Summary: Years ago, Rachel had a crush on her best friend, Henry. Years ago, she left Henry a love letter in his favorite book in his family’s bookshop before she moved away. Years ago, she waited, but Henry never came. Years later, Rachel has returned to the city and to the bookshop with a heavy heart. She can’t feel anymore, not even that old spark for Henry, since her brother died in a drowning accident months ago. To top it all off, she’s failed Year 12 and just can’t see her future.

Henry can’t seem to see his future either. His on-and-off again girlfriend has officially called it quits. The bookshop isn’t doing well and neither is his family life. As Henry and Rachel work together in the bookshop, they try to find the hope and answers they’ve both been looking for.

My Rating: 4.75/ 5 Stars

My Thoughts:

Words in Deep Blue had been on my radar for a while, especially since I knew it mainly took place in a bookstore! Howling Books, Henry’s family bookshop, was one of the best settings ever! I adored how it created a community of people, like Frederick, who found comfort in the store, especially in the Letter Library. Other than that and the fact that so many of bloggers have been loving Cath Crowley’s latest contemporary read, I didn’t know much going in. Once I started reading, I couldn’t get enough. I ate up the first hundred pages while lying on the beach, and I couldn’t wait to get home to keep going! I was obsessed with how this book takes place in Australia! I haven’t read too many books (if any, at all) that take place in Australia, so it really cool to see how the setting played in the novel. As I read more books that take place in Australia and the UK, I have a better understanding of the school system. It was also different for me, as someone who’s lived in the US for her life, to see Rachel and Henry’s summer play out in January and February.

I’m often nervous about books that have a dual point-of-view, but Henry and Rachel worked out so well together. We see Henry, the hopeless romantic for Amy (even it was a bit annoying at times), the brother and son who wants to see Howling books thrive, the guy who just wants to find out why Rachel is finally back after all that time apart. We see Rachel, grieving over the loss of her brother, trying to move alongside life, avoiding the feelings for Henry that she once held. Each chapter alternates from their perspective, occasionally being separated with letters from the Letter Library. While Cath Crowley may go back in time in each perspective, she does so in a way that doesn’t make you feel like you’re experiencing the same scene two times. Additionally, having both Rachel and Henry’s POVs helped me get a better sense of how they were feeling about one another. I loved seeing them start to grow closer again after Rachel tells Henry about Cal, and you get to see some of their humorous banter right after:

“ “It really starts raining. “I forget. Do you stand under a pole in a lightning storm? Henry asks, moving faster up High Street.

“Sure, and it helps if you can find a puddle too,” I tell him.

“We don’t stand under a pole,” he says.

“We don’t stand under a pole,” I confirm.”(133)

Besides Henry and Rachel, I loved our cast of characters in Words in Deep Blue (except Amy and Gregg, of course). I loved Michael, who just wants Howling Books to live on, no matter what way, and while I was a bit mad at Sophia, she cares a lot about the shop as well. Lola was a great friend for both Rachel and Henry to have, and I feel like her own relationship problems translated well along Henry and Rachel’s. George was a character of her own, and I loved Martin for doing anything he could to get to George to at least see him as a friend.

One of my favorite aspects of Words in Deep Blue was how real it felt. We see Henry and his family talk about classic authors, such as Jane Austen and Jorge Borges, but Patrick Ness and John Green. Their family discussions of what they’ve been reading will make any book lover’s heart feel warm. Additionally, Words in Deep Blue felt real for its depiction of Rachel’s depression surrounding Cal’s death. You ache for her, as she tries to get life together and as she tries to tell people about her brother. Despite the heartache, you’re happy that she has someone like Henry, who shows her that he’ll always be there for her.

“Sometimes science isn’t enough. Sometimes you need the poets” (191).

Have you read Words in Deep Blue? Share in the comments!

Summary: The Smell of Other People’s Houses takes place in 1970s Alaska and is told from the perspectives of four teens whose lives are more connected than they ever could imagine. Ruth just wants to be remembered, but not for the secret her and her gran are trying to hide from their village. Dora wants to escape her abusive past and hopes that she’ll finally have good fortune, even if its comes from the Ice Classic. Alyce struggles to balance her life dancing with her life working on her family’s fishing boat. Hank thinks he’s leading his brothers to safety, until the unthinkable happens.

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

Let me start by saying that I devoured The Smell of Other People’s Houses in less than a day between the beach and the pool. Maybe it seems odd that I was reading a book set in cold, snowy Alaska on an eight-five degree summer day, but I was hooked by the start. I’ve never read a book that takes place in Alaska before, so it was really cool to learn more about life there, especially since Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock is from the village in the novel. The Smell of Other People’s Houses takes place soon after Alaska receives statehood, so it was interesting to see how most Alaskans were upset by becoming a state (it affected a lot of their hunting regulations) and how the continued to refer to the rest of the United States and Canada as the outside.

The Smell of Other People’s Houses features a big cast of characters, especially since our story is told from four different perspectives. While the four POVs are connected, as three of them live and grew up together in the same village, it did become a bit confusing at times to remember how people were related to each other. However, I was super excited to have a book where I enjoyed all of the POVs, even though Ruth and Alyce were my favorites. It was interesting to see how Ruth handled being pregnant, let alone how it affected her relationship with her gran, and I enjoyed how she got to find out more about her family history. I really enjoyed Alyce’s POV for her time spent on her dad’s fishing boat. I enjoyed reading from Dora’s perspective as well, especially because of her relationship with Dumpling and Dumpling’s family, but even when she “explains” why, I never really understood her animosity towards Ruth. My favorite part of Hank’s POV was seeing how his journey connected back to the people in Fairbanks (Phil was my favorite in his POV).

After finishing The Smell of Other People’s Houses, the only question that remained in my mind was why I hadn’t heard of this book earlier! However, I am glad that I read it when I did! It was not only the perfect weekend read for its length (223 pages may seem short, but it handled this story perfectly), but it was also an emotion-filled story focused on family, carrying the message that people “don’t have to be blood to be family”.

Thanks to Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock’s beautiful writing and novel, I’m feeling a bit of wanderlust: Alaska, here I come! Have you read The Smell of Other People’s Houses? Share in the comments!

Summary: College sweethearts, Lauren and Ryan’s marriage comes to the breaking point, as they realize they no longer love each other. Divorce? An open marriage? In hope that they’ll reconnect and fall in love again, Lauren and Ryan decide to take a year off. One year apart, no contact, and anything goes. As Lauren spends more time with her family and friends, she comes to realize that everyone has their own ideas of marriage, including herself. Can she continue a life with Ryan with or without lust and love, or have a life where Ryan isn’t even in the picture?

My Rating: 3.75/ 5 Stars

My Thoughts:

After I Do is the second Taylor Jenkins Reid novel that I’ve read. Like One True Loves, it took me less than two days to finish After I Do. One True Loves and After I Do are similar is that they deal with broken marriages. In One True Loves, the main protagonist must decide if she is going to continue her marriage with her husband, Jesse, who she thought was dead after being lost at sea for three years, or marry the man who she met will trying to move on with her life after Jesse. In After I Do, we follow Lauren and Ryan’s year apart, as Lauren tries to figure out how to fix her marriage. Similar to that of One True Loves, we flash back to the beginning of Lauren and Ryan’s relationship right and how they came to their breaking point. I appreciated how we knew the base of their relationship from the start, instead of it being scattered throughout the story.

Read More »

Summary: Emma Blair has accomplished most of her high school dreams before she’s thirty years old: left small-town Massachusetts for school in California with her high school sweetheart, Jesse, travels the world for her work, and married the love of her life. Emma’s life is everything she’s ever wanted until tragedy strikes on her first-year wedding anniversary: while on assignment, Jesse’s helicopter goes missing over the Pacific, and he’s gone forever. Despite what the seventeen-year old version of herself would have wanted, Emma goes back home to try to put life back together again. When she runs into an old friend, Sam, Emma finds herself falling in love all again. Being engaged to Sam feels great, until the unbelievable happens: Jesse is found alive.

My Rating: 4.25/ 5 Stars

**Warning: There are spoilers below for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s One True Loves**

My Thoughts:

One True Loves is my first Taylor Jenkins Reid book, and I first heard about the book from Kristin of SuperSpaceChick. Being a fan of adult contemporary books, I was more than interested in One True Loves when I heard its out of the ordinary plot.

Read More »