This past weekend I jumped on the bandwagon last-minute and read to my little heart’s content for the better part of 4 days.
It was awesome.
The Mini Contemporaryathon was hosted by 3 booktubers:
The Challenges:
- read a book with peach/orange/pink on the cover
- read a book under 250 pages
- read a book that you think will be fun!
For my TBR, I had 3 books planned.
I managed to zip through these between Friday/Saturday.
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie SilverMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was an easy book to binge straight through. It was interesting. It was also incredibly sad. Not the kind of sad that’ll have you crying, but the kind of resigned, bone-deep despair that hovers and looms and settles in your gut.
Lydia Bird has lost the love of her life in a tragic car accident just before they were to be married. She struggles deeply with learning how to go on with her life without him, mourning not just his life but the life they would have had together. Soon, she also discovers that when she takes her sleeping pills, she wakes up in an alter life where Freddie is still alive and their life together has been moving forward as though this tragedy had never happened.
It’s a story that’s somewhat predictable in that you know she’ll eventually have to let go of the non-reality if she ever hopes to live in the real world again, but the story line that gets her there is filled with interesting twists and turns that kept the pages turning.
And the ending… exactly what I hoped for.
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My Charming Rival by Lauren BlakelyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
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The Matchmaker’s List by Sonya LalliMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cute rom com with an Indian heroine whose family tries setting her up with a list of Indian men for her to meet and hopefully marry.
It was a refreshing look into a modern, westernized young Indian female being raised by an immigrant family in the US. This is not the dark themed story like A Woman Is No Man or other similar books. This story stayed pretty light-hearted all the way through, which I think many people will appreciate right now.
There was a nice character arc in this book as well. Raina starts out with certain ideals she wants or doesn’t want for her life, and she faces challenges along the way to eventually come to a new understanding of herself and what she really wants.
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So Saturday night, I had a little more time and an Audible list sortable by length. So I picked up the following audiobook and finished it:
Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins ReidMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Super quick read with that classic suck-you-right-in scandal from TJR. A series of letters between two people having a secret affair, and the letters their spouses write to each other once one of them discovers what’s going in.
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I picked up the following book on Sunday that I finished up on Monday. And. I. Loved. It!
Beach Read by Emily HenryMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hands down 5 stars.
What did I love about this book? The vivid characters, the messy history, the messy present, the slow, slow burn, the hate to love done really well. The main characters, the side character, the setting. The character flaws, the character growths.
I don’t know what I was thinking expecting this to be a fluffy rom-com full of rainbows and sunshine, but what I got was was deep and dark and messy and emotional. And maybe it hit a little too close to home in a lot of ways, making this book, the entire experience, so damn relatable.
This is a book I will definitely want to reread, like a favorite movie. Absolutely one of my top reads of 2020 so far, if not the top read.
I predict this will boot The Hating Game from many most-beloved romance lists, and it’ll be well-deserved. I’ll also definitely be watching out for more from Emily Henry.
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Did anyone else jump in for this little holiday-weekend readathon? If so, what did you read? I’d love to hear from you!