What I've Been Reading...

Hallelujah, it's Friday! I hope you've all had a great week. Mine was exhausting now that I'm back to work but I'm hoping to check a lot off my list today. As promised, I am back today with a reading update. I constantly get questions about what I've been reading lately so I wanted to share with you all. Also, if you have any great recent reads, comment below so we can pick them up too!  Let's dive in!

A Hundred Summers

On my recent road trip to Virginia with my mom, we downloaded a couple audiobooks to keep us entertained. The first one we listened to was A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams. I've seen a couple of her books at various bookstores or on book lists but they never really appealed to me before. I finally decided to give them a try because it seems like so many people love them. I was pleasantly surprised and we both really enjoyed it!

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:
Lily Dane has returned to Seaview, Rhode Island, where her family has summered for generations. It’s an escape not only from New York’s social scene but from a heartbreak that still haunts her. Here, among the seaside community that has embraced her since childhood, she finds comfort in the familiar rituals of summer.

But this summer is different. Budgie and Nick Greenwald—Lily’s former best friend and former fiancé—have arrived, too, and Seaview’s elite are abuzz. Under Budgie’s glamorous influence, Lily is seduced into a complicated web of renewed friendship and dangerous longing.

As a cataclysmic hurricane churns north through the Atlantic, and uneasy secrets slowly reveal themselves, Lily and Nick must confront an emotional storm that will change their worlds forever...

A Certain Age

We liked the first book by Williams so much that we got another one called A Certain Age. My mom didn't end up hearing the end of this one (sorry mom!), but I really liked it.  If I had to pick between the two I would say A Hundred Summers is better though. Both of the story lines were kinda out there but I like that they shared similar character histories. So neat to realize that you know part of a character's back story already. 

Synopsis:

As the freedom of the Jazz Age transforms New York City, the iridescent Mrs. Theresa Marshall of Fifth Avenue and Southampton, Long Island, has done the unthinkable: she’s fallen in love with her young paramour, Captain Octavian Rofrano, a handsome aviator and hero of the Great War. An intense and deeply honorable man, Octavian is devoted to the beautiful socialite of a certain age and wants to marry her. While times are changing and she does adore the Boy, divorce for a woman of Theresa’s wealth and social standing is out of the question, and there is no need; she has an understanding with Sylvo, her generous and well-respected philanderer husband.

But their relationship subtly shifts when her bachelor brother, Ox, decides to tie the knot with the sweet younger daughter of a newly wealthy inventor. Engaging a longstanding family tradition, Theresa enlists the Boy to act as her brother’s cavalier, presenting the family’s diamond rose ring to Ox’s intended, Miss Sophie Fortescue—and to check into the background of the little-known Fortescue family. When Octavian meets Sophie, he falls under the spell of the pretty ingénue, even as he uncovers a shocking family secret. As the love triangle of Theresa, Octavian, and Sophie progresses, it transforms into a saga of divided loyalties, dangerous revelations, and surprising twists that will lead to a shocking transgression . . . and eventually force Theresa to make a bittersweet choice.

Full of the glamour, wit and delicious twists that are the hallmarks of Beatriz Williams’ fiction and alternating between Sophie’s spirited voice and Theresa’s vibrant timbre, A Certain Age is a beguiling reinterpretation of Richard Strauss’s comic opera Der Rosenkavalier, set against the sweeping decadence of Gatsby’s New York.

 Every Last Lie

Mary Kubica is one of my favorite authors for all things scary aka thrillers. Her books are sooo good and keep you wondering what's going on until the very last page. I loved Every Last Lie and read it super quickly. I don't want to give anything away so I'll only post part of the synopsis :) Oh and if you haven't read The Good Girl by her, stop everything you're doing and click here to buy it. I LOOOOOVED it! 

Synopsis: 

Clara Solberg's world shatters when her husband and their four-year-old daughter are in a car crash, killing Nick while Maisie is remarkably unharmed. The crash is ruled an accident…until the coming days, when Maisie starts having night terrors that make Clara question what really happened on that fateful afternoon. 

Tormented by grief and her obsession that Nick's death was far more than just an accident, Clara is plunged into a desperate hunt for the truth. Who would have wanted Nick dead? And, more important, why? Clara will stop at nothing to find out—and the truth is only the beginning of this twisted tale of secrets and deceit. 

The Couple Next Door

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena was a crazy book. I've heard so many good things and it definitely lived up to those reviews. It's another thriller (shocker!) but not as scary as some of the other books I've read lately. It just leaves you wondering what is going on with each of the characters and trying to guess the motives of those involved. I also went through this one super quickly and was left in awe at the end. Pick it up asap!

Synopsis:

It all started at a dinner party. . .

A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors—a twisty, rollercoaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives. . .

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night, when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately lands on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.

Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years. 

What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family—a chilling tale of  deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

The Identicals

Let me preface this by saying I have a love affair with Nantucket. I have never been but LOVE reading about it and want to go so badly. I know that many of you know this already lol but it makes my book choices a little biased. The Identicals was very different from Hilderbrand's other books though and I've read almost all of them. This is an easy beach read but a refreshing change for the some of the thrillers I like to read. Everyone needs to read something light every now and then right??

Synopsis:

Identical twin sisters who couldn't look more alike...or live more differently.Harper Frost is laid-back, easygoing. She doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She likes a beer and a shot and wouldn't be caught dead wearing anything fashionable. She's inherited her father's rundown house on Martha's Vineyard, but she can't hold down a job, and her latest romantic disaster has the entire island talking. 

Two beautiful islands only eleven miles apart.Tabitha Frost is dignified, refined. She prefers a fine wine and has inherited the impeccable taste of her mother, the iconic fashion designer Eleanor Roxie-Frost. She's also inherited her mother's questionable parenting skills--Tabitha's teenage daughter, Ainsley, is in full rebellion mode--and a flailing fashion boutique on Nantucket in desperate need of a cash infusion. 

One unforgettable summer that will change their lives forever.
After more than a decade apart, Harper and Tabitha switch islands--and lives--to save what's left of their splintered family. But the twins quickly discover that the secrets, lies, and gossip they thought they'd outrun can travel between islands just as easily as they can. Will Harper and Tabitha be able to bury the hatchet and end their sibling rivalry once and for all?