October was not the best month for reading for me. I managed to just read three books, which isn’t bad by any means, but slow for my own personal tastes. I got caught up with other hobbies, but also I wasn’t as enticed to read which really slowed things down. Either way, here’s my reading recap for October:
Between Friends & Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi – read my review here!
Better Than Fiction by Alexa Martin – This was a cute and fairly quick romance however, I contemplated DNFing about a third of the way in. I’m not the biggest fan of single, first person POV; I feel like there was too much internal chatter that wasn’t completely necessary and came off as cringey. Anyway, Better Than Fiction tells the story of Drew Young, a non-reader who inherited her grandma’s bookstore, the Book Nook, when she passed. Saddled with unaddressed grief for her beloved grandma, Drew is intent on keeping the bookstore open and operational despite not feeling like she’s right for the job. Her grandma’s friends and the Book Nook’s resident book club, the Dirty Birds, have been lending a helping hand while inadvertently meddling in Drew’s personal life. They schedule a book event with romance author Jasper Williams at the Book Nook, unbeknownst to Drew, who begrudgingly accepts that the event is going to happen whether she likes it or not.
What she didn’t expect was Jasper to be a total knockout of a man. Sparks fly between them when the Dirty Birds insist Drew help Jasper with his current novel set in Colorado. Though Drew is reluctant, she accepts, where Jasper proposes a deal: help show him around Colorado, in exchange for a list of books he thinks Drew might enjoy + activities to accompany each story, in an attempt to turn Drew into a reader. What Drew didn’t expect was to find joy again, and for the first time, real love. I thought the story was cute though there’s not a ton of focus on either of the lists that Drew and Jasper created for each other; some of the experiences are highlighted but there’s not much of a focus on it. I also felt like Drew was very resistant at first, but through reading along, this ended up being a function of her grief. Either way, it was an okay read for me.
The Bookshop Sisterhood by Michelle Lindo-Rice – The Bookshop Sisterhood is a contemporary fiction story following four friends: Celeste, Toni, Yasmeen, and Leslie, who all agree to open up a bookstore together as a physical symbol of their friendship and their love of books. All four ladies have different backgrounds; Toni is the group’s influencer who is about to get married to the perfect guy, Celeste is in finance and is a successful CFO who’s been with her husband for 14 years, Leslie is the only white woman in the group who is mostly a homemaker supporting her gymnast daughter, finally Yasmeen is the group’s high school drop out who is struggling to get her life together for her and her parents. In agreeing to open up a bookstore together, their individual worlds come crashing down one by one, to the point where their friendship and bookstore is at stake.
This book is filled with drama, four times as much, as each of the women have a host of issues to solve. I was captivated by the story and was eager to find out what was going to happen for each of the women – especially Yasmeen after she wins the lottery. The story also reminded me a lot of Sheryl Lister’s No Reservations (read my review here!); mostly because of the close friendship angle and their individual drama. Though one other thing both books have in common is how much the plot point deviates from what ties them together. In this case, the bookstore and their love of books. It’s sparingly mentioned – though when it is, it is very detailed – and the bookstore itself is used as the common thread that brings the four separate stories together. If you go into this book expecting more book and bookstore talk, you’ll be disappointed. Despite the fact that their friendship/bond didn’t seem as close as it was painted out to be, I was captured by each of their stories and found the book enjoyable to read.
