Hi sweet friends! I spent the first half of April on vacation, and used a good chunk of my downtime to catch up on a few upcoming releases. While on vacation, I ended up reading five books, and starting The Odyssey on audiobook. I thought it’d be fun to share some mini reviews for most of my reads with the caveat that I’m withholding the review for one of the books I read due to the ongoing St. Martin’s Press boycott.
This is Me Trying by Racquel Marie
I started off my vacation with This is Me Trying, and spoiler alert — it was the only book I read on my entire trip that I genuinely loved. I’d previously liked Racquel Marie’s Ophelia After All and You Don’t Have a Shot, so I figured I’d most likely like This is Me Trying too. Just like her prior novels, This Is Me Trying is beautifully written, and handled with so much care and compassion for the subjects it discusses and characters. In a way, This is Me Trying reminds me of Noah Kahan’s Stick Season.
Growing up, Bryce, Beatriz, and Santiago were inseparable. But when Santiago moved away before high school, their friendship crumbled. Three years later, Bryce is gone, Beatriz is known as the dead boy’s girlfriend, and Santiago is back. The last thing Beatriz wants is to reunite with Santiago, who left all her messages unanswered while she drowned alone in grief over Bryce’s death by suicide. Even if she wasn’t angry, Santiago’s attempts to make amends are jeopardizing her plan to keep the world at arm’s length–equal parts protection and punishment–and she swore to never let anyone try that again. Santiago is surprised to find the once happy-go-lucky Bea is now the gothic town loner, though he’s unsurprised she wants nothing to do with him. But he can’t fix what he broke between them while still hiding what led him to cut her off in the first place, and it’s harder to run from his past when he isn’t states away anymore. Inevitably drawn back together by circumstance and history, Beatriz and Santiago navigate grief, love, mental illness, forgiveness, and what it means to try to build a future after unfathomable loss.
Links for This Is Me Trying: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop
Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee
I was really intrigued by Stacey Lee’s Kill Her Twice, especially since I quite enjoyed The Downstairs Girl and Luck of the Titanic, but ultimately was pretty let down by it. I really enjoy Stacey Lee’s style of writing, especially the way she writes historical fiction and sets up the world — I think it’s very easy to imagine yourself in that period, regardless of if it’s the 1890s, 1910s, or the 1930s. Right from the get-go, we’re dropped into a world of mystery and intrigue: who killed Lulu Wong, and why did they do it? Unfortunately, I don’t think the mystery element was executed as well as Lee had intended it to be. Or perhaps, maybe I just wasn’t entranced by the characters, or the mystery as much as I wanted to. Honestly, this book felt like it dragged on — but was also incredibly short at the same time. Kill Her Twice was just very underwhelmingly average for me.
Los Angeles, 1932: Lulu Wong, star of the silver screen and the pride of Chinatown, has a face known to practically anyone, especially to the Chow sisters—May, Gemma, and Peony—Lulu’s former classmates and neighbors. So the girls instantly know it’s Lulu whose body they discover one morning in an out-of-the-way stable, far from the Beverly Hills mansion where she moved once her fame skyrocketed.
The sisters suspect Lulu’s death is the result of foul play, but the LAPD—known for being corrupt to the core—doesn’t seem motivated to investigate. Even worse, there are signs that point to the possibility of a police cover-up, and powerful forces in the city want to frame the killing as evidence that Chinatown is a den of iniquity and crime, even more reason it should be demolished to make room for the construction of a new railway depot, Union Station.
Worried that neither the police nor the papers will treat a Chinese girl fairly—no matter how famous and wealthy—the sisters set out to solve their friend’s murder themselves, and maybe save their neighborhood in the bargain. But with Lulu’s killer still on the loose, the girls’ investigation just might put them square in the crosshairs of a coldblooded murderer.
Links for Kill Her Twice: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop
Swiped by L.M. Chilton
Swiped by L.M. Chilton had such an interesting premise — I mean, dating apps gone wrong? I think that the main character, Gwen, was snarky and witty, and I did feel bad for her — up until a certain point. It’s definitely a cozy mystery, and quite funny, but it just felt lacking in a way. I wish the mystery element had been done better, I felt like a lot of it was incredibly predictable, and I think the ending was just a little silly and unnecessary.
Gwen Turner has made a bloody mess of her life. She recently broke up with the best man she’s ever known for reasons even she can’t admit to herself and quit a lucrative job to open her own coffee shop. To top it all off, her best friend is getting married and leaving her behind in singlehood.
Along with too much cheap wine and bad reality TV, Gwen turns to a dating app to help fill the void in her life. Swiping through the few eligible bachelors left in town, she spends her evenings out on one disastrous date after another. But when a string of murders suddenly occurs in her small coastal English city, she’s shocked by the connection between each of the victims—they’ve all been on a date with her.
Before she knows what’s happening, Gwen finds herself the main suspect in a serial killer’s murderous spree, and the only way she can clear her name is to track down her former dates (even those that have ghosted her) and unmask a killer before it’s too late.
Links for Swiped: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop
Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
I loved reading Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians series when it was first released, and absolutely loved the movie. That being said, they do feel a bit outdated, like period pieces — and so I was intrigued by Lies and Weddings. I think that — two things, 1) if I read Crazy Rich Asians now, I wouldn’t like it as much, and 2) it felt incredibly flat and off-putting. The entire book was essentially: rich people have rich people problems, and I just did not care. Boo hoo. Perhaps if there was any depth or commentary, I’d enjoy it more, but this book was more shallow than a kiddie pool. Not to mention, the characters were incredibly underdeveloped, and the book just felt like Kwan was trying to one-up the amount of brand names he could drop.
Rufus Leung Gresham, future Duke of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel has a the legendary Gresham Trust has been depleted by decades of profligate spending, and behind all the magazine covers and Instagram stories manors and yachts lies nothing more than a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution, put forth by Rufus’s scheming mother, is for Rufus to attend his sister’s wedding at a luxury eco-resort, a veritable who’s-who of sultans, barons, and oligarchs, and seduce a woman with money.
Should he marry Solène de Courcy, a French hotel heiress with honey blond tresses and a royal bloodline? Should he pursue Martha Dung, the tattooed venture capital genius who passes out billions like lollipops? Or should he follow his heart, betray his family, squander his legacy, and finally confess his love to the literal girl next door, the humble daughter of a doctor, Eden Tong? When a volcanic eruption burns through the nuptials and a hot mic exposes a secret tryst, the Gresham family plans—and their reputation—go up in flames.
Can the once-great dukedom rise from the ashes? Or will a secret tragedy, hidden for two decades, reveal a shocking twist?
Links for Lies and Weddings: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop
As for a reading update, I’m currently almost done with The Odyssey, as narrated by George Blagden, and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve been taking my time with it — especially since I’ve taken ill and haven’t felt well enough to read lately, but I’m excited to get back to it and keep reading!
