On the bookshelf in February

For love month, I decided to read one of my six-book series by Jasmine Guillory. The first book is called The Wedding Date. I’m so glad this is a series because I really enjoyed this first book! It’s such a good rom com. Two strangers get stuck in an elevator together & end up striking a deal for the girl (Alexa) to be the guy’s (Drew) wedding date to his ex’s wedding. Genius! They play “pretend boyfriend & girlfriend” & like every good rom com, they start catching feelings. Drew is a peds doctor & Alexa is a lawyer who works for the mayor. Both are very well accomplished & really care about their jobs, & they also live far away from each other, so how could they even try to make a relationship work if they wanted to? It’s a good thing neither of them are looking for that! *insert sarcastic winky face here!* Another dynamic that plays into the plot of this book is that Alexa is African American & Drew is white. I enjoyed reading their struggles & communications of their interracial relationship. The one thing I didn’t love about the book was the spicy things — some things I just don’t need to know! I would say this book is between PG13 & rated R. I gave this book four out of five stars.

The second book is called The Proposal. This book is about Drew’s best friend, Carlos. Carlos, a doctor, has a knight-in-shining-armor moment when he saves Nik, a freelance writer, from a camera crew at a Dodger’s baseball game after she says no to her boyfriend’s proposal on the jumbotron. Talk about a great start to a book!! The two end up becoming friends & not surprisingly, it turns into more. Both of them have some good personal drama going on in their own lives — Carlos’ cousin is having a baby & he’s in full-on doctor mode when it comes to her, & Nik explores self-defense classes in order to feel more comfortable with her ex’s threatening texts. Same dislike as the last book with the spicy scenes, but the plot was too good so I gave this book four out of five stars.

The third book is called The Wedding Party. This book is about Alexa’s two best friends — Maddie, whom she grew up with, & Theo, whom she works with. Alexa is getting married & both Maddie & Theo are in the wedding party. The bad news? They can’t stand each other. Of course, this is a rom com so it’s a bit predictable & you know they’ll eventually get mixed up with each other. So far this was my least favorite of the three in this series I’ve read so far. It just didn’t feel quite as realistic as the other two & I wasn’t as connected with the characters. I gave this book three out of five stars.

The fourth book is called Royal Holiday. In this book, Maddie & her mom, Vivian, take a work trip to England for Maddie to style a royal family member. Vivian meets an attractive & friendly gentleman named Malcom who just so happens to be the private secretary to the Queen! I don’t know much about British culture, but I’m thinking that’s a pretty big deal. I read through this one pretty fast just because I’m used to the author’s style by now, but compared to the other books in this series, this one was just a tad boring. I gave this book two out of five stars.

The fifth book is called Party of Two. This book was super cute & totally redeemed the series since I didn’t love the last two as much! This book was about Alexa’s sister, Olivia & her surprisingly relationship with a Senator. The way that everything came together was just too cute. Olivia is a lawyer & just decided to leave her big law job in New York to move back to California to start a small firm with her best friend. Cute! As I’m sure you an imagine, having a lawyer & a politician in a relationship together means lots of issues that us regular people don’t have. There were parts of me that really related to Olivia since she’s a strong, stubborn, independent woman — though we are pretty different in a lot of ways, too. I gave this book four out of five stars.

The sixth book is called While We Were Dating. This book is about Ben, Maddie’s boyfriend Theo’s brother. From the bits & pieces I gathered about Ben from what Theo said about him in The Wedding Date, he sounds like a womanizer & player, so originally I wasn’t super excited about this book. However, he really grew on me! He works for an advertising company & was just able to snag a super great gig advertising a new phone. & of course, his good looks & charm is a big part in why he got the job. Maybe too because he flirted with the celebrity who is playing the role in the commercial? Of course I wasn’t very surprised when the two started participating in extracurricular activities together outside of work simply based on the fact that that’s how all of these books have gone. I have been surprised to see that the sexual details have gotten more & more graphic with each book, so do keep that in mind. I ended up giving this book three out of five stars.

The seventh book I read was A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan. I knew when I started this book that it was going to challenge me. Not because I agree with the beliefs of the Ku Klux Klan, but simply because it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around the idea that this happened, let alone in the last hundred years. I was telling my mom that this book feels so far away from my reality, that it felt fictional. There were definitely parts of the book that were difficult to read & stomach. It dives very deep into the history & the people who were in charge. Reading this truly felt similar to watching a car wreck — it’s awful & ugly, but you just can’t look away. I learned so much from this book & truly feel like I have a better understanding of the Ku Klux Klan’s history. I gave this book five out of five stars.

The eighth book I read was Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. This book is written from the perspective of an adolescent boy who is a refugee from Iran currently living in Edmond, Oklahoma. The part of me that is trying so hard to grow & be culturally sensitive wants to say that I enjoyed this book, but that’s just not the case. It was so hard to follow. There are no chapters so one page just flows into the next. The topics also jumped around all the time — one paragraph would be about his life as a refugee in Oklahoma, & the next would be about a myth or legend from Iran that he would change certain parts to just because he liked it better. He would give tiny little snippets about why him, his mother, & his sister had to drop everything & leave Iran (people were trying to kill them), but it definitely wasn’t the majority of the book. Heck, I read more pages about “funny poop stories” than I did about how he became a refugee! I guess that’s adolescents for ya. I shouldn’t be surprised considering I work with them every day. Still, I was just needing a bit more depth than what I got. I gave this book two out of five stars.

My heart was so full heading into the 2023 Christmas season! I finished up reading the entire Bible. Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading & Understanding the Entire Bible was such a great resource that helped me better understand what I was reading & how it applies to my life! It was amazing to me how much was familiar & how much I didn’t know I was missing. Having a better understanding of the Bible & being in the word every day has brought so much peace into my life! I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but if you’ve been feeling the pull to read your Bible more, I highly recommend Bible recap to help you on your journey. I’m excited to start over & eager to see what new things I will pick up on & learn.

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