Show Me Your Books - June

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June was a good book month for me. I read four books. But I believe that was because I was in Graeagle for a week and that allowed me to read two of them quickly. I always get a lot of reading done while I am in Graeagle. Once the kids go to the sleep, I read before bed and I often read at the pool. 

So what did I read last month?

Long Bright River - Liz Moore
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Rating: 4 to 4 1/2 stars

Long Bright River - Liz Moore

I added this into my que and when it came up I couldn't remember what it was about. This book was really good. It hit me harder than I thought it would. It is a book about addiction. Two sister grew up together and one gets sucked into the world of drugs (mainly heroin). And when you inject the heroin, it runs up the long bright river. 

The book goes into the lives of both sisters. The first who took care of her sister growing up after their own mother died from an overdose. She is a police officer and hopes to change the town she lives in for the better and save her sister. The second who is carefree, does drugs and just lives her life the way she wants it. 

The sister who is a cop is trying to solve the crime of missing woman who were either druggies and/or selling their bodies for drugs. She is worried that her sister is one of these missing woman who she may find dead at every stop she makes.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this book that leave you wondering what happened, how it happened and who is behind these murders/missing woman.

I have a cousin who lost his battle to addiction and then a childhood best friend whose sister has endured a lifelong battle with addiction. So this book really hit home for me.

Bottom line: Read it.

Here is Amazon's synopsis:

Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.

One to Watch - Kate Stayman-London
Genre: Romance, Chick-lit
Rating: 4 stars

One to Watch - Kate Stayman-London

This was a fun and light read. Bea is a fashion blogger and is pretty successful. Her passion for fashion grew once she went to Paris for a semester during college. But Bea has never been able to find her one true love. Well, she thinks she has in her best friend Ray, but it seems he doesn't feel the same way.

On TV, there is a reality show that is similar to the Bachelor/Bachelorette. It is always the beautiful and thin people who are cast as the main lead. But after a horrible season on Main Squeeze, they want to change things up and add someone who is more real. Enter Bea. Bea is an average to plus size woman who is smart, successful and fun to be around. So the TV execs convince Bea to be their new lead.

It reads like episodes of the Bachelor/Bachelorette. You go on dates, you read twitter accounts, magazine stories, etc. for each week. 

Will Bea find love?

I really enjoyed this book. It was fun to read and a change up from what I have been reading lately. 

Here is Amazon's synopsis:

Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers—and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?

Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition—under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That’s it.

But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated. She’s in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Internet culture wars, sexy suitors, and an opportunity (or two, or five) to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale. In this joyful, wickedly observant debut, Bea has to decide whether it might just be worth trusting these men—and herself—for a chance to live happily ever after.

One By One - Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Rating: 3 1/2 to 4 stars

One By One - Ruth Ware

This book started off the same way another book that I read, but never finished. But this one was more gripping and sucked you in. There is a resort in the French Alps that houses guests for a ski weekend, a company retreat or a time to just get away. The company Snoop brings their officers and shareholders to the ski chalet for a week. They need to decide if they should sell the company or go public. The company's heads are divided on this, so they cease this opportunity to ski, have meetings and just get away.

But slowly people start dying. At first it seems like it was an accident, but then more people die. All the while, a huge avalanche happens and they are snowed in.

I kept guessing on who was the killer, what the motive was and what was going to happen. I did enjoy the book and did guess who the killer was, but it was still an enjoyable read.

Here is Amazon's synopsis:

Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide.

When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.

As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further…one by one.

Every Last Fear - Alex Finlay
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Rating: 4 to 4 1/2 stars

Every Last Fear - Alex Finlay

This book hooked me right away. It is read from the perspectives of several family members in before and after. Before the accident/murder and after. A family goes to Mexico and a few days later they end up dead. At first it seems like an accident, but as the story unfolds, you find out that it is a murder.

Matt and his brother, Danny are the only two who were not in Mexico. Matt was at NYU and his brother Danny, is in prison. So what happened to their family?

The book takes you through the investigation including perspectives from an FBI agent. So why is a FBI agent investigating this if it was just a murdered family?

I didn't guess who the killer was or why it happened, but I did start to catch onto it a bit as the book went on. I just had a slight detail that wasn't right.

But this was an enjoyable read.

Here is Amazon's synopsis:

“They found the bodies on a Tuesday.” So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears.

After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family―his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister―have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain―and they won’t tell Matt why.

The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny―currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte―was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime.

When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison―putting his own life in peril―and forcing him to confront his every last fear.

What did you read last month? Any good recommendations?