Apparently I decided to read all the books this month, it meant catching up on a lot of ARCs and reading some new released by authors I really like. There was definitely some variety in my reads and I'm excited to see what August brings.
Cash Delgado is Living the Dream by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Cash Delgado has a good life in Ridley Falls. She has Joyce’s Bar, where she manages a familiar group of regulars and emcees the ever-popular Karaoke Thursday. She has her six-year-old daughter, Parker, whose spunky attitude always keeps life interesting.
And she has her best friend, Inez O’Conner, who improves Cash’s sometimes overly responsible outlook with one full of joy and potential.
But when Chase Staunton comes back to town, a former manager of Joyce's that Cash had a brief fling with. Chase invites Cash to dinner, where Cash learns Cash is in town to scout for a new bar. Now Cash is determined to stop him, with the help of Inez who she cant help but think she is starting to fall for.
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.
Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.
After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.
If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most – Mercy.
Heir, Apparently by Kara McDowell
Freshman year is stressful enough without accidentally being married to the King of England. Wren Wheeler feels like she is holding onto a huge secret, but she also misses a dog she saved with him. When she decides to try to get her dog back while the King is in Toronto they get caught, and now she finds herself on a plane to England.
But because the universe can’t let these two maybe-newlyweds have one conversation in peace, their plane goes down over the Atlantic, crashing on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere.
Stranded with no sign of rescue, the group will have to band together against poisonous animals, catastrophic injuries, a brotherly rivalry, and an ill-timed volcano if they’re going to make it out alive.
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Shiloh and Cary, along with their friend Mikey, were always together during high school. Shiloh would push his buttons and he'd let her, even dropping her off last after a night out to spend more time with her. Everyone thought they were end game, or that they'd been dating the whole time, but they were just friends, allies through a shitty world.
When Cary joins ROTC, with plans of going off to the Navy after graduation, Shiloh is desperate for nothing to change, even as she goes off to Iowa.
Now, Shiloh is thirty-three, divorced with two kids, and she hasn't spoken to Cary in fourteen years. When they see each other at a wedding, their feelings start to come back and so does their friendship.
A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
Now she is living in the town where her favorite rom-coms are set, with a character she doesn't know from the books. Now she wants to find out what his happen ending is supposed to be.
Four Weekends and A Funeral by Ellie Palmer
When thirty-year-old post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier and reluctant thrill-seeker Alison Mullally arrives at her ex-boyfriend Sam’s funeral to find that no one knows he dumped her, she agrees to play the grieving girlfriend for the sake of the family and pack up Sam’s apartment with his prickly best friend, Adam Berg. After all, it’ll only take four weekends.
But Adam doesn't want her near him, and even as she thinks she starts to break through his barrier, the feelings she has are confusing.
As they form a friendship it starts to feel like a lot more, and their confusing feelings lead to them feeling guilty over how they feel for each other and what happened to cause them to finally meet.
Under the Surface by Diana Urban
Ruby is terrified to cave to her feelings for Sean and risk him crushing her heart. Sean is pumped to spend a week with Ruby in Paris on their senior class trip, and he’ll wait however long until she’s ready to take things further.
But when Ruby’s best friend sneaks out the first night to meet a mysterious French boy, Ruby goes after her with two classmates, but caves to another temptation: attending mystery boy’s exclusive party in the Paris catacombs, the intricate web of tunnels beneath the city, home to six million long-dead Parisians. Only they never reach the party.
Now Ruby is trying to get out of the catacombs alive, while being chased by masked men, while Sean works on the surface to try to find her.
The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey
Tallulah is smart, vivacious, and studying to be a marine biologist. She’s also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighborhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween.
Her tween charge isn’t the only one who could use some help fitting in, though. According to…well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and adventurous Tallulah is just the girl to show him how. But as boundaries are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed, and Tallulah does the “right” thing—breaks her own heart and walks away.
Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis
Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—and while they reluctantly rescue her from certain death, they are not pleased to have an unexpected passenger along on their classified mission.
Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye. He’s not wrong—but he’s so pretty that Ada is perfectly happy to keep him paying attention to her—at least until she can complete the job she was sent to pull off.
This is the start of a trilogy of novellas!
Not Another Love Song by Julia Soto
Gwen Jackson and Xander Thorne are both musical prodigies, but each has had very different paths to success. Xander was born into classical music royalty, while Gwen had a natural ear for music that was nurtured by a kind shop owner.
After Gwen performs at his friend’s wedding, she’s mortified when she realizes Xander has no clue who she is—despite having worked together for a year at the Pops Orchestra. But she’s more furious that he arrogantly critiques her performance.
When Gwen is offered the role of First Chair of the orchestra, something Xander had secretly coveted for years, their existing hostility goes up a notch. But their respect for each other's music is undeniable, and their onstage chemistry off the scale.
None of This Rocks: A Memoir by Joe Trohman
Lead guitarist and cofounder of Fall Out Boy shares personal stories from his youth and his experiences of modern rock and roll stardom in this memoir filled with wit and wisdom. Trohman was, and remains, the emotive communicator of the group: the one who made sure they practiced, who copied and distributed the flyers, and who took the wheel throughout many of the early tours. As soon as he was old enough to drive, that is—because he was all of 15 years old when they started out.
None of This Rocks chronicles a turbulent life that has informed Trohman’s music and his worldview. His mother suffered from mental illness and multiple brain tumors that eventually killed her. His father struggled with that tragedy, but was ultimately a supportive force in Trohman’s life who fostered his thirst for knowledge.
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