New Reads:
1. Beach Read by Emily Henry - I devoured this book within a day of receiving it in my April Book of the Month box. This was a completely enjoyable and emotional romantic story. I loved January and Gus and their love story. Even more than the love story itself, I loved the slow burn of really getting to know the characters as people and fall in love with them.
2. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare - This is a powerful story with a very strong main character. I disliked many of the characters for their treatment of Adunni, who was a great person who just wanted to get an education. It made me think a lot about how students in the US often don't value education and take it for granted. It was an eye-opening read to culture in Nigeria and especially opened my eyes to the underage labor and child marriage that occurs. There were so many parts of this book that I hoped were not based in any truth, though I'm sure they were.
3. The Widow by Fiona Barton - I can't say I enjoyed a story as disturbing as this one, but it was an interesting and compellingly readable one. I had to keep reading to know what had happened. This book contains one of the most despicable characters that I have encountered in a story. I wanted justice to be served to him. This story was one part police procedural, one part reporter chasing a story, and another part delving into the mind of a widow whose former husband may have done something terrible. My favorite part of the story was probably the police procedural for how interesting the case was but I really liked all of it.
4. The Child by Fiona Barton - I read this book directly after The Widow, so it was interesting to read two of an author's books back-to-back. I would say that I definitely liked this one better than The Widow, which was also a book that I liked a lot. I found the characters in this one to be overall more likely. Kate the reporter has a much larger role in this story than in the first book. Emma's story was heart-wrenching and I cared about her character.
5. The Whisper Man by Alex North - For some reason, I had started this book a couple of times without finishing it due to getting busy while reading it. Luckily, this time I actually finished it and it was a very good story. There was one plot twist about the relationship between certain characters that caught me completely off guard. This was a story about a really frightening villain as well as some very human characters.
6. When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald - I wasn't sure about this book from the first chapter, but it ended up being a good, quirky read. There were a lot of awful characters in this book who did not good things, but Zelda was a good character. This was a solid read, which I would say I didn't fully love, but I definitely liked it.
7. The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen - Somehow I read the first book by this writing duo last. This story drew me in and even once I thought I knew all the twists, the book threw some more at me. There was even one in the last 2 pages. I appreciated that this book kept me guessing the whole time. As is often the case in domestic thrillers, the characters were hard to like and manipulative, though I did really feel for the narrator, Vanessa.
8. Next Girl to Die by Dea Poirier - I bought this book last year and accidentally managed to leave it unread on my shelf for nearly a year. Now that I've read it, I don't know why I did that, because this book was amazing. This was an engaging mystery with a detective main character that I cared about. Claire was a great main character with a personal connection to these cases that made it more emotional. I definitely want to read more books with her in the starring role, so I will be getting the second book in this series soon. The mystery was complex and well-done. I enjoyed the side romance between Claire and another character as well.
Rereads:
1. Meet Cute by Helena Hunting - This book was just as cute and full of heart the second time around.
2. Lock Every Door by Riley Sager - This reread has cemented that this is my favorite Riley Sager book so far, with The Last Time I Lied in a close second. I'm super excited to read Home Before Dark once it comes out this summer.
3. Well Met by Jen DeLuca - This book is a fun read. I'm excited to read the next two in the series. I hope Stacey's book, Well Played, is a Book of the Month pick this fall.
