Latest Reads // The Last 5 Books I’ve Read

It’s been awhile since a did a book update and I’ve actually been quite busy in the reading department! I went years without picking up a book and reading it cover to cover until 2019 when I decided I desperately wanted to reclaim some me time and make a goal to start reading again. To be honest, I’m not sure what that goal was or how many books I intended to read, but I do know is that I’ve fallen in love with reading again. There’s nothing like feeling the pages between your fingers and getting lost in a good book! Here are the Last 5 Books I’ve Read in case you’re looking for your next!

LATEST READS // THE LAST 5 BOOKS I’VE READ

• Too Good to be True
• The Mother’s Promise
• American Dirt
• Troubles in Paradise
• What Happens in Paradise

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

I just finished Too Good to be True while on Spring Break and read it in a few days. I couldn’t put it down! My mom loaned it to me while we were visiting and I made it a priority to finish before we left! It’s the story of a love triangle and lots of secrets, heartache and drama in between.

From the author…

“ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH.

Too Good to Be True is an obsessive, addictive love story for fans of Lisa Jewell and The Wife Upstairs, from Carola Lovering, the beloved author of Tell Me Lies.

Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips―she’s smart, beautiful, and from a well-off family―she’s also battled crippling OCD ever since her mother’s death when she was eleven, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result.

But now Burke―handsome, older, and more emotionally mature than any man she’s met before―says he wants her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married, and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends.

In a third perspective, set thirty years earlier, a scrappy seventeen-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past―or will he find his way into her future?

On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. But of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.”

THE MOTHER’S PROMISE

Before that I read The Mother’s Promise which was a slightly slow start for me, but then once I got going, loved every single page. It tells the story of several women’s journey as a mother or was a very emotional read but very good!

“A poignant and breathtaking novel from the author of The Things We Keep and The Secrets of Midwives.

All their lives, Alice Stanhope and her daughter, Zoe, have been a family of two, living quietly in Northern California. Zoe has always struggled with crippling social anxiety and her mother has been her constant and fierce protector. With no family to speak of, and the identity of Zoe’s father shrouded in mystery, their team of two works―until it doesn’t. Until Alice gets sick and needs to fight for her life.

Desperate to find stability for Zoe, Alice reaches out to two women who are practically strangers but who are her only hope: Kate, a nurse, and Sonja, a social worker. As the four of them come together, a chain of events is set into motion and all four of them must confront their sharpest fears and secrets―secrets about abandonment, abuse, estrangement, and the deepest longing for family. Imbued with heart and humor in even the most dismal moments, The Mother’s Promise is an unforgettable novel about the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters and the new ways in which families are forged.

Sally Hepworth novels are “sure to appeal to fans of Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult, and Lisa Genova; book clubs will be lining up.” ―Library Journal (starred review)”

AMERICAN DIRT

American Dirt was an incredible story and although it took me awhile to get going, I was hooked. A horrific event takes place at the very beginning and then it tells the story of a mother and young son’s journey trying to escape the Mexican drug cartel by fleeing to the United States. American Dirt was an Oprah’s Book Club pick and I highly recommend it!

From the author…

“Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they’ll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy―two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia―trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier’s reach doesn’t extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed. It is a literary achievement filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page. It is one of the most important books for our times.

Already being hailed as “a Grapes of Wrath for our times” and “a new American classic,” Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.”

TROUBLES IN PARADISE

And then before that, I wrapped up books 2 and 3 of the Paradise Trilogy by Elin Hilderbrand. The first book, Winter in Paradise was so good and I loved Troubles in Paradise and What Happens in Paradise equally. I just never want those beach reads to end!

“Travel to the bright Caribbean one last time in the satisfying conclusion to the nationally bestselling Winter in Paradise trilogy by Elin Hilderbrand, “Queen of the Summer Novel” (People).

After uprooting her life in the States, Irene Steele has just settled in at the villa on St. John where her husband Russ had been living a double life. But a visit from the FBI shakes her foundations, and Irene once again learns just how little she knew about the man she loved. 

With help from their friends, Irene and her sons set up their lives while evidence mounts that the helicopter crash that killed Russ may not have been an accident. Meanwhile, the island watches this drama unfold—including the driver of a Jeep with tinted windows who seems to be shadowing the Steele family.

As a storm gathers strength in the Atlantic, surprises are in store for the Steeles: help from a mysterious source, and a new beginning in the paradise that has become their home. At last all will be revealed about the secrets and lies that brought Irene and her sons to St. John—and the truth that transformed them all.

WHAT HAPPENS IN PARADISE

“Spend your winter on sunlit shores in the New York Times bestselling follow-up to Winter in Paradise, where secret lives and new loves emerge under the bright Caribbean sky.

I just started A Good Marriage, so I’ll let you know what I think when I finish! I need to revisit my original Reading Wish List and see if I can squeeze in a few more of those, too. 

What are you reading right now? Any good beach reads?!