Hello Readers! July was such a successful reading month for me, I’ll probably be overly ambitious with my TBR for this month. But a girl can dream, right?

While July was all about getting ahead on my ARCs (Advanced Review Copies), August is for Midnight Sun and my summer reading challenge. I do have six (!!) ARCs publishing in September, so I’m hoping to get to some of those at the end of the month.

(Link to Goodreads synopsis through book title.)

Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan

Queen Move is my current read. I discovered this book from an interview with Talia Hibbert, the author of Get a Life, Chloe Brown. She spoke so highly of it, I immediately bought it on Kobo. (The price was great, too!)

Synopsis: The boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have… 

Dig a little and you’ll find photos of me in the bathtub with Ezra Stern.
Get your mind out of the gutter. We were six months old.
Pry and one of us might confess we saved our first kiss for each other. 
The most clumsy, wet, sloppy . . . spectacular thirty seconds of my adolescence.
Get into our business and you’ll see two families, closer than blood, torn apart in an instant.
Twenty years later, my “awkward duckling” best friend from childhood, the boy no one noticed, is a man no one can ignore.

Finer. Fiercer. Smarter. 
Taken.

Tell me it’s wrong. 
Tell me the boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have. 
When we find each other again, everything stands in our way–secrets, lies, promises.
But we didn’t come this far to give up now. 
And I know just the move to make if I want to make him mine.

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Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

Midnight Sun isn’t pictured, but it’s been preordered, and I’m not-so-patiently waiting for it. 😉 I did a reread of Twilight last month, and I’ll more than likely reread the rest of the series after Midnight Sun. Yay!!

Synopsis: When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward’s version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.

This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting beautiful, mysterious Bella is both the most intriguing and unnerving event he has experienced in his long life as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he let himself fall in love with Bella when he knows that he is endangering her life?

8/4/20

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Just One by Gayle Forman

One of my all-time favorite contemporary series, is the Just One series by Gayle Forman. I purchased this book that contains all three a few years ago, but still haven’t read it. I’m hoping to get lost in this collection this month for several prompts on my (Popsugar) summer reading challenge.

Synopsis: Gayle Forman’s entire swoony JUST ONE trilogy in a single volume–ideal for binge reading!

It all starts when American good girl Allyson–better known as Lulu– decides to spend just one day in Paris with Dutch hottie Willem. It’s a whirlwind adventure filled with heart-racing romance, but the next day Willem is gone without a trace. What follows is one year of searching that ends with a steamy reunion on the one wonderful night when they finally find one another again. Filled with mystery, drama, adventure, and of course romance, this is a swoony and satisfying entry point for new readers of Gayle Forman’s bestselling fiction.

Includes: Just One Day, Just One Year, and the novella Just One Night

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Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Dangerous Girls is another backlist book I’m hoping to read for my Summer Reading Challenge.

Synopsis: Spring break. Aruba. Swimming, sunshine, and drinks. Lots of drinks.

It’s supposed to be the best time of Anna’s life. Perfect.

But then Anna’s best friend is found brutally murdered.

And as the local police begin to investigate the gruesome crime, suspicion and evidence unfathomably point to one person—Anna.

Now trapped in a country not her own, Anna must fight for her freedom and prove her innocence. But as she awaits the judge’s decision, it becomes clear to Anna that everyone around her thinks she is not only guilty, but dangerous.

Very dangerous.

And when the truth finally comes out, it’s more shocking than anyone could have ever imagined… 

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His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

His Only Wife is an ARC I received from Algonquin Books that I’m pretty excited to get to!

Synopsis: “Elikem married me in absentia; he did not come to our wedding.”

Afi Tekple is a young seamstress whose life is narrowing rapidly. She lives in a small town in Ghana with her widowed mother, spending much of her time in her uncle Pious’s house with his many wives and children. Then one day she is offered a life-changing opportunity—a proposal of marriage from the wealthy family of Elikem Ganyo, a man she doesn’t truly know. She acquiesces, but soon realizes that Elikem is not quite the catch he seemed. He sends a stand-in to his own wedding, and only weeks after Afi is married and installed in a plush apartment in the capital city of Accra does she meet her new husband. It turns out that he is in love with another woman, whom his family disapproves of; Afi is supposed to win him back on their behalf. But it is Accra that eventually wins Afi’s heart and gives her a life of independence that she never could have imagined for herself.

A brilliant scholar and a fierce advocate for women’s rights, author Peace Adzo Medie infuses her debut novel with intelligence and humor. For readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Candice Carty-Williams, His Only Wife is the story of an indomitable and relatable heroine that illuminates what it means to be a woman in a rapidly changing world.

9/1/20

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Fable by Adrienne Young

Fable is an ARC I couldn’t resist when Netgalley had it available to ‘Read Now’ for one day. The early reviews are stellar!

Synopsis: As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home seventeen-year-old Fable has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.

But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him and Fable soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive.

Welcome to a world made dangerous by the sea and by those who wish to profit from it. Where a young girl must find her place and her family while trying to survive in a world built for men.  

9/1/20

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Love, Zac: Small-Town Football and the Life and Death of an American Boy by Reid Forgrave

Love, Zac is another ARC from Algonquin Books. I grew up and attended school in a football-obsessed small Texas town. I’m sure this will be a difficult, but enlightening story.

CW: Depression, Suicide

Synopsis: “A monumental achievement of deep reporting and expert storytelling.” —Michael Sokolove, author of The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino

“I just can’t live with this pain anymore,” were among the final words in the diary of Zac Easter, a young man from small-town Iowa. In December 2015, Zac decided to take his own life rather than continue his losing battle against the traumatic brain injuries he had sustained as a no-holds-barred high school football player. In this deeply reported and powerfully moving true story, award-winning sportswriter Reid Forgrave speaks to Zac’s family, friends, and coaches; he explores Zac’s tightly knit, football-obsessed Midwestern community; he interviews cutting-edge brain scientists, psychologists, and sports historians; and he takes a deep dive into the triumphs and sins of the sports entertainment industry.

Forgrave shows us how football mirrors America, from the fighting spirit it has helped inscribe in our national character to the problematic side effects of traditional notions of manhood that it affirms. But, above all, this is a story of how one young man’s obsession with football led him and many of those entrusted with his care to ignore the warning signs of CTE until it was too late. What do Zac’s life and death mean for a society addicted to a sport that can be thrilling and character forming but also dangerous and sometimes tragic for those who play it?

Eye-opening, important, and ultimately inspiring, Love, Zac challenges us to think carefully about the ideals and values we as a nation want to instill in future generations.

9/8/20

Do we share any books on our TBRs? Have you read any of these books yet? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!