Thank you for joining me here! I hope you enjoy this series and I’d love to hear from you about what you are reading these days.
Book #1:
Float Plan by Trish Doller (Length: 263 pages) This rom-com is such an under-rated gem of a book! It’s well-written, with a propulsive plot and it’s set in various islands of the Caribbean, so it’s so much fun to tag along as a reader. The premise of the story is a young woman decides to sail from Florida to Trinidad after her fiancée commits suicide. She uses his original charts and plans to take the trip that they had planned together before his death. Because she’s a sailing novice she picks up a crew member along the way, an Irish hunk named Keane Sullivan. Yes, Keane is perfect, seems too good to be true and yes his “fatal flaw” is a nothingburger. But we know all this and we’ll enjoy the ride regardless, because the descriptions of the various islands, including their food and culture, along with how sailing really works, all elevate this novel to one of my all-time favorite romances. Check it out!
Book #2:
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Length: 394 pages). Louise Penny is the rare auto-buy author for me (Fredrik Backman is the other), and I have to say that this book, #18 in the Inspector Armand Gamache series set in gorgeous Three Pines, Canada, is my favorite thus far. The central mystery is intricately-crafted (per usual), and is primarily set within Three Pines, and features all of my favorite residents, which is a big reason why I love this book so much. There are trigger warnings for child sexual abuse (none of it is graphic, but it is alluded to) and it absolutely furthers the plot. This can also be read as a standalone if you’re interested in checking out the series (which starts out slow but by book 4 the series hits its stride. Check out the Three Pines series on Amazon Prime too–it’s well-done and while each pair of episodes is based on one of her books, the plot resolutions are different than the books themselves so don’t worry about plot spoilers.
Book #3:
Dating Dr Dil by Nisha Sharma (Length: 373 pages). I don’t remember how this book came onto my radar but I really enjoyed this rom-com written from the East Asian perspective. The trope is the male protagonist, a cardiologist, believes in arranged marriage because love is “physically bad for the heart” and the female protagonist wants a love-based marriage like her parents enjoyed. They both have a financial incentive to get married; the female gets the house her mom built and the male gets his community center financed. There is the standard miscommunication issue here and this is VERY open door and steamy. Well-written, with decent character development, I’ll remember this one for a while because it’s sufficiently different than other rom coms out there. I’d give it a 4 out of 5 stars if I had to rate it.
Book #4:
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris (Length: 289 pages) I listened to this one and it finally clicked for me–I’ve tried reading his books before and didn’t think they were funny, but for some reason hearing him read his work out loud did the trick. At times hysterically funny (his chapter “Standing by” re: characters in an airport had me laughing so hard that I cried) and thought-provoking and just plain interesting, this book of essays is fantastic. I adored it and I’m already queuing up more for my future commutes. I’m late to the party but I’m so glad I’m finally here.
Lora Terrill 