Friday 4/16

[ufcasey]

Happy Friday! What have you been reading this week? Any ratings/reviews/recommendations?

QOTW:
If possible, show us a book cover that you think is pretty terrible but you actually liked the book. 

[travella]

I finished One by One by Ruth Ware 2* and Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan3*. I had pretty low expectations for Sex and Vanity, I debated not reading it, but it wasn't bad. I started reading The Midnight Library. I'm really excited about this book.

QOTW: I use my kindle most of the time. I don't really pay attention to book covers.

[meowmaps]

I had a heck of a time getting into anything this week. I think I started and stopped something like five books. I finally settled into How Beautiful We Were. Then I’ll start The Exiles.

QOTW: This is a good challenge. I really can’t think of a good example though.

[dontlook]

I read:

Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson last week. 4.5 stars.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: 5 stars
The Boyfriend Project: no rating it was a fun rom com. It’s was objectively terrible but entertaining.

QOTW: I never pay attention to book cover art :/

[Vespasia]

Earlier this week I read American Royals by Katharine McGee. It was one of those weird books that I didn't think was objectively good but I had a hard time putting down. The teen romance side of things was annoying but I enjoyed the alternate history aspects. I will probably read the sequel in a few weeks.

Now I am reading The Exiles for book club. 

QOTW: This was hard because I usually pick books at least partly by their cover! I remember disliking the cover for Before I Go to Sleep. It think it looks like a guy from a ye olden painting but I think it's supposed to be the main character?

[Nonny]

I finished Hench (which I would highly recommend; it's about an office worker for a super villain) and The House in the Cerulean Sea (which I very much did NOT care for at all, and I have no idea how to appropriately rate, because I didn't hate it, and I can see why other people liked it, but I thought it was heavy handed and too cutesy). 

QOTW: This is a hard question, I went back through a bunch of books on Goodreads, and I think this '90s era redesign of The Eyes of the Dragon is pretty bad. There are a LOT of cover designs for this book, and all of them are better than this one.

[tacokick]

Know What You Did by Claire McGowan

Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust: My Friendship with Patsy Cline by Loretta Lynn

Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson

The Hare by Melanie Finn (grim)

The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Other People's Children by R.J. Hoffman (bad)

To Be Honest by Michael Leviton (really fascinating!)


The Souvenir Museum: Stories by Elizabeth McCracken

QOTW: it’s not bad but it’s really blah

[litskispeciality]

I'm still chipping away at "Followers". Need time to read, it's so good!

QOTW: Don't do a ton of paper books anymore, but the Firefly Lane cover doesn't seem to have much to do with the book? Only 100 or so pages in to that one.

[Vespasia]

Nonny I just added Hench to my library queue. Sounds interesting!

[mrspez07]

I’m reading Shadow of Night (Discovery of witches #2) and listening to The Exiles. Enjoying both.

[Nonny]

Apr 16, 2021 19:12:47 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

Nonny I just added Hench to my library queue. Sounds interesting!

A friend who doesn't normally read sci-fi type books really liked it and enthusiastically recommended it to me. It's got a lot of sarcastic, satirical humor that she was correct in assuming I would enjoy. It looks like it might be kicking off a series too, which could be fun. I'd like to see where the character goes, she changes a lot over the course of the book.

[meowmaps]

Apr 16, 2021 12:08:24 GMT -5 dontlook said:

I read:

Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson last week. 4.5 stars.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: 5 stars
The Boyfriend Project: no rating it was a fun rom com. It’s was objectively terrible but entertaining.

QOTW: I never pay attention to book cover art :/

You've convinced me to add this to my hold list!

[dontlook]

Apr 17, 2021 2:24:02 GMT -5 Nonny said:

Apr 16, 2021 19:12:47 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

Nonny I just added Hench to my library queue. Sounds interesting!

A friend who doesn't normally read sci-fi type books really liked it and enthusiastically recommended it to me. It's got a lot of sarcastic, satirical humor that she was correct in assuming I would enjoy. It looks like it might be kicking off a series too, which could be fun. I'd like to see where the character goes, she changes a lot over the course of the book.

I just requested it from my library. It sounds great!

[dontlook]

Apr 17, 2021 8:01:06 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

Apr 16, 2021 12:08:24 GMT -5 dontlook said:

I read:

Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson last week. 4.5 stars.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: 5 stars
The Boyfriend Project: no rating it was a fun rom com. It’s was objectively terrible but entertaining.

QOTW: I never pay attention to book cover art :/

You've convinced me to add this to my hold list!

I love him so I’m biased. He last few books were not great but this one was better.

[charlatti]

Currently reading An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn, in the Veronica Speedwell series. Not amazing so far but still enjoyable.

QOTW: loved this book, but the cover is very meh

[meowmaps]

Apr 17, 2021 9:58:11 GMT -5 dontlook said:

Apr 17, 2021 8:01:06 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

You've convinced me to add this to my hold list!

I love him so I’m biased. He last few books were not great but this one was better.

I really liked The Kind Worth Killing but the one after wasn’t great so I sort of gave upon him. Willing to give him another try.

[meowmaps]

Apr 17, 2021 10:39:21 GMT -5 charlatti said:

Currently reading An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn, in the Veronica Speedwell series. Not amazing so far but still enjoyable.

QOTW: loved this book, but the cover is very meh

Is that the latest in the series? I’m anxious to read it but I’m wondering when she’s going to decide the series has reached its natural conclusion. Once their relationship was consummated I sort of assumed that would be it.

[charlatti]

meowmaps, yep, this one just came out in March. So far it’s mostly mystery, less relationship tension, so maybe she’ll try to keep it going that way. They’re still an entertaining couple even if the will-they/won’t-they tension is gone.

[Nonny]

tacokick, that Lauren Hough book seems like it might contain really interesting stories, but I'm a little reluctant to read it now, given how she went all unhinged on the people who gave her ARC 4.5 star reviews on Goodreads. I rarely give 5 star reviews, and I often say x.5 stars rounded up/down on my reviews.

I had seen that an author had done that the other day, but I didn't realize until tonight when someone I followed actually named her that that's who it was.

[krystee]

I read Power Moves (some good advice on career progression, some obvious) and Belladonna’s Kiss by our very own smock. It was good!

For me, the cover might be Jennifer Weiner’s Mrs. Everything. It was meant to be her BIG BOOK, a sweeping saga of a few decades and a big focus on the 1960s, and I feel like they just keep giving her the same cartoony chick lit stuff. It isn’t the worst ever, but it could have had a much more literary feel to it.