August was kind of an odd reading month for me. I tried going a little rogue with some of my picks, which were a kind of lackluster, but still a successful month of reading. This reading recap is like half summer vibes and half fall vibes, as I welcome the change in the seasons. Check out mini reviews for August’s reads:
Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen – I went into this book with high hopes and was actually disappointed by it. Curvy Girl Summer follows the story of Aaliyah, a single and successful Black woman who is approaching 30 and has big goals for her birthday. Wanting to find love for herself, and with added family pressure, she sets on finding a man who could be her boyfriend to take to her 30th birthday celebration, which would accomplish two things: finding love by 30, and shutting up her opinionated family. The problem was that Aaliyah wasn’t really out there dating and hung up her hat after another failed relationship. Encouraged by her besties to join a dating app, she finally takes the plunge after chatting with the handsome bartender at her local bar when she gets stood up by a blind date. From there, Aaliyah embarks on a very familiar journey of a string of failed dates. The only solace to this journey was her budding friendship with the bartender, Ahmad. As their friendship bloomed, Aaliyah develops some confusing feelings for Ahmad, which made her question their friendship and these guys she keeps meeting.
As her dates continue to flop, Aaliyah is forced to consider whether she’ll be showing up to her party without a date and how she’ll explain this to her family. The concept of the story was solid, and is one I can very much relate to. However, it got repetitive fairly quickly, and it felt like there was a lot of unnecessary dialogue. There also wasn’t a lot of focus on Aaliyah’s growth, as the story was zeroed in on her love life, that when it gets to that point towards the end of the book, it feels abrupt. I also felt like her developing feelings for a married man was not it; like I know how the story ends up but I found it cringey that it was happening. I loved the plus size representation as I related to Aaliyah, as being a bigger size adds another layer to online dating. That said, I am open to checking out Danielle Allen’s other books.
Two Wrongs Make A Right by Chloe Liese – This is my first Chloe Liese read, after continuously seeing people flock to her books, I wanted to give it a try and started with this one. Two Wrongs Make A Right is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. In this retelling, Bea, the neurodivergent artist who has put off dating after a hurtful breakup, is pushed together with Jamie, a straight laced pediatrician who also gave up on dating. After a very rocky first meeting at a party, Bea’s sister Juliet insists they get to know each other, and sets them up under false pretenses. Once Bea and Jamie realize what’s happening, Bea hatches a plan: pretend Juliet’s matchmaking worked and be Jamie’s fake girlfriend for a while before breaking things off in front of Juliet and their friends to send them a message – this I found dumb and couldn’t remember or make sense of how that would be a revenge plot but go off, I guess. As expected with fake relationships, both of them started catching feelings, and the clock of whether either of them would confess their feelings in hopes the other felt the same began ticking. At first, I wasn’t hooked into the book. The dual first person POV threw me off a little but I decided to keep reading until I hit at least 100 pages before deciding whether I wanted to DNF. I finished the book, as the sexual tension between Bea and Jamie finally hooked me onto the rest of the book. Overall, I thought the story was cute.
Champagne Kisses: A Curvy Romance by Katherine E. Webb – Champagne Kisses is an opposites attract kind of story. Maya, the plus size creative and owner of her own personalization business It’s Personal gets a last minute order for engraved champagne flutes. As she scrambles to figure out how to fulfill the order, she reaches out to the customer, Adam Park. Adam, a Fortune 500 project manager and playboy trying to fulfill his best man duties, gets unexpectedly curious after Maya messages him about his order. In an attempt to make sure she can deliver his order on time, she offers to hand deliver it herself, which is where Adam sees Maya and is entranced by her. Maya is not the kind of girl Adam typically goes after; he’s a self proclaimed hook up guy and not into relationships and while he’s definitely horny for Maya, he seemingly wants more. Can Adam handle more than just a hook up with Maya, or is he destined to be a bachelor for life? I picked this book on Kindle Unlimited based on Amazon’s suggestions (which are not bad tbh) and was excited because of the plus size representation. I admittedly almost DNFed this book because Adam being ridiculously horny out the gate was off-putting to me. I did find Maya’s insecurities relatable, and did think that Adam being all about Maya was cute. And even though Adam’s sex drive was off-putting, it was nice to see a sex positive relationship, interracial relationship where the FMC was plus size.
The Honeymooner by Melanie Summers – Despite the fact that I read the whole thing and did not DNF, I did not like this book. The Honeymooner is the story of Libby Dewitt, a type A woman by choice, mergers and acquisitions analyst for a luxury hotel firm by day, who seemingly has her life planned out by the hour. Determined to be nothing like her flighty mom, her goals revolve around stability and predictability, including getting married and buying a home. Except that all goes to shit when she gets left at the altar by her fiancee, Richard. Obviously angry and embarrassed, Libby has no choice but to accept that she’s not getting married and decides to go on the honeymoon she planned on her own – the honeymoon that doubled as a work trip. What Libby didn’t expect was to one, make a fool of herself out the gate, and two, meet the owner of the resort, who had been avoiding her via email, before either of them introduced themselves. As you can expect from a book with this theme, Libby and the hotel owner, Harrison, become close and Libby has to decide if she’s going to throw caution to the wind and see where this takes her, or go back to her organized life that was currently in shambles thanks to her nonexistent wedding. What I didn’t like about this book is that its first person dual POV. That on its own isn’t the issue, but the fact that they kind of broke the fourth wall with the story; like they knew they were telling this story to someone vs it being just their inner thoughts. The other thing I didn’t like about this book is that it’s supposed to be a comedy, and I didn’t laugh once. I’m not sure if it’s the type of humor (British) or if this book was legit not funny – could be both. Either way, it was a quick, summery read.
Better Hate Than Never by Chloe Liese – This is the second installment of Liese’s Wilmot Sisters series, where this one follows the youngest Wilmot sister, Kate. If you read Two Wrongs Make a Right, then you’ve met the protagonists of this story. Like the first in the series, this is another Shakespeare retelling – this time it’s the Taming of the Shrew.
Katerina Wilmot, the youngest of the three Wilmot sisters is back in town. Typically always abroad and rarely every home, Kate decides to come back and stay awhile after she hears her sister Juliet needs a break. She offers to swap places with her for a while, sending her sister to Ireland, while she says home. Kate typically doesn’t stick around longer than a couple of weeks, making it challenging for her to have a semblance of roots; whether that means somewhere to stay or a group of friends to belong to. She’s also adamant about her visits remaining short to avoid the bane of her existence: her childhood neighbor Christopher Petruchio. The hatred is mutual and they butt heads anytime they are in the same room, which is often as they share the same circle of friends. Christopher has been like the Wilmot’s adopted son, after his parents tragically died when Christopher was a kid. He and Kate, though they have a six year age gap, had always been on ends with each other even as children.
However, now that Kate is sticking around for longer, them being in each other’s company is inevitable, making their constant bickering uncomfortable for everyone around them. When Christopher finds out something about his and Kate’s prickly relationship (if you even want to call it that), he’s resolved to changing in hopes that they can put their differences aside. What neither of them expected was to fall for each other as a result of his efforts. The story was cute, and I was here for the enemies to lovers thing – even though they can be hit or miss in general. While I wasn’t exactly clear why they were enemies, the angst was there, which made them finally getting together that much sweeter. Like the first book in the series, this one also features a neurodivergent character, Kate who has ADHD, and a portrayal of an invisible disability, Christopher and his migraines. I relate to Christopher as I am also a migraine sufferer and having to do life when your brain wants to explode is not the easiest. There could have been more of a focus on his disability and her neurodivergence but at the same time, it wasn’t supposed to be the center focus as these things are just part of them. All in all, I enjoyed the story and will probably check out the last in the series.
All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata – All Rhodes Lead here is another lengthy slow burn from the queen of slow burn, Mariana Zapata. This one tells the story of Aurora De La Torre, who is starting over in her childhood hometown of Pagosa Springs in Colorado. With nothing but the sense of going back home in an attempt to start fresh and reconnect with her mother through hiking, she rents a garage apartment last minute. Aurora is desperate to leave her past behind as a former songwriter for her longtime ex and country music star Kaden Jones after a rocky breakup. What she wasn’t expecting was finding trouble the second she arrived at Pagosa by way of her landlord, stern, grumpy, and ruggedly handsome Tobias Rhodes. After finding out his son Amos was the one who rented Aurora the apartment, he begrudgingly agrees to let her stay for a month, where he intends on keeping his distance from this new stranger.
Of course, that distance shortens over time as Aurora and Rhodes very slowly become friends before things slowly evolve into something more. The thing about Mariana Zapata’s books is that they are long – this one is about 600 pages – and the burn is incredibly slow. Like, she puts the slow in slow burn. That said, the long wait makes the coming together that much sweeter. Similar to Zapata’s other books, this one is rich with detail and character building, which some could argue drags the story longer than it could be (I did at first but I obviously came around). I enjoyed All Rhodes Lead Here; this is my second Zapata read, as I read Wall of Winnipeg last year, and probably not my last. Watching Rhodes eventually come around to Aurora was fun to read; every glance and minor touch they shared had me squealing, so you can imagine the kicking and screaming I did when they finally, mutually, shared intimate moments. If you’re a fan of slow, slow burns, check this one out – or any other Mariana Zapata books
