September accomplishments included finding out I won the Bronze Medal in the 2023 Reader’s Favorite Fiction – Chick Lit category (sorry, I can’t get used to that), enjoying the coolish weather (it’s bad when I think mid-80s is cool) and doing a good amount of reading.
If you recall from last month, I planned to read a new-to-me Women’s Fiction series as well as a thriller/suspense story told from the perspective of a woman. I accomplished both. The new series was not for me, but I enjoyed the thriller/suspense novel Never Lie by Feida McFadden. This author has four of the top ten books on the Amazon’s Best Sellers: Women’s Crime Fiction list. If you like unreliable narrators and dark twisty books, this one has your name written all over it.
It wasn’t on my list but I also read Who We Are Now by Lauryn Chamberlain. It’s classified as Women’s Fiction, but it’s the story of four friends from college and how their relationships changed after graduation. The book’s tagline has me a bit confused: Four friends. Fifteen years. Who We Are Now is a story of Sliding Doors moments, those seemingly small choices of early adulthood that determine the course of our lives. I need to rewatch Sliding Doors to see if this makes more sense. Either way, it was an interesting and easy read.
I would like to give a shout out about Love, Lydia by Blair Hart. Hart’s book won the Gold Medal in the 2023 Reader’s Favorite Fiction – Chick Lit category.
Here is the book description:
Anna Kinser meets eight-year-old Emily three days into her job as the event coordinator at a run-down Art Deco theater in Shiloh, Georgia.
Emily is bold, remarkably precocious, and she’s just redecorated Anna’s office. On top of that, she’s decided that Anna should ask her dad to be her boyfriend. Her dad. Nathan Roth. The gorgeous construction guy from the auditorium.
Fortunately, he’s single, but he isn’t one to date—after what happened to Anna’s boss’s sister, he hasn’t dated in eight years.
But Anna doesn’t let that stop her from pursuing him, and soon, the two begin to fall in love.
What Anna doesn’t know is that Nathan is a very famous man—and he’s in Shiloh for a very specific reason.
Plus, there’s something holding him back.
If he wants her—has feelings for her—why is he so detached?
Lydia Ashburton is a NYU student who may have just met the love of her life. But how do you keep up with a rock star? Between flutes of champagne and flashy parties, Lydia feels like a fish out of water. He’s crazy about her, and she feels closer to him with each date, but they come from different worlds.
Can they make it last?
Life has a wild way of bringing people together.
For three strangers, a series of letters unites them.
My take:
This was a cool innovation for a romantic drama. The two-part story weaves three main characters together and includes a delightful eight-year old who thinks she’s thirty. I enjoyed the unique set up, and the characters are fully developed with a lot of spunk. It’s one of those books you don’t want to put down, so plan appropriately!
What else I’m reading:
I’ve been trying to finish The Maid on audiobook, but haven’t been able to get into it. I’m not sure if I don’t have enough dedicated time to listen (no road trips this month) or if I’m not clicking with the narrator or if the story isn’t for me. I’m holding onto it, though, for the next road trip.
October Plans:
It’s the spooky season and I have to decorate! In between the spiders and skeletons and ghosts, I will be reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Not a Women’s Fiction book, but a horror one for the season. I’m hoping my daughter’s college applications will all be submitted, so that I can start reading her scholarship application essays. I know I’m repeating myself, but I do not remember having to write so many essays for college or scholarship applications.
Until next time…