My September reading list is full of books especially picked out for my readers! Grab a book and read along with me this month!
Hey cuties! It’s almost Fall and I am SO EXCITED! My cardigans are on stand-by and I have a HUGE list of books just waiting to be read in front of a cozy fire. Hashtag basic.
I’ve got a little bit of everything on the list for this month, including a book that completely surprised me! I also just finished this one last night and really enjoyed it. Trigger warning — domestic abuse. But if you can handle it, it gives great insight into the “why’s” of women who stay in abusive relationships. Surprisingly, it’s also a great love story. I definitely recommend it.
Here are my choices for this month:
The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
This is Amor Towles first novel, and it left me excited to read his next. Trust me when I say that it takes a few chapters to get into this one — but when you do, you won’t want to put it down. I am normally put off by “wordy” or “overly descriptive” books (yawn), but this book, which takes place in New York city in the 30’s, absolutely gets a pass. I was majorly swooning over the descriptions of life as a young adult in the city — the swanky restaurants, the hole-in-the-wall bars, the glamorous parties — and absolutely loved immersing myself in the scenes.
Via Amazon:
This sophisticated and entertaining first novel presents the story of a young woman whose life is on the brink of transformation. On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society—where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve. With its sparkling depiction of New York’s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike.
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
I am a couple of chapters in to this one and I’m already captivated! I can tell that it’s going to keep me on the hook until the end. If you’re looking for a page turner, this is for you!
Via Amazon:
Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.
Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years.
What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family—a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.
Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
I was drawn to this book by the cover alone. Absolutely adorable! This is a YA book (grade 7 and up), but the reviews are so good that I knew it had to go on the list. And sometimes a sweet, easy read is a great refresher in between dark or heavy books.
Via Amazon:
A summer in Italy turns into a road trip across Tuscany in this sweeping debut novel filled with romance, mystery, and adventure.
Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.
But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept from Lina for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.
People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.
All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker
With descriptions like “dark, exhilarating, provocative heart-pounding, complex, and unforgettable,” there is no way that this wasn’t going on the list! Because guess what — the reader reviews actually back up the critical praise! Here’s to hoping that it’s as twisty-turny as promised.
Via Amazon:
It begins in the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut, where everything seems picture perfect.
Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. But, in the weeks and months that follow, as she heals from her physical wounds, and with no factual recall of the attack, Jenny struggles with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with his inability to find her attacker and seek justice while her mother, Charlotte, struggles to pretend this horrific event did not touch her carefully constructed world.
As Tom and Charlotte seek help for their daughter, the fault lines within their marriage and their close-knit community emerge from the shadows where they have been hidden for years, and the relentless quest to find the monster who invaded their town – or perhaps lives among them – drive this psychological thriller to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.
That’s it for this month! What have you been reading and loving?
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