What I Read in June & Share Your Shelf Link Up #3

 Marilyn, Jennifer, Tanya, and I decided to start a monthly link up that will go live on the first Thursday of every month and be dedicated solely to books and book reviews. I hope you'll join us.  

I managed to read/listen to a dozen or so book this month. I enjoyed them all a lot and think I am going to have the hardest time ever picking my favorite reads of the year come December! I only managed to get one more book crossed off my 52 book challenge but I do have the other books planned... I just seem to keep setting aside the books I actually own to make time to read ones from the library. I keep promising myself I won't order any more until I read the ones I have but then I read a few book blogs and before I know it I'm requesting books left and right!

1.  Funny Story by Emily Henry-- I LOVED this storyline and the adorable cast of characters. When Daphne gets dumped by her fiancé after moving to his hometown and starting a new job she feels like she needs to tough out the rest of the year until after the big library fundraiser she's been planning. She talks Miles into letting her move in as his roommate. Miles would know best how Daphne is feeling since her fiancé left her for Miles girlfriend! Both feeling a bit down in the dumps after being dumped Miles and Daphne form a plan and an unlikely friendship blossoms. I know I am not spoiling anything by telling you that these two end up having more than friendly feelings for one another but even being somewhat predictable I still just loved this adorable story. 

2. Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon- When I saw that this book was compared to Gilmore Girls but with murder I just knew I had to give it a try! It was such a fun little murder mystery. When Lana finds herself convalescing at her daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack's house she feels a bit left out of their dynamic and is quite bored in their sleepy little coastal town. Until the day that Jack finds a dead body while out kayaking and becomes a suspect for murder. Lana, deciding the police aren't competent enough to solve this on their own, starts investigating. Eventually she draws the other two into investigating with her. 

3. Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews-- I really had no idea what this book would be about since I ordered it from our local library based on the cover and the author alone. I always enjoy Mary Kay Andrews summer novels and this one did not disappoint! Traci has been left in charge of her late husband's family resort "The Saint" and is struggling to keep it afloat. She has one last summer to try and turn things around but when one of the staff dies and the police suspect foul play Traci isn't sure they can weather the storm. Add in the fact that new information about an old drowning is looking rather suspicious and rumors of various staff members taking advantage of the resort are sprouting up and it looks like The Saint may be beyond saving. 

4. No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox-- I listened to this audiobook read by the author himself and enjoyed it a lot. He mostly focuses on Parkinson's and how it has affected his life from the time of diagnosis up until it was published. 

5. This Summer Will be Different by Carley Fortune-- I really enjoyed this book so much! Lucy meets Felix her first day on Prince Edward Island and the two hit it off immediately, only problem is that Lucy had no idea Felix is her best friend's brother. Once she realizes that she vows to stay away from Felix but that proves to be nearly impossible to do since the two are drawn to one another. Told in alternating time lines between the present and each of the past 8 years that Lucy has been coming to Prince Edward Island we see their bond grow, but this summer her best friend Bridget calls just days before her wedding, crying, asking Lucy to come to Prince Edward Island insisting she needs both Lucy and Felix at her side. 

6. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (Book 2 in the Empyrean series)-- I enjoyed this second book in the series just as much as the first. With a rebellion/revolution brewing Violet and her friends are stunned to find that year 2 is even harder than year 3. It seems like everyone is out to get Violet and she's frantic to find a solution to save everyone she cares about from what she sees as an imminent attack that most others do not foresee happening at all.  I really struggled to listen to all 28 hours in the 2 week span I had this book though I made it with a day to spare! 

7. When in Rome by Sarah Adams-- Amelia is fleeing her superstar life in the middle of the night headed for Rome (well, Rome, Kentucky anyway) when her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Noah comes to her rescue but makes it quite clear he'd rather do anything else than get involved in Amelia's affairs. He has zero sympathy for her celebrity problems but does grudgingly let her stay until her car can be fixed. But when Noah starts to see a different side to Amelia and Amelia learns that Noah's gruff and grumble is all show the two start a slow slide into friendship with every argument they can think of holding them off from falling for one another. It was a really cute story and just an adorable rom-com. 

8. Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead-  Dr. Willa Watters is a child psychologist fleeing her life after a video of her acting erratically during an interview goes viral. She had gotten a letter from the lawyer of her great aunts' estate and decides to head back to Broken Bayou to pick up the last remaining belongings of her mother. While in town Willa is soon sucked into a whole lot of drama when record low drought conditions have the bayou revealing old barrels filled with human remains and not one but two old cars-- one of which she recognizes as having belonged to her mother. This was such a fun little mystery/suspense novel and since it was a debut by a brand new author I got to cross one more book off my 52 Book Challenge. 

9. The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren-- I really enjoyed this book a lot! Anna Green married Liam "West" Weston in college so she would have a place to live in the family housing of UCLA and thought they were happily divorced when Liam shows up on her doorstep several years later asking Anna to act as his wife while he attends his sister's wedding on a private island. Liam's family is obscenely rich and full of all sorts of complicated money and power struggles but Anna is a starving artist and both are worried that she'll never fit in. Once on the island though and forced into close proximity Anna and Liam find that they genuinely like one another-- a lot and Liam, who has been aware of many of his family shortcomings for years, really starts to see his family and their wealth through Anna's eyes. This one was definitely rated R for content and language but I genuinely liked the plot and found myself rooting for the 2 main characters. 

10.  The Getaway Girls by Dee MacDonald-- This was such a fun book! 3 women, Connie, Gill, and Maggie all in their 60's and 70's take to the road in a giant camper van heading from England to the Amalfi coast in Italy. Connie who's hoping to meet some long lost family she just learned about that might still reside in Italy. Gill, who's on the cups of turning 70 and still trying to pass for 60 hitting on every man they see. Maggie hiding her ill gotten gains from her friends and on the run from her long-time live in boyfriend. While these ladies don't know each other well they certainly learn a lot about each other and themselves along the way. 

11.Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner- Such a sad and heartbreaking historical fiction novel but I loved it! In California in 1938, Rosie has lost her family and is taken in by the family that runs the vineyard her family lived on. When Rosie finds herself alone and pregnant at only 17 she decides she'll run away, but Celine and Calvert Truman, the owners, see her and send Rosie away-- only instead of a group home for unwed mother's like Rosie expected to be taken to she's sent to an asylum because Rosie sees colors and shapes where others do not. Told in alternating time lines from the days she's taken to the asylum to the events leading up to it one cannot help but feel frustrated and angry at Rosie's treatment. Then 9 years in the future when Helen, Calvert's sister, returns from Austria after WWII and discovers what happened to Rosie she is determined to find her and discovers that the asylum is where women have been forcibly sterilized. Dealing with her own trauma of what she saw during the war, Helen wants to help Rosie and find her brother's daughter. 

12. Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams-- I had no idea this was a 2nd book continuing off where When In Rome ended. In this book Noah's sister Anna realizes she's horrible at dating which puts a real damper on her plans to get married. When Amelia gets her bodyguard Will and Anna to team up to "fake date" she has a ball watching these two trying not to fall in love with one another. Good girl Anna and bad boy Will seem like such an unlikely pairing but Anna feels at ease with him in a way she never has before. It was such a cute and sweet story. 

Almost done! I have my last two books in hand and should be finished up entirely in the next couple of weeks:

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