July 2016 Must-Reads

July 2016 Must-Reads from MomAdvice.com

Going on vacation after a jam-packed busy month was just what I needed to tackle a big stack of books for July. I had a few hits and a few misses this month so I thought I would share those with you. I will be curious to hear if some of these books hit you in a different way than they did for me. Let’s talk about it!

I also usually tend to shy away from popular books, but this month I wanted some quick escapes while we were on holiday. I picked several that I know everyone will be talking about this month as well as a couple of gems I discovered that I had not heard about before. I’ve got time traveling, sci-fi, YA goodness, chick lit, and a thriller this month- hopefully, there is something for everyone!

(You can get a cute mug like this for $5 with my $10 coupon!! Support an artist and acknowledge your mountain!)

Want the inside scoop on what I’m reading each week? Join our online book club where we talk about books all day every day. This is not an exaggeration! Join me!

8 Must-Read Books I Read In June

Fellside by M.R. Carey

I was so excited to dig into M.R. Carey’s latest book since The Girl With All the Gifts is one of my favorite reads. This book was interesting, but very different than his last one. I don’t know how to explain it except by saying that it is Orange is the New Black meets The Sixth Sense.

Jess Moulson finds herself in a maximum security prison, called Fellside, after a tragic fire that not only deforms her, but kills the little boy in her apartment complex. As she deals with the grief of the crime she has committed, she is visited by the ghost of the little boy who helps her to make peace with the tragedy, but also allows her to exit her mind and body, giving her the chance to jump into the minds of the other prisoners and see what they are dreaming of.

Killing a child makes her a target at the prison, but even with the little boy’s help, it can’t protect her from the crooked system.

At almost 500 pages, the story dragged for me in the beginning and then I finally hit my pace about halfway through. It was worth reading just for the court scene and the creative twist at the end, but it requires a lot of commitment to power through the first half of this one. If you have the time, add it to your stack!

Be sure to read my interview with M.R. Carey where we discussed his first INCREDIBLE book. That one was definitely a must-read for me!

4 Out of 5 Stars

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

It is difficult to find thrillers that are solid all the way through, but All the Missing Girls, truly delivers a strong thriller from start to finish. This is Miranda’s first novel for adults (she had previously been writing just for young adults) and shines as one of the best thrillers I have read this summer.

This story is told backwards from Day 15 to Day 1 as the mystery of a missing girl, named Annaleise, is trying to be solved by local police. As luck would have it, the main character (Nic) has been through a missing person case before when her best friend Corinne went missing, a decade ago, and no one ever heard from her again. Her family goes under scrutiny once again as they try to figure out where Annaleise has gone.

You are taken down a bumpy road as these two cases collide in shocking ways and everyone is suspect. Reading in reverse chronological order is a challenge for a reader and reading it digitally made it more difficult to page back to figure out where these sections came together. I would recommend reading this one as a good old-fashioned book to really pull the storyline together in a way that you can really grasp.

If you enjoyed, In a Dark, Dark Wood or Luckiest Girl Alive, I have a feeling you will really enjoy this twisty book and trying to solve the case of these missing girls. If you are like me, you really won’t know until the final pages what these family secrets hold.

5 Out of 5 Stars

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Described as Cloud Atlas meets Orphan Black, A Thousand Pieces of You is the first in the planned trilogy (the third book releases in November!) from Claudia Gray. This book is EVERYTHING that you may have felt like you have been missing since the Hunger Games trilogy.

Marguerite is the daughter of two scientists that have found a way to unlock different dimensions through a high-tech necklace, called the Firebird, which gives you a chance to step into alternate worlds (past & present).

Marguerite’s father is murdered and the murderer turns out to be a trusted lab assistant who has used the Firebird to leave and hop in another dimension. Hot on his heels though are Marguerite and Theo, another research assistant on the team to try to avenge his death.

What unfolds is time travel magic as Marguerite plays a game of cat and mouse from one dimension to another. Stepping back in time and then moving through the future, the reader is taken through each dimension as Marguerite tries to find Paul. What she doesn’t expect is the awaiting love triangle or the truth behind her father’s death in a surprising little twist.

I DEVOURED this story and fell in love with each of these characters- I can’t rave enough.

If you are screening YA books for a teen, there is a sex scene in this one (mildly done), language (mildly done), and references to the struggle-is-real about periods.

I read this one through Scribd (if you happen to use that service too). I can’t recommend this one enough for a sweet YA escape and have already reserved the second book at my library!

5 Out of 5 Stars

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Ware’s debut, In a Dark, Dark Wood, was so fantastic that I couldn’t wait to dig into her second thriller. The Woman in Cabin 10 feels a bit like a Hitchcock film or a finely crafted Agatha Christie murder mystery. Playing into the unreliable narrator theme, that seems to be so popular these days, Lo Blacklock is dealing with anxiety following a break in at her home. Assigned to cover a boutique cruise ship for a travel magazine, Lo believes she witnesses a murder in the cabin next to hers.

When she reports it and starts investigating what has happened, someone is not too happy about it, creating an already unhinged woman into a state of even more heightened anxiety. As a reader, this whodunit murder mystery was solid all the way through and kept me guessing until the final pages.

Be sure to check out my interview with Ruth Ware as we discuss her debut, In a Dark, Dark Wood!

4 Out of 5 Stars

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

I was so excited when this book came into our library since I enjoyed Big Little Lies so much. Moriarty follows the same formula as she did with her last book, setting up a tragic event that happens at a neighborhood cookout and the implications that happen from the tragedy. Perhaps it is because she uses the exact same setup as Big Little Lies, this one felt a little too formulaic and I felt like I knew what to anticipate from the very beginning.

I feel bad saying this, while this tragedy was sad, the build-up of the first half of the book makes it feel much larger than it was and just wasn’t worth all the suspense of over two hundred pages of setting you up. Although the first half moved swiftly for me, the second half REALLY dragged as the author tries to pull all the loose strings together in a fairly predictable way. The only good parts were some of the layers added to some of the characters (a daughter of a hoarder, a grumpy neighbor with a sad past, the stripper who changed her life due to a generous client).

This would be an enjoyable beach read, but was not my favorite read from her. I wouldn’t qualify this one as a must-read, but I did want to include it for the Moriarty fans!

3 Out of 5 Stars

First Comes Love by Emily Giffin

I was so excited to dig into Giffin’s latest book even though her last one was one that I had abandoned. First Comes Love really brings the charm that Something Borrowed had captured in her writing as she explores the complexities of a relationship between sisters.

When their brother is tragically taken from them, Meredith & Josie’s lives pull into two different paths following his death. Meredith seems to have it all with the perfect marriage, a great career, and a child. Josie remains single, after her first love has moved on, and decides to take her life down a different path to raise a child in a less conventional way. Of course, neither story is as it fully seems and Josie carries around a secret that threatens her (already) failing relationship with her sister about the night of her brother’s accident.

This one is a satisfying read from start to finish and a pleasure to read! I absolutely loved it!

4 Out of 5 Stars

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

I enjoyed Dark Matter so much last month that I couldn’t wait to dive into another sci-fi thriller. Sleeping Giants sounded like an interesting premise for a book and had comparisons to, The Martian, which I had really enjoyed. Unfortunately, I think this one lacked the charm that The Martian had, making the comparison a little bit of a stretch for me.

This book opens with a girl riding her new bike and happens to fall into a hole on her ride. When the firemen come to rescue her, she is being held in the palm of a steel hand in a square-shaped hole. Seventeen years later, the mystery of where this artifact is from is still unknown. This girl, now a doctor, decides to pull together a team to figure out the mystery and what it could potentially mean for humanity. Told mostly in interview format, with an unnamed interrogator, it is a quick novel to breeze through for a sci-fi escape.

I have to say though that this was not a captivating read for me. I didn’t enjoy reading the story through interviews and the writing felt a little cheesy at times. I was hoping for an action-packed book with this robot, but it seemed to focus more on the political angle than the fact that these people possessed a killer robot that could wipe out humanity. Some of the motives of these characters felt forced (I won’t give anything away), but didn’t make sense for me as a reader. I am wondering if the action is going to happen in the second book, due to be released in April of next year.

That said, it is the first book that my husband, son, and I ALL read (appropriate for a 14 year-old boy, for sure!) and so it gave us something fun to talk about. The guys seemed to enjoy it more than me so if you are looking to do a mother & son book club (how fun would that be?), this is definitely one you could read together!

3 Out of 5 Stars

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

A small town is filled with gaps where the world looks differently and even the corn has a voice. When a kidnapping happens and the only witness can’t give descriptions to what the kidnapper looked like, the town’s whispers taint his reputation. He is determined to redeem himself (and the taken girl) and sets out on an adventure to get her back. He must fall into these mystical gaps to find her and the truth is revealed on why he could never fully see her captor.

I am such a big fan of magical realism in literature and this book delivers that so beautifully. The imagery that the author creates through words is astounding! I really enjoyed this unique story and I think you will too if you are looking for a magical escape!