Let's be honest - it's Friday but if you're like me, you don't really have weekend plans. I am trying to do my best to stay home unless it's a grocery or essentials run to the store. I'm guessing that all that time at home is what has allowed me to read about a book a week over the last few weeks... and since I have no plans and nothing new to share, I figured I'd share the most recent books I've read. I loved them all!
All the synopsis were taken from Amazon.com - and then I've given my rating of each one as well!
One. This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens - Minnie Cooper knows two things with certainty: her New Year's birthday is unlucky, and that it's all because of Quinn Hamilton, a man she's never met. Their mothers gave birth to them at the same hospital just after midnight on New Year's Day, but Quinn was given the cash prize for being the first baby born in London in 1990 - and the name Minnie was meant to have, as well. With luck like that, it's no wonder each of her birthday has been more of a disaster than the one before.
When Minnie unexpectedly runs into Quinn at a New Year's party on their mutual thirtieth birthday, she sees only more evidence that fortune has continued to favor him. The gorgeous, charming business owner truly seems to have it all - while Minnie's on the brink of losing her pie-making company and her home. But if Quinn and Minnie are from different worlds, why do they keep bumping into each other? And why is it that each fraught encounter leaves them both wanting more?
A moving, joyful love story that explores the way fate leads us to the people we least expect - no matter what the odds.
Rating: ***** (that would be five stars)
Two. Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare & a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan & Graham McTavish - From their faithful camper van to boats, kayaks, bicycles and motorbikes, join stars of Outlander, Sam and Graham on a road trip with a difference, as two Scotsmen explore a land of raw beauty, poetry, feuding, music, history and warfare.
Unlikely friends Sam and Graham begin their journey in the heart of Scotland at Glencoe and travel from there all the way to Inverness and Culloden battlefield, where along the way they experience adventure and a cast of highland characters. In this story of friendship, finding themselves and whisky, the discover the complexity, rich history and culture of their native country.
Rating: **** (Enjoyed it - just found it to be a slower read)
Three. The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman - Since the day Filomena Fontana cast a curse upon her sister more than two hundred years ago, not one second-born Fontana daughter has found lasting love. Some, like second-born Emilia, the happily-single baker at her grandfather's Brooklyn deli, claim it's an odd coincidence. Others, like her sexy, desperate-for-love cousin Lucy, insists it's a true hex. But both are bewildered when their great-aunt calls with an astounding proposition: If they accompany to her homeland of Italy, Aunt Poppy vows she'll meet the love of her life on the steps of the Ravello Cathedral on her eightieth birthday, and break the Fontana Second-Daughter Curse once and for all.
Against the backdrop of wandering Venetian canals, rolling Tuscan fields, and enchanting Amalfi Coast villages, romance blooms, destinies are found, and family secrets are unearthed - secrets that could threaten the family far more than a centuries old curse.
Rating: ***** (Absolutely loved it!)
Four. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever - and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries, continents across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
Rating: ***** (Still thinking about this one - so very good!)
Five. The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins - Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates - a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name. But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates' most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can't help but see an opportunity in Eddie - not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she's always yearned for.
Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie's heart before her past - or his - catches up to her? With delicious suspense, incisive with, and a fresh, feminist sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips the script on a timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won't stay buried. In this vivid reimagining of one of literature's most twisted love triangles, which Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending?
Rating: **** (An easy and intriguing read)
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That's all I've got for this Friday! I hope everyone has a good (long) weekend, stays safe and tries to make the most of things!
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