What a great reading month for me! I finally watched The Summer I Turned Pretty Amazon Prime series after reading all three books.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Series by Jenny Han ⭐⭐⭐
The first book took me less than 24 hours to finish. This is such a cute easy read! If I was a teacher, my students would be forced to read this and share their thoughts on platonic relationships! It’s about Belly who spends her summers at the Fisher’s beach house with Conrad and Jeremiah but one summer everything changes. Jenny Han also wrote the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before series which I loved so I highly recommend this to romance girlies.
The last two books were not the best. Belly became annoying and thought her relationship with Jeremiah was too rushed. All that drama and conflict for that ending? I expected better from the entire trilogy. Also why is her nickname Belly? I understand the meaning of the nickname if you read the book but come on! I loved the first one but the last two weighed my overall score down.
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn ⭐⭐⭐
This is a book about Yinka, a British-Nigerian woman in her 30s working in investment banking. Everything is going well for her but she has no husband. Her mother and Nigerian aunties constantly compare her to her cousins and sisters. She decides to find a man in 6 months and it’s her journey to reaching this goal
This was an easy read but oh god Yinka became so unbearable and unlikable after that one lunch scene. The conflict between Yinka and Ola could be solved by communication. The author also included too many Nigerian/African stereotypes for me!
I feel like so many books nowadays try to be woke by having their characters discuss current political topics. In my own opinion, so many books fail to do this in an engaging manner. The Other Black Girl was another example. It feels like a twitter social commentary that is never fully fleshed out. Yinka and her friends discussed every political topic you could think of but on a surface level so this was a miss for me
By The Book (Meant To Be) by Jasmine Guillory ⭐⭐
I never thought I would read and enjoy romance novels but this time last year I read The Wedding Date series by Jasmine Guillory and became obsessed! I am now surprised that this is a novel by the same Jasmine! This book was so meh, it hurts. Save your time, I will never ever recommend it!
Izzy, an editorial assistant, goes to visit an author at his mansion to help him finish his memoir and give him a pep talk. An enemies to lovers trope but I hated the third POV, bland dialogue / conversations, the romantic tension was so flat and no spice at all. I was way too excited to read this as a Jasmine fan but she did not make it easy to enjoy this book. She must have hired a ghost writer because I am still confused.
Pricing Beauty by Ashley Mears ⭐⭐⭐
This book was interesting and I would recommend it. A former fashion model now sociology professor studies how modelling agencies and fashion industry prices a model and what kind of ‘look’ will generate revenue for their fashion brand if they choose a particular model to model their brand. Surprise surprise it has to do with race, fatphobia, colorism, classism and stereotypes! I highly recommend it if you are looking for insights in the fashion industry. also fashion/ beauty is one of the few industries where women OUTEARN men even by 10x
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen ⭐⭐⭐
Imagine you are a stay at home mom, your mother passes away so you decide to visit your family in Hong Kong but your husband is upset because you left at the last minute and freezes your card! You are now stuck in a foreign country with no money! Oh and you are with your child. Well you don’t have to imagine! It actually happened to my girl Ava in Counterfeit! Ava then reconnects with her college friend Winnie to sell exact replicas of luxury handbags (Birkin, Chanel) to make extra money.
I love this book and the discussion about why people purchase luxury goods! Why do some people knowingly purchase fake bags! I was not a fan of the ending as I expected better like hearing the detective’s POV.