It’s been a minute since I had a look at my NetGalley shelf to check my progress…since July since I posted a check-in. I have, however been reading my ARCs gradually and giving feedback as I go. I have kinda stopped doing bigger review style posts for now, preferring to write little blurbs for each book as I go along.
Read:
This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page– ★★★★
My Feedback: What a sweet premise for this book – twelve books, twelve months to heal a broken heart. As soon as I read the blurb I knew I had to read it and I’m so happy that I received the ARC for it.
Tilly’s fiancé, Joe, carefully curates a thoughtful birthday gift for Tilly just before he passes away, hoping to help her carry on after he is gone – a book a month for twelve months. Each book takes Tilly on an adventure or teaches her something new, opening her up to the many possibilities life still holds. As Tilly collects each book and reads the personal note left inside by Joe, she reminisces about her and Joe’s relationship, reflects on her life before and after his passing and begins to find her way back to herself.
This Book Made Me Think of You is a beautifully written read with likable characters, lots of book references and the loveliest bookshop setting complete with a resident cat. A heartfelt story of healing, self-discovery, connection to others and the power of books and community.
What’s on my shelf?
The Mad Woman by Meagan Church (Currently reading)
They called it hysteria. She called it survival.
Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, she keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu’s carefully crafted life begins to unravel.
When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman’s constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew―and soon, others begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?
Handle With Care by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen
Three women walk into a post office. No, this isn’t the beginning of a joke. It’s the beginning of a hostage situation.
On an ordinary spring afternoon in a small-town post office, a domestic dispute spirals out of control. The husband pulls a gun and barricades himself inside with four hostages–his wife, a young woman searching for her purpose in this world, a midlife mom facing her only daughter’s graduation and imminent departure, and an elderly woman hiding a secret about her life at home. Outside, even the negotiator is forced to put aside her own personal baggage in order to find a peaceful resolution to a volatile situation . . . using exclusively words.
Each of the three women who walked into the post office is carrying something that, if mailed, would profoundly change her life. Through the course of the daylong siege, these strangers will forge unforeseen bonds and reveal things to each other they haven’t even told those closest to them. And none of them will ever be the same.
A Zoom with a View by Jess Cannon
A fiction debut filled with heart and humour, A Zoom with a View will make you want to move to Blue Oak—if only the annual Fourth of July festivities didn’t end with a dead body.
Leo can’t believe she’s back in Blue Oak. Her small, quirky Texas hometown feels suffocating after trying to make it big as an English professor in New York—especially due to her strained relationship with her overly hair-sprayed mother, Karina. But with Leo’s career in academia in shambles, at least she’s able to work as a photographer for her godmother’s real estate business. And her best friend, Emily, is around to help her navigate through the mess—and maybe force her to reconnect with her old high school boyfriend, Mack.
But while at work, Leo makes a grisly discovery at one of her godmother’s properties: the dead body of rival real estate agent and social media influencer Chaz. Even worse, Leo and Emily have been secretly running a snarky Reddit page making fun of Chaz’s cringe-inducing advice and duck-faced selfies. When someone she loves is accused of the murder, Leo finds herself flung headfirst into a dangerous investigation, teaming up with a local detective who is a lot more attractive than she remembered when they were both teenagers. Meanwhile, Karina has been acting stranger and stranger, as if all her hair hides a big secret. . . .
Feedback ratio: 80%
Requests:
I haven’t requested anything recently and I’m probably going to leave it that way, just for a bit while I get into some kind of new rhythm of reading, blogging and studying. I don’t want to add extra pressure to myself by overcommitting.
What’s on your NetGalley shelf? Which ARCs are you excited to read? Is there anything coming up that you’re hoping to receive?
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