Book 107 Ten Beach Road by Wendy Wax

 I just finished 10 Beach Road and I give it 🏖🏖🏖1/2.

I've been looking for a replacement for my Elin Hilderbrand addiction and a few different blogs recommended Wendy Wax books. I tried 10 Beach Road and it was just ok. It was very Elin-adjacent as it was about three women (Nicole, Maddy-sometimes-called-Madeline, and the Third One) who were all scammed by a Bernie Madoff type guy. The settlement each one was offered was 1/3 of a giant old beach house in Florida.  They all get to the beach house and it needs a ton of work to sell to make money. Each of the women have an Issue, and they all agree to stay and do the work because a contractor that the Third One (I can't think of her name) knew from childhood said he would do the work and get paid back from the proceeds of the sale. Anyway, this very very long book is about how they renovated the house and how they dealt with all their Issues. The Issues were not very interesting and the premise that a contractor would work for free including buying all the materials did not seem realistic to me. Anyway, I may try one more by Wendy Wax but I'm not holding out a lot of promise.

106 A Great Marriage by Frances Mayes

 I just finished The Great Marriage and I give it 💜💜💜💜💜. I loved this book. 

Here's what I wrote on Netgalley: I loved this book. It's the story of engaged couple Dara and Austin, and how one mistake derailed their future. It's about their parents, their friends, their families, and the fallout from one stupid decision on all their lives. It is so beautifully written and sad and charming and evocative. I loved all the characters (with the slight exception of Dara, she just wasn't one of my favorites) and I loved the structure of the book. Highest recommendation.

105 The Wedding People by Alison Espach

 I just finished The Wedding People and I give it 👫👫👫👫. 

This is two wedding books in a row for me! I read this as a galley from NetGalley and here's my review: I enjoyed this novel--the story is different than anything I've read. Phoebe leaves her life to go to a hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, where she has a specific plan to accomplish, but when she arrives at the very expensive hotel she finds out it has been taken over by a wedding party. The 'wedding people' pretty much take Phoebe in and she learns about them and about what she wants out of her own life (I am being vague because anything else would be lots of spoilers). The characters are good--I really liked Phoebe, and I didn't like Lila which is fine--and I liked the setting. If you've ever been to an 'overdone' wedding you'll appreciate the details in this book.

Book 104: Unwedding by Allie Condie

 I just finished Unwedding and I give it 💒💒💒 3/4. 

I really need to stop reading these 'locked room' thrillers, because they're so repetitive. For some reason, though, these books get all the attention! Anyway, in this book, Ellery goes on vacation to a remote (of course) high end  (of course) resort by herself (she was supposed to go with her husband, but he leaves her and still wants her to go the resort). Also at the resort is a wedding party.  The first night--someone is murdered! Then there is a horrible storm, and they're all trapped at the resort! Then someone ELSE is murdered! Can Ellery and her new friends Ravi and Nicole figure out what's going on, so they also don't die? Can Ellery stop having flashbacks to the horrible school bus accident she was in, which didn't seem connected to the plot at all? I kept thinking someone from the horrible accident was going to be a guest at the resort but spoiler: no one was. Anyway, very short chapters kept me reading. The ending was awful (it was all recapped to Ellery). I swear to myself I will STOP READING LOCKED ROOM THRILLERS although I do have to say this one was one of the better one's I've read lately. 

Book 103: Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois

 I just finished Vintage Contemporaries and I give it ✩✩✩✩1/2 stars!

It's the story of two women named Emily who meet in NYC at the end of the 1990s. Emily (who is called Em when the two are friends) works in publishing, Emily is a sometimes-bartender, sometimes-bookseller, sometimes-addict who wants to produce theatre. The story takes place in two time periods: when Em and Emily are friends and Emily is living in a squat in NYC, and several years later, when Em (now known as Emily) is raising her daughter with her husband Alan. There are a few switches in time periods, not a lot so it doesn't get confusing, as we learn that the two women had a falling out but it is unclear why. Another storyline is how Em/Emily is building her literary career by editing a book by her mom's college friend who has a life-threatening disease. I really liked this book and really liked the characters, but I wasn't crazy about the ending (like, the very ending) and I'm really glad I read this book.

Book 102: Honey by Isabel Banta

 I read this as an arc, and I don't think anyone should pay for this book. Here's what I wrote at NetGalley.

This was almost a DNF after about a third but I kept at it. Honey is the story of Amber, who we meet as a young girl singing in a school talent show and being signed by an agent. She loses on Star Search but then has a career as a pop singer. She's talented but doesn't work hard, and her image is the 'bad girl' and everything is all about her sexuality. I don't know, it seems like this book's strategy was to take every Britney/Madonna/Jessica Simpson cliche and roll them into this book. Amber wasn't really an interesting character to me, nor were the other characters in the book. I'm sorry I didn't like this more.

Book 101: The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne

 I just finished The Friday Afternoon Club and I give it ✩✩✩✩.

I don't know a lot about Griffin Dunne, only that I really hated the movie "After Hours". I knew he produced a lot of stuff but I had no idea he was Dominick Dunne's son, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion's nephew, and Carrie Fisher's best friend. This was a well written memoir but it's not a Hollywood tell-all--his sister was murdered by a boyfriend and much of the story is about the murder, the trial, and the impact it had on his family. It concludes right after he marries Cary Lowell (I had no idea he was married to Cary Lowell) and I would read the next volume of his memoir.

Book 100: Drawing Home by Jamie Brenner

 It's my 100th book of the year and it's Drawing Home by Jamie Brenner. I just finished it and I give it ✎✎✎✎.

This is my second book by Jamie Brenner and it follows kind of a similar format: three women come together for REASONS and they need to work things out. The women are Emma, who works at a hotel is Sag Harbor, her daughter Penny who is 14 and has anxiety and OCD, and Bea, who is an artist's rep in NYC. The story opens with the death of a famous artist who had befriended Peggy at the bar in the hotel where Emma works, and who Bea represents. Bea thinks she is going to inherit the beautiful, expansive waterfront home of the artist, but no! He has left it to Penny. The story revolves around how it all works out and how each woman figures out what she really wants in life, and how to get it. It's a sweet story and well written with a few little surprises that I didn't expect, and it is a nice summer weekend read.

Book 99: Under her Spell by KL Cerra

 I just finished Under Her Spell and I give it 🪡🪡🪡.  This is kind of interesting until it gets very unpleasant.  Here's my NetGalley review: After years of estrangement, Liv receives a message from her high school best friend Sam--Sam thinks she is in danger and needs Liv's help. Liv leaves her fiancee and travels back to her home town in Connecticut, where she re-meets some of her high school classmates, who run a bridal business. As Liv searces for clues to Sam's disappearance, she begins to learn more about what her former classmates have been up to. And what they've been up to is--well, not good.

This book kept me reading, and while I'm not adverse to a little witchcraft this book just got too creepy and ugly for me, especially the final third. There's an interesting message here, but it's buried under a bit too much horror for me.

Book 98: The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

 I just finished The Reappearance of Rachel Price and I give it ☝☝☝.

The first third, or almost half I guess, of this book was great: Bel's mom disappeared when Bel was a baby, and there's a film crew doing a documentary on it.  Bel was fun and snarky and had a great relationship with her dad and her extended family. Even when the title event happens (Rachel, Bel's mom, comes home), it continued to be fun, as Bel was trying to figure out whether her Mom is telling the truth about where she was or not. But then it becomes very dark and this shift of tone just did not work for me. The changes in character of how people were behaving also did not make sense for me. It turns out that this is technically a YA book and I would NOT want a young adult reading this book. Anyway. Not recommending.

Book 97: Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand

 I just finished Swan Song and I give it 🦢🦢🦢🦢1/2.

It's no secret I love Elin Hilderbrand and this book, theoretically the last one she will write set on Nantucket, is a good one. It revisits several characters from previous books wrapped around the story of a new couple to the Island (who are social climbers) and their relationship with their 'personal concierge', Coco. 

I took half a swan off because it was too short, and so much of the story could have been enhanced, particularly some of the interpersonal relationships of The Castaways. 

Book 96: The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk

 I just finished The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections and give it 📙📙📙📙.

Liesl is trying to retire but gets draw back to her job at the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections because her boss has a stroke. When she gets there, she discovered several of their rare books have gone missing. She has to deal wtih that, alongside pesky donors, annoying administrators, and her troubled husband. I liked this book a lot, but I wasn't crazy about the character of Liesl and we didn't know enough about her relationship with her troubled husband for this to make sense. 

Book 95: This is How We End Things by RJ Jacobs

 I just finished This is How We End Things and I give it ★★★.

It started so good--a group of grad students running what was pretty much an unauthorized, Milgram-type experiment. But then it just devolved into a run of the mill thriller that twisted around a few times but was ultimately not  very interesting.

Book 94: A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

 I just finished "A Letter to the Luminous Deep" and I give it five stars. FIVE STARS. I loved this book.

Here are book genres I avoid: Romance. Sci-Fi. Steampunk. Here are book genres I love: Epistolary. Academic. And this book encompassed all of those, and I loved it. 

After our world ends, a new civilization forms in the world covered by oceans where scholars learn about all the creatures and activities of a water based world. One scholar, Sophy, needs to find out what happened to her sister who disappeared with her true love, Henery. Henery's brother also wants to find out. The book itself is letters between Sophy and Henery's brother, Henery and Sophy's sister, and several other characters involved in the story. 

It's just too much to explain but I totally loved this book.

Book 93: The Forever Summer by Jamie Brenner

 I just finished The Forever Summer and give it 🌞🌞🌞🌞.

I liked this book. It reminded me a lot of Elin Hilderbrand books---the setting was Provincetown, NJ, it was a family story, and there's happiness and sadness. Two women find out they are half sisters via a DNA test, and that their grandmother runs a B&B in Provincetown. They end up going there, uncovering family secrets, and deciding about their futures. This is a great summer book.

Book 92: You Are Here by David Nicholls

 I just finished You Are Here and I give it ★★★.

I don't know why I could not get into this book. It's a good premise--a group goes for a cross-England hike, with one person in the group planning to match up several of the singletons in the group (they're all in their late 30s). Various things happen and it gets down to the last two people who learn about one another over the course of the hike. The characters were perfectly likable, but I could not get into this story. YMMV.

Book 91: A Dark and Secret Magic by Wallis Kinney

 I just finished A Dark and Secret Magic and I give it 🧹🧹🧹🧹. Here's my review from Goodreads:

A Dark and Secret Magic reminds me a little bit of A Discovery of Witches, only a little bit more 'down to earth' and not quite as literary. It's the story of Kate, a 'hedge witch' who is reaching an important milestone in her life as a witch. She lives a fairly solitary life. That all changes with the coming of Halloween and Samhain, when a stranger at her door starts a sequence of events that will change her life. I like stories when witchcraft is connected to real life, without a lot of hocus pocus, and I enjoyed how this book handled that. I am not a huge romance fan and this was probably a bit too romance-y for me, but that's ok. I liked the relationship between Kate and her two sisters. All in all, a good read and I'd read a sequel.

Book 90: DV by Diana Vreeland

 I just re-read DV and I give it ☺☺☺☺.

Vreeland wrote this memoir several decades ago, and it is a mishmash of autobiography and recanting of stories of her encounters with fashion and famous people and royalty. I liked it so much when I was younger, I liked it less at the age I am now because I felt she only wrote about her surface life--who was she really? But I like it.

Book 89: Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

 I just finished Here One Moment and I give it 🪽🪽🪽🪽.  

Here is what I wrote at Goodreads.

This new book by Liane Moriarty is really interesting and I was sucked in from the start. A woman traveling on a plane gets up and tells everyone on the flight how old they'll be when they die and what they'll die from. The story, then, is what happens to several of the people who were informed of their demise, interspersed with the life story of the woman (who comes to be known as the Death Lady). I liked all the characters, and really did not want any of them to die (especially in the ways they suspected). In typical Moriarty fashion, there are a LOT of characters in this book, and I could have probably done with one fewer (probably either Leo or Ethan). I think the Death Lady's stories went on a bit long as well. All in all, it was a good read that just needed a bit tightening up.

I was lucky to read this book as an ARC!