The Friends we Keep by Jane Green
Goodreads Blurb: The Friends We Keep is the warm and wise new novel from Jane Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Sunshine Sisters and The Beach House
Evvie, Maggie, and Topher have known each other since university. Their friendship was something they swore would last forever. Now years have passed, the friends have drifted apart, and none of them ever found the lives they wanted – the lives they dreamed of when they were young and everything seemed possible.
Evvie starved herself to become a supermodel but derailed her career by sleeping with a married man.
Maggie married Ben, the boy she fell in love with at university, never imagining the heartbreak his drinking would cause.
Topher became a successful actor but the shame of a childhood secret shut him off from real intimacy.
By their thirtieth reunion, these old friends have lost touch with each other and with the people they dreamed of becoming. Together again, they have a second chance at happiness… until a dark secret is revealed that changes everything.
The Friends We Keep is about how despite disappointments we’ve had or mistakes we’ve made, it’s never too late to find a place to call home.
My Take: 4.5 out of 5. i really enjoyed this book. A great beach read (which is exactly where i read it) it was super easy to read but also extremely engaging. A 30 year view on friendship, the secrets that are kept and how relationships change, grow and modify. It’s interesting to see how actions have repercussions 20 years down the line and how fragile and strong the same relationships might be. I love Jane Greens writing and here it was evident how easy it was to get through. I wonderful read.
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Goodreads blurb: A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.
Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice — with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan — from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…
Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he’s making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…
My take: 4 out of 5 I didn’t get into this book right away, but once i did I was actually extremely moved by it. Im a huge fan of romcoms and this is the first book I’ve read that deals with disabilities and their effects on relationships. Not only is it relevant just for that sake, it does it beautifully, making Stella and her disabilities so real that you can’t help to fall in love with her and her story too.
Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
Goodreads blurb: Award-winning author Sonali Dev launches a new series about the Rajes, an immigrant Indian family descended from royalty, who have built their lives in San Francisco…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep. Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:
· Never trust an outsider
· Never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations
· And never, ever, defy your family
Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.
Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge him by his rough beginnings and place pedigree above character. He needs the lucrative job the Rajes offer, but he values his pride too much to indulge Trisha’s arrogance. And then he discovers that she’s the only surgeon who can save his sister’s life.
As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s stunning desserts. But before a future can be savored there’s a past to be reckoned with…
A family trying to build home in a new land.
A man who has never felt at home anywhere.
And a choice to be made between the two.
My take: 4 out of 5. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books and Jane Austen was the person responsible for making me love reading. therefore a book inspired by her classic will of course have me reading it. I absolutely loved this book. although it does use the central themes of first impressions prejudice and miscommunications in relationships it has its own story. I really liked the characters, they were human and deep and flawed and you related to them instantly. I was also obsessed by the amount of foo, food preparation and food consumption happened in this book. It made me very hungry and yearn for a great Indian meal. One cant really go wrong when a book is all based on Jane Austen, romance, family conflicts and love of food — some of my favorite things. I was also surprised about how many tears i shed reading this book, not what i was expecting.
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