The Last Collection

By: Jeanne Mackn
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 352

Amazon Barnes & Noble

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this book.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Paris, 1938. Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli are fighting for recognition as the most successful and influential fashion designer in France, and their rivalry is already legendary. They oppose each other at every turn, in both their politics and their designs: Chanel's are classic, elegant, and practical; Schiaparelli's bold, experimental, and surreal.

When Lily Sutter, a recently widowed young American teacher, visits her brother, Charlie, in Paris, he insists on buying her a couture dress--a Chanel. Lily, however, prefers a Schiaparelli. Charlie's beautiful and socially prominent girlfriend soon begins wearing Schiaparelli's designs as well, and much of Paris follows in her footsteps.

Schiaparelli offers budding artist Lily a job at her store, and Lily finds herself increasingly involved with Schiaparelli and Chanel's personal war. Their fierce competition reaches new and dangerous heights as the Nazis and the looming threat of World War II bear down on Paris.

First Impressions

I received an offer for to review this book shortly after I finished (and loved) Park Avenue Summer. Because of that, I was a lot more open and excited for the more modern historical romances such as this one and Park Avenue Summer. I will say, that if I hadn’t just read PAS, I don’t think I would’ve accepted this book. The cover doesn’t speak to me at all. I don’t think I would’ve picked it up based on cover alone. So overall, not the best first impression, but decent.

What I thought

This book moved a little slow for my taste. It also was a lot more tied to art than I expected it to be, and seeing as that’s not an area I know a lot about or follow a lot, it wasn’t exactly the book for me.

Lilly is an aspiring artist who recently lost her husband. Her brother invites her to Paris for the summer where she meet design powerhouses, Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli (AKA Schiap, pronounced Scap). Coco and Schiap are sworn enemies. Lilly ends up working for Schiap and doing some recon with Chanel, all while trying to find her way in Paris during the verge of WW2.

This book is told in three parts and each part is a color that ties into the part of the story. Seeing as that used to be my least favorite type of symbolism when reading books in high school, I was a little irritated initially. However, I was able to move past it and ignore it and just enjoy the story without reading too much into the colors. I will say, that at the beginning of the book the discussion of art and colors was a lot and I worried I wouldn’t be able to get past it. Luckily, it toned down as the book continued.

While I did enjoy the story and enjoyed learning about Chanel and Schiap and how their lives intertwined, the book moved too slowly for me. it took me a while to get through it, and even when traveling it wasn’t one that I wanted to pick up in every down moment. This became even more evident when I was reading my next book and finished it within 24 hours, whereas this one took me 10 days.

It’s definitely one of those stories that nothing much really happens. It’s just a story about Lilly’s life in Paris pre-WW2. There’s a little love, a little mystery, but it isn’t one big plot point that the reader is trying to follow. The saving grace of this story are the characters. They were fun to read about and that was why I was able to keep going with this book.

This book was fine. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t terrible. I think if I was more into Chanel, Schiaparelli, or art I would have enjoyed it more. The writing style wasn’t one of my favorites, so I don’t think this is an author I’ll seek out more in the future, but again, it wasn’t bad. I finished this book while on my Alaskan cruise and there was an area for people to leave (or take) books on the boat. Because I didn’t connect with this book, it made me excited to be able to leave it behind in hopes that it would travel and find someone that would love it.

Romance Series Review- Sometimes in Love

The past few months I have gotten the opportunity to read each book in the Sometimes in Love romance series by Melonie Johnson. The first book, Getting Hot with the Scot, was published in April, the second book Smitten by the Brit in May, and the third and final book, Once Upon a Bad Boy in June. Instead of writing full and separate posts for each book, I decided to try a little series summary.

If you are unaware with romance novels, then the way that their series work will be a bit foreign to you. Unlike most book series, romance novel series are more multiple books in the same universe than a story that told over a series of novels. What I love about romance novel series is that they really let you live in the world and get to know each secondary character.

This series, like I mentioned, starts with Getting Hot with the Scot. This novel not only serves to tell Cassie’s love story, but to introduce you to everyone. Cassie and her four friends Bonnie, Sadie, Ana and Delaney are on a once in a lifetime European trip. I immediately connected to this because my friend Bonnie and I took a similar type of trip a few years ago. The story takes place during the end of their trip in Scotland. Cassie runs into a Scotsman in a castle wearing a kilt and talking with a true Scottish brogue. Since she has made it a goal to sleep with a foreigner while on their trip, she immediately kisses him. Little does she know, this isn’t just any Scotsman, but Logan Reid, a host of a prank-based web series.

Overall, this book was very cute and definitely got me sucked into the series. Johnson did a great job of laying the groundwork for the second book romance with Bonnie and Logan’s friend Theo. I liked Cassie and Logan together and liked reading about their story, but I found myself more interested in her friends. I also was a bit surprised at how quickly they left Scotland. Either way, it was definitely a BORROW book and it piqued my interest to continue the series.

The second book in the series was Smitten by the Brit. I was very excited to read this one because I really liked Bonnie in the first book. I could tell that this book was going to focus on her breaking up with Gabe, her fiancé, and getting together with Theo. While I feel like these types of stories can sometimes feel sad or stale, Johnson did a great job. She hit the perfect balance between feeling sad for Bonnie about losing the relationship and the future she thought she was going to have and the excitement of finding someone new. I also liked that there was some focus on Bonnie’s career and life. The only part that I was a little meh on was Theo and his family. His attitude behind having to save his family made sense, but for some reason it didn’t quite connect with me. Looking back on the series as a whole, I think that this might be my favorite of the three.

The final book in the series was Once Upon a Bad Boy. Honestly, this was the book in the series I was looking forward to least. I hadn’t really connected to Sadie in the previous books, and she was not my top choice to follow. Sadie is an actress and she is getting her big break. When her high school boyfriend shows up on set as the stunt coordinator, she feels like fate has brought her back to where she needs to be. Like I said, I’m not a huge fan of Sadie and I honestly didn’t like Bo, the male interest, much either. The beginning of the story was ok for me, but the longer the story went on the less I liked it. There was also a story line of “big event that happened in the past that as hidden but comes back to bite the character in the butt” that I didn’t like at all. I wanted to just flip by it, but I couldn’t. I think what bummed me out the most about this book is that I liked all of the other girls from the other books, and they really weren’t in this one. Unfortunately, this book was a miss for me, but I still liked the series overall.

Do you have any favorite romance series?

Summer of Travel

This summer I am so lucky to have the opportunity to be traveling a ton. I am going on an Alaskan Cruise and I will be visiting Israel. Because of that, my blogging will be a little sparse. I have tried to pre-schedule a few reviews so that there will (hopefully) be at least one a week to come out on my travels. I won’t have reliable internet access on my travels and I am also choosing to not worry about it because I want to be in the moment.

I know that anyone reading this will be completely understandable. I also hope to make a few posts after my trips sharing which items were my favorite ones to travel with and which ones I should’ve left at home.

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer and thank you for being understanding and for reading my blog!

The Friends We Keep

By: Jane Green
Published Year: 2019
Publisher:Berkley
Pages: 384

Amazon Barnes & Noble

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this book.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Evvie, Maggie, and Topher have known each other since university. Their friendship was something they swore would last forever. Now years have passed, the friends have drifted apart, and none of them ever found the lives they wanted – the lives they dreamed of when they were young and everything seemed possible.
 
Evvie starved herself to become a supermodel but derailed her career by sleeping with a married man. 
 
Maggie married Ben, the boy she fell in love with at university, never imagining the heartbreak his drinking would cause. 
 
Topher became a successful actor but the shame of a childhood secret shut him off from real intimacy.
 
By their thirtieth reunion, these old friends have lost touch with each other and with the people they dreamed of becoming. Together again, they have a second chance at happiness… until a dark secret is revealed that changes everything.
 
The Friends We Keep is about how despite disappointments we’ve had or mistakes we’ve made, it's never too late to find a place to call home.

First Impressions

When I was in college I loved Jane Green. The first book I read of hers, Mr. Maybe, sparked a love of her writing and I proceeded to go through her works at the local library. However, I have not read anything of hers in recent years. Not for any specific reason, just that I’ve been reading other things. When I was offered this book to review I freaked out. I could not believe that one of her books came my way to review. Also, this cover just screams summer.

What I thought

If you love good stories about friendships, you don’t even need to read the rest of this review. Just pick up this book and you will thank me.

Evvie, Maggie and Topher met at university. This story follows them from the time that they meet, through the next 30 years of their lives. There are times when they are the closest of friends, and times where their lives drift apart. When they do finally get together for the first time in 30 years, will their friendship be the same as it was all those years ago? Or will life and mistakes change their relationships forever?

The story is written from alternating perspectives between Evvie, Maggie, and Topher. It is also told in 3 parts. Part 1 is during the college years, part 2 is the in between years from post-graduation to the present, and then Part 3 is present day. Evvie is part-Jamaican and part-America. She and her mother have moved back to London to live with her grandmother after her mom left her dad. As a result, she decides she loves England and wants to go to university there before becoming a model or continuing her life as an actress. Maggie is born and bred British. Her family is a bit posh and she is the only girl with 3 brothers. Topher is also part-American and part-British but is a self-proclaimed Anglophile. He is also kind of asexual but also gay.

I absolutely loved the style in which this was written. I loved going on their life journeys with the characters and felt like I got to know them so well and became one of their friends. It was great to grow up with the characters and I think because of the way that it’s written, it allows the reader to become close to the characters and be more understanding of their mistakes and flaws. Evvie, most obviously, makes the biggest mistake, yet I couldn’t hate her for it. I understood what happened because I saw it through her eyes, and even though I didn’t agree with what she did, I felt like I could ultimately forgive her for her transgressions because she was one of my close friends.

I also appreciated that there was a male part of this friend group. So often these types of stories occur with three females, and I liked the perspective of Toper. I also really liked his storyline. At times he felt very separate from Maggie and Evvie, whose stories intertwine a bit more, but I was always happy to make it back to Topher’s perspective and never felt like he was disconnected or that his part could’ve been cut out.

It’s funny because I look back at the story and I don’t think it’s a groundbreaking story with events that are completely unpredictable or that I’ve never read before, but it’s done in such a unique way that it makes it different than other similar stories that I have read. Plus, the writing is just so well done. I forgot how much I loved Green’s writing and storytelling, and I want to go back and pick up her books that I have missed over the past few years.

I loved this book. I feel like I lived through this book. Like I said above, if you like stories about friendships you need to pick up this book. The writing is great and while it’s been to long for me to say whether or not it’s one of my favorite Jane Green books, it is wonderful and I think it would be a great introduction to her and her writing.

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune

By: Roselle Lim
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 320

Amazon Barnes & Noble

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): At the news of her mother's death, Natalie Tan returns home. The two women hadn't spoken since Natalie left in anger seven years ago, when her mother refused to support her chosen career as a chef. Natalie is shocked to discover the vibrant neighborhood of San Francisco's Chinatown that she remembers from her childhood is fading, with businesses failing and families moving out. She's even more surprised to learn she has inherited her grandmother's restaurant.

The neighborhood seer reads the restaurant's fortune in the leaves: Natalie must cook three recipes from her grandmother's cookbook to aid her struggling neighbors before the restaurant will succeed. Unfortunately, Natalie has no desire to help them try to turn things around--she resents the local shopkeepers for leaving her alone to take care of her agoraphobic mother when she was growing up. But with the support of a surprising new friend and a budding romance, Natalie starts to realize that maybe her neighbors really have been there for her all along.

First Impression

This cover is life! The purple! The gold foil! I love everything about it. This book first caught my eye on a list of upcoming 2019 books to look out for. Between the cover and the summary I was immediately sucked in. When given the opportunity to review this book I about jumped out of my skin. I couldn’t wait.

What I thought

via GIPHY

Natalie moves back home after her agoraphobic mother who she hasn’t talked to in 7 years dies. When she gets back to their home in Chinatown she is resentful towards her neighbors who never helped her with her mother as she was growing up. She plans on holding the funeral and then leaving until she finds out her mother has left her her grandmother’s old restaurant. Opening her own restaurant has been Natalie’s dream and is the reason she left and didn’t talk to her mother for so long. Before she opens the restaurant, one of her neighbors gives Natalie her grandmother’s old recipe book and tasks her with mission of feeding three neighbors magical meals to fix their problems if she wants her restaurant, and their neighborhood to succeed.

I just… ok. Where do I start? I think I’ll start with all of the things I didn’t expect from this book and maybe then move on to the parts that just didn’t work for me.

First off, I know that I should have expected magic with the whole feeding neighbors to fix their moods, but it was a bit weirder than I expected. Like it wasn’t just internal magic where someone eats a meal and then they fall in love or get lucky or something. The magic reaches into the outside world and has actual effects on people and objects. For example, when two of the neighbors fight the sidewalk actually cracks. I couldn’t quite tell if only Natalie was able to see these magical events or if everyone could and just accepted them? Honestly, it was never made very clear.

There was another magical moment late in the book that came out of nowhere and made zero sense. It was like an afterthought and very unnecessary. I also expected this book to have more romance. I thought I remembered finding it on a list of contemporary romance novels to look out for, but maybe I was wrong because there is little to no romance in this story. The romantic interest feels like it was thrown in as a recommendation from the editor because they wanted a romance in there. It’s instalove with zero development that occurs over little to no time and brings nothing to the story. Daniel could not exist and it would make no difference at all.

Now, on to what just didn’t work for me. In short, the writing. The characters were flat and underdeveloped. I didn’t connect with anyone and they all changed their minds in a second whenever it benefitted another character. The casual flip flop of the characters drove me crazy. I don’t know how to explain this very well, but because of this and the writing I never was able to fall into the book. I always felt like I was reading an author manipulate characters. Does that make any sense? I know this is a debut novel, but the writing and the editing did nothing for me.

It’s so painful to have a book that you looked forward to so much be so disappointing. The only thing that worked for me in this book was the concept. None of the execution worked for me. the only reason I didn’t give this book one star is because there were parts that were entertaining enough that I didn’t feel like giving up on the book until I was almost done. The only thing I can hope for is that they made a lot of changes for the final copy of the book that I didn’t get to read in my ARC. If you’re looking for a contemporary novel with a bit of magic that’s done well, I would highly recommend On The Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher instead.

Book Club June 2019- The Joy Luck Club

By: Amy Tan
Published Year: 1989
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 354

Amazon Barnes & Noble

This month’s pick was my choice. I originally had picked The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary, but then found out that it wasn’t going to be released in the US until May 28th, and book club was help on June 1st. As a result, I had to find a different option at the last minute. Since I enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians last summer, I thought it would be fun to check out one Kwan’s inspirations.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

What I thought

This book was absolutely nothing like I expected.

I thought that this was going to be a story about the Joy Luck Club, and after the first chapter, thought it was going to involve June traveling to China to meet her long lost half-sisters. Instead, it felt more like a series of short stories about 8 Chinese and Chinese-American women. The only time the Joy Luck Club even meets is in the first chapter.

At first, I was a bit confused and frustrated as I couldn’t follow along with what was going on or where the story was going. It wasn’t until I viewed it as short stories that I was able to appreciate the stories and the writing. It was still confusing at times trying to remember who was who and which characters were related to which ones. Some of the daughters’ stories were similar, so it was a little difficult for me to keep some of the details straight.

When I finished the book, I felt like I had enjoyed it and that I liked the insight into the Chinese and Chinese-American culture. But looking back on it, I do feel like some of the stories were left unfinished. It was like I got a glimpse into everybody’s lives, but that I didn’t get to see much of what happened. I think if there is a sequel (I have no idea of there is or is not) I would read it, in hopes of finding out what happened to these characters.

What Book Club Thought

Well… I think it says a lot when only 2/5 book club members finish the book. Everyone agreed that it was difficult to follow the characters and remember who was connected to who. As a result, it was hard to connect to the characters themselves. I think overall, there were bits that were interesting that we wish had been capitalized on more, but that in the end we just didn’t get it. the other consensus was that if the first chapter had been the entire book, we would’ve liked it much more. We are all curious about the movie now, none of us are sure how this book translates to movie format.

Somewhere Only We Know

By: Maureen Goo
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Pages: 320

Amazon Barnes & Noble

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 10 00 p.m.: Lucky is the biggest K-pop star on the scene, and she's just performed her hit song "Heartbeat" in Hong Kong to thousands of adoring fans. She's about to debut on The Tonight Show in America, hopefully a breakout performance for her career. But right now? She's in her fancy hotel, trying to fall asleep but dying for a hamburger.

11 00 p.m.: Jack is sneaking into a fancy hotel, on assignment for his tabloid job that he keeps secret from his parents. On his way out of the hotel, he runs into a girl wearing slippers, a girl who is single-mindedly determined to find a hamburger. She looks kind of familiar. She's very cute. He's maybe curious.

12:00 a.m.: Nothing will ever be the same.

First Impressions

Last year I discovered Maureen Goo and she quickly became a new favorite author. I love the characters that she writes as well as the way she introduces me to new parts of Korean culture. This book got added to my TBR before there was even a cover. While I do like the cover, and it would be one that younger me would’ve been attracted to, I don’t know if I would have just picked it up off the shelf at my current age.

What I thought

This book was so sweet.

Lucky is a famous K-pop star. While in Hong Kong, she decides she wants a hamburger so she goes out in to the middle of the night to find one. While doing so, she runs into Jack. Jack is an American living in Hong Kong with his family. He is taking a year off between high school and university and is moonlighting as paparazzi. When he first runs into Lucky, he doesn’t realize who she is. The next morning, he learns about her true identity and decides it’s going to be his big break if he can convince her to spend the day with him while he secretly takes pictures. Lucky, not knowing that Jack knows who she is, decides to enjoy her day of freedom which turns into so much more.

I loved the idea of a pop star getting a secret day in a city to do whatever she wanted. What I loved, unexpectedly, about this story was Lucky. The balance found in her personality with her strength and her innocence was perfect. She knew what she wanted and who she was, but at the same time she didn’t. I also liked that she didn’t take shit from anyone and knew how to use her power, but not in a mean way.

Jack on the other hand was cute and fun, but felt a little generic to me. I liked the chemistry between the two, but his whininess about liking photography but it being something he could never pursue eventually worked on a nerve. Luckily, (no pun intended) it didn’t take away from the book for me. Just not a character I particularly loved.

I was also impressed with how Goo managed to make an entire book with only two characters work so well. Their exploration of Hong Kong was fun and made me want to look into a city that has never been on my radar. I love how rich with Asian culture Goo’s books are. First, she introduced me to K-dramas, and now I’m curious about K-pop!

While this isn’t my favorite of Goo’s books, it’s such a cute YA romance. I love that the entire story takes place over the course of a day. It’s a whirlwind romance which I would’ve daydreamed about as a teen. I flew through this book and enjoyed every minute of it. I think what was ultimately missing for me is that Goo does parental relationships and friendships so well, and even though the story worked with just two character, I find myself missing that aspect of her writing. I would highly recommend checking this story out and looking into more of her books!

Little Big Love

By: Katy Regan
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 384

Amazon Barnes & Noble

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this book.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Liam Jones was the love of Juliet's life. He was her brother's best friend, then her best friend, then the father of her little boy. In those shining weeks after Zac was born, she had never been happier and neither had Liam.

And then one night, Liam disappeared without a trace.

Ten-year-old Zac Hutchinson collects facts: octopuses have three hearts, Usain Bolt is the fastest man on earth. But no one will tell him what happened to his father and where he went.

When Juliet, inadvertently admits that his father is the only man she's ever loved, Zac decides he is going to find him and deliver his mom the happily ever after she deserves.

But Liam left for a reason, and as Zac searches for clues of his father, Juliet begins to rebuild what shattered so many years ago.

An unforgettable, heart-stopping story of the secrets we keep and of love in all of its many forms.

First Impressions

A few years ago I read Regan’s book, How We Met and really enjoyed it. When an opportunity to review another one of her novels came my way, I couldn’t turn it down. I also originally saw the British cover, which I love much more than the US version.

What I thought

I’m trying to think of how to review this book without being mean.

Zac is turning 11 and wants to find his father. Juliet has told Zac that his father left them shortly before he was born, but she and her father Mick know the true story.

I started reading this book in January. I was enjoying it, but not loving it. Interested enough to keep going, but I didn’t feel bad or feel a pull to it when I had to put it down to read a few other review books. When I finally caught up and was able to pick it back up again, I just felt dragged down. Zac irritated me, I had no sympathy for Juliet, and Mick was kind of a dick.

After trying to get back into the book so that I could finish it, I gave up. I decided to skip forward to the end to see how the story resolved and ultimately was glad that I did. I think if I had continued with the story I ultimately would’ve been frustrated with the ending and angry that I wasted my time.

The dichotomy of a story switching between the perspective of a 10 year old boy and his mother didn’t work for me at all. I couldn’t connect with a child’s perspective trying to tell an adult story. He got on my nerves and I just didn’t like his chapters. Juliet also had a very woe-is-me attitude that got irritating quickly.

Without going on too much, this book just didn’t work for me. It moved too slowly, had too much going on, and characters I couldn’t connect with. I think, unfortunately, this book has made me question whether or not I would pick up anything else by Regan. While the beginning of the book wasn’t horrible, I think the fact that I put it down for months without ever feeling a need to pick it back up again pretty much says it all.