I went to a couple of years of summer camp (girl scout camp to be exact!) and I still have vivid memories of the early swims in the lake, the raising of the flag and making lots of friendship bracelets!
I love books that also make you a little nostalgic, and if you do too, you might like to check out Kristy Woodson Harvey’s upcoming release, #TheSummerOfSongbirds…publishing July 11th!
“The Summer of Songbirds is a lyrical and unforgettable celebration of female friendship, summertime freedom, and enduring sisterhood—and a love letter to the places and people that make us who we are. Four women come together to save the summer camp that changed their lives and rediscover themselves in the process.”
I just love this author- she writes the sweetest, most relatable, insightful stories, all tied together by a great group of characters. This book tells the story of four women, who after the pandemic, come together to save their treasured summer camp.
Summers spent at camp tied these women together for life and I loved reading about their current lives, how they came together, and how they ultimately won their camp back. This book is perfect for the summer months ahead, especially if summer camp was a big part of your own childhood!
QOTD: Did you ever go to summer camp? Do you have any favorite memories? I am discussing this upcoming summer release over on my bookstagram page @genthebookworm and I would love it if you joined in!
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!
{Gallery Books #partner. Thank you for my gifted copies to read, review and share with you!}Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
Have you picked up the May 2022 #NewBookRelease Something Wilder yet?! This just might be my favorite Christina Lauren book yet! I absolutely loved this adventure fueled romance, most of which I read in a single sitting.
I enjoyed following the main characters on an unexpected treasure hunt, while at the same time rekindling their connection after then years apart. It really was the perfect escape-read contemporary romance that I didn’t know I needed.
This book kept me guessing as there were several moments I didn’t see coming, and I absolutely loved how it all came together in the end. This book took some intense thinking and research on the author’s part – and it was a totally fun and unique spring read! You can order your copy using my affiliate link HERE.
QOTD: Have you read a a book yet by the author duo Christina Lauren? What are your favorites? I am discussing this over on my Bookstagram account @genthebookworm and I would love to hear your thoughts!
Disclosure: Some of the links above are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!
From the author of Truth Be Told (formerly titled Are You Sleeping)—now an Apple TV series of the same name—comes a cautionary tale of oversharing in the social media age for fans of Jessica Knoll and Caroline Kepnes’s You.
Everyone wants new followers…until they follow you home.
Audrey Miller has an enviable new job at the Smithsonian, a body by reformer Pilates, an apartment door with a broken lock, and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers to bear witness to it all. Having just moved to Washington, DC, Audrey busies herself impressing her new boss, interacting with her online fan base, and staving off a creepy upstairs neighbor with the help of the only two people she knows in town: an ex-boyfriend she can’t stay away from and a sorority sister with a high-powered job and a mysterious past.
But Audrey’s faulty door may be the least of her security concerns. Unbeknownst to her, her move has brought her within striking distance of someone who’s obsessively followed her social media presence for years—from her first WordPress blog to her most recent Instagram Story. No longer content to simply follow her carefully curated life from a distance, he consults the dark web for advice on how to make Audrey his and his alone. In his quest to win her heart, nothing is off-limits—and nothing is private.
With “compelling, suspenseful” (Liz Nugent) prose, Kathleen Barber’s electrifying new thriller will have you scrambling to cover your webcam and digital footprints.
Publication Date:
February 25th, 2020
Genre:
Domestic Thriller/Psychological Thriller
My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review:
Follow Me(you can pre-order a copy with my affiliate link HERE)
Follow Me is a psychological thriller full of twists and turns and kept me captivated until the end. I loved that the storyline was based around social media and the idea that nothing is ever as shiny or perfect as it may appear online.
This page-turner is shared in alternating chapters between the main character Audrey, her best friend Cat and a third narrator who is only known by the reader as “him.” I thought this was such a clever way to have the story unfold and I loved that it kept me guessing.
Audrey isn’t very likable and I think that is the author’s point. She may have over two million followers online, but she lives for the posts and likes while her “real life” is quite dull and lonely. Her best friend Cat is the complete opposite and I enjoyed the polarization between these two characters that ended up adding a lot of dimension to this storyline.
Follow Mewas creepy but light enough for a weekend or beach read which was exactly what I was looking for.
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advanced copy.
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!
From Neil Pasricha—New York Times, million-copy bestselling author of The Book of Awesome series and The Happiness Equation, thought leader for the next generation, and one of the most popular TED speakers in the world—comes a revelatory and inspiring book that will change the way we view failure and help us build resilience.
We are lucky. For most of us, famine, plague, economic depression, and other life-threatening catastrophes are the stuff of history books. We’re living in an era with the highest-ever rates of longevity, education, and wealth. Cars drive us home as our phones entertain us before we arrive to food delivered to the front door. We have it all!
But there’s just one side effect. We no longer have the tools to handle failure…or even perceived failure. When we fall, we lie on the sidewalk crying. When we spill, we splatter. When we crack, we shatter.
We are turning into an army of porcelain dolls.
A rude email from the boss means calling in sick. Only two likes on our post means we don’t have friends. Cell phones show us we’re never good enough. Yesterday’s butterflies are tomorrow’s panic attacks. Record numbers of students have clinical anxiety. And what about depression, loneliness, and suicide?
All rising!
What do we desperately need to learn?
RESILIENCE. And we need to learn it fast.
Read You Are Awesome to learn: • The single word that keeps your options open after failure • What every commencement speech gets wrong • 3 ways to dramatically accelerate your ability to learn and adapt • The 2-minute morning practice that helps eliminate worry • Why you need an Untouchable Day (and how to get one) • and much, much more…
Because the truth is, you really are awesome.
Publication Date:
November 5th, 2019
Genre:
Self-Help & Personal Growth
My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
My Review:
It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of personal development and self-help books. I think they can sometimes get a little misunderstood and there are books in that genre that are totally cringe-worthy but there are also some books that have changed my life.
These three books by Brene Brown totally changed my perspective in so many ways. I am not a re-reader of books but I have reread (and re-listened) to these so many times.
Sometimes just smaller tidbits from the books stick with me, like in Jen Sincero’s You Are a Badass series.
“The only failure is quitting. Everything else is just gathering information.”
“We use words to communicate, and when you communicate optimism, inspiration and general badassery, you inspire other people and draw those who can help you toward you. Choosing your words wisely is one of the easiest and most powerful steps in changing your reality.”
“Once you start taking action you’ll be able to discover more things you like, more things you don’t like, and a clearer picture of what you desire to do will begin to form. Taking action leads to answers, mulling ideas around in your head forever leads to indecision and grouchiness.”
-Jen Sincero
You Are Awesome
I was immediately drawn into You Are Awesomebecause of how relatable the writing is. Neil Pasricha is charismatic and resilient and the writing is conversational like you are talking with a good friend.
Everyone can relate to failure but how we react to it can change our paths entirely and keep us moving forward. Every” misstep” is a chance to assess, learn and then move up and onward. I love the balance of personal stories, accessible writing, and strategies that are approachable for everyone.
Pasricha writes with compassion and proactivity and reminds us that we are all works in progress. Sometimes self-help books can help you feel heard but not really have a plan, or make you feel like you are being talked down to and make you just feel worse. You Are Awesome contains straightforward steps that make you feel less alone but also help you move FORWARD.
Resilience & Positivity
Resilence is a skill and often the people that are most resilient aren’t ones that have had the easiest path in life but are the ones that use those bumps in the road to learn and grow. Positively doesn’t mean you don’t have struggles, it means using perspective to take what you can from them and continue on.
I loved this book so much and I know it is one that I will refer back to again and again.
Thank you to Gallery Books for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, it helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!
It’s summertime on the North Carolina coast and the livin’ is easy.
Unless that is, you’ve just lost your mother to cancer, your sister to her evangelical husband, and your husband to his executive assistant. Meet Gray Howard. Right when Gray could use a serious infusion of good karma in her life, she inadvertently gets a stranger fired from her job at the local pharmacy.
Diana Harrington’s summer isn’t off to the greatest start either: Hours before losing her job, she broke up with her boyfriend and moved out of their shared house with only a busted Impala for a bed. Lucky for her, Gray has an empty guest house and a very guilty conscience.
With Gray’s kindness, Diana’s tide begins to turn, but when the one that got away comes back, every secret from her past seems to resurface all at once. And, as Gray begins to blaze a new trail, she discovers, with Diana’s help, that what she envisioned as her perfect life may not be what she wants at all.
In her warmest, wittiest, and wisest novel yet, Kristy Woodson Harvey delivers a discerning portrait of modern womanhood through two vastly different lenses. Feels Like Falling is a beach bag essential for Harvey fans—and for a new generation of readers.
Publication Date:
April 28th, 2019
Genre:
Southern/Family Life Fiction
My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review:
Feels like Falling was my first book by Kristy Woodson Harvey. I read it while traveling home from vacation and it was the perfect balance of being easy and engaging without being too fluffy. It was the kind of book that I had a hard time putting down but I also didn’t want it to end because I wanted to follow along with these main characters even more.
I enjoyed getting to know the characters and the idea that sometimes “family” is the one we create ourselves. Harvey’s writing is emotional, engaging and has a perfect touch of humor. I loved the topic of friendship and supporting one another through tough situations and choices.
Feels Like Falling perfectly captured how sometimes the right people come into our lives when we least expect it and the amazing power of connection. The romance element was light and easy and helped round out this powerful story of friendship. I hope this becomes a series like her Peachtree Bluff trilogy!
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
Disclosure: Some of the links above are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, it helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!
“Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak.
During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good.
Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason… and whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.
With Christina Lauren’s signature “beautifully written and remarkably compelling” (Sarah J. Maas, New York Times bestselling author) prose and perfect for fans of Emily Giffin and Jennifer Weiner, Twice in a Blue Moon is an unforgettable and moving novel of young love and second chances.”
Publication Date:
October 22, 2019
Genre:
Contemporary Romance
My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review:
Ever since I read Love and Other Words I have been a huge fan of books by Christina Lauren(the pen name for the writing duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings). These women know how to develop relatable characters while also introducing a variety of scenarios for their engaging novels to take on. I think because I loved Love and Other Words SO much, the bar has been set high for me. While the premise of Twice in a Blue Moon was promising, and I do enjoy the idea of “second chance romance” this one fell flat.
I really struggled to connect or find any believability with these main characters and their romance. Knowing each other for a couple of weeks as teenagers…becoming lovers and sharing their deepest darkest secrets and then there being a HUGE betrayal just didn’t work for me. It was all just too quick and then way too dramatic. I get it, teenager love can work in many storylines (hello Love and Other Words!!), but in this situation, it just didn’t.
This lack of believability and connection with Tate and Sam made it hard to really feel engaged with the storyline and I felt myself rolling my eyes more than feeling engrossed in the writing. Maybe it’s just me, but I just didn’t love this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
