Share Your Shelf #25; What I Read in April

It's the first Thursday of the month and time for Share Your Shelf with Dara and I.  I hope you all look forward to this monthly link up as much as I do. I just love getting new ideas for books to read or listen to.  

Oh wow did I ever have another fabulous month of reading/listening! I also ticked a lot more books off of my 52 book list (many of which happened completely by mistake-- which is really unusual when I've gotten so far into the list). 

1. In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams (When in Rome book #4)-- This was a really cute finish to the series. I enjoyed reading about Madison and James working together to start a new restaurant on James' family farm. James has secretly been in love with Madison for years and had no plans to follow up on his brother's suggestion to open a restaurant until he heard from Madison and knew it would be the perfect way to get her to move back home.Madison barely finished her courses in culinary school and has been dying to move back home but is afraid to move home without a job or prospects since her family will then know of her failures. When James dangles the prospect of being head chef of her own restaurant she jumps at the chance to move back home... even if being in a kitchen often brings on a panic attack now.  

2. Other People's Weddings by Maisey Yates--   Poppy Love does everything she can to avoid Ryan Clark, ever since their first meeting at age 12, Ryan and Poppy have clashed. And yet as adults they keep running into one another at other people's weddings. Poppy is the cake baker/decorator and Ryan is the photographer. Now they are being thrown together for two whole weeks at a destination wedding in New Zealand where Poppy's best friend is marrying Ryan's best friend. Cake designer, maid of honor/photographer, best man, the two feel like they have their hands full but are also starting to realize they have a lot of unresolved feelings between them and that the heat that has always been between them isn't necessarily hate. It was a really cute story.  

3. All By Myself, Alone by Mary Higgins Clark-- I listened to this audiobook in a day. I mean we had no power so it was a great way to pass the time while working on puzzles but it was a really fun whodunit. Celia, an expert on gems and jewelry, has been invited to speak on a glamorous cruise ship; one in which the fated emerald necklace of Cleopatra is going to be worn by the by the famous Lady Emily Hayworth. 3 days later Emily Hayworth turns up dead and the necklace is missing. Celia, who has been dragged through the mud and press by her fiance is one suspect but she's not the only one. The cast of characters include Lady Emily's secretary, Lady Emily's lawyer (and his wife), an old professor from Cambridge who has also been invited to give talks on William Shakespeare, a supposed jewel thief named "the man of a 1,000 faces," and more. Willy & Alvirah Meehan are on board and fancy themselves amateur sleuths and team up with Celia to try and solve the mystery.   

4. The Promise of Tomorrow by Mary Ellen Taylor-- Olympia has spent the last year of her life living out of her van, running from the loss of her child, and the crumbling marriage she couldn't face after the loss. Now she's back in town for just a week for her sister's engagement party and to sign her divorce papers that Spencer has finally asked for. But the more time Olympia spends in town the more her and Spence get pulled into each other's orbit and the less sure Olympia is about what her next steps should be. Spence has been dealing with the grief of his child, the loss of his wife, the loss of his career, and trying to help his mom deal with his father who is struggling with early onset Alzheimer's. It was such a good read but such a sad one watching these two characters struggle with all the loss and hurt and struggles life had dealt them. It was obvious to see they both still loved each other immensely but they were unable to communicate with one another. 

5. How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang-- Helen Zhang hasn't seen Grant Shepard since her sister's funeral when her mother yelled at him to get out. Now Helen finds out that he's on the writing crew of the TV adaptation of her book series. She wanted a spot in the writing room but isn't confident that she can handle seeing Grant every day. The two get off to a rather rocky start but soon find themselves bonding in ways neither one ever imagined but Helen knows nothing can ever come of their budding romance because her parents would never approve of having Grant in their lives. They still blame him all these years later for her sister's death. Brokenhearted but sure she's doing the right thing Helen returns to her life in NYC and leaves Grant behind in LA. They reunite when she heads back to LA for the premiere. It was so sweet (and definitely steamy). 

6. This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page-- Oh I just loved this book so much! Matilda's husband passed away so she's stunned when she gets a call on her birthday telling her there is a book waiting for her at the local bookshop that her husband picked out just for her. He actually left her a year of books; one for each month. Each book comes with a letter and through the books and her husband's words she starts to find her way back to enjoying life. The bookshop, it's owner Alfie, and the people she meets along her journey become wonderful friends. It was such a moving and sweet, sweet story of love and loss and taking chances. 

7.  You Never Know by Tom Selleck & Ellis Henican-- A memoir narrated by Tom Selleck, it was a nice listen about how he sort of fell into acting. He goes into quite a lot of detail about his early works ending with the wrap up of Magnum PI and hints at the start of things like 3 Men and a Baby 2/ Quiggly Down under. There is a long afterward that talks about Blue Bloods a bit too but he focuses primarily on his time in Hawaii when he went from being something of an unknown to a full-on celebrity.  

 8. The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez-- Another super sweet romance. Kristen is trying to hold it all together until after her best friend's wedding when she can finally have the partial hysterectomy she is both dreading and highly anticipating. Having always suffered with uterine fibroids, Kristen is ready to be done with her menstrual cycle and the pain and suffering but she's sad to know she'll never have kids of her own. When she meets best man Josh the two hit it off like gangbusters and are soon great friends. Josh is everything Kristen would be looking for in a man and if he didn't want a whole parcel of kids of his own he'd be perfect for her but Kristen won't share her struggles with anyone and refuses to make Josh choose between her and having kids of his own someday so she holds him firmly in the friend zone. You know they're going to end up together but it's hard to see how and with lots of side stories and characters there is a lot going on but Jimenez writes some really fabulous stories and I just loved this one. 

 9. Under the Neon Lights by Arriel Vinson-- A sweet and very moving story that I read in just one day. Written in verse it's a quick, easy young adult read. Jaelyn lives for her weekend skate sessions at the local rink WestSide Roll. It's where she watches her whole community, young and old, come together. But her neighborhood is struggling against gentrification that is pushing her friends and family and local businesses out. Set in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Indianapolis, this story deals with what happens as those who have lived there for years struggle with what to do when they no longer feel welcome in their own neighborhood. 

10.  Till Summer Do Us Part by Meghan Quinn- This was a really adorable story! Scottie somehow finds herself blurting out that her and her nonexistent husband are having marital troubles while trying to fit in at work only to learn that her boss' husband is a renown marriage counselor. Compounding her lie by signing up for a martial counseling session, Scottie needs to find a "mate" quickly. Her best friend suggests his own brother Wilder who turns out to be quite the wildcard and before she knows what's happened the two of them are signed up for a week long marriage counseling summer camp... with her entire work crew as attendees too. Luckily, Wilder really is a sweet guy who genuinely wants to help and commits to helping make them the #1 couple at camp. With all the fake dating/ forced intimacy/ one bed tropes it was a cute and steamy rom-com.  

11. Songs from Vacationland by Cate Summers- I received this ARC from Netgalley and thought it was really cute. Dean and Madeline are a very unlikely couple. Madeline has been struggling with anxiety and hypochondria ever since the loss of her husband and Dean works in the pharmacy across the street. At first the two seem quite angry with one another but a twist of fate finds them off on a road trip across Maine in the dead of winter so Madeline can attend tribute concerts in her husband's honor and Dean can visit his mother and sister. Of course the more time they spend together the more they find they like about each other.  

12.  Footprints in the Sand by Mary Jane Clark (Piper Donovan book #3)- I started this series a long time ago but realized I had never finished reading it. This time Piper and her parents are headed to Florida for her cousin's wedding where Piper and her mom are also responsible for making the wedding cake. Once there a string of oddities, including a murder, takes place and Piper is right there in the middle of things trying to figure out what and who is behind everything taking place. It was a cute little murder mystery.  

13. Pageboy by Elliot Page--  I hate reviewing memoirs because it's a story of someone's life and Elliot Page has had a doozy of one. Just as Juno was forcing Elliot into stardom and playing the role of the starlet, complete with dress and tights, Elliot was dying inside feeling like everything was all sorts of wrong. Queer, trans, and struggling to overcome criticism and abuse that had been piling up for years from peers, directors, producers and more... I honestly was disappointed in how disjointed and all over the place this book was. I thought I was picking up an honest, heartfelt look into how and why and when Elliot made the transition from woman to man and I did get some of that but many of the stories were filled with these odd side tangents about nothing having anything to do with any of the stories--- like the 1917 Halifax explosion. It just felt really, really disjointed but I will say many of his personal anecdotes taken by themselves were quite powerful.

14. Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelley-- I really wanted to like this one so much more than I did. I mean it was good enough that I kept listening until the end but it was rather forgettable for a historical fiction novel. It starts with a woman named Mari arriving on the island of Martha's Vineyard shortly after her mom died when she found a name on a piece of paper. Once there the woman she came to meet starts to tell her a story from World War II when the Smith sisters lived at the farm she now inhabits. 19 year old Cadence wants to leave the island and become a reporter/writer & 16 year old Briar who is obsessed with all things war and espionage live with their grandmother on the island after their brother heads off to war and a large military presence moves in. The girls start a book club and through it and with a few of their friends the girls have a big impact on the war effort.  

15. No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark-- While I can't say any of the twists in the story were all that surprising I really enjoyed this book a lot. When she was just 10 Lizzie accidentally shot her mom while trying to defend her from an attack. Painted to look like a psychopathic killer Lizzie was eventually set free but the stigma of the event followed her until her adoptive parents moved her across the country, changed her name, and gave her a believable story to tell. Now Lizzie has grown up and Celia (as she is now known) is surprised when her new husband buys her a house for her birthday-- the very home she once lived in with her mother and father. But even before they move in strange things start happening and more people in town start to die. Celia is convinced that someone in town knows who she is and is trying to frame her/set her up... but who?

 

16. Hidden Nature by Nora Roberts-- Sloan's life changes in an instant when she accidentally walks in on a robbery in progress. She gets shot, has an out of body experience, and spends weeks working to regain her strength and recover while moving back in with her parents. When she hears about an abduction she calls her boss for a few more details and starts looking for similar cases and finds many across a tri-state area. What starts out as a curiosity and a way to work her mind becomes something of an obsession and Sloan will stop at nothing to uncover the bad guys. It was a really, really great listen with a cute little side romance thrown in there too.

17. Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line by Elle Cosimano-- I was so happy to pick this up and finally finish it after the teasing first 12 chapters I read in February. It was fabulous! This book starts shortly after where the last one ended. Vero is on house arrest back in her home state, Finlay's life is in shambles without her. Then one day Finlay heads down to see Vero and the two team up to try and figure out who set Vera up for the fall. Of course all sorts of hilarity ensues when they start to investigate and nearly both end up in jail. It was funny and fast paced and I was so surprised by what happened with the missing sorority money.

I am crushing this 52 book challenge! 

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