fiction | Paroxysm of Giggles / Critical Mass

In July, I was fully invested in conquering the 22 Silent Book Club locations for the Metro Detroit Summer Passport event. Donald quickly found that if he attended with me, we would generally end up eating at a new-to-us restaurant, so he had NomNom Motivation to attend, and we treated it like a bonus Date Night.

TBR Reads

My official July TBR consisted of 4 books. Of those, I have read all 4:

Rocket's Red Glare by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann

The Endless War was okay. It was mostly Zarrah being in prison with some really questionable people and then a whole political mess. I felt that it dragged in places and I just wasn’t feeling the chemistry between Zarrah and Keris (granted their relationship was in a rocky place for much of the book).

Rocket’s Red Glare was a fun read. You follow an ex-Special Forces guy who invites his team to his place on Nantucket for a little R&R after a tour. He has a difficult time getting to his house because a presidential candidate decided to set up his campaign office next door. When the candidate is captured, everyone is a suspect and no one on the island is safe. I had to exercise a fair amount of “suspension of disbelief” for this story, but it was entertaining.

The Twisted Throne is Book 5 in the Bridge Kingdom series and once again we switch protagonists to show Ahnna, King Aren’s twin sister, and James, the brother to Ahnna’s fiancé, William. She is sent to Harendell to fulfill her part of the 15 Year Treaty and hopefully, to get Harendell to provide favorable trade agreements to help the Ithicanian people. There are a lot of court politics and intrigue, and a lot more of Ahnna falling for the “wrong” brother. Surely, that’s not going to cause any problems, right? This was another case where I didn’t particularly want to pick up the book to read it, but once I did, I didn’t put it down for hours.

Dungeon Crawler Carl was a surprise. It was funny and witty and I really liked it! Aliens come to Earth and flatten all of the buildings, squishing most of the people who were not fortunate enough to be outside at the time. For those who are left, they can either become a dungeon crawler and try to be the last person standing who can then reclaim the planet, or die. It’s an absolute comedy of ridiculousness from beginning to end. I really hope that Clint’s book club will continue reading in this series.

I read 0 of the 2 bonus TBR books.

Final Result was that I read 4/4 (100%) of my planned books and 0% of my bonus books. I’m really happy that I could keep up with my brother’s book clubs this month!

Random Reads

My non-planned reads include:

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to read Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. It has women in STEM, and this one involves thermodynamics! Of course, I’m going to love it! Elsie is a brilliant physicist, but is currently is struggling as an adjunct professor spread across three separate campuses. She wins an interview for a position she desperately wants – doing what she loves, a real salary, and health insurance. Unfortunately, one of the people on the hiring committee is the nemesis of the theoretical physics academic world and single-handedly responsible for a huge blow to her mentor’s career and credibility. It was really cute and well done.

Mate is Ali Hazelwood’s sequel to Bride. We are returned to a world where there are vampires and werewolves living in a tense peace. This time, we are following Misery’s best friend, Serena, who recently found out she’s one of the only human-werewolf hybrids. She has a bit of PTSD from the events in Bride and seeks refuge from the world in the Pacific Northwest among Koen’s pack. Her being Koen’s mate doesn’t endear her to his pack. In fact, they see her as a threat to their way of life. It took me a bit to pick up this book, despite having had it on my bookshelf for almost a year. It surprised me in a few ways and there was more to unpack in the story than I had anticipated. Bride seemed to be a bit more fast-paced, and Mate seemed to be more introspective and questioning of characters’ motives.

Lauren Blakely is an author who writes hefty romance novels, and I generally find them pretty entertaining. She tends to write on the spicier side, so buyer beware. It Seemed Like a Good Idea is a cute story about a bodyguard and the girl he is protecting. Although – plot twist! – she’s not the famous person, but her twin sister is. Her sister, Haven, brings her movie crew to the small town where she grew up and filming will be taking place on the lavender farm that Ripley now runs. Banks and his partner are relatively new to the security business, and he really needs this job to go well. Falling in love with his principle is not something that is recommended. This was a good read and I like how it took some common troupes and flipped them just a bit.

Okay…. for this next bit, I’m going to do a bit of consolidating. What happened was I found the Amazon series, Off-Campus, and decided that I wanted to read the book (Hahaha, little did I know there were so many in this universe) before watching it. So, I proceeded to absolutely decimate Elle Kennedy’s series: Off-Campus, Briar U, and Campus Diaries. That took the whole rest of the month, with a brief interlude where I finished The Twisted Throne and Dungeon Crawler Carl. At first look, they seem a bit fluffy, but as I read through them, there was a lot of character development and layers to the issues that came up in the plot that kept me engaged. Also, I love a good family dynasty moment, and the fact that these books came with a family tree and there was a lot of former main character cameos in subsequent books made it so much more enjoyable. I will leave links below to individual reviews for each of the books in case you want to read my thoughts about them, but just a quick warning that if you are reading this post close to the publication date, I may not have completed this part yet.

My Thoughts on This Month’s Reading

Wow. 21 books! That’s a LOT! I regret nothing!

Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.

The Endless War (⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Danielle L. Jensen – Review
Rocket’s Red Glare (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann – Review
Love, Theoretically (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Ali Hazelwood – Review
Mate (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Ali Hazelwood – Review
It Seemed Like a Good Idea (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Lauren Blakely – Review
The Deal (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Mistake (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Score (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Twisted Throne (⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Danielle L. Jensen – Review
The Goal (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review
Dungeon Crawler Carl (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Matt Dinniman – Review
The Legacy (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Chase (⭐⭐⭐3/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Risk (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Play (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Play: Extended Epilogue (⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Dare (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Graham Effect (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Dixon Rule (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review
The Charlie Method (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review
Love Song (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Elle Kennedy – Review

June was actually pretty busy, with end-of-school-year activities for the girls, various events, and the start of the Metro Detroit Summer Passport program through the area’s Silent Book Clubs. If you haven’t heard of a Silent Book Club before, it’s where people gather together for a little bit of community and then spend an hour reading, silently. You can read whatever you would like. It’s just a space for you to have some uninterrupted time to focus, maybe find a new cozy cafe to check out, and maybe make a bookish friend or two. For the Summer Passport program, 22 Silent Book Clubs from the Metro Detroit area have come together. From June through August, you can collect stamps and sign in at each of the locations. As you gain more stamps, you get more entries for a bookish prize. I’m really excited to participate and see a lot more SBCs than I would have otherwise!

TBR Reads

My official June TBR consisted of 5 books. Of those, I have read 3:

Maple Mayhem in Indiana Dunes by Olivia Hope McCarthy

Maple Mayhem in Indiana Dunes is a solid novella. A park ranger and a … tree researcher? Sounds like they were made for each other! Except, he is the very LAST person that she wants to see – after all, he was the reason she was bullied so hard in school. But now, she is assigned to do research at the National Park he works at and they can’t help but run into each other. Sometimes, even bullies deserve a second chance, and it’s never too late to see yourself from a new perspective. I wish we had more time with these characters, but it was quite enjoyable!

My Forever Girl follows Gracie and Cutler, who have been best friends forever, and haven’t quite ever tested whether they are compatible as romantic interests. The clues are there, however. Cutler would drop everything to be there if Gracie needed him, and Gracie calls him every day and looks to him for advice and support. It was a fun story and I liked them both as characters. Getting this book out of the blue, I wasn’t familiar with the author and didn’t know until the end that it was a second-generation romance. I do like series where you get to meet different people from the same world and seeing how different generations came together would be an interesting dynamic, so I’ll have to see about picking up the related books at some point.

I really loved The Courage to Commit. I would say that most people will buy this book because Shawn and Andrew are well-known elite athletes and social media personalities, and they will want to hear more about their lives. They will not be disappointed, as each chapter includes anecdotes that underscore their message. However, they are also very skillful about turning their experiences into wisdom that they can share with their readers, with both positive and negative examples. You absolutely could speed through this book, because it is written in an engaging and personal tone, but you should also read it slowly and savor the life lessons they are giving out. Or read it several times. With a highlighter.

Bonus Books

I read 0 of the 9 bonus TBR books.

Final Result was that I read 3/5 (60%) of my planned books and 0% of my bonus books. I didn’t manage to read either of Clint’s book club selections during the month of June, but I did start The Endless War and hope to finish it up in early July.

Random Reads

My non-planned reads include:

Save a Horse, Keep the Cowboy by Jessica Peterson

S’more of You is the first in a summer romance series by Amazon. Margot is a camp counselor at Dean’s family’s camp. They’ve been at the camp together every summer for years, and for years Margot has been harboring the biggest crush on Dean. However, she expresses this by being a thorough pain-in-the-butt and pranking him at every turn. There was something playful and fun with this short story that I enjoyed, even though I was a bit put off by the idea of a girl pranking this guy so hard for so long, but it ended up being a bit sweet how that was explained in the end.

In Save a Horse, Keep the Cowboy, Jodie is a country music star who returns to her hometown to officiate her brother’s wedding. Josie and Weston were once a thing, but Weston chose his family’s ranch over her. Now, she has to run into him again as her brother’s best man. I’m not sure what to rate this one. I liked it well enough in the moment, but here I am a couple weeks later and I don’t even remember reading the book. I know that I did, but I had to read through a bunch of other readers’ reviews to even recall the climax scene. And it was a bit…. cheesy. I guess it was good for the brief time I read it, but clearly nothing stuck.

I read Glow of the Everflame via audiobook, so it took longer as I only listened to the story while I was driving somewhere. Luckily (I guess, lucky for the book?), since I was participating in the Silent Book Club Summer Passport event, I was driving around more than usual. This is Book 2 of the Kindred’s Curse series, and Diem is now Queen. She needs to figure out how court life works and who – if anyone – she can trust. This book was a bit more political than Spark of the Everflame and that’s just not quite my cup of tea. I generally like more action and banter than world-building and complicated nuance. What can I say, I’m reading for entertainment and my attention span has gotten selective in this soundbyte/short form content world we live in. It was good to see how Diem and Luther’s relationship grew, and the struggles she faces between the human world she grew up in and the Descended world she must now engage with.

It’s been ten years since Lucy last saw her best friend, Sara, in One Hot Summer Wedding. Then, out of the blue, she gets an invitation to her wedding. Sara’s brother, Beckett, is there and they are forced to share a hotel room. I thought this short story was pretty cute.

I have been really enjoying Melanie Harlow’s writing. She’s a local author and I’ve had the privilege of meeting her in person a couple of times. Most of her books are located in a fictional city in the northwest of Michigan’s lower peninsula. I was really excited to read this book, and also can we mention how gorgeous the cover and sprayed edges are? Hart’s Landing is a solid romance with some personal emotional growth, characters with real childhood wounds they need to work through, a decade-old mystery, and a surprise paranormal element! I think this is my sixth Melanie Harlow book I’ve read, and they keep getting better!

Ah, Girls Just Wanna Have Sun is rated fairly low on Goodreads: 2.86. This is another short story in Amazon’s Summer Lovin’ collection and follows Morgan and Juliette. Morgan is pushed into some watersports when she just wants to lay on the beach. The only upside is that she runs into Juliette, someone she shared a few flirty encounters and a kiss eight years ago. Ummm….. I don’t know. I didn’t really feel the attraction between these two, even though the author clearly pushed them into a tragic case of insta-lust. The one girl was clearly uncomfortable in outdoors environments, but willing to put herself out there a little bit, even though it still wasn’t her jam. The other girl was a nature enthusiast and wanted to be alone and outside all of the time. I get that people can compromise, but these too just didn’t seem to have enough of a spark or enough in common to actually make a relationship last without one of the partners completely deleting their personality.

My Killer Vacation was just wild. Taylor’s brother is recovering from an emotional upset, so the elementary school teacher takes her meager savings and splurges on a fantastic vacation to Cape Cod for the two of them. Almost as soon as they arrive, she discovers a dead body in their rental house. For her whole life, Taylor has been told that she’s the type of girl to sit in the background and make the safe choice, but after taking the dead body incident in stride, she’s starting to think that she may be tougher than everyone thinks and maybe she can put her sleuthing skills (entirely gained from listening to true crime podcasts) to good use. Myles is a bounty hunter hired by the victim’s sister to get to the bottom of the murder. He definitely doesn’t want a partner, much less a perky schoolteacher who doesn’t know what she’s doing. I was actively grinning most of the time while reading this book. Taylor is a super sweet and maybe a little too cautious second grade teacher, and she is an absolute, adorable Pokémon of a character. I loved their banter and how stubbornly they clung to their annoyance, even when their mutual attraction hinted at a deeper relationship.

My Thoughts on This Month’s Reading

This was definitely a month of highs and lows! I really appreciated the Summer Passport program for getting me out of the house and giving me dedicated time to read books. I’ll have to follow up with a post about my experience at the end of the summer. I think one thing that the Amazon Original Stories cemented for me is that I’m just not a short story girl. I need time with the characters to be able to really get to know them so that I can root for them to get their happily ever after. I love wit and banter and books that feature that in a playful and not destructive way will win my heart every time.

Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.