I am realizing just now that this month’s reading list is composed entirely of female authors. Not bad considering it’s Women’s History Month! Anyway, my March reading list is full of titles that I really (and I mean really) enjoyed. Now that I’ve made my way down the pile, I need another bookstore run!
Outfit details: Button front shirt | Jeans | Boots | Bag
If you’d like access to my other book list posts, click here!
And, as always, if you don’t like something I recommend – that’s ok! Life is too short to read something you don’t enjoy. But, if there’s a juicy story you think I should read, let me know in the comments!
March Reading List
The Wrong Family by Tarryn Fisher
This book was nothing at all like I was expecting, at least from having read the synopsis on the back cover. And that was such a good thing! It’s rare when a thriller surprises me and this one did. The author takes an entirely unbelievable situation and makes it completely plausible, even frighteningly so. The main characters, Winnie and Nigel, seem to have the perfect life. The perfect marriage, perfect home, perfect child, perfect neighborhood, perfect…everything. Juno, a retired and very sick former therapist, lives with them and overhears a conversation between them that she can’t stop thinking about. And she really shouldn’t get involved in their affairs but if she doesn’t, then someone gets away with a heinous crime. Or do they? Secrets, lies, betrayals, misunderstandings with grave consequences – this book has it all. A juicy thriller for sure!
An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
I loved The Couple Next Door, so I was excited to read this one as well. It feels very much like an Agatha Christie mystery, too, which made me like it even more. Picture a small family-run inn nestled deep in the Catskills. It’s the perfect place to retreat for a little R & R or perhaps enjoy a romantic weekend. That’s what the handful of guests expect when they check-in on a wintery afternoon. Unfortunately for them, the peaceful ambience is shattered when one of the guests turns up dead. At first believed to be an accident (surely she tripped and fell down the stairs), the guests begin to question whether her boyfriend could have pushed her instead. Especially as one of the guests reveals that she overheard them arguing the night before. The weather worsens and they lose electricity and phone service. They’re stuck with the body until the weather clears and the police can come, likely not until the weekend is over. Then, another guest is found dead. There’s a great deal of finger pointing and the author does a good job of keeping you guessing until the end.
The Last Flight by Julie Clark
What if you could switch places with someone and completely change your life? Maybe for the better, maybe not, but at least you’d be safe? That’s the decision facing the two main characters of this story. Both women are going through a living nightmare. Claire is married to a wealthy politician from a long political dynasty. Everyone knows who he is, who is family is, and he is revered for being a champion of philanthropic endeavors. He’s charming and funny, and let’s not forget, has a lot of money. But only Claire knows what he’s really like when the cameras turn off. He’s volatile, violent, and controlling over every aspect of her life. She has tried to leave before and it always fails. This time, she’s going to disappear for good. Claire meets Eva at the airport. Eva is a woman living a secret life. She once had everything going for her, but now she deals in illegal activity and wants out. She’s saved enough money to start a new life. The women decide to switch tickets and take each other’s intended flight. Claire will take Eva’s flight to Oakland and Eva will travel to Puerto Rico as Claire. But when the flight to Puerto Rico crashes, things get…complicated. This newly published book is a good one!
The High Tide Club by Mary Kay Andrews
I’ll admit that when I saw the cover and read the inside flap I thought to myself, ok a nice light beach read. I was SO wrong!! I ended up loving this story more than I thought I would. On a private island sits a crumbling old mansion and in it, a dying heiress named Josephine Warrick is ready to will her massive fortune away. But not until she makes some things right. She calls on her attorney to help her make amends with her old friends, The High Tide Club, sharing a story that reveals lifelong friendships shattered, dark family secrets, and a decades old murder that remains unsolved (or at least, no one is talking about it). In rounding up Josephine’s old friends, her attorney makes an astonishing discovery that could make someone filthy rich…or lead to their murder. I love how this story is told between the past and the present. Only at the end does the author reveal the secret you’ve been wanting to know for almost 400 pages!
The Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert
This story is heartbreaking throughout. When Paul asked me if I liked it, I said yes, if it’s possible to say you liked something that is just so, so sad. It’s beautifully written and such a good story. The main character is recounting the events of her life some forty years earlier. Ellen was a young woman when the boys went off to fight in the Second World War. She says goodbye to her cousin, Randall, a boy whom she shared happy childhood memories with and possibly her first experience with real love. Randall is killed on Iwo Kima and leaves her two of his prized possessions – his diary and a book called The Gardens of Kyoto. Each of these items shapes Ellen’s transition from child to young woman to adult, as she tries to understand her place in the world. The effects of the war linger in all aspects of life, influencing a society where women don’t have the choices they do now. When the author revealed Ellen’s audience, I was stunned. It’s hard not to be incredibly sad for her, and for the other characters whose lives were never the same after WWII. It’s a great read that you should take your time with. I took a chance on it, and it ended up being a favorite of mine.
What are you reading?
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xo – Erin
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