My goal for August was to add four books to my yearly tally. I managed to do it and most of it poolside. How great is that?
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book is the definition of a summer read: light, easy-going, with a vacation-worthy setting. In this case, that setting’s a small island off the East Coast. Toss in the fact that it’s set in the ’30s-’60s, involves a movie star and a lighthouse—you’ve got a winner.
This is the first book I’ve read by Williams and I’m excited to read more (but maybe not until next summer).
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ruth Ware reliably writes entertaining and thrilling reads, so it’s not a surprise to me that I enjoyed The Turn of the Key so much.
Ware manages to create, time and time again, these capsule-like worlds. In this case, it’s a manor in a remote part of Scotland (in The Woman in Cabin 10 it was a small ship, in In a Dark, Dark Wood, it was a country house). The remoteness of these locales always amps up the intensity to me.
What I really loved about this book, though, was how Ware wove paranoia about the supernatural plus the uneasiness that comes with new technology (the home where this is set is a smart home that’s fully wired with cameras) together to create a thriller that really kept me wondering.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides • ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Goodreads kept trying to sell me on this book. It’s the release of the year! It’s a lot like all these other books you’ve read! Wow! Look at all these positive reviews! But I don’t know about it.
This pageturner focuses on a woman accused of killing her husband and her therapist. The thing is, the woman hasn’t spoken since the murder. Her therapist is hell-bent on getting to the bottom it so he can reveal the truth.
It sounds intriguing, right? I won’t steer you away from this book by any means, but I did feel a bit frustrated with the characters throughout. Take my review with a grain of salt, of course.
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert • ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book is outside my typical reading realm: It’s fantasy and it’s YA (did not realize the latter when I first checked it out from the library).
At any rate, I really enjoyed the twisting together of folklore and reality in this book. I particularly loved how the fictional source material in this novel was fairytale-like, but the kind of fairytales that have no moral (I love that sort of thing; it brings Baba Yaga to mind for me). But in the end, this book just reminded me how fantasy and YA, in particular, are not my things. But if they are for you, definitely give this a read.
• • •
Now that summer is gone, I’m looking forward to some moodier and spookier reads. I’ve got three on deck: The Poison Thread by Lauren Purcell (loved her other book: The Silent Companions), The Toll by Cherie Priest and Dead Lake by Darcy Coates. Gotta pace myself so I’ve got some spooky reads left for October, though! And, as always, you can follow me and my reading on Goodreads.
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