Recent Reads - June/July Book Review!

Hey friends! I hope y'all had a great weekend. While Saturday was a pretty boring/lazy day, yesterday was probably one of the most normal feeling days we've had in months. We went shopping at a few different stores then grabbed drinks at our local beer & wine shop. They have a really cute outdoor area set up and there was no one else there so we felt super comfortable! It was such a nice day of normalcy and is giving me high hopes for our beach trip next week.

 I am sooo excited to share with you guys some of my recent reads. I definitely took a month or so off from reading but now I am fully back in the swing of it and the books I'm sharing today are some of my favorites.

The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker - This was the first romance I had read in a little while and WOW was it an awesome book! I loved it so much that I immediately bought the sequel which is also included in today's post. This book tells the story of Calla Fletcher, a Toronto girl in her twenties who was recently let go from her corporate job. Shortly after losing her job she learns that her estranged father, an Alaskan pilot, was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. Despite her reservations, she gets on the next flight out to spend more time with the man who has been a complete stranger her whole life. In the process, she meets Jonah, a rugged pilot who works for her father and they immediately butt heads. Determined to stay and understand more about her father & the state he loves so dearly, Calla gives in to the "wild" and falls in love in the process. This book was so easy to get sucked into and is so well written. You feel SO connected to all of the characters & I say this about so many books but this series would make a GREAT show or movie. Overall rating: 5/5

The Dry by Jane Harper - Changing genres completely to a crime/thriller, this book had awesome reviews so I was very intrigued even though I hadn't really heard anyone else talking about it. This tells the story of Aaron Falk, a Federal Agent from a very small town in Australia who is forced to return home after his best friend Luke & his entire family are brutally murdered, with Luke being the prime suspect. This brings back many dark memories from Falk's childhood, memories he tried desperately to escape. He is convinced by Luke's parents to investigate the murders further to potentially clear Luke's name & give them some peace. In the process, Falk uncovers truths about the past & present that are bound to shake him and the town to its core. This book was SO well written and definitely felt very "True Detective" to me. It was very dark but not gratuitous and the ending is not at all what I expected! Overall rating: 4.5/5

Wild at Heart by KA Tucker - And now we're back to Calla & Jonah's Alaskan love story! Like I said before, I was totally hooked on The Simple Wild and couldn't wait to read the sequel. With sequels I'm always hesitant because more often than not they don't live up to the first book but this one absolutely did. I don't want to say too much about this book in order to not spoil The Simple Wild but I'll say that this follows Calla's second adventure in Alaska and the community of characters she meets along the way! Like I said, I loved this book almost as much as the first and am wishing for a third installment in this story! Highly recommend you read both The Simple Wild & it's sequel. Overall rating: 4.5/5

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware - It's definitely hard for me to pick a favorite from this bunch but I LOVED this book. If you're looking for a good thriller that you can totally devour in a day or two, this is the one for you! Rowan is pretty discontented with her life when she stumbles across a posting for the perfect job--to be a live-in nanny for a wealthy family living in the Scottish Highlands. Right away in the story you find out that one of the children died in Rowan's care and that she has been convicted. In Rowan's desperate letters to a lawyer whom she hopes will take her case, she tells her side of the story & the dark secrets she uncovered while living in the Heatherbrae House. This story pulled me right in and it's probably the fastest I've read a book in a while! It's a total page-turner from beginning to end and while I was just a little disappointed in the ending, I still would rate this very high! Overall rating: 4.5/5

Have y'all read any good books lately?!