Share Your Shelf #17 & What I Read in August

It's the first Thursday of the month and time for Share Your Shelf with  Marilyn, Jennifer, Tanya, and I. This post and link up are dedicated solely to books and book reviews and it's one I look so forward to each and every month. I am always looking for new and more book ideas.

I have been having such a fun summer of reading! I really lucked out with some great books and fabulous new books series I've stumbled onto. By the time this post goes live I will have completely finished my 52 book challenge too as I'm only waiting on "read in a -ber month" and I know I can knock that out in the first few days of September-- especially since I'll be traveling! 

1. It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey-- When Piper and Hannah's step-father banishes Piper from LA to the tiny seaside town Piper was born in the two are like fish out of water. Running immediately into Brendan, the gruff, bearded sea captain doesn't bode well when he tells them they'll never last a week in his town. Determined to prove him and everyone else wrong about her, Piper digs in and decides to make over the decrepit bar her late father left her. Working with her sister they put their all into making over the apartment and the bar they're living in. But, running into Brendan over and over in the tiny town soon has sparks flying between Piper and the surly captain. Unsure how a relationship could ever work between a small town fisherman and a dazzling LA influencer, Piper is reluctant to jump into anything real. This was an adorable little beachy romance and I just loved seeing these two unlikely characters grow together. 

 2. Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer-- I am not usually one for fantasy-esque books but I kept seeing this title pop up on the Libby app on my phone and decided to give it a try. Boy, am I glad I did; I LOVED it! It's so cute and funny and sweet... weird I know with a villain as a main character but somehow it all works. Evie Sage quite literally trips over the villain one day in the woods and he offers her a job as his assistant. Within no time the two are quite obviously smitten with each other but are totally clueless that the other likes them even the slightest bit. Evie, who is quite accident prone and seems to have no filter when talking keeps the villain on his toes and the villain often finds his scowl slipping in favor of smiles or even laughter when Evie is near. But secret plans keep getting leaked and both the Villain and Evie suspect a mole lies within the organization so they team up to try and figure out who it is.

3. All the Summers In Between by Brooke Lea Foster--Thea is turning 30 and feels slightly discontented with her life but she's not entirely sure why. She has a darling daughter, a beautiful house on the ocean, and an adoring husband. One night Margot turns up, an old childhood friend that Thea hasn't seen in 10 years. With many references to the fateful night they parted ways we're left wondering what happened to break these two up as the story is told in 2 timelines-- one in "present" day 1977 and another taking us back to 1967 when the two first met. I wasn't sure I was going to like this one at first as I really did not like the characters much but the story sort of sucked me in and I needed to know both what happened in the past and why Margot is on the run now. 

 4. Pomona Afton Can SO Solve a Murder by Bellamy Rose-- This was another great book! Pomona lives her best life living it up in a penthouse in her family's hotel. Worrying only about the next party, her clothes, and her social media followers she's quite out of touch with the real world but when her grandmother is murdered and the family discovers that her grandmother had a clause added to her will that if she died of unnatural or suspicious causes the entire family would not inherit until the killer was caught. Thrown out with no skills, no money, and hardly a clue Pomona doesn't know what to do. She's offered an apartment as a roommate to her old nanny's son and the two decide to start sleuthing on their own since the police seemed to have hit a dead end. It was really fun seeing how much Pomona changed from a helpless debutante to a compassionate entrepreneur and amateur detective. I see that a book #2 will be released in the spring and I can't wait! 

 5. The Dazzling Heights (Thousandth Floor Book 2) by Katharine McGee -- This is going to be a hard one to summarize without giving plot points away from book 1! But in this second book at least one person suspects the death from the first book was no accident as the media and police seem to believe it was. Vowing to get revenge for their friend they decide to investigate on their own. With a few new characters thrown in.. namely Calliope and her mom who move into the hotel at the tower and both stir up trouble as professional con-women. The remaining characters are reeling from the death from book 1, dealing with their guilt and anger and angst. Relationships are falling apart as new and unlikely ones are formed. The book ends with another attempted murder and then an actual murder. It was equally as gripping and drama filled as the first book. 

6. Hook, Line, & Sinker by Tessa Bailey (Book #2)-- Hannah's story was just as much fun as Piper's! Hannah and Fox have been keeping in touch by text for several months, both enjoying this new friendship. When Piper's boss starts looking for a new place to shoot his next film, Hannah suggests Westport, hoping to get more time to see her sister and grandmother and Fox too. Then she finds herself staying in Fox's guest room and both of them find that line between friendship and flirtation starts to blur more and more. Fox having been known as a Casanova for most of his life deals with feeling of inadequacy where Hannah is concerned and Hannah is struggling to find her dream job and become more assertive in her own life. 

 

7. Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maeher (book #2)--  In book 2 Evie has to step up when her boss is captured. After getting him back with the help of their other friends they find that Evie is now referred to on all the wanted posters as the Apprentice to the Villain and she rather likes it. Working with their friends and coworkers Evie and Tristan (the villain) are trying to figure out where all the magic in the world is going and how to stop it from disappearing entirely. It seems like everything and nearly everyone is working against them but more and more we find that Tristan is not nearly as villainous as the wanted posters make him seem and perhaps King Benedict, who nearly all revere, is actually a real villain in disguise sucking up and manipulating the magic of others he comes into contact with. I can't wait to read/listen to book 3! 

 8. Love of My After Life by Kirsty Greenwood--  Look at me; another fantasy type book! And, you know what? I loved this one too! Delphie dies while choking on a burger and in the afterlife meets a therapist named Merritt that offers Delphie the deal of a lifetime; literally. Since no one knows that Delphie is dead yet Merritt offers to send Delphie back to Earth for 10 days so she can seek out her soulmate; a man she met briefly in the therapist's waiting room for a lifesaving kiss. While all that sounds really crazy the bulk of the book takes place over the 10 days Delphie has back on Earth. Those 10 days push Delphie far beyond her comfort zone and she finds that she really had been completely wasting her life away. But as time starts to run out and it seems like Delphie will never get her kiss she quickly begins to realize she has far more worth living for now. It was so sweet seeing her bloom and start to make friends and a real life for herself. 

 9.  The Towering Sky (Thousandth Floor book #3) by Katharine McGee-- The conclusion to the series starts with a suicide by one of the main characters and then goes back 3 months to see what led up to it. Police are investigating the murder from book 2 and all the usual suspects from books 1 & 2 are nervous that all the secrets they've been trying to cover up (for what feels like years) are about to be revealed. Trying to move on and forge new paths in their lives. It was a fantastic wrap-up to the trilogy.  

 10. The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros-- While not my favorite Yarros book I did enjoy this audiobook. Georgia is reeling from her divorce and the death of her great grandmother; the woman who raised her. When Georgia finds out that her mother has hired a writer to finish her great grandmother's latest novel, Georgia isn't sure what to think or feel. Noah can't believe his luck that he's been hired to finish writing the famous Scarlett Stanton's unfinished manuscript since he's idolized her work for longer than he's been a writer. Georgia and Noah butt heads repeatedly over the ending of the book since the book is based on Scarlett's own life. Told in alternating voices and time lines we also hear about Scarlett and the love between her and her pilot during WWII. Of course a little romance develops between Georgia and Noah too. All in all it was a really sweet story. 

11. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi-- I was really hoping not to love this book once I knew it was part of a 6 book series but oh my gosh it just sucked me right in. Set in a future dystopian society where everyone is trying to survive with a shortage of food and clean water. Juliette has been locked up in an asylum because her touch is literally deadly. But The Reestablishment wants to use Juliette as a weapon. She can torture anyone she touches but Juliette has never wanted to hurt anyone. In fact, she spent much of her life trying to make herself small and set apart from others. The book was really rather fast paced and while I don't usually like stream of consciousness writing it worked so well in this format.  

It included a novella told from one of the heads of The Reestablishment too that I really enjoyed as well.  

12. Definitely Maybe Not a Detective by Sarah Fox-- Oh I thoroughly enjoyed this ARC (Advance Reader Copy) that I received through NetGalley. Emersyn is struggling to pay rent for her and her niece after having lost her job and having her ex-boyfriend run away with her life savings. When her best friend hatches a plan for Emersyn to get her money back by pretending she hired a fake investigator; complete with authentic looking business cards. On the day Emersyn decides to put their plan into action the superintendent of the apartment complex where Emersyn lives is murdered and her sweet next door neighbor is arrested. Her neighbors all turn to Emersyn and her detective agency (that doesn't really exist!) to solve the case. It was such a fun story with a wacky set of characters. Part rom-com/ part cozy murder mystery it was highly entertaining!  This one wont be released until the new year but definitely look for it on store shelves come January! 

 13. Summer Roommates by Holly Chamberlin -- I really wanted to like this book so much and kept waiting for it to get good. By page 335 or so I gave up on even finishing it but just skipped ahead to read the last chapter and the epilogue. Sandra has been living in her family home in Maine alone ever since her husband died, so one summer she decides to rent out three of her rooms for the season in hopes of making some new friends/connections. Mary is a recently retired lawyer from Boston, Amanda is a high school teacher that struggles to connect with anyone ever, and Patty has spent her whole life waiting for some rich man to sweep her off her feet. She's now living with one of her sisters and feeling like a very unwelcome guest. All 4 women are reluctant to share too much at first and find themselves contemplating their lives, their futures, and their decisions in life during every quiet moment alone. Slowly their connection grows and they become friends of a sort. I just thought it would be more light and fun and upbeat and that they would make really strong bonds with one another but with less than a 100 pages to go they still seemed like mostly roommates with the occasional spark of becoming friends. Some of their ruminations and even discussions with one another were long tirades of complaints and a lot of doom and gloom and woah is me kind of thing that I just found depressing and sad. 

14. The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai-- A quick little read. Translated from Japanese it's an adorable story about a father/daughter duo that run a nondescript little restaurant that specializes in recreating dishes that people only have vague memories about. A customer will come in, tell them everything they can remember about the dish or dining experience and the two set to work trying to figure out where the dish was made, the methods used, and the exact right ingredients to recreate that meal for their customer. It reads almost as a series of short stories and not even knowing most of the foods/ ingredients talked about I really enjoyed it anyway.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking up with: Thinking Out Loud, Spread the Kindness,