Weekly Reads: Freefall

I had heard a lot of great buzz about the new novel Freefall so I was excited to get it from my library when it came out. It was a page turner! Told in multiple perspectives revealing little tidbits with each chapter, I could not put this book down. I told everyone I could about it as I was reading it, and you should read it too. I could totally see this being an insanely good movie. So read it before it gets optioned and the hold list at your library goes bananas. :P

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:

A propulsive debut novel with the intensity of Luckiest Girl Alive and Before the Fall, about a young woman determined to survive and a mother determined to find her.

When your life is a lie, the truth can kill you

When her fiancé’s private plane crashes in the Colorado Rockies, Allison Carpenter miraculously survives. But the fight for her life is just beginning. For years, Allison has been living with a terrible secret, a shocking truth that powerful men will kill to keep buried. If they know she’s alive, they will come for her. She must make it home.

In the small community of Owl Creek, Maine, Maggie Carpenter learns that her only child is presumed dead. But authorities have not recovered her body—giving Maggie a shred of hope. She, too, harbors a shameful secret: she hasn’t communicated with her daughter in two years, since a family tragedy drove Allison away. Maggie doesn’t know anything about her daughter’s life now—not even that she was engaged to wealthy pharmaceutical CEO Ben Gardner, or why she was on a private plane.

As Allison struggles across the treacherous mountain wilderness, Maggie embarks on a desperate search for answers. Immersing herself in Allison’s life, she discovers a sleek socialite hiding dark secrets. What was Allison running from—and can Maggie uncover the truth in time to save her?

Told from the perspectives of a mother and daughter separated by distance but united by an unbreakable bond, Freefall is a riveting debut novel about two tenacious women overcoming unimaginable obstacles to protect themselves and those they love. 

Weekly Reads: I Owe You One

I started reading Sophie Kinsella's newest book I Owe You One when I was on my way home from Texas. I wanted a nice light vacation read, and Kinsella's books always fit the bill. I received an e-ARC to read and review. It was sweet, and fairly predictable, as most of her books are, but it was perfect for the pre-Christmas holiday, and was even a significant gateway drug to Christmas Hallmark movies. I've turned a corner, friends, and there's no coming back from it.

My rating: 4 stars.

Summary from Goodreads:

Fixie Farr has always lived by her father’s motto: “Family first.” But since her dad passed away, leaving his charming housewares store in the hands of his wife and children, Fixie spends all her time picking up the slack from her siblings instead of striking out on her own. The way Fixie sees it, if she doesn’t take care of her father’s legacy, who will? It’s simply not in her nature to say no to people.

So when a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop for a moment, Fixie not only agrees—she ends up saving it from certain disaster. Turns out the computer’s owner is an investment manager. To thank Fixie for her quick thinking, Sebastian scribbles an IOU on a coffee sleeve and attaches his business card. But Fixie laughs it off—she’d never actually claim an IOU from a stranger. Would she?

Then Fixie’s childhood crush, Ryan, comes back into her life and his lack of a profession pushes all of Fixie’s buttons. She wants nothing for herself—but she’d love Seb to give Ryan a job. And Seb agrees, until the tables are turned once more and a new series of IOUs between Seb and Fixie—from small favors to life-changing moments—ensues. Soon Fixie, Ms. Fixit for everyone else, is torn between her family and the life she really wants. Does she have the courage to take a stand? Will she finally grab the life, and love, she really wants?

Weekly Reads: When Life Gives You Lululemons

When Life Gives you Lululemons is the third book in The Devil Wears Prada series. I thoroughly enjoyed the original, and didn't much care for the sequel, so I wasn't sold on even reading this title. But then I saw an ARC available of it, and I remembered that Lauren Weisberger always tells such a nice summer time, light story, and I was suckered in.

And I'm glad I was.

This was so much more enjoyable than I thought it would be, and I found myself wanting to pick it up during my 15 minute breaks at work (this is a sign of a very readable book). When my lunch break was over and I only had about 40 pages left, I was so bummed to have to wait to see how it ended up. Perfect book for the summer time, either at the beach, poolside, or lying on the couch in the AC because it's just so damn hot out.

My rating: 4.5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

New York Times bestselling author Lauren Weisberger returns with a novel starring one of her favorite characters from The Devil Wears Prada—Emily Charlton, first assistant to Miranda Priestly, now a highly successful image consultant who’s just landed the client of a lifetime.

Welcome to Greenwich, CT, where the lawns and the women are perfectly manicured, the Tito’s and sodas are extra strong, and everyone has something to say about the infamous new neighbor.

Let’s be clear: Emily Charlton, Miranda Priestly’s ex-assistant, does not do the suburbs. She’s working in Hollywood as an image consultant to the stars, but recently, Emily’s lost a few clients. She’s hopeless with social media. The new guard is nipping at her heels. She needs a big opportunity, and she needs it now.

Karolina Hartwell is as A-list as they come. She’s the former face of L’Oreal. A mega-supermodel recognized the world over. And now, the gorgeous wife of the newly elected senator from New York, Graham, who also has his eye on the presidency. It’s all very Kennedy-esque, right down to the public philandering and Karolina’s arrest for a DUI—with a Suburban full of other people’s children.

Miriam is the link between them. Until recently she was a partner at one of Manhattan’s most prestigious law firms. But when Miriam moves to Greenwich and takes time off to spend with her children, she never could have predicted that being stay-at-home mom in an uber-wealthy town could have more pitfalls than a stressful legal career. 

Emily, Karolina, and Miriam make an unlikely trio, but they desperately need each other. Together, they’ll navigate the social landmines of life in America’s favorite suburb on steroids, revealing the truths—and the lies—that simmer just below the glittering surface. With her signature biting style, Lauren Weisberger offers a dazzling look into another sexy, over-the-top world, where nothing is as it appears.

Weekly Reads: Sharp Objects

I've read and enjoyed Gillian Flynn's other books, but hadn't yet read Sharp Objects. I feel like you have to be in a certain *mood* to read her books, if you know what I mean. They're so dark and twisted, that my brain needs to be in a pretty darn good place before I pick them up. I was in need of an audiobook the other day, and I saw this on the shelf as I was shelving at work, so I picked it up, planning to discard it if I disliked the narrator. But I didn't. I wasn't super in to it the first disc (12% of the story), but it really picked up and I was flying through the discs while driving back and forth to work. This book was so much darker than I was expecting, and since I was listening to it, I couldn't skim past some of the really intense parts. I'm not very squeamish but I was while reading (listening) to this, so that's saying something, I think.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary from Goodreads:

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows, a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming. 

Weekly Reads: My Not So Perfect Life

My Not So Perfect Life is the newest book by Sophie Kinsella. I was always look forward to her books, as they're typically the light reads I'm wanting while sitting by a lake in the summer time. I've yet to be lakeside, sadly, but I did thoroughly enjoy this book. I wasn't the biggest fan of her last book, but this one was much better! I had a hard time putting it down, and that's really saying something for a chick lit title.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary fro Goodreads:

Katie Brenner has the perfect life: a flat in London, a glamorous job, and a super-cool Instagram feed.

Ok, so the real truth is that she rents a tiny room with no space for a wardrobe, has a hideous commute to a lowly admin job, and the life she shares on Instagram isn’t really hers.

But one day her dreams are bound to come true, aren’t they?

Until her not-so perfect life comes crashing down when her mega-successful boss Demeter gives her the sack. All Katie’s hopes are shattered. She has to move home to Somerset, where she helps her dad with his new glamping business.

Then Demeter and her family book in for a holiday, and Katie sees her chance. But should she get revenge on the woman who ruined her dreams? Or try to get her job back? Does Demeter – the woman with everything – have such an idyllic life herself? Maybe they have more in common than it seems.

And what’s wrong with not-so-perfect, anyway?

Weekly Reads: Love Warrior

I don't usually pick up Oprah's Book Club picks, mostly because once they are announced, the hold list at the library is a million people long. But one of the book podcasts I follow was talking about this Love Warrior and it sounded interesting to me. I put myself on the monsterously long hold list. And then one evening I was looking at our digital audiobook library and saw it was in, no holds! I noticed the author narrated the book, and was a little nervous about that, but she's lovely to listen to.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her speak about her life and her struggles. When her and her husband were dealing with their marital issues, it was hard to listen to. I'm sure it would've been hard to read, because that sort of honest portrayal of real relationship issues is difficult. That was the one point I wished I had been reading a print copy instead of listening.

My review: 4 stars

Summary from goodreads:

The highly anticipated new memoir by bestselling author Glennon Doyle Melton tells the story of her journey of self-discovery after the implosion of her marriage.

Just when Glennon Doyle Melton was beginning to feel she had it all figured out—three happy children, a doting spouse, and a writing career so successful that her first book catapulted to the top of the New York Times bestseller list—her husband revealed his infidelity and she was forced to realize that nothing was as it seemed. A recovering alcoholic and bulimic, Glennon found that rock bottom was a familiar place. In the midst of crisis, she knew to hold on to what she discovered in recovery: that her deepest pain has always held within it an invitation to a richer life.

Love Warrior is the story of one marriage, but it is also the story of the healing that is possible for any of us when we refuse to settle for good enough and begin to face pain and love head-on. This astonishing memoir reveals how our ideals of masculinity and femininity can make it impossible for a man and a woman to truly know one another - and it captures the beauty that unfolds when one couple commits to unlearning everything they’ve been taught so that they can finally, after thirteen years of marriage, fall in love.

Love Warrior is a gorgeous and inspiring account of how we are born to be warriors: strong, powerful, and brave; able to confront the pain and claim the love that exists for us all. This chronicle of a beautiful, brutal journey speaks to anyone who yearns for deeper, truer relationships and a more abundant, authentic life.

Weekly Reads: Meternity

Every once in a while I like to read really fluffy chick lit. It used to be almost ALL I read, but then I got sick of it being so predictable. But I still like to check out Emily Giffin, Sophie Kinsella, and Beth Harbison's new books each year. When I read the description for Meghann Foye's Meternity I thought it looked like the perfect book to read after reading some heavy teen books. I was right. It was a fun light read, that surprisingly had some good meat to it. Definitely a good read for fans of the aforementioned authors.

My rating: 4 stars*

Summary from goodreads:

Not quite knocked up… 

Like everyone in New York media, editor Liz Buckley runs on cupcakes, caffeine and cocktails. But at thirty-one, she's plateaued at Paddy Cakes, a glossy baby magazine that flogs thousand-dollar strollers to entitled, hypercompetitive spawn-havers.

Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for coworkers with kids, and she's tired of it. So one day when her stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her bosses—boom! Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life: work, love and otherwise. It'll be her "meternity" leave.

By day, Liz rocks a foam-rubber belly under fab maternity outfits. By night, she dumps the bump for karaoke nights and boozy dinners out. But how long can she keep up her charade…and hide it from the guy who might just be The One?

As her "due date" approaches, Liz is exhausted—and exhilarated—by the ruse, the guilt and the feelings brought on by a totally fictional belly-tenant…about happiness, success, family and the nature of love.

*I received an e-ARC of this book to read and review to the publisher, as well as promote to library customers if I like it! 

Weekly Reads: Pretty Ugly

I got an e-ARC of  Pretty Ugly to review and promote at my library if I liked it. It sounded hilarious, and as someone who watched an episode or two of Toddlers and Tiaras with her mouth on the floor, I couldn't wait to dig in.

The book is written by a producer for Family Guy, so I shouldn't have been as shocked by some of the things portrayed in the book, but I still was. It was funny, but it was also a lot darker than I was expecting. There's definitely some content that some readers will object to, or be uncomfortable with, but I flew through it.

My rating: 3.5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

From a producer of Family Guy, a satirical look at a dysfunctional family complete with a stage mom, 9 year-old pageant queen, philandering husband, his girlfriend, and the crazy grandmother

Miranda Miller’s mission in life is to make sure her nine-year-old daughter, Bailey, continues to be one of the most successful child pageant contestants in the southern United States. Lately, that mission’s been difficult. Bailey has been secretly binge eating to gain weight so Miranda will let her retire; and the reality show Miranda been trying to set up for Bailey (and herself) just went to their biggest rival, Starr Kennedy and her tyrannical stage mother, Theresa.

But Miranda’s got an ace up her sleeve. She’s seven months pregnant with her fourth child, a girl, thank God, and Miranda is going to make damn sure that this one will be a pageant champion, too.

Unbeknownst to her, Miranda’s husband Ray, a nurse with a hobby of popping random pills, has knocked up Courtney, the less than brilliant seventeen-year-old orphan granddaughter of one of his hospice patients. With a wife, a mistress, two jobs, three kids (and two more on the way), a mountain of debt, and no real friends, Ray is desperately hoping his life puts itself back in order.

Meanwhile, the Millers’ two boys are being “homeschooled” by Miranda’s mother, Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann), a well-intentioned widow who spends most of her time playing solitaire and planning a murder with Jesus. Yes, that Jesus.

They’re just your typical dysfunctional American family.

Weekly Reads: The Royal We

I received an e-ARC of The Royal We to review and/or promote to library customers if I liked it. It is co-written by the authors of the website Go Fug Yourself, a site I'm not familiar with. I was excited to read it after all the buzz it received.

It's being called Kate Middleton fan fiction, and I admit that woke up early to watch the royal wedding, but I'm far from an expert on Kate and William's relationship, so I have no clue which portions are erring on fact vs. fiction.

The book was very entertaining, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great read. It did get a little long, as it went through the entirety of their relationship. I would've been ok if it was 100 pages shorter, although I have no clue what could've been cut to make that happen.

Check it out!

My rating: 4 stars.
 
Summary from goodreads:

American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it's Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain's future king. And when Bex can't resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick's sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he's fated to become.

Which is how she gets into trouble.

Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she's sacrificed for love-her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself-will have been for nothing.

Weekly Reads: A Window Opens

I received an e-ARC of A Window Opens and it looked like a book I'd want to read on a nice summer weekend. I picked it up when I was needing a nice light read. It's a slightly more grown up version of The Devil Wears Prada, with a lot more believability. It was fairly predictable, but it was still a great light read.

My rating: 3.5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

For fans of I Don’t Know How She Does It and Where’d You Go, Bernadette?.

In A Window Opens, beloved books editor at Glamour magazine, Elisabeth Egan, brings us Alice Pearse, a compulsively honest, longing-to-have-it-all, sandwich generation heroine for our social-media-obsessed, lean in (or opt out) age. 

Like her fictional forebears Kate Reddy and Bridget Jones, Alice plays many roles (which she never refers to as “wearing many hats” and wishes you wouldn’t, either). She is a mostly-happily married mother of three, an attentive daughter, an ambivalent dog-owner, a part-time editor, a loyal neighbor and a Zen commuter. She is not: a cook, a craftswoman, a decorator, an active PTA member, a natural caretaker or the breadwinner. But when her husband makes a radical career change, Alice is ready to lean in—and she knows exactly how lucky she is to land a job at Scroll, a hip young start-up which promises to be the future of reading, with its chain of chic literary lounges and dedication to beloved classics. The Holy Grail of working mothers―an intellectually satisfying job and a happy personal life―seems suddenly within reach.

Despite the disapproval of her best friend, who owns the local bookstore, Alice is proud of her new “balancing act” (which is more like a three-ring circus) until her dad gets sick, her marriage flounders, her babysitter gets fed up, her kids start to grow up and her work takes an unexpected turn. Readers will cheer as Alice realizes the question is not whether it’s possible to have it all, but what does she―Alice Pearse―really want?

Weekly Reads: Love May Fail

Love May Fail is the newest book by The Silver Lining Playbook author, Matthew Quick. I am fairly obsessed with his books, so I was thrilled to get an e-arc of his newest book to promote to library customers. I waited until the last minute to read this book before my copy expired, and I was not in the mood for a "Matthew Quick" intense dark read. Soooooo that threw me for a bit of a loop. But the story itself was so great, despite its intensity, and I would highly recommend it to everyone, but just make sure you're not sitting down looking for a nice light summer read, because this ain't it, yo.

The story was told from four different perspectives, which I usually hate, but the stories were so intrinsically weaved together that I loved it. Definitely worth a read.

My rating: 4 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

An aspiring feminist and underappreciated housewife embarks on an odyssey to find human decency and goodness—and her high school English teacher—in New York Times bestselling author Matthew Quick’s offbeat masterpiece, a quirky ode to love, fate, and hair metal 

Portia Kane is having a meltdown. After escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, she finds herself back in South Jersey, a place that remains largely unchanged from the years of her unhappy youth. Lost and alone, looking to find the goodness in the world she believes still exists, Portia sets off to save herself by saving someone else—a beloved high school English teacher who has retired after a traumatic incident. 

Will a sassy nun, an ex-heroin addict, a metal-head little boy, and her hoarder mother help or hurt her chances on this madcap quest to restore a good man’s reputation and find renewed hope in the human race? Love May Fail is a story of the great highs and lows of existence: the heartache and daring choices it takes to become the person you know (deep down) you are meant to be.

Weekly Reads: Friendship

Friendship is a book I heard about last summer that I thought would be a good light read. And I was right. When I finally got around to reading it, I really enjoyed it. It opens your eyes to friendships and how they ebb and flow with age and new life experiences.

My rating 3.5 stars.


Summary from goodreads:

A novel about two friends learning the difference between getting older and growing up

Bev Tunney and Amy Schein have been best friends for years; now, at thirty, they’re at a crossroads. Bev is a Midwestern striver still mourning a years-old romantic catastrophe. Amy is an East Coast princess whose luck and charm have too long allowed her to cruise through life. Bev is stuck in circumstances that would have barely passed for bohemian in her mid-twenties: temping, living with roommates, drowning in student-loan debt. Amy is still riding the tailwinds of her early success, but her habit of burning bridges is finally catching up to her. And now Bev is pregnant.

As Bev and Amy are dragged, kicking and screaming, into real adulthood, they have to face the possibility that growing up might mean growing apart.

Friendship, Emily Gould’s debut novel, traces the evolution of a friendship with humor and wry sympathy. Gould examines the relationship between two women who want to help each other but sometimes can’t help themselves; who want to make good decisions but sometimes fall prey to their own worst impulses; whose generous intentions are sometimes overwhelmed by petty concerns.

This is a novel about the way we speak and live today; about the ways we disappoint and betray one another. At once a meditation on the modern meaning of maturity and a timeless portrait of the underexamined bond that exists between friends, this exacting and truthful novel is a revelation.

Weekly Reads (Listens): The Rosie Project

  While scanning edelweiss for new e-ARC books, I saw the sequel to The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, available (coming out in December, review to come!). I read the summary and remembered that one of my goodreads friends didn't like it. I thought it was Renee because I thought I remember her saying she only read it because her dog's name was Rosie. Well lo and behold, I pulled up her review and she loved it, and so did all my goodreads friends. Who the heck thought this was a bad book? Was it a different book with Rosie in the title?!! Am I loosing my mind?

I picked it up on audiobook and was surprised at how much I enjoyed the narrator. I enjoyed running my errands just because I wanted to listen to the narrator more. And the story was great too. Quirky, clever, funny. I loved it.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone who likes clever love stories, and I can't wait for the sequel.

My rating: 4.5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

An international sensation, this hilarious, feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love.

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.

Weekly Reads: Driving With the Top Down

Driving with the Top Down is the most recent book from Beth Harbison. Her books always go on a must-read list for me. They're good chick lit, summertime reads. Last summer's book was just so-so in my opinion, but this one knocked it out of the park! I like light reads with romantic elements, but I like them to still have some good oomph and substance if that makes sense. So picky, I know! I flew through this one and genuinely cared about each of the characters. Definitely check it out.

My rating: 4.5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Three women, two weeks, one convertible: sometimes life doesn't take you in the direction you expect...

Colleen Bradley is married with a teenage son, a modest business repurposing and reselling antiques, and longtime fear that she was not her husband’s first choice. When she decides to take a road trip down the east coast to check out antique auctions for her business, she also has a secret ulterior motive. Her one-woman mission for peace of mind is thrown slightly off course when sixteen year old Tamara becomes her co-pilot. The daughter of Colleen’s brother-in-law, Tamara is aware that when people see her as a screw-up, but she knows in her heart that she’s so much more. She just wishes her father could see it, too. 

The already bumpy trip takes another unexpected turn when they stop at the diner that served as Colleen’s college hangout and run into her old friend, Bitty Nolan Camalier. Clearly distressed, Bitty gives them a story full of holes: angry with her husband, she took off on her own, only to have her car stolen. Both Colleen and Tamara sense that there’s more that Bitty isn’t sharing, but Colleen offers to give Bitty a ride to Florida.

So one becomes two becomes three as Colleen, Tamara, and Bitty make their way together down the coast. It’s a road trip fraught with tension as Tamara’s poor choices come back to haunt her and Bitty’s secrets reach a boiling point. With no one to turn to but each other, these three women might just discover that you can get lost in life but somehow, true friends provide a roadmap to finding what you’re really looking for.

Weekly Reads: Matchmaker

The Matchmaker is the newest book from author Elin Hilderbrand. I received an e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. I enjoy Hilderbrand's books for light, vacation reading. I always want to book my next vacation in Nantucket while reading her books. The month of June I had a Beach Read display at the library and her books made up a bulk of the selection, and I couldn't keep the display stocked! They flew off the shelves. Yay successful display!

While her books are light reads, they tend to have more depth then just a regular chick lit read, do you know what I mean? This one was no different, and may be my favorite book of hers so far. There were a few sub-plots going on throughout the story, but they weren't distracting and really added to the story. I have a hard time reading books that have three best friend female characters, and each chapter is told from their individual perspective, BUT I CAN NEVER REMEMBER WHO IS WHO, because the stories aren't told in a way that makes me actually care. Does that make sense?

Anyway, this is a must read this summer.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary from goodreads:

A touching new novel from Elin Hilderbrand in which a dying woman sets out to find love for those closest to her - before it's too late

Dabney Kimball Beech, the 48-year-old fifth generation Nantucketer, has had a lifelong gift of matchmaking (52 couples still together to her credit). But when Dabney discovers she is dying of pancreatic cancer, she sets out to find matches for a few people very close to home: her husband, celebrated economist John Boxmiller Beech; her lover journalist Clendenin Hughes; and her daughter, Agnes, who is engaged to be married to the wrong man. 

As time slips away from Dabney, she is determined to find matches for those she loves most - but at what cost to her own relationships? THE MATCHMAKER is the heartbreaking new novel from Elin Hilderbrand about losing and finding love, even as you're running out of time.