Summer Reading List

 I have been devouring books like crazy this season. 

The Body Reset Diet from Harley Pasternak - we listened to this guy on the Goop Men's podcast while driving through Wyoming and I liked his very sensible approach. I've never done a diet "reset" and I thought, "well, if I'm going to do one, give me one with lots of yogurt and smoothies." So we got the book and did the reset diet, as prescribed. And now I'm doing my best to follow the spirit of the diet, if not down to the letter. 

Beach Read by Emily Henry - My favorite book of the summer, so far. I laughed, I cried my eyes out and I really enjoyed the dialog and pace of the book. The characters were well sketched and it was such a quick and sweet story. I very rarely read "mainstream" titles, but this book restored some of my faith in what "everyone else is reading." 

Ever the Hunted by Erin Summerhall - First off, isn't it funny the main character's name ISN'T Ever? From the title, I just assumed. Through the first chapter, I kept waiting for her to make an appearance. I read this book super quickly. It was pretty prescriptive and followed all the best troupes from this genre -- girl goes through trauma, discovers a secret about herself that she should have been told, boy loves her anyway, she's unsure of her own power and decisions through her journey. And in the end, rises to defeat the evil thing and overcome her own low confidence. Overall the pacing was fast, a few twists I didn't see coming, and I liked the bad guy character -- I know but I just did! 

The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant - I picked this book for two reasons. 1) the authors name is Kester and that's a kickass name. 2) It takes place in a twisted version of Paris and I was excited to get back there, if only through literature. There's a good story, the timeline is a bit murky but I think that was done on purpose to keep you guessing. The main character is a girl that is just doing her best to keep everything she loves in life together and gets beat up several times along the way, though she always makes it through. Certainly some twists and turns that were exciting and a few good one-liners. Magic is a fun element in a book, because it's so unexpected when it pops up.