellow book lovers and bloggers to share what they’ve been reading lately.

My reading life bounced back nicely this past month compared to the start of June. I inhaled a World War II novel to finish it in time for my IRL book club.

My July Quick Lit is heavy on the summer reading titles! Some of my library holds for summer reading picks came through. I also found a new Australian author I can’t wait to read more from!

July Quick Lit:

 

The Beantown Girls by Jane Healey

Rating: 3.5 stars

When Fiona Denning’s fiancé goes missing during the war in 1944, she’s determined to find out what happened to him. She convinces her two best friends, Viv and Dottie to join the Red Cross with her as Clubmobile girls and the trio leaves Boston for England. Once there they discover new friendships, find ways to boost soldiers’ morale, and learn to navigate the realities of war.

I feel like I only have it in me to read one World War II book a year. When I finish one, I’m usually glad I read it but they’re so hard to convince myself to pick up. I just know the story is going to drain me emotionally and you have to be in the right mood for that.

The Beantown Girls started out very slow for my taste. The dialogue felt unrealistic which kept snapping me out of the story. I also found the initial introduction of love triangles to be annoying.

The story did improve. I wish the whole book was as good as I found the second half to be. The action and character growth ramped up. I also found that the love story subplots grew on me.

I really enjoyed reading a book from the perspective of the Red Cross Girl! That was a new experience for me. I found the author’s note at the end very cool. Healey shares more historical information and identifies what parts of the book were based on true stories. There were several real life elements!

 

Circe by Madeline Miller

Rating: 2 stars

This was my first book from Madeline Miller. Circe tells the story of the title character, Circe, a minor goddess and sorceress in Greek mythology.

Circe is the daughter of Helios, a Titan and god of the sun, and an ocean nymph, Perse. She never fits in with her large extended family. After discovering the power of witchcraft, which is viewed as a threat by the gods, Circe is banished to a deserted island. There she learns more about her power, befriends wild animals, and infrequently crosses paths with mortal men and the occasional mythical figure.

I did listen to this story on audio but I’m not sure that affected my enjoyment of the tale. There’s enormous hype surrounding this book plus it currently has a rating of 4.26 on goodreads. I don’t understand it. It definitely wasn’t the book for me and I was actually obsessed with Greek mythology as a teenager and college student.

I found Circe to be long and mostly boring. As might be expected when you’re stuck on an island, not much happens. Even during parts that weren’t on the island, the majority of characters were very unlikable. There’s a horrifying scene midway that I wasn’t prepared for.

I also thought there were so many minor character and myth references that it was a little bit confusing. I suppose you could ignore those but then it’s an even more abstract story with very little action.

 

Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

Rating: 2.5 stars

This was one of the books mentioned in a previous post, as a summer reading pick I was looking forward to enjoying as part of my July Quick Lit. Although I have Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s first book The Nest sitting on my kindle, I haven’t read it yet. Good Company was my first experience with her writing.

When Flora discovers an envelope containing her husband’s original wedding ring, her world is turned upside down. It’s the one he claimed to have lost one summer when their daughter was 5. Now after twenty years of marriage, she questions everything she thought she knew about her husband and her relationship with her best friend, Margot.

Good Company unravels the present summer as Flora’s daughter, Ruby, prepares to head off to college and the past events that got each character to their current predicament.

This book was another audio experience for me. The story wound up being just ok. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t really like it either. The beginning started out pretty strong. I enjoyed the Hollywood setting and show references and I was intrigued by the mysteries surrounding Flora and Margot’s pasts.

But then the story line seemed to dissolve into flashbacks that I found boring with increasingly unlikable characters. The connections between these chosen family members didn’t feel compelling or authentic. By the end I didn’t care about them at all.

 

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Mother-in-Law was another book on my summer reading picks list. It was published in 2019 so it’s a backlist pick that I missed the first time around. Sally Hepworth also has a new twisty novel out this year called The Good Sister, that is popping up on many summer reading guides.

The Mother-in-Law tells the story of a complicated family that ends in murder. Lucy has always struggled with her relationship with her husband’s mother, Diana. Their interactions are polite but stifled. Ever since being introduced, Lucy has known she wasn’t the woman Diana envisioned her son marrying.

Now suddenly, Diana is found dead with a suicide note claiming she no longer wants to battle cancer. When the autopsy is performed it finds no cancer but rather evidence of foul play opening up a homicide investigation. Deeper complexities and family secrets are revealed and built upon as the timeline jumps between past and present.

I was completely enthralled with this book! I loved the mystery. The flashback were written very skillfully to slowly reveal and develop the dynamics of this family.

Although the characters were very flawed, they were written in a way where I could understand everyone’s perspective and where they were coming from. Even Diana, the mother-in-law, often a villan role. At one point it seemed like every character had motive and could have been guilty of murder! I love those kinds of mysteries! The ending was very satisfying with just the right amount of horrifying.

I can’t wait to check out more from Sally Hepworth! She may be my new favorite Australian author.

 

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

Rating: 4 stars

While it wasn’t on my summer reading pick list, Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer, made it onto my July Quick Lit and is another great book to pick up this summer. I discovered Meyer’s newest release after recently reading her beloved series, The Lunar Chronicles.

Instant Karma follows perfectionist high school student, Prudence Barnett, who is devastated by a bad grade and quick to place all the blame on her lazy lab partner, Quint Erickson. She’s desperate to redo it over summer for a chance to bring her grade up, but the caveat is they have to redo it together and after Pru’s behavior Quint isn’t easily convinced.

When Pru actually reads his half of the work, she tracks down a sea life rescue center in their coastal town she didn’t know existed and is surprised to find he’s a volunteer. There may be more than meets the eye to his flakiness and after an accident gives Pru the ability to dish out instant karma she begins to see things in a new light.

The beginning of this book was a little rough. Prudence comes off being way too self centered and self righteous. Between that and the graphically sad descriptions of sea animals needing rescuing I thought it might be too much for me.

I’m glad I stuck with it though because it wound up being a delightfully quirky young adult romance that is perfect for summer reading! There’s lots of cute animal love, lessons learned, and just a touch of the supernatural.

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What books are on your July Quick Lit? Have you discovered any perfect summer reads?