01 The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Christina Lauren is the pen name for Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, who write as a team.
In The Unhoneymooners, unlucky Olive is standing by her perfect twin Ami yet again, this time during her elaborate wedding. When most of the guests fall violently ill at the reception, Ami urges Olive to go on the couple's nonrefundable, free honeymoon to Maui. The only problem is, Olive's nemesis, the groom's brother and best man Ethan, has been extended the same invitation. Can they put their mutual dislike aside in order to experience a little bit of paradise? (I think they will!)
This is a fun read so far. And I'm looking forward to finding out how Ethan becomes a redeemable character, because he is such a jackass at the outset of the story.
I've reviewed Lauren's fun and romantic Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating on this site, as well as Love and Other Words and the lovely Autoboyography.
02 The Course of All Treasons by Suzanne M. Wolfe
Going into Thanksgiving weekend with an Elizabethan mystery in hand, complete with intrigue, plotting, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, and more? Yep!
With looming fears of betrayal and destruction at the hands of Mary Queen of Scots loyalists looming over Elizabeth's court, Nicholas Holt, a spy for Sir Francis Walsingham, must unravel the mystery of a killer who's picking off his fellow spies one by one.
This is the second in Wolfe's Elizabethan Spy Mystery series; the first was A Murder by Any Name.
03 Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
I love some Anna Kendrick (and not only because I also have a friend named Anna Kendrick, and not only because the celebrity Anna Kendrick is from Maine).
Kendrick does a great job of positioning herself outside Hollywood as she was when she was young in order to retrace her humble beginnings. Her own confusion and astonishment is endearing as she explains figuring out the way show business really works. There's a "Can you believe this? Me either! I'm down to earth and just like you!" tone that she's carrying through each story, and it's working for me.
I'm listening to this as an audiobook, and I love hearing this in Kendrick's voice.
What are you reading now?
Light fiction, historical fiction mystery, and celebrity memoir. This is the reading that I need this week, fun and light and atmospheric.
Last week I took a chance on Writers & Lovers despite my recent need to have all story lines work out and some version of a happy ending, and I was nervous but ultimately wasn't disappointed.
I recently offered a roundup of Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism if that feels down your alley.
What's working (or not working) in your reading life right now?