Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner
Goodreads blurb: The internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society returns with a compelling and heartwarming story of post-war London, a century-old bookstore, and three women determined to find their way in a fast-changing world. Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare book store that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager’s unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans:
Vivien Lowry: Single since her aristocratic fiance was killed in action during World War II, the brilliant and stylish Vivien has a long list of grievances – most of them well justified and the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the Head of Fiction.
Grace Perkins: Married with two sons, she’s been working to support the family following her husband’s breakdown in the aftermath of the war. Torn between duty to her family and dreams of her own.
Evie Stone: In the first class of female students from Cambridge permitted to earn a degree, Evie was denied an academic position in favor of her less accomplished male rival. Now she’s working at Bloomsbury Books while she plans to remake her own future.
As they interact with various literary figures of the time – Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others – these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.
My take: 3.75 out of 5. This is a book for booklovers, and female booklovers at that! I had a hard time giving this a rating because I was being quite harsh in 2020 and gave the Jane Austen Society 3.5 stars. This is not as fabulous as the Jane Austen Society, yet I loved that the characters carried over. In my current, i am not being as harsh rating I would give it a 4, so I’m cutting the difference and giving it a 3.75! I kind of wish i had read them back to back as I had forgotten so many great tidbits from the JAS. I appreciated the female empowerment and found the main three characters quite compelling.
Six Ways to Write a Love Letter by Jackson Pearce
Goodreads blurb: Maybe America’s Sweetheart is all fluff and no substance. And maybe every guy she dates is fodder for her next breakup song. But session drummer Remy Young doesn’t care. Touring with Vivi Swan means more money than he and his brother could ever earn on their own. And he’s smart enough to keep himself far away from drama. Then a bus mix-up forces Remy and Vivi to spend hours together, and he’s surprised to discover that she’s nothing like the rumors said she’d be. When she asks for his help writing her next song, he’s immediately on board—for professional reasons, of course. Soon, it’s clear that every variation of their song is just a different way to write a love letter, even as Remy wonders if he’s setting himself up to be the next guy on her list of exes. And when Vivi’s private life and public facade finally clash, a celebrity gossip blog threatens everything they’ve created together.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher, the book comes out July 5th, 2022
My take: 3.5 out of 5. A cute quick read romance that dabbles in the wonderful world of the music industry. I totally was imagining Taylor Swift throughout the book, and she even wears red lipstick, so clearly the author probably wanted us to image Remy as her or someone equally famous. I enjoyed the songwriting aspect and loved when the explanation of the title came about at the end.
You me and Everywhere by Roni Loren
Goodreads blurb: Eliza Catalano has the perfect life. So what if it actually looks nothing like the story she tells online? As a therapist, it’s part of her job to look like she has all the answers, right? But when Eliza ends up as a viral “Worst Date Ever” meme, everything in her Instagram-filtered world begins to crumble. Enter the most obnoxiously attractive man she’s ever met, and a bet she can’t resist: if she swears off social media for six months, Beck Carter’ll teach her the wonders of surviving the “real world.” No technology, no dating apps, no pretty filters, no BS. It seems like the perfect deal—she can lay low until her sudden infamy passes, meet some interesting new people, and maybe even curate this experience into a how I quit the online dating racket book along the way. But something about Beck’s raw honesty speaks to Eliza in ways she never expected. She knows he’s supposed to be completely hands-off…but as complex feelings grow and walls come tumbling down, rough-around-the-edges Beck may be exactly what Eliza needs to finally, truly face herself—and decide who she really wants to be.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher, the book comes out July 5th, 2022
my take: 3 out of 5. It was a good cute story, and I did the audiobook and loved the narrator. However, I didn’t love it as much as her previous books, its just a cute romance with the cliche which I am a bit tired of: I have issues and therefore can’t be in a relationship. On the positive side both characters were quite nuanced and had some cool evolutions.
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