MARCH READS

My kiddos spent most of the month of March in and out of sicknesses so I found myself with TONS of reading time during their afternoon naps and while tending to them in the night. I read several really great books this month and can hardly wait to share them with you! I’m ALWAYS open for recommendations and love to hear what you are reading so don’t be shy! Shout your recent reads in the comments to share the love !

• Four Shots in Oskie by Justin Wingerter: If you catch me on a Friday not and I’m not reading a book, chances are you’ll find me watching true crime TV. So reading a true crime book is always high on my list, especially since I once lived in Kansas AND the author of this book was a college classmate of mine. If you’re a true crime lover, then you’ll love this story. It follows the story of a young girls’ disappearance, ALL of the suspects, the trial, and the huge impact that this horrific story has on the small town that it happens in. Just when you think it’s CASE SOLVED…think again. 5/5
• Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano: This was the book selection for the book club I joined. It was the cutest little murder mystery-ish book. Finlay is a single mother of two who is a struggling writer with plenty to keep her busy outside of her work. There is someone who wants her ex husband dead, a hot cop who is interested in much more than the leads he’s pursuing, and the sweetest nanny who doubles as a nanny, best friend, and partner in crime (literally). Prepare to be stunned, to giggle, and to somehow fall in love with every single character. 4/5
• The Club by Ellery Lloyd: This book was prefaced with a ton of buzz. I could hardly wait to get my hands on it. But, truthfully, I thought it was a huge dud. I kept turning the pages and turning the pages waiting for the story to heat up and it just….didn’t for me. The story is about a top secret ‘club’ for the very rich and very famous. It’s exclusivity is second to none and the launch party to celebrate its newest venue turns into a nightmare when secrets are exposed and murders occur. Even as I write this it sounds like it should be a great book but I can only give it 2/5.
• Verity by Colleen Hoover: Trigger warning. This book is very dark and touches on a lot of very delicate subjects. A famous writer, Verity, sits in a coma after a terrible car accident, leaving her husband Jeremy and son to care for her and discuss the impossible task of finding a ghost writer to continue her popular book series. The author hired is Lowen, a struggling writer who reluctantly takes the job when she realizes she has absolutely no other choice. She moves into Verity + Jeremy’s house to familiarize herself with Verity’s work and outline the 3 novels she’s been hired to write. However, the further she digs, the more she finds, including an autobiography that is horrific to say the least. Does she share it with Jeremy? And is Verity really as comatose as she appears? You’ll just have to see for yourself…I really loved the story and have had the BEST discussions with fellow readers about the ending. If you read it, let me know your thoughts upon finishing it! I LOVE chatting about this one! 4/5.
• The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker: Recommended by my cousin, I jumped into this light romance novel after finishing the dark and heartbreaking Verity. Calla, a spoiled city slicker from Toronto, loses her job, her boyfriend, and receives devastating news about her estranged father all in the same day. Her and her father haven’t spoken in nearly 12 years but his cancer diagnosis prompts her to fly to a rugged, remote town in Alaska where he lives and runs his very successful charter plane company. Everything is a shock-the weather, the grocery prices, the lack of coffee shops, the slow paced lifestyle, AND the rude pilot her father sends to pick her up and fly her into town. As she struggles to connect with her father and envision what her and her mother’s life must have been like for the first two years of Calla’s life, she also unexpectedly finds herself falling in love with the land, the lifestyle of those the small town, and maybe even a broad shouldered Alaskan native? The first in a series, I found this book to be very charming and I’ve already popped open the second in the series. Also, if I happen to go missing, know that it’s because I fled to Alaska 🙂 4/5
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen: This book had been on my list for years but for whatever reason, I’d never gotten around to reading it. Reading this book brought so many emotions to the surface that I wasn’t expecting. College senior Jacob Jankowski’s world is flipped upside down when his parents are unexpectedly killed in a car accident. It leaves him orphaned and jobless, as he was planning to help run his father’s veterinary practice, which he finds has suffered immensely thanks to the Great Depression. On a whim, he runs away and finds himself as a veterinarian of a traveling circus. No two days are the same, the crew is hardened and often unwelcoming, and he can’t seem to take his eyes off of Marlena, the star of the equestrian act who is, of course, married to the animal trainer. The book bounces back and forth between Jacob’s life as a 90 something year old man in a nursery home and his thrilling journey on the circus circuit. As I mentioned, I found this book to be very emotionally satisfying and I would 100% recommend. 5/5
• The Lies That Bind by Emily Giffin: Recommended by my sister, I finished this book in a night while tending to my sick kiddos 🙂 Cecily grabs the phone at a bar late one night in New York, lonely and homesick. A stranger’s voice talks her out of it and begins a strange new chapter in Cecily’s otherwise boring life. The stranger, Grant, is very interesting, very charming, very….different from her ex boyfriend Matthew. They forge an unlikely but very quick relationship, though perhaps not in a traditional sense. Grant is distant and preoccupied with his twin brother who suffers from ALS. He spends the summer after he and Cecily meet in Europe for experimental treatment and shortly after his return, he gets lost in the post 9/11 chaos. In a desperate attempt to move on, she reconnects with Matthew and things seem to go back to the way the were..and were perhaps meant to be, until secrets surface and she’s reminded that things aren’t always what they seem. 4/5.

I’ve been LOVING the book chats that have blossomed from these lists-check out my February reads here and let’s keep the chatter going!