Book Roundup- June 2023

*This post was written on July 2 and was scheduled to publish before we had Chrislyn. I am now scheduling it to be published at a later date (the date you’re reading it)- but I'm posting it as it was originally written, so I can look back and capture/remember my thoughts and excitement for Baby Blanchard before our world was completely shattered.

……

Whew! It's been a minute since I've been on here again. 

June was a crazy busy month for me with getting ready for baby, finishing up work that I absolutely wanted to get done before baby was here, nesting around the house, and doing all of my reading assessments (and then reports) on students at the Alexandria library! Oh- and with doctor appointments. As of the past few weeks, we've been going 2-3x a week to the high risk Maternal Fetal Medicine, our normal obgyn, and also a pediatric cardiologist. If you're reading this, you've most likely been kept in the loop with all that...

So, needless to say, this blog kind of fell to the wayside. Now that things should (hopefully) be calm (at least until baby gets here!) I plan on catching up on some blogging in the next days and potentially weeks.

What's a good way to jump back in after one of my favorite holidays? With a book roundup post, of course!

I hope your 4th of July was as perfect as this picture. What a dream to celebrate the 4th in a place like this! I can NOT believe it's already this time of year. The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays, but I used to also panic when it came around because that meant that summer was halfway over. Now that our due date is in July this year, we've been hoping for this time of year to get here very quickly for quite awhile!

Before I get too far into July, let's rewind back to June and see what I was reading...

It was another month of only reading 3 books (as I said last month, I feel like that will be the norm now!), but they were all good! All 3 of them were newly released and 2 of them by authors that I would consider my favorite, so I knew it would be a promising reading month.

The Senator's Wife by Liv Constantine- ⭐⭐⭐

• If this was by any other authors, I might have given up on it
• This wasn't their best
• Was repetitive, predictable, had stilted dialogue and was missing development
• There wasn't really any context to one of the main characters being a senator
• Incorporated a little bit of DC that was interesting- but not much
• Kind of read like an old classic play or an old classic mystery
• Held my interest, but it was just pretty average!

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan- ⭐⭐⭐⭐

• Her book last year was one of my favorites of the year
• I could have done more summer/beach and less "real life" in this one
• Would have liked less past/young adult chapters and more present day chapters
• Did like the nostalgia in this book though
• This was a book I just wanted to live inside
• It was full of easy summertime magic
• Appreciate her realistic wording and how everything is described so pleasantly

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand- ⭐⭐⭐⭐

• Love love love Elin Hilderbrand's latest books
• Her books are addicting with a style all her own- huge emphasis on details
• Always have amazing food references but this one especially did- loved those parts!
• Her books always make me want to take a trip to Nantucket, feels so familiar after so many of her books now
• Love her casual narrator voice that she writes with- you really realize it's just a real person writing this book
• This one had a lot going on
• Great characterization but I didn't really like many of the characters- not that likable
• So much intricacy that you really care about what happens to the characters though
• This one was superficial and beachy, like most of hers are- but has enough depth

This month you also get a bonus picture of this great summer read with my super lopsided baby bump. This kid is almost always on my right side and sometimes is sticking out like this on that side, but baby sometimes switches over to the left too. This lopsided look cracks us up!

Some upcoming July releases that I'm most excited for?

• The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer
• The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey
• Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
• Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker
• A Twisted Love Story by Samantha Downing

I snapped this pic as a reminder of books for me to add to my list, but these were ones that were newly released/highly publicized that I checked out and didn't get around to reading before having to return them to the library.

Here's to hoping this month of July (or even just the next few days/weeks?) looks like reading at our neighborhood base pool like this!

...and not a month of my reading looking like this. (Cash was making up for lost time being needy again after 2 of the quietest days of our lives with him feeling sick previously.) When he's at his neediest, he loves to come up and close my laptop or my book...hah!

Hopefullyyyyy I get my act together by the end of this month and I'll be back with my July Book Roundup then! I'm already in the middle of a good one (by the author of The Push, that I know a lot of you loved too!). Happy Reading this month!