Y’all, there is no way it is already October. August and September have gone by incredibly fast. Work is taking up so much of my time and brainpower and I’m finding it difficult to squeeze in time for reading. I did manage to read 6 books this month and I enjoyed almost all of them. I’d call September a successful reading month. Here’s what I read this month and my thoughts on each.
If you’ve been reading my book reviews for a while, then you know I love Lauren Layne’s books. She’s one of my favorite romance writers. I have been so excited about her newest series, Ready to Run, so I immediately downloaded it when it was released. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. This is unusual for me because I normally love anything LL writes. I just didn’t feel anything for the two main characters. There weren’t that many cute interactions between them and I didn’t buy the love story. I ended up liking it, but there was just something missing for me. I’d still recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for a romance story!
Simple Summary: A girl who works as a TV producer attempts to get a bachelor who has left three different women at the altar to play the lead in a new reality show that is like The Bachelor. He repeatedly refuses and she stays in town to try and convince him to do it and of course the two fall in love.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
This was a no brainer for me. I LOVE books that involve teachers and parents in a school setting. This one is written by Michael Gelman’s (from Live with Kelly) wife. I really liked it! I thought it was super funny and entertaining. It wasn’t my favorite book and I wasn’t dying to pick it up whenever I wasn’t reading it, but I always enjoyed it when I did pick it up.
Simple Summary: A woman who has two college age daughters becomes the class mom of her kindergarten son’s class. The book follows her adventurous as class mom for the entire school year. I love the emails throughout the chapters. Such a funny touch!
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Now, Renee Carlino is an author that I just really want to love, but I end up not liking the majority of her books. Still, I always pick up her newest books. I tried this one and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. It is definitely my favorite of hers. There were a few little details that I didn’t love, but overall I really liked it.
Simple summary: A girl meets a boy (the artist) one night and ends up spending the entire night with him only to have him kick her out the next morning. She never hears from him and struggles to let it go. She meets another boy (the baseball player) and just as she is starting to fall for him, she finds out something about the artist that makes everything very complicated.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
My favorite of the month! I liked Shari Lepena’s first book (The Couple Next Door), but I LOVED this one! Oh my goodness, this is a fabulous thriller! It kept me guessing until the very end. I loved it!
Simple Summary: A man comes home to an empty house that appears as if his wife just walked out in the middle of cooking supper. A few minutes later, he receives a call from the police saying his wife has been in a car accident in the bad part of town. She cannot remember anything from the night which the police think is convenient when a man turns up dead in the same area on the same night.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
After watching the Emmy’s, I knew I had to watch The Handmaid’s Tale, but I wanted to read the book first. I started reading it and I just couldn’t wait to start the show. I ended up watching the show at the same time that I was reading the book, which actually helped! The book was confusing to me because the timeline constantly shifts back and forth between the past and present and the perspectives change. I really enjoyed this story, but the show on Hulu is simply amazing. You must watch!
Simple Summary: This takes place in a dystopian setting of a future America where most women cannot have kids and women have very little freedom. Offred, the main character, is a handmaid, which are the women who can still have children and are given to the commanders so they can bear children for their family.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
I didn’t have Fitness Junkie on my list originally because I never could get into The Knockoff. Several people recommended it to me though, so I decided to try it out. Sadly, I couldn’t get into it. I read the first 75 pages and just didn’t enjoy it enough to continue.
Simple Summary (of what I read): The main character owns a wedding dress business with her best friend from high school until he forces her to take a break because she has gained weight and is now a bad image for the company, so she goes on a diet. I didn’t get this friendship at all. Was he a bad character or just misunderstood? It just didn’t make sense to me.
No rating since I couldn’t finish it.
This last book I read in September was a surprise. I never thought I would pick this one up, but after seeing it on another blogger’s monthly reading recap, I decided to give it a go. I ended up really loving this one. There were a few little things that the main character did or said that annoyed me, but this was a surprise for me!
Simple Summary: A girl and her best friend go on a European vacation after her best friend breaks up with her boyfriend who should have been going on the trip with her. The boyfriend ends up still going and taking his best friend and the 4 meet up in several different countries. The best friend attempts to reunite with her boyfriend while the other main character struggles to not fall for his best friend.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
So that’s what I read in the month of September. You can follow me on Goodreads here or on Instagram here. I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading and loving!
So many good choices here!!! I just added A Stranger In The House to my list – thanks for the rec 🙂
xo, Allie
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Thanks.