Book #36:
Elizabeth of East Hampton by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding (Length: 384 pages). I don’t remember how this book came onto my radar but it’s a fun Pride and Prejudice retelling set in East Hampton. Lizzy has paused her career dreams (to be a journalist) to run her family’s bakery, Bennet Bakery, after her father’s stroke. Her four sisters are side characters here. This is a cute novel with witty dialogue, great chemistry between Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet and a believable plot to move events along. This is the second in a series, and the characters from the first series (an Emma retelling) appear here. 3.5 stars from me.
Book #37:
Heartwood by Amity Gaige (Length: 316 pages). This literary thriller set on the Appalachian Trail ticks all the boxes for me. It also happens to be a Read with Jenna pick, and I tend to enjoy most of the books she picks. A woman goes missing on the A.T. and the wardens and community come together to try to find her. This is SO well-written with a propulsive plot. The author skillfully brings multiple character arcs together; I read this in print, and I’m wondering if the audio version would be confusing given these multiple characters. I adore non-fiction accounts of hiking this trail (as my multiple reviews of these books attest to) so this novel was a fantastic read for me. The setting, however, is not the focus here, the characters are. 5 solid stars from me and this absolutely will be in my top 10 books of this year for me.
Book #38:
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (Length: 505 pages). I listened to this one. The premise is an older lady walks down the aisle of a flight in Australia telling each passenger when and how they are going to die. When the first few passengers do, in fact, die in the manner and in the timeframe of when the lady predicted, this mystery gets interesting. I loved the audio narrator but given there are so many characters here, it did get a bit confusing to keep track of each. So, I’d recommend print for this fun read. The resolution of the mystery is a bit obvious and renders this less a mystery than general fiction, but given I enjoy Moriarty’s writing style and her portrayal of characters, I really enjoyed this beach read. 4 stars.
Book #39:
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman (Length: 320 pages). I really enjoyed this novel. It’s very sweet without being cloying, mainly due to the straightforward writing style. The premise here is the protagonist, Augusta Stern, works in her father’s pharmacy in 1920s Brooklyn, when her mother dies. Her great aunt Esther moves in to help care for Augusta and her sister Bess. Esther happens to possess the gift of homeopathic healing (using herbs) and runs a side business helping those in the neighborhood who aren’t being healed by the traditional medicines Augusta’s father dispenses. The novel alternates between this timeline and 1987, when Augusta at the age of 80 moves into an assisted living community in Florida, where she runs into her teenage love, Irving Rivkin, the pharmacy delivery boy. I really enjoyed the alternating timelines here as they propelled the plot forward. This is one novel I found myself thinking about when I wasn’t reading it, which is the sign of a good read to me! 5 stars.
Lora Terrill 