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June 23, 2017 2 Comments

Summer Reading List 2017

Okay everyone, I’m back with this year’s MUST READ list! My Kindle is charged up and I am absolutely ready to burn through my list of books!

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on these sites using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase {which helps me buy even more books!} For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link.

For the past two years {2015 and 2016}, I’ve created a list of books that I was reading and books that you should read! I’m back with another list for 2017!

Last summer, I signed up for Kindle Unlimited. For just $9.99 a month, you get unlimited access to millions of books and unlimited audible files, too! The best part – the first month is FREE! I’ve discovered some fun “summer reads” last year {Everything We Keep by Kerry Longsdale was my fave!}! You can cancel anytime, so it’s definitely worth a try – even if just for the summer!

Over the past year, I’ve read close to 80 books, so it was very hard to pick for this list! But, here are my MUST reads for the summer of 2017!

Books You Should Read…

The Total Package is a super fun read. I absolutely love Stephanie Evanovich’s books!

The Light We Lost is so much like One Day {which I cried my eyes out over a few years ago!}

Hollywood Dirt is such a juicy, guilty pleasure beach read. ALL of Alessandra Torre’s books are fantastic. Start reading them and you will fill up your summer with some fun reads! Bonus: this book is being turned into a movie!

Lauren Layne is another go-to author these days for some light reading! Everything is so happy in her books! She has a bunch of series that make it fun to follow the characters throughout the book. You should totally start with From This Day Forward. It’s the first in the Wedding Belles series and it’s guaranteed to make you smile!

Do you like suspense {but not terrifyingly-scary?}? You MUST read The Marriage Lie,Behind Closed Doors, The Couple Next Door. You guys…you will not be able to put these two books down!!! {Read this book in a day – couldn’t put it down!}

A few of years ago, I read Colleen Hoover’s Maybe Someday and it was such a sweet story. This past year, I discovered even more of her books and they are simply fabulous. You honestly feel every single emotion the characters go through. You should definitely pick up November 9 and It Ends with Us. Make sure to grab your tissues, you guys.

Have you ever picked up anything from Taylor Jenkins Reid? She is definitely in my Top 5 authors these days! This past year, I read everything she has and simply loved it all! Pick up any of her books and you’ll fall in love! I started with One True Loves and it was perfect! You’ll see her latest book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, on my To Be Read list below.

Another fun beach read is The Hating Game.

I love some good ‘ol Southern’ books {I feel like if it weren’t for the heat, I could totally live there!} Southernmost is a perfect book for a lazy summer day.

And my final pick for the “must read” list is Swear on This Life. It’s a wonderful story about friendship.

Books I want to Read…

I love everything from Mary Alice Monroe, so I can’t wait to dig into The Beach House!

Same Beach, Next Year. I love a good beach read, can you tell?

The Identicals by Elin Hildebrand {Nantucket – swoon!}

Secrets in Summer by Nancy Thayer {another fabulous Nantucket author!}

The Party {Takes place in San Francisco, so I love a book set where I live!}

According to a Source – this just looks juicy!I definitely have more on my list, but I’m trying to be realistic since we just moved and I am too exhausted to read three pages of a book these days!

Want to share what you’re reading or what we must read? Link up!

Grab the images below, add the book covers and link up! I’m always looking for some great books to read & can’t wait to hear more suggestions!

Have a book you think I MUST read? Leave the title in the comments and I’ll check it out!

If you like some of these suggestions, make sure to follow me on Instagram. I often share the books I read using the hashtag #luckyreads. Are you on Goodreads? Let’s be friends!

Slainte!

April 26, 2017 Leave a Comment

Spring Bookshelf – What to Read This Season

Well, life must have been pretty busy these past two months, because my Books Read list is awfully short! I read so few books in March, that I combined April in with this list!

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon and Book of the Month. By purchasing an item on these sites using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase {which helps me buy even more books!} For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link.

Sophie Kinsella’s books are always hit-or-miss for me. Fortunately, My Not So Perfect Life was a hit. Definitely something entertaining that you should add to your summer reading list!

It takes place in London and that always makes me want to move {or at least visit London!}

Hey Harry, Hey Matilda is a fun story told through a series of emails between a set of twins. You may recall from my January Bookshelf post that Meg Cabot’s book is a story completely written through emails, texts, and news articles. That was an entertaining book.

This one? It’s good…not great. Entertaining, but quite honestly, not worth rushing out to pick up!

The first Book of the Month title I read was Marlena by Julie Buntin. To be honest, it was a little depressing. The narrator, Cat, moves to a small town in Michigan at 15. It tells a drawn out story about how she got mixed up with a troubled girl name Marlena.

I’ll be honest…it just didn’t make me want to pick it up and read. I finished it, but it took far too long! But, there’s a book out there for every reader, so don’t let me stop you from picking it up. It was well-written for sure. I just didn’t love the plot {which kinda important in a novel, right?}

Okay, so The Most Dangerous Place on Earth was the opposite of Marlena – I couldn’t put it down! The story takes place in the fancier part of the Bay Area {definitely not where I live!}. The book starts with a group of kids in middle school, where a tragedy occurs.

Fast forward a few years, and it follows the same group of kids through the high-pressure high school years.

It’s fantastic!

You know I love me some James P! One of his latest {he comes out with about 14 books a month!} is Never Never. It’s a mystery that happens in the Australian country. It was one of the few books of his that gave me the heebie-jeebies!

Definitely a good read for the upcoming summer break!

Of course I had to sneak in a Lauren Layne book this month! Blurred Lines is a delicious, guilty pleasure read. The premise: can a guy and a girl just be friends? This is a super fun read that answers the age-old question!

Who knew I liked suspense novels? I can’t get enough these days. Behind Closed Doors is excellent and you MUST add it to your TBR list! It’s not scary-suspenseful. It’s more of the “HOW can this happen to someone!” suspense!

The Good Girl has been on my Kindle wishlist for quite some time. It was on flash sale during April, so I snagged it. Really good! If you like to read books {like Gone Girl} where you try to piece together things as you’re reading along, you will enjoy this one!

It’s told from the perspectives of the mother of the missing girl, the man who kidnapped her, and the detective on the case. It’s awesome!

Hope that fills your reading queue for a bit!

Slainte!

January 31, 2017 1 Comment

January’s Bookshelf

I am a self-proclaimed Book Nerd! I LOVE reading so much that I seriously wish I could turn this hobby into a job!

Lately, I’ve started posting some covers of the books I’ve been reading on Instagram using the hashtag #luckyreads. So, I thought it would be fun to put a list together of what I’ve read at the end of each month in case you’re a book nerd, too 🙂

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase {which helps me buy even more books!} For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link.

Alright, I started the year devouring Lauren Layne’s Oxford Series. You guys…SUCH fun books! Lauren Layne knows how to write some steamy books {are you blushing yet?}

Irresistibly Yours, I Wish You Were Mine, and Someone Like You were just too fun to put down! I read these three books in just two and half days. I’m anxiously awaiting June {for many reasons!} but especially to finish up the series with I Knew You Were Trouble!

Next up I read Colleen Hoover’s November 9. OMG – have you ever read any books by her? Honestly, she may be one of my favorite writers!

The premise of November 9 is that the two main characters meet up once a year {obvi on November 9th!} and have no contact the other 364 days! It’ll suck you in…I promise! You may also love It Ends with Us by Colleen {Gutwrenching} or Maybe Someday, {Adorable!} too.

I lightened things up a little after that one with The Boy is Back. Such a fun story told via texts, emails, and other modern technology! Really light read – perfect for summertime sittin’ by a pool!

Do you ever read Taylor Jenkins Reid books?? You guys…you MUST. She writes incredible characters!!! In the beginning of the school year, I read Maybe in Another Life {and LOVED it!} but this month, I read One True Loves and Forever, Interrupted – they were both magnificent!

Maybe in Another Life even sparked a “What If” convo with JB! I bet it’ll get you thinking, too!

The One That Got Away has been on my Kindle wishlist for months and I finally felt like it was the right time to read it. It didn’t disappoint – I love a great “Man, I should have…” story!

Next up was Alessandra Torre’s latest, Love in Lingerie. It’s a racy book but so fun! I recently read Hollywood Dirt, Love Chloe, and Moonshot {which are not racy!} and I just love her style!

At the end of December, Amazon offered James Patterson’s The Murder House for dirt cheap with their daily deals. I love reading JP books for a quick, suspenseful read. Unfortunately, I did not love this one. It was worth the two bucks I paid, but it certainly wasn’t my favorite {and moved too slowly for a JP book, in my opinion!}

I snuck in another Lauren Layne book towards the end of the month. I think Good Girl took about 3 hours to devour – so fun!

The Marriage Lie may be my absolute favorite book I read this month! I snuck in the last few pages during the students’ silent reading because I just couldn’t wait till I got home to finish it up!!

As I was reading this suspenseful novel at the gym, I even gasped at one point – GASPED! Go read it! I’m not evena person who likes to be in suspense, but I loved this book!

I squeezed in one last book in January. Good as Gone was free from Kindle’s Lending Library. It was okay – not fabulous, but entertaining at least. Much of it didn’t seem super realistic, but I suppose those romantic novels aren’t always either, right?

That’s a wrap for January books. Because my Winter break didn’t end until January 9th, I had LOTS of reading time! I don’t usually read 13 books in a month but I’m trying to take more time out to read because I love it so much!

Are you on Goodreads? I just joined! You can follow me {I think that’s what you do on Goodreads!} here!

Slainte!