In the middle of January, I suddenly realized I hadn't read a book yet and was starting the year on a bad note, especially since one of my goals this year is to replace doomscrolling with reading. (Ask me how that's going...)
Imagine my surprise when I plowed through the first book to come off hold on Libby and realized my momentary panic about the month being almost over had occurred on...January 7.
January is truly the longest month. Anyway, here's what I read this month!
Books read this month: 2
Total books this year: 2
I started the year with light, fluffy romance. When I'm feeling pressed for time to start and finish a book, romance is the way to go. I finished the first book of January in a day or two.
Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb
I can't remember what put this book on my radar, but I do remember being interested as soon as I heard the title. After all, I am a fan of birds.
I really enjoyed this book. The FMC (female main character) Celeste is in her 40s and a teacher. She's a little quirky and embarking on a journey of self-discovery post-divorce. Most romances feature 20-somethings, so it was nice to read about a character more in my age bracket.
After an innocent miscommunication, she winds up in a birding competition with a quiet woodworker named John. Chemistry ensues.
There were two things I liked most about this book. First, the drama that stands in the way of the Happily Ever After felt like it was based in reality. There were no cheap miscommunication tropes here; in fact, John is extremely well-attuned to his emotional needs and he's forthright about his feelings. But Celeste's struggle to balance being true to herself with being part of a pair was relatable and real. Her personality flaws felt inline with her character and realistically fleshed out. Yes, there were lots of hot sex scenes and fluffy moments, but the book also explored the themes of identity and adulthood in a satisfying way.
The second thing I liked was the cast of secondary characters. Celeste has friends who actually impact the plot and serve a purpose. She has an eighteen-year-old daughter with whom she has real conversations and conflict. John also has a dynamic and interesting best friend who plays an actual role in the story. No one felt like a paper cutout. In short, if you're a fan of romance, I recommend this one!
This was another romance I saw highly recommended and decided to read before my hold lapsed. It's book two in a series, and it's a shame it was so poorly written because I'm mildly curious about the first one.
This book drove me nuts. The premise was good fun: a true crime-loving college professor thinks her neighbor is a serial killer and hires a hunky PI to help her gather evidence to bring to the police.
But yeah, the book was...not good. The best thing about it was that it gave me an ego boost as a writer.
Not only was the characterization ludicrous (not 24 hours after Odin explicitly tells Maisey he wants to sleep with her, she does the whole "You think I'm beautiful? No one has ever called me beautiful before!" thing) but the writing was abysmal. Stylistic choices that are meant to be used sparingly to add emphasis—like sentence fragments and single-sentence paragraphs—appeared on every page. But what really got me were the misused dialogue tags.
Rather than writing dialogue traditionally ("Stop that!" Maisey yelled.), this book was absolutely chock full of the following:
"Stop that!" Maisey's yell.
"Oh no!" Odin's roar.
"Leave me alone!" Heather.
It's hard to explain, but I feel like the author was trying too hard to make her book feel like a movie, using staccato bursts of language in an attempt to ratchet up the tension. By the 50% mark I was hate-speedreading to get to the end.
While this "Trouble for Hire" series might have caught my attention, I will definitely not be revisiting this author. I know there are people who absolutely love this writing style (and kudos to this author for finding that niche because I'm sure she's making bank), but this book was a great reminder to me that, while I love brain-candy once in awhile, even I have my limit.
Ali
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