July Book Roundup

Today Shane and I are officially on our way to Virginia! The boxes are packed, they're on their way, the cleaners are here...and we are making our way up to our new home state. I'll be keeping you busy with my July Book Roundup in the meantime 😉

Oh, what does one say about my July books? It overall was a really great reading month! As I've said in previous posts, a lot of big name authors release theirs in summer, so I read those new books and for some reason went back and read quite a few older ones too. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the "older" (aka released a year or a few years ago) ones that had been on my radar previously but I hadn't been motivated enough to read yet...until now!

This month had a mix of suspense, historical fiction, women's contemporary fiction, and a romance/beach read. I rarely read two books in a row by the same genre, but a few from this month kind of negated that. I found an author that I just wanted to keep going with her backlist! 

My July books were all good for summer or even fall. They were perfect to curl up with on the back porch on a summer day, but some of them gave off fall vibes for sure.

Here's the monthly roundup!

The House Across the Lake- by Riley Sager ⭐⭐⭐🌟

Well, it isn't summer unless Riley Sager has a new book out. Reading any of his books remind me of his first ones I read while in my apartment pool in Houston. All of his books are so different from each other (concerning the characters, setting, plot) and this one sucked me in at first. That being said, I wouldn't think this is one written by him. I don't know what author I thought I was reading a book from, but it 100% wasn't him.

This one is similar to many, many others lately in that the theme is of the narrator peering in on neighbors. It was similar to The Woman in the Window at first with its unreliable narrator. It was a seemingly run of the mill thriller until a certain point...and then it just got wild, and I'm not sure that it was in the best way. A lot of readers have said the same thing: they've read too many thrillers where they are all a bit predictable and hard to be surprised (and I agree), and I was thinking that throughout this book...until the end. It does have fantasy and supernatural elements, so keep that in mind.

The German Wife- by Kelly Rimmer ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This author is one of my new favorites as of this year. I loved this one, although I still like The Things We Cannot Say better I think! This book covered a side of WW2 and the Nazis that is not often talked about. It puts lots of things into perspective and had me looking at different angles of the war in a different light. I loved the before and after of the war in both US and Germany. It was interesting to see the backstory behind many people involved in the war and to see why they made the choices they did. 

It did have a slower start and I was at first confused by the numerous characters and varying timelines, but it soon streamlines into something more understandable. I read most of this one in Louisiana (as pictured) and while driving through Alabama (where one of the storylines takes place) and that helped to bring it to life even more! This book is lovely, yet heart-wrenching.

Limelight- by Amy Poeppel⭐⭐⭐⭐

This author has been floating around for a few years, but I always disregarded her books thinking they were just other chick-lit books. One of my bloggers recommended one of hers that I was in the mood for, so I went to get it off the shelf at the library and was reminded of this one too. 

Reading other reviews for it, many people say they were surprised by how much they liked it...I must agree with that! I devoured half of it in a day. It reminds me of Laurie Gelman's Class Mom books or books by Lauren Weisberger (The Devil Wears Prada author). This one was light but had depth, enjoyable, funny, witty, included lots of parenting lifestyle, and had exceptional dialogue. Give me more of this author!

Musical Chairs- by Amy Poeppel⭐⭐⭐⭐

Amy Poeppel, you made my month of July apparently. While this is the book of hers that was recommended, I was unsure of the content (heavy focus on a musical orchestra trio) and slightly older characters for the most part. However, the author made it all intriguing and interesting. I actually think I liked this one slightly better than Limelight! 

It's about an established, wealthy, and musical family. It covers their everyday family love (which I always love) and spent most of the setting at their summer home in Connecticut. It was an easy, thought-provoking enough, well-written read again.

The Husbands- by Chandler Baker⭐⭐⭐ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

Okay, so this one was on my radar for awhile, then it completely fell off until my coworker mentioned another one by this same author and this one started sounding good again. It doesn't have that high of reviews overall, but I should know by now that I oftentimes don't agree with the majority of general readers. 

I was extremely surprised by how much I loved it; I was so impressed by this author's style of writing. I have always loved reading about the details and daily lives of suburban moms, and this focused on that while also taking it step further. It had an underlying, science fictiony, creepy Stepford Wife vibes with a twist- which was a bit different genre for me. It's labeled as a thriller, but I saw reviews that it doesn't do that genre justice, so I went into it thinking of it as a contemporary fiction or social commentary book as opposed to a thriller and I think that helped me appreciate the book much more. It is very thought-provoking and had me thinking about women's roles overall, men's roles in the household, and women in the workplace.

 Unfortunately and fortunately, I could relate more to the "lazy" husbands in this book since I am so grateful to have a husband that takes on MANY of the tasks that this book traditionally assigns to women, yikes! I loved the Texas/Austin setting and I liked this book even more after I followed the author's Insta and could appreciate her humor, seeing how it translated over to her writing style. I also loved the message boards that were included in between the chapters of this book. Overall, this one definitely was a success, as long as I didn't dwell too long on the "thriller" aspect of it! I absolutely loved it!

Every Summer After- by Carley Fortune⭐⭐⭐🌟

This book has been hyped up everywhere! Everyone is raving how surprised they are that it is a debut for this author. After some of my favorite bloggers recommended it and my coworker had it on her TBR list too, we decided to select it for our July book for our virtual work book club. 

It's definitely one I had to be in the mood for, and I found myself enjoying it a lot more at night when I was tired and needing something easy. I think I would have eaten it right up if I read this in college or right after. It's an all around feel-good book that I enjoyed big picture, but when I looked at the details, I'm not sure it was that stellar of a read. That being said, it was comforting and I did get invested with the characters. I appreciated the summer nostalgia feelings it had. There were bits and pieces that reminded me of Emily Henry's writing. That makes sense with her doing the cover quote and all!

My favorite of all of these books for the month of July? The Husbands!

Happy Reading to you in August! I can't wait to see what amazing books await us in the coming month!