This is a catch up post, but includes the four books I read in January 2022.
5 stars:
Starry-Eyed Love, by Helena Hunting: London is the general manager for a successful boutique hotel in Denver, who has just gone through a breakup when a really hot guy at the bar asks her on a date; she declines, not being in the headspace for that. But a few months later, London runs into the guy, Jackson, at a business meeting – turns out he’s the billionaire CEO of a big company looking to partner with her hotel. This was a really fun romance, and I loved how much business was infused – it made it really relatable. I picked this book up right at the perfect time, as I just started dating an executive much more senior than me, so I could really relate to London’s feelings of being proud of her success but also recognizing she’s a big fish in a small pond. I ended up tearing through this book, and didn’t realize until I came to Goodreads that it was part of a series – now I can’t wait to read the others!
4 stars:
The Summer Place, by Jennifer Weiner: The Levy-Feinberg family is coming out of the pandemic preparing for a wedding on Cape Cod, but each member of the family seems to have a secret they are waiting to deal with “after the wedding”. This was a wonderful family saga, and it was told by alternating the focus of each chapter from one character to another. For once, this device didn’t make the novel feel choppy – each character was fully fleshed out with their own problems and concerns, and I found myself eager to keep reading more. Although there were one or two twists that seemed a bit contrived (characters’ lives intertwining in unexpected ways), I really enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it.
3 stars:
Fake It Till You Bake It, by Jamie Wesley: Jada is a spoiled trust fund girl who recently committed the cardinal sin of public opinion by turning down the proposal she received on a reality dating show. At her grandmother’s urging, she begrudgingly takes a job at a cupcake shop owned by a star NFL player, Donovan, but a rumor soon spreads that she’s dating Donovan – and it’s easier for her to pretend it’s true than face the music, so she convinces Donovan to go along with the fake relationship. This reminded me a lot of “Donut Fall in Love”, a romance novel about a cupcake shop owner and a movie star, and while I enjoyed this, “Donut Fall in Love” was much better. Jada came across as rather young and immature, and I found her hard to like or empathize with. However, it was a fun and sweet easy read, in spite of the somewhat shallow characters, and I enjoyed it overall.
2 stars:
Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech’s Empathy Problem and How to Fix It, by Maelle Gavet: This manifesto started out really interesting, but soon felt a bit too idealistic, and also got rather dry. I appreciated that at the end of the book, Gavet circled back to give extremely tactical examples of what needs to change, where the few chapters before that had felt more like rants than true problems / solutions. Although the first few chapters were fascinating, this unfortunately ended up losing my interest, and I found it took me weeks to force myself to finish the remaining chapters. I was glad I did, but overall, I can’t say it was a compelling read.
Any book recommendations for me? Follow me here on Goodreads to keep up with what I’m reading in real time.