Spring 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

It finally happened. After a year and a half of reading 6-8 books a month, I hit a slump. Life got really busy with a lot of exciting things happening - I moved to a new city, I’m vaxxed and finally was able to see some family! I’ve been super busy, super tired, and haven’t been able to read and review at my normal pace. But, I’m back!

April was the start of the craziness for me. I had a birthday (wooh, 28!) and we had a lot of packing to do for our move to Philly! I did finally read The One by John Marrs in anticipation of the Netflix show and a NetGalley for Little Pieces of Me by Alison Hammer.

In May, we officially moved and I was too busy exploring to pick up many books but I did read two books that I’ve been excited about all 2021, The Push by Ashley Audrain and Anna K Away by Jenny Lee.

June has felt like I’m finally getting back in the swing of things. I signed up for Libro.fm a few months ago but hadn’t actually listened to a book until now. I finished You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism by Amber Ruffin in a matter of a few days, and started Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley Ford (although I probably won’t finish this one until July). I also finished another highly anticipated 2021 read, People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry, and two books that have been on my shelf forever, Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho and Layla by Colleen Hoover.

Read on for my full thoughts below!

Little Pieces of Me

Paiges life is flipped upside down when she finds out her dad isn’t who she thinks he is.

A few years after her dad, Mark, dies, Paige receives an email from a DNA testing website that tells her they’ve matched her with her father. Except, they say her father is Andy Abrams.

Little Pieces of me is told in dual timelines, “now” where we follow Paige and her experience trying to find out who she really is. And “then” where we learn about her mom, Betsy, and what led to her pregnancy.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a really good story about figuring out what matters in life, finding out who you are, and balancing what can sometimes be a very difficult relationship with your parent(s).

Thanks to NetGalley, Alison Hammer, and William Morrow for the eArc in exchange for my honest review!

Goodreads Summary:

When Paige Meyer gets an email from a DNA testing website announcing that her father is a man she never met, she is convinced there must be a mistake. But as she digs deeper into her mother's past and her own feelings of being the odd child out growing up, Paige begins to question everything she thought she knew. Could this be why Paige never felt like she fit in her family, and why her mother always seemed to keep her at an arm's length? And what does it mean for Paige's memories of her father, a man she idolized and whose death she is still grieving? Back in 1975, Betsy Kaplan, Paige's mom, is a straightlaced sophomore at the University of Kansas. When her sweet but boring boyfriend disappoints her, Betsy decides she wants more out of life, and is tired of playing it safe. Enter Andy Abrams, the golden boy on campus with a potentially devastating secret. After their night together has unexpected consequences, Betsy is determined to bury the truth and rebuild a stable life for her unborn child, whatever the cost.

When Paige can't get answers from her mother, she goes looking for the only other person who was there that night. The more she learns about what happened, the more she sees her unflappable, distant mother as a real person faced with an impossible choice. But will it be enough to mend their broken relationship?

Told in dual timelines, Little Pieces of Me examines identity and how the way we define ourselves changes (or not) through our life experiences.

The One

What if you could skip over the struggles of dating and get right to the part where you find your perfect match? John Marrs brings that scenario to life in The One.

Told from multiple perspectives, The One follows the journey of matched couples and whether or not the ease of finding their perfect match is worth it.

Every single page came with a new twist and turn. While at first I found it hard to follow so many characters (especially in such short snippets at a time), once I got into it I couldn’t stop. The stories were intriguing, mysterious and there was a lot of good humor mixed in.

I initially picked up this book excited to finish and get to dive into the Netflix show based on it. Unfortunately, this is definitely a case of the book is better than the show.

Goodreads Summary:

A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner the one you are genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…

A word-of-mouth hit in the United Kingdom, The One is a fascinating novel that shows how even the simplest discoveries can have complicated consequences.

The Push

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it exceeded anything I would have. The Push is listed as a thriller, but I would describe it as more of a dark family drama. The story focuses on the life of Blythe, her husband Fox and their new baby Violet. Fox is absolutely smitten with Violet, but Blythe has a hard time connecting with the baby from the get-go, and it only gets worse as time goes on.

As the years pass, Blythe questions Violet’s character. Then, she becomes pregnant again with her son, Sam. Blythe easily connects with Sam and it’s clear to the entire family her preference for Sam over Violet. This relationship was the motherhood that Blythe was looking for but did not get with Violet. But, then one day tragedy strikes, Sam is killed, and Blythe is convinced that Violet did it.

The Push isn’t a typical thriller in the sense that there’s a boogeyman out to get everyone. Throughout the entire book you’re unsure if Blythe is crazy or if Violet is as unsettling as she seems. Is Blythe overreacting or is Violet a dark individual. But the worst part is thinking, what if this happened to you?

This is a great debut from this author, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Goodreads Summary:

Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.

But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter–she doesn’t behave like most children do.

Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.

Then their son Sam is born–and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.

The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.

Anna K Away

As a huge fan of the first book in the Anna K series, I was so excited to pick Anna K Away up as a BOTM pick in April, especially after the devastating ending of the original - and if you haven’t read the original turn away now as there are definitely spoilers ahead.

The story picks up shortly around the time that we left off, with all of the characters still struggling with the death of Vronsky. The story starts off slow and took a while for me to really get into it.

Anna K takes off to South Korea for the summer to get away from the scandals in NYC, continue to mourn the loss of Alexia, and tour boarding schools for her senior year. What she didn’t expect was to accidentally stumble into a publicity stunt for a popular K-Pop band, and help reunite one of the members with his one true love.

As for the other characters in this world - Bea heads to LA where she unexpectedly falls head over heels in love, Lolly is off to her final year of theatre camp where she finds herself struggling with feelings for a boy that is not Steven, while Steven is busy planning the summer bash of the year. As for Dustin and Kimmie, they are struggling to take their relationship to the next level.

Overall, I enjoyed the story but compared to the first book this one fell flat for me. Hoping that we get a third book in this series to dive deeper into these characters!

Goodreads Summary:

How the mighty have fallen. Anna K, once the golden girl of Greenwich, CT, and New York City, has been brought low by a scandalous sex tape and the tragic death of her first love, Alexia Vronsky. At the beginning of the summer, her father takes her to the other side of the world, to connect with his family in South Korea and hide her away. Is Anna in exile? Or could this be her chance to figure out who she really is?

Back in the U.S., Lolly has forgiven Steven for cheating on her, and their relationship feels stronger than ever. But when Lolly meets a boy at her beloved theater camp, she has to ask herself how well Steven will ever really know her. Meanwhile, in Manhattan, everything between Kimmie and her new boyfriend, Dustin, is easy--except when it comes to finally having sex. And Bea escapes to LA, running away from her grief at her beloved cousin's death, until a beautiful stranger steals her heart. Is Bea ready to finally forgive Anna, and let herself truly fall in love for the very first time?

Set over the course of one unforgettable summer, Jenny Lee's Anna K Away is full of the risk, joy, heartbreak, and adventure that mark the three months between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next.

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism

If you’re looking for something really, really funny while also being absolutely horrifying - this is for you! Amber Ruffin tells a series of true stories about racist events that happened to her and her sister throughout their life. Of course, Amber Ruffin is a comedian so she’s able to deliver her stories in a humorous way - and they’re SO unbelievable that you would think they are funny. But then you remember that they really happened, and people like this exist in the world, and that makes it sad.

If you’re looking to learn about racism in America, in all its ugly forms, this book is a great starting point. Not every story in here is an aggressive, blatant act of racism. Amber has plenty of stories about micro-aggressions as well. And all of these stories happened when Lacey was just minding her own day-to-day business.

But to be clear, this isn’t a book to teach you how to be less racist or to provide you with answers on how to be a better ally. This is a book that pulls back the curtain, just a tiny bit, on what it’s like to be black in America. Experiences that I, as a white person, have never once been on the receiving end of, but could possibly have contributed to.

I read the audiobook version of this book and highly recommend it. Both Amber and Lacey narrate the stories, and their banter is great. The only downside to the audiobook is that you miss out on some of the photos that are included in the print version, but Amber does her best to describe them to the listener.

Goodreads Summary:

Now a writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and host of The Amber Ruffin Show, Amber Ruffin lives in New York, where she is no one's First Black Friend and everyone is, as she puts it, "stark raving normal." But Amber's sister Lacey? She's still living in their home state of Nebraska, and trust us, you'll never believe what happened to Lacey.

From racist donut shops to strangers putting their whole hand in her hair, from being mistaken for a prostitute to being mistaken for Harriet Tubman, Lacey is a lightning rod for hilariously ridiculous yet all-too-real anecdotes. She's the perfect mix of polite, beautiful, petite, and Black that apparently makes people think "I can say whatever I want to this woman." And now, Amber and Lacey share these entertainingly horrifying stories through their laugh-out-loud sisterly banter. Painfully relatable or shockingly eye-opening (depending on how often you have personally been followed by security at department stores), this book tackles modern-day racism with the perfect balance of levity and gravity.

People We Meet On Vacation

Poppy and Alex met during their freshman orientation, didn’t speak for a year, and then after one magical car pooled ride back to their small hometown, became best friends. Every year they take a vacation together, regardless of how much money is in their bank accounts, where they’re living, or any other commitments they may have. After some weirdness and a two year gap between trips, Poppy and Alex reunite.

I had heard good things about this one before I started so I knew I’d probably enjoy it but what I didn’t expect was to relate so much to Poppy.

While the most obvious storyline of the book is the romance between Poppy and Alex, what I most related to was Poppy’s personal life journey. Emily Henry perfectly described how it feels to be in your late 20s, uncertain about so much of your life, and absolutely feeling burnt out and exhausted.

I loved, loved, loved this one. Some how this is only my first Emily Henry book but it is definitely not my last.

Goodreads Summary:

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Last Tang Standing

Andrea Tang has a wonderful life - she’s on track to make partner at her law firm, lives comfortably in a home she owns in Singapore, and has a network of strong, supportive friends. But what she isn’t on track for is marriage. And in the eyes of her family, that is a huge no-no.

But just because she isn’t in a committed relationship doesn’t mean she is lacking options. There’s Orson, a much younger than her love interest she found through a dating service (who may or may not eventually rob her). There’s Eric Deng, a wealthy businessman who is immediately enamored by Andrea after she accidentally insults his lavish lifestyle. There’s the roster of Tinder men her best friend has worked for weeks to put together for her. And then there’s Suresh, who is not only her co-worker, but her arch nemesis who is up for the same promotion as her and technically engaged. See.. plenty of great options!

Last Tang Standing is a hilarious, enemies to lover, slow burn romance that (as marketed) is very much a Crazy Rich Asians meets Bridget Jones Diary vibe. Lauren Ho brings a refreshing, funny, modern take on being a single, 30 something woman battling the pressures of love, career, and happiness.

Goodreads Summary:

At thirty-three, Andrea Tang is living the dream: she has a successful career as a lawyer, a posh condo, and a clutch of fun-loving friends who are always in the know about Singapore's hottest clubs and restaurants. All she has to do is make partner at her law firm and she will have achieved everything she (and her mother) has ever worked for. So what if she's poised to be the last unmarried member of her generation of the Tang clan? She doesn't need a man to feel fulfilled, no matter what her meddling relatives have to say about it.

But for a dutiful Chinese-Malaysian daughter, the weight of familial expectations is hard to ignore. And so are the men life keeps throwing in Andrea's path. Men like Suresh Aditparan, her annoyingly attractive rival for partner and the last man she should be spending time with, and Eric Deng, a wealthy entrepreneur whose vision for their future is more lavish than she could have imagined. With her workplace competition growing ever more intense, her friends bringing dramas of their own to her door, and her family scrutinizing her every romantic prospect, Andrea finds herself stretched to the breaking point. And she can't help but wonder: In the endless tug-of-war between pleasing others and pleasing herself, is there room for everyone to win?

Layla

I was a little nervous going into this one as I’ve seen so many mixed reviews, and having never read a paranormal romance before I wasn’t sure what to expect. But, Colleen Hoover is one of those authors that NEVER disappoints me - and that continues to ring true with Layla.

Leeds and Layla meet one night when Leeds is performing with the band at Layla’s sisters wedding. From that moment on, they’re inseparable and madly in love. But then, an unthinkable event happens and things begin to change. So, Leeds books the two a romantic getaway back to the place they met to help reconnect. From there, things get weird.

I was happily surprised by this book. The story is creative, unique and mysterious. There were enough WTF moments to keep me turning the page all night, not wanting to put this book down. My only negative note is Leeds. Like many other readers, I found Leeds really self-centered and honestly, kind of an asshole. It kind of felt like he was obsessed with Layla, but only the version of her he met that first night. He didn’t seem like a very supportive and loving boyfriend when he needed her the most - but I guess without that disconnect we felt as readers, the big twist would not have been as impactful, so for that reason I have to look past the anger and frustration I felt towards him most of the book.

Goodreads Summary:

When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her—until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences.

Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow—another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them.