Reviews: MEANT TO BE MINE & THE FRIENDSHIP PACT
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We are slowly getting into a good post-op routine with my son so I hope to be blog hopping a lot more frequently starting this week. Having to ice his shoulder round the clock has my husband and I feeling like we have a newborn all over again, haha. Anyway, even though I’m behind on my reviews and my visits, I have been continuing to read some good books. This week’s highlight for me was finally trying Jill Shalvis’ books after two or three years of saying I wanted to read something from her. I could kick myself for waiting so long, especially since she has such an extensive backlist that I now want to go back and read.
Meant to Be Mine Goodreads Author: Hannah Orenstein
Publication Date: June 7, 2022
Publisher: Atria Books
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
What if you knew the exact date you would meet the love of your life? This unique premise of Hannah Orenstein’s new contemporary romance Meant to Be Mine really intrigued me. The story follows Edie Meyers, a young woman who thinks she will meet her true love on June 24, 2022. Why? Because starting with her own true love, Edie’s grandma Gloria has been able to accurately predict the day every member of their family has met their soul mate.
We meet Edie, a Jewish stylist living in New York, on the morning of this fateful June day. She is at the airport catching a flight to Maine and Edie is already on the hunt for the man she is meant to spend her life with. She scopes out everyone and when a handsome musician named Theo ends up with the seat next to hers on the plane, she just knows that Theo is the one. Or is he? Edie ends up making the first move and as the two of them get to know each other over the next few months, even though Edie really likes Theo, she has nagging doubts about whether the two of them would really work as a couple because they don’t seem to really want the same things in life.
I found Edie to be a very sympathetic character. I couldn’t imagine how I would act or what I would think if I was in her shoes. She has no reason to doubt the date her grandmother has given her based on Gloria’s track record, but should it be so hard to make things work with the one you’re meant to be with? I also liked that Edie is clearly a flawed and messy character. She tries so hard to force Theo to fit into her life and there are definitely some awkward, almost cringeworthy moments along the way. But it’s easy to understand why she’s trying so hard and why she’s so confused based on what she has been told her entire life. I also loved watching Edie interact with her quirky grandmother and with her amazing friend group.
I will say that as much as I enjoyed Meant to Be Mine, I did predict pretty early on how things would turn out for Edie. I still enjoyed watching Edie’s journey to get to that ending, but I couldn’t help but wish that I hadn’t guessed it so soon. Obviously I would have been much more annoyed if this was a thriller and the ending was that easy to guess, but I’ll let it slide since this is a romance.
Overall, I’d say Meant to Be Mine is a solid read with a unique premise and relatable characters that left me wondering, based on Edie’s experience, if I would want to know the exact date I’d meet the person I was meant to spend my life with. 3.5 STARS
The Friendship Pact (Sunrise Cove, #2) Goodreads
Author: Jill Shalvis
Publication Date: June 14, 2022
Publisher: William Morrow Books
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
I’ve had Jill Shalvis on my list of authors to try for a while now and finally decided to dive in with her new Sunrise Cove series. I requested The Friendship Pact not realizing it’s actually the second book in the series, so I immediately checked out the first book and binged it in a couple of days. I loved it and jumped right into The Friendship Pact. Let me start off by saying that, aside from the fact that both books are set in the Lake Tahoe area, there’s no crossover between characters so both books work great as standalones. That said, they’re both fabulous so I highly recommend them in whatever order you choose to read them.
Tae Holmes is an event planner in the Lake Tahoe area. When we meet her, she is in the midst of hosting her first big fundraiser for an adventure company for athletes with disabilities and for wounded warriors. Tae is sharp, savvy, and on top of things, although the weather has put a damper on the event’s turnout. Beyond the weather disruption, however, a couple of other things happen that throw Tae off kilter: 1) One of the event’s donors approaches her to chat about seeing her father recently, which is impossible because Tae has never even met her father because he died overseas before she was born, and 2) her old friend and one-night stand from high school, Riggs Copeland, shows up. It turns out he is part owner of the adventure company, along with his brother, Jake. Tae’s brain is already spinning with questions about her dad and seeing Riggs for the first time since high school just adds to her chaotic thoughts, especially when it’s clear that the sparks between them are still very much there.
I love a good second chance romance so I was hooked on this story from the very first scenes between Tae and Riggs. Both characters were so likeable but with complicated pasts that made them very reluctant to become involved with one another. Riggs is especially reluctant to start anything because he has no intentions of staying in Lake Tahoe long-term, which is where the “friendship pact” came into play. I really loved both Tae and Riggs and the scenes between them are so fun and sexy that with each passing page, I hoped the friendship pact would fail.
This story isn’t just about the romance though. There is quite a bit of personal drama as well, revolving around all those questions Tae now has about her father. Was the donor at the event mistaken or is there something more to the story? Has her mom not been honest with her? And if not, why? This aspect of the story kept me just as captivated as the blossoming romance did, especially because Tae and her mom are so close. I adored their relationship and the fear that something might tear them apart had me turning the pages late into the night.
I don’t want to give away anything, so I’m just going to say that, with the first two books in her Sunrise Cove series, Jill Shalvis has made me a fan and I’ll eagerly be checking out everything else she has written. 4.5 STARS
Top Ten Tuesday – Save the Date: Ten of My Favorite Wedding Themed Novels
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is actually supposed to be Book I Wish Had an Epilogue, but I just wasn’t feeling that topic so I went rogue. Since June is such a popular month for weddings, I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite novels that center around weddings in some way or another. Most of these are adult contemporary romance novels obviously but there’s also one historical fiction novel in the bunch as well as one YA.
Ten of My Favorite Wedding Themed Novels
1. FOUR AUNTIES AND A WEDDING by Jesse Q. Sutanto
2. THE SECRET BRIDESMAID by Katy Birchall
3. THE WEDDING SEASON by Katy Birchall
4. THE WEDDING RINGER by Kerry Rea
5. THE WEDDING VEIL by Kristy Woodson Harvey
6. SAVE THE DATE by Morgan Matson
7. THE SINGLES TABLE by Sara Desai
8. THE WEDDING GAME by Meghan Quinn
9. SOMETHING BORROWED by Emily Giffin
10. THE WEDDING PARTY by Jasmine Guillory
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Question: Have you read any of these?
Reviews: MEANT TO BE and OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I got a bit sporadic again last week with my blogging because my son had surgery to repair a fractured/dislocated shoulder on Thursday. He’s doing well, although not excited to be in a sling all summer, and we’re all a bit tired from our travels, our stay at the hospital, and from the run-the-clock post-op care since he got home late Friday. I did manage to get a few reviews written this weekend as he has slept, so today I’ll be sharing my thoughts on novels from two of my favorite authors, Emily Giffin and Kristan Higgins. No surprise, but neither of them disappointed. Side note: how adorable are those covers?
Meant to Be Goodreads Author: Emily Giffin
Publication Date: May 31, 2022
Publisher: Ballatine Books
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Emily Giffin’s latest novel Meant to Be is a captivating romance that is loosely inspired by the Kennedys, specifically John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. It’s the story of two people from very different worlds who are both trying to find their place in the world and, in the process, manage to find each other. Can their love overcome all the obstacles that stand in their way?
Meant to Be follows Cate and Joe. Joe, or Joseph S. Kingsley, III, comes from a family that is practically American royalty. His father was devoted to public service, first in the military, then in politics, and then in the space program, where he was tragically killed in an accident. Everyone in the country, including Joe’s mother, expects him to pick up his dad’s mantle and carry on with the Kingsley legacy. Joe doesn’t know how he feels about this and has a tendency to behave recklessly as he’s trying to figure out what he wants out of life.
Cate comes from a poor background, having spent her early years living in a tiny apartment with just her mom and a revolving door of men. Cate hates living this way and when she is a teenager, she finds her ticket out of poverty when she has the good fortune to be discovered by a modeling agency. When she meets Joe while on the beach doing a photoshoot, their attraction is instant. Cate wants to keep the relationship secret because if word gets out about her poor background, it’s all over for them since she doesn’t believe there’s a place for her in Joe’s world.
Giffin does an amazing job using Joe and his family to capture America’s obsession with the Kennedys and “Camelot” while at the same time creating a wholly fresh and engrossing love story of these two young people who just want to be together in spite of the pressures of class and society. Both Cate and Joe are just so well drawn. I loved the complicated dynamic of their relationship, the realistic angle as to whether their love is strong enough to withstand what would happen if Cate’s past were to be exposed. I was completely rapt by Cate and Joe’s story that I couldn’t put the book down and actually found myself sobbing by a huge unexpected twist at the end.
Meant to Be is a beautifully written story that will capture your heart, emotionally wreck you, and still manage to leave you feeling hopeful. 4 STARS
Out of the Clear Blue Sky Goodreads
Author: Kristan Higgins
Publication Date: June 7, 2022
Publisher: Berkley Books
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
I was hooked on Kristan Higgins’ new novel Out of the Clear Blue Sky from the very first moment we meet the protagonist Lillie Silva, who is in the process of sedating a skunk so that she can sneak it into her ex-husband’s new house. I immediately admired Lillie’s spunk and resourcefulness and, most importantly, was instantly invested in finding out what had driven her to do such a thing.
Lillie had been under the impression that she and Brad had a great life and a happy marriage. Their only child is about to go off to college and Lillie is busy planning a wonderful European vacation for just herself and Brad. She is therefore blindsided when, on the night of their son’s high school graduation, Brad announces that he wants a divorce, that he deserves to find joy for himself and that he is in love with someone else. Lillie is further blindsided when it turns out Brad’s new woman is Melissa, a newcomer to town whom Lillie actually introduced to Brad. Needless to say, Lillie is both shocked and seriously ticked off that Brad has just turned her life upside down.
What I love about Higgins’ novels is that her characters are always so realistic and well drawn. They’re full of flaws, just like us, and they find themselves in situations that are easy to relate to. In Lillie’s case, she’s dealing with Brad’s betrayal, being an empty nester once her son goes off to college, and she also has the added challenge of how she can afford to live on just her salary. Lillie’s journey is also very realistic in the sense that it takes time for her to work past the anger and pettiness she feels toward Brad (the skunk and other assorted hilarious pranks that I won’t spoil), before she comes out on the other side ready to move forward and heal. I was cheering for her every step of the way, laughing out loud at some of her more petty moments, but ultimately rooting for her to find her own joy and show Brad what he was missing out on.
This novel was also fascinating it the sense that it’s a dual POV and the other POV we get is not from Brad, but instead from Melissa, the other woman. Melissa is a seemingly irredeemable character who ended up surprising me in the end. I can’t decide if I liked her or not, but I will say that her journey is an interesting one that kept me glued to the pages even when I wanted to shake her.
If you enjoy stories about second chances and new beginnings, with a hilarious side of revenge thrown in the mix, Out of the Clear Blue Sky is the book for you! 4.5 STARS