Good Reads: October

Hello Everyone!

I thought it would be fun to start sharing the books that I’ve read each month and would actually recommend to friends and family. Reading has always been a huge part of my life and has continued to help me through troubled times. I am constantly reading whether it is an escape from reality, a feel-good read, or just learning about a new interest.

I read through a lot of genres, so there will be books ranging from Young Adult to Romance.

In the reviews I’ll give a summary of the plot (no spoilers), what I thought about it and why I’m recommending these books. So, let’s jump in!

The Wife Between Us

This is a truly wild ride co-written by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. This book is the best Psychological Thriller I have ever read! I thought I had it all figured out, a typical story about a psycho ex-wife who is stalking the ‘new woman’. Oh boy was I wrong.

We are first introduced to Vanessa who has been divorced for about a year and working at Saks while living with her aunt. Her ex-husband, Richard, is a successful hedge fund manager and is currently engaged to a woman named Nellie.

The book begins with Vanessa watching Nellie and that is where I automatically thought it was going to be a simple to follow jealousy plot. See, that’s where I messed up, I assumed I knew what was going to happen next. The best advice I can give to someone reading this masterpiece is to not assume you know what is happening.

This story has so many twists and turns that I was honestly mislead many times. The further I read, the more things made sense. By the time I had finished the story it had taken the understanding I thought I had and tossed it out the window. This books ending was much better than anything I could have anticipated.

While the story is amazing, I wasn’t able to connect with any of the characters. There was not much within the story that I have experienced in my own life. If a reader could find common ground with any of the characters, combined with the utter intensity I’ll bet this will make their top five reads. I recommend this book to anyone just looking for an exciting read with an even better ending.

---

Red, White & Royal Blue

Our author, Casey McQuiston, does a great job of combining things I do not have a passion for, like Politics and History, and somehow use them to highlight a great romance.

In this book we follow Alex Claremont-Diaz, the U.S. President’s son and aspiring politician himself. During a long-standing rivalry with Prince Henry of Wales and after an altercation at a royal event, they are forced to appear as friends and allies.

It’s quickly realized that they’ve gotten off on the wrong foot and begin to find common ground. The characters are admirable with their abilities to overcome problems with society throughout their clashes. Family is a huge factor in this story and really helps to mold the two young men. In spite of Alex’s pride and Henry’s royal maternal ‘apron strings’, we can’t help falling in love with our boys by the end.

I read this Young Adult romance novel earlier this month when I honestly just needed to smile about something. The story was able to make me smile, laugh, and cry throughout my read. I would really recommend this book to both adults and young adults for its wit and humor. This book was on an end-cap at my local Bookstore and I’m happy I decided to give it a try.

---

Behind Her Eyes

Behind Her Eyes is another Psychological Thriller that had me on the edge of my seat. Sarah Pinborough does an amazing job with this story and is able to keep you reading for hours on end.

This story seems like your typical romance plot when Louise, a single mom at a bar connects with a stranger. When she goes in to work Monday morning the ‘mystery man’ turns out to be her new boss, David. To make things worse, David has a picture-perfect wife named Adele who is everything that Louise isn’t.

Louise befriends Adele one day in town and they start to share secrets and hang-out often. The closer Louise gets to Adele, the more we find wrong with her marriage.

This is an emotional roller-coaster and I LOVED it. It was easy to get in to plus the story did a great job with character development. Adele’s backstory had me hooked and shocked once I got to the later chapters. So, if you’re looking for a quick read that isn’t predictable this will definitely throw you for a loop and have you wanting more!

---

There we have it!

These were great books that I read this month. I would love to keep this going and read some of your favorites as well. Comment down below if you have a book you would like me to read this November. Until then, Happy Reading!

---

Advertisement

Going Green

I had been living with my boyfriend for about a year and wanted to make some kind of a change in our home. He had been living alone in the house for about five years. The color scheme and placement of furniture were already determined and lacking inspiration. Living in a home filled with just brown and white was a real change coming from my parents very bold, tasteful and colored home.

So, in trying to add a bit of color and personality to the house I decided to look into houseplants. I had really taken an interest with indoor plants and was excited to bring their varying shades and colors into our lackluster home. I absolutely love the idea of coming home to a house filled to the brim with big, beautiful, green plants. However, that idea and the reality were very eye-opening.

In my haste to fill my home with plants I headed over to my local home improvement store. I had done at least some research before I bought just any old house plant.

I was on a mission to obtain relatively ‘easy’ plants for beginners. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the garden department the list I had prepared was shoved deep into the void of my purse. I quickly favored plucking plants from the first shelf that I could reach instead.

Now, I know it sounds bad but I did look at the plant tags to see whether or not they would be a good fit for my home. Sadly, I decided it was a good idea to stick with low-light plants considering I live in Arizona. Which lets be honest, it isn’t easy on the wallet to have light streaming through the windows all day. Another thing I had to pay close attention to was the chance that these plants could be poisonous to my pups back at home. For some reason this wasn’t displayed on the actual plant tag and I had to google the plants I was unsure of to make sure I was not bringing a death trap into my home.

In the end I definitely ended up with a plethora of plants. I snagged Monsteras, an English Ivy, Snake plants, a Chinese Evergreen, a ZZ plant, a Prayer plant, a few Ferns, a Money tree, and a few potted Pothos. Next, I was on to the pots and containers for my chosen plants. Once I had pretty much filled up my cart I was out of there, eager to get home and spread the plants throughout my home.

So, $85.00 and 15 minutes later, I was wrestling plants inside my house and finally ready to set everything up. An additional hour and a half later and I was finished. The plants looked happy, the house was smelling great, and I was happily exhausted.

---

Hello!

Welcome to my blog! I’m so happy that you’ve decided to stop by. This is going to be a great experience, so I hope you’re ready.

I’ve decided to kick-start this blog to have an outlet for my thoughts and interests. This will also serve as a way to make new connections and new experiences! I love to meet new people and chat, so feel free to contact me here or on any of my social media platforms.

Helping people is literally what I do. So, if there is a way to do what I love and help people simultaneously, why not? To throw a mix in my day-to-day activities I will be writing about things that hold interest to me and hopefully you as well.

So here we go! This will be a blog that I really hope will one day turn into a community. We will be talking about a whole array of interests and I would love to hear suggestions from you!