The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry's newest light fiction novel about best friends and polar opposites Poppy and Alex on their annual vacation; Now You Say Yes, Bill Harley's irresistible middle-grade novel about orphans on a cross-country journey as they desperately try to stay together as a family; and Don't Look for Me, Wendy Walker's suspenseful, character-driven novel about a mother coping with the worst grief imaginable while a lurking evil endangers key characters' safety.
Which books are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms?
01 People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
In Emily Henry's newest novel People We Meet on Vacation, best friends and polar opposites Alex and Poppy are on their annual vacation. Poppy is impulsive and fun-loving, and Alex would generally rather stay home and read than seek out adventure.
The pair has long been emotionally inseparable despite living in different cities--Poppy in New York and Alex in their small hometown. But two years ago on their vacation, something BIG happened. It threatened their friendship and continues to loom over everything between them.
They haven't talked about any of it, but Poppy has convinced Alex to join her again on vacation to try to recapture their effortless times together. Surely, she thinks, they can fix everything in a week. She'll just push down her strange feelings about Alex and pretend that fateful time never even happened.
This is already feeling like a will they/won't they story I'll love. Henry's Beach Read was a favorite book of mine last year, and it made it into the Greedy Reading List Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism.
02 Now You Say Yes by Bill Harley
In Bill Harley's newest work, the middle-grade novel Now You Say Yes, we follow newly orphaned fifteen-year-old Mari and her on-the-spectrum nine-year-old stepbrother, Connor, as they strike out on a cross-country journey in a desperate attempt to avoid foster care.
Mari, who finds that she's tough in the face of adversity, is bent on staying with her brother, preserving the only family they each have left. But she's not legally an adult, and she doesn't have many options of who she can rely on to keep them safe.
Harley's story about loyalty, loss, and pushing forward is beautiful; it's sometimes heartbreaking and consistently lovely.
03 Don't Look for Me by Wendy Walker
Molly Clarke is dealing with bottomless grief. Her youngest daughter died in an unthinkable accident, and for Molly, making her way through each day is like wading through waters threatening to drown her.
So she walks away--from her distant husband, her always-furious oldest daughter, her absent middle son, her broken life, and her relentless pain. At least, that's what the clues left behind seem to indicate.
But the truth of what has occurred is horrible, terrifying, twisty--and fascinating. Walker's premise is difficult to read and experience on the page, but the character depth, exploration of grief, and self-actualization she offers in Don't Look for Me is pleasantly surprising and continues to build and grow. I'm flying through this tale and can't wait to find out what's what.