Winter Reading Line-Up

Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a good week. It's much better than last week for our house!

I'm sharing what books I've read over the winter. Most of them were great...there were a few that I couldn't wait to be done with! Have you read anything lately that I need to add to my list? 

The first book on the list is The Perfect Marriage. This book was one of my favorites. It’s about a lawyer, Sarah and her husband, Adam. Sarah works extremely long hours and Adam is a struggling writer. He spends a lot of his time at the couple’s lake house. He gets into an affair and his mistress is found stabbed to death in the lake house. Sarah takes on her husband’s case to defend him. It’s shocking and I was addicted to finishing.

The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society was a very slow book. To be honest, I stopped reading it and watched the Netflix movie. It was that difficult for me to read. It takes place during WWII. A writer was corresponding with a male from the island of Guernsey. The name of the society came from a group of friends, when they were caught by Germans for breaking the curfew. The writer, took interest in this group of friends and set out to visit Guernsey for herself. Her life will be changed.

The Secret Life of Addie LaRue was another book that I didn’t enjoy. I ended up listening to this book on Audible. Addie makes a deal with the devil to avoid a life in a marriage. She wants freedom. She is granted freedom but in exchange, no one remembers her. We go through her life along side of her. The devil appears throughout but Addie doesn’t want to give into him. She finally meets someone who remembers her. They build a relationship and one of them must make another deal with the devil...

The Friend Zone is a very predictable Hallmark movie that is rated R. It was a quick read and I began to like the characters right away. If you’re looking for an easy read...this is a cute one! There is a second book that I haven’t got my hands on yet, but plan to very soon!

The next book was extremely sad. I cried. I felt worried and it opened my eyes to see a new perspective of school shootings. That’s Not What Happened tells the story of a school shooting in the eyes of the survivors. The students who witnessed someone dying. The students who lost someone close to them. It was based on a true story. There was a student at Columbine High School that was reported to be killed after professing her faith. It was a sad book. One I wouldn’t necessarily recommend.

Those were all books that I read for book club. The next four were books that I chose myself.

After reading 28 Summers, I couldn’t wait to read more books by Elon Hilderbrand. I bought Winter in Paradise, What Happens in Paradise, and Troubles in Paradise.  I really enjoyed them. I felt happy when I finished them and I was happy for each of the characters. I will say that I wasn't invested in the characters that the books were centered around. They died in a helicopter crash. I was more invested in knowing what happened to all the remaining characters. I will say, I thought the books wrapped up in about two paragraphs. I didn't love that. I also was confused about why the titles have winter in them...there is nothing winter about these books. Overall, I enjoyed them and thought they were a great, quick, light read.

Greenlight was amazing to listen to. Matthew McConaughey narrates his own story and it was great to listen to. I almost picked it up while I was at Costco but someone at book club suggested that I listen to it. I'm so glad I did. It goes into detail about Matthew's life and how he became the person he is today. It shares stories from his childhood into adulthood. He talks about his marriage and how he landed acting opportunities. The way he tells his story was so fun to me. I highly recommend this book.