Hey friends! Very excited to chat all things books and reading with you in this post. I have quite the round up of things I’ve been reading on my Kindle or listening to on Audible. I’ve mentioned before that my grandmother and I share a Kindle account so I end up reading a lot of things she’s downloaded. She also has a Kindle unlimited subscription so I find a lot of my books through that as you can borrow and return them for a flat monthly fee.
This recap definitely has some standouts but also several downright duds. I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading lately in the comments!
RECENT READS: SPRING 2025
It Begins with You by Jillian Turecki – audiobook (5/5)
I have followed Jillian Turkecki on Instagram and listened to her podcast for a couple of years now and a lot of her content really resonates with me. I like how direct she is but with a consistent undertone of self-love and respect being at the foundation. Sometimes I wish she had a degree in counseling or psychology instead of just being a “relationship coach” but at the end oft he day, I really appreciate what she has to say and how she shares it. I was eager to read (listen) to her book and it didn’t disappoint. Nothing groundbreaking but good reminders. I’ll definitely give it a second listen.
Drawing from decades of experience helping clients heal themselves and their relationships, It Begins with You introduces the 9 core truths we must accept in order to change our lives:
- Truth 1: It begins with you.
- Truth 2: The mind is a battlefield.
- Truth 3: Lust is not the same thing as love.
- Truth 4: You have to love yourself.
- Truth 5: You must speak up and tell the truth.
- Truth 6: You need to be your best self (even after the honeymoon).
- Truth 7: You cannot convince someone to love you.
- Truth 8: No one is coming to save you.
- Truth 9: You must make peace with your parents.
Blending therapeutic strategies, somatic techniques, client case studies, practical tools, tips, and guiding questions, It Begins with You gives us a roadmap to finally start doing the work needed to love ourselves and find the love we deserve. It’s never too late to choose yourself.
Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead (4.5/5)
This was Moorehead’s debut novel and I thought she crushed it! This book moved quickly and kept me engaged (although there were quite a few head-smacking moments where I was like why would you do this Willa haha). Very twisty – thought I had it figured out and boy was I surprised!
In this debut thriller, a troubled child psychologist returns to a small Louisiana town to protect her secrets but winds up having to protect her life.
Dr. Willa Watters is a prominent child psychologist at the height of her career. But when a viral video of a disastrous television interview puts her reputation on the line, Willa retreats to Broken Bayou, the town where she spent most of her childhood summers. There she visits her aunts’ old house and discovers some of her unstable mother’s belongings still languishing in the attic—dusty mementos harboring secrets of her harrowing past.
Willa’s hopes for a respite are quickly crushed, not only by what she finds in that attic but also by what’s been found in the bayou.
With waters dropping due to drought, mysterious barrels containing human remains have surfaced, alongside something else from Willa’s past, something she never thought she’d see again. Divers, police, and media flood the area, including a news reporter gunning for Willa and Travis Arceneaux—a local deputy and old flame.
Willa’s fate seems eerily tied to the murders. And with no one to trust, she must use her wits to stay above water and make it out alive.
Don’t Let Her Stay by Nicola Sanders (2.5/5)
Easy to read but annoying characters and twist at the end was disappointing.
It seemed only five minutes ago that Richard went to the station to pick up Chloe, and now they were here. I was so excited. Finally, I would meet my stepdaughter for the first time, and Chloe would meet her baby sister Evie.
Whenever we’re alone, Chloe makes it clear that she hates me. But in front of her father, she’s a perfect little angel.Richard says I’m not giving her a chance, but he doesn’t see what I see. I don’t trust Chloe, and I certainly won’t leave her alone with Evie.
Because I know something isn’t right with Chloe, and I will do everything possible to protect my family.
Before it’s too late…
The Night Road by Kristin Hannah (4/5)
I’ve been a Kristin Hannah fan for years and years but somehow missed this one back when it was released. It was a tough one – emotional and an unimaginable situation – but I’m glad I read it.
For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children’s needs above her own, and it shows―her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close-knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude. Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.
Jude does everything to keep her kids out of harm’s way. But senior year of high school tests them all. It’s a dangerous, explosive season of drinking, driving, parties, and kids who want to let loose. And then on a hot summer’s night, one bad decision is made. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget…or the courage to forgive.
Vivid, universal, and emotionally complex, Night Road raises profound questions about motherhood, identity, love, and forgiveness. It is a luminous, heartbreaking novel that captures both the exquisite pain of loss and the stunning power of hope. This is Kristin Hannah at her very best, telling an unforgettable story about the longing for family, the resilience of the human heart, and the courage it takes to forgive the people we love.
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins – audiobook (4/5)
The subject matter is good. Mel Robbins drives me absolutely bonkers so I docked a star just for that haha. But also, there’s been a lot of questions around her giving credit where credit is due to the original author of the poem that sparked her viral “let them” theory and to her daughter for helping write the manuscript. Again, the content is good but Mel Robbins..I’m so eh with her.
What if the key to happiness, success, and love was as simple as two words?
If you’ve ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or frustrated with where you are, the problem isn’t you. The problem is the power you give to other people. Two simple words—Let Them—will set you free. Free from the opinions, drama, and judgments of others. Free from the exhausting cycle of trying to manage everything and everyone around you. The Let Them Theory puts the power to create a life you love back in your hands—and this book will show you exactly how to do it.
Friends with Secrets by Christine Gunderson (4/5)
This was a fast and engaging read.
What you see isn’t always what you get.
Take Ainsley. The gorgeous mother of two lives a picture-perfect life with her husband, Ben—aspiring politician and heir to a candy fortune—in suburban Washington, DC. But in reality, Ainsley has no idea what she’s doing and is terrified someone will figure out who she really is and where she came from.
Nikki’s fighting to keep afloat as a stay-at-home mother of four, subsisting on chicken nuggets and very little sleep. She’s a mess on the outside, and inside yearns for the validation—and the paycheck—of the television news career she left behind.
When a dangerous figure from Ainsley’s past becomes a coach at her kids’ school, she fears the worst and confides in Nikki, spilling every detail of her former life.
Together, they devise a plan to expose the coach and safeguard their kids. But can they protect their own lives—and their new friendship—in the process?
The Boyfriend by Frieda McFadden (1/5)
I need to be DONE with Frieda McFadden books. I hated The Teacher and I hated The Boyfriend just as much if not more. The writing is SO basic and the editing feels incomplete. And this story was just dumb. I rolled my eyes about a million times when reading this and should have DNF’d. Sorry for the strong opinions.
She’s looking for the perfect man. He’s looking for the perfect victim.
Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it all: men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can’t shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.
A dark story about obsession and the things we’ll do for love, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden proves that crimes of passion are often the bloodiest…
Nothing Breaks Like a Heart by Barbara Freethy (3.5/5)
Easy to read but draggy in parts. Overall, I enjoyed it and was surprised by the twist at the end but it made complete sense. My grandmother likes Barbara Freethy books and I’ve enjoyed being introduced to her. She writes good stories!
The strongest lies aren’t the ones we tell others—they’re the ones we tell ourselves.
I thought I’d found my fairy tale ending when Andrew Chadwick saved my life during a hotel fire and gave me a whirlwind love story I didn’t think existed. But trusting him made me vulnerable, and believing in the impossible made me an easy target.
Six months later, we’re celebrating our dream wedding at an exclusive island resort, where every luxury imaginable is at our fingertips. It should be perfect. It should be paradise. But it’s not.
Trust is a fragile thing, and as cracks begin to form in our perfect life, I realize I might not know my new husband at all. The man I trusted with my heart is keeping dangerous secrets—and the closer I get to unraveling them, the more I realize it’s not just my heart at risk…it’s my life.
The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yaros (4/5)
Loved this one. Scarlett’s story is what really kept me going but I do like how it was tied into present day and the ending is very special.
Told in alternating timelines, THE THINGS WE LEAVE UNFINISHED examines the risks we take for love, the scars too deep to heal, and the endings we can’t bring ourselves to see coming.
Twenty-eight-year-old Georgia Stanton has to start over after she gave up almost everything in a brutal divorce—the New York house, the friends, and her pride. Now back home at her late great-grandmother’s estate in Colorado, she finds herself face-to-face with Noah Harrison, the bestselling author of a million books where the cover is always people nearly kissing. He’s just as arrogant in person as in interviews, and she’ll be damned if the good-looking writer of love stories thinks he’s the one to finish her grandmother’s final novel…even if the publisher swears he’s the perfect fit.
Noah is at the pinnacle of his career. With book and movie deals galore, there isn’t much the “golden boy” of modern fiction hasn’t accomplished. But he can’t walk away from what might be the best book of the century—the one his idol, Scarlett Stanton, left unfinished. Coming up with a fitting ending for the legendary author is one thing, but dealing with her beautiful, stubborn, cynical great-granddaughter, Georgia, is quite another.
But as they read Scarlett’s words in both the manuscript and her box of letters, they start to realize why Scarlett never finished the book—it’s based on her real-life romance with a World War II pilot, and the ending isn’t a happy one. Georgia knows all too well that love never works out, and while the chemistry and connection between her and Noah is undeniable, she’s as determined as ever to learn from her great-grandmother’s mistakes—even if it means destroying Noah’s career.
The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding (4.5/5)
A great twisty read!
A “dark and wild ride of redemption, betrayal, and friendship” following a homeless woman fleeing a dangerous past—and the wealthy society wife she saves from drowning.
Lee Gulliver never thought she’d find herself living on the streets—no one ever does—but when her restaurant fails, and she falls deeper into debt, she leaves her old life behind with nothing but her clothes and her Toyota Corolla. In Seattle, she parks in a secluded spot by the beach to lay low and plan her next move—until early one morning, she sees a sobbing woman throw herself into the ocean. Lee hauls the woman back to the surface, but instead of appreciation, she is met with fury. The drowning woman, Hazel, tells her that she wanted to die, that she’s trapped in a toxic, abusive marriage, that she’s a prisoner in her own home. Lee has thwarted her one chance to escape her life.
Out of options, Hazel retreats to her gilded cage, and Lee thinks she’s seen the last of her, until her unexpected return the next morning. Bonded by disparate but difficult circumstances, the women soon strike up a close and unlikely friendship. And then one day, Hazel makes a shocking request: she wants Lee to help her disappear. It’ll be easy, Hazel assures her, but Lee soon learns that nothing is as it seems, and that Hazel may not be the friend Lee thought she was.
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty – audiobook (1/5)
Omgggg – I started this one back in December and JUST finished it a couple of weeks ago. Usually I fly through audiobooks but I kept stopping this one and switching to something else. There were WAY too many characters to keep track of with so much switching around and no one’s story was especially interesting. Honestly, it wasn’t worth finishing and the ending was very mid.
Life is full of twists and turns you never see coming. But what if you did?
Flight attendant Allegra Patel loves her job, but today is her twenty-eighth birthday and she’d rather not be placating a plane full of passengers unhappy about a long delay. There’s the well-dressed man in seat 4C desperate not to miss his daughter’s musical. A harried mother frantically tries to keep her toddler and baby quiet. Honeymooners still in their wedding finery dream of their new lives, while a chatty emergency room nurse dreams of retirement.
Suddenly a woman traveling alone stands. She walks down the aisle making predictions about how and when passengers will die. Some dismiss her, they don’t believe in psychics. Some are delighted with her prophecies! Their lives will supposedly be long. Others are appalled.
Then: a few months later, the first prediction comes true.
Intricately plotted, with the wonderful wit Liane Moriarty has become famous for, Here One Moment brilliantly looks at friends, lovers, and family and how we manage to hold onto them in our harried modern lives.
Elizabeth’s Mountain by Lucille Cuarino (4.5/5)
My grandmother put this on our Kindle for me because it’s a story about a grandmother and granddaughter AND takes place outside of Asheville, NC. Really, really loved this book. The only reason I’m not giving it 5/5 is because I have some questions about the man Amanda gets involved with and don’t 100% love how it wraps up with those two but DEFINITELY recommend reading this book.
Part 1950’s historical romance and part contemporary romance, grandmother and granddaughter’s stories unfold and interlace, connecting past with present. As Elizabeth begins to see her younger self reflected in her granddaughter, she wonders if Amanda could hold the key to her legacy.
An emotional, heartwarming tale of resilience and hope, Elizabeth’s Mountain will charm and immerse listeners in a dual time-line of interweaving romances.
The Last Letter by Rebecca Yaros (1/5)
Okay, I loved The Things We Leave Unfinished but HATED The Last Letter. The end of this book made me so insanely angry. I still can’t think about it without feeling enraged and pissed off that I read it. I won’t spoil it but it was so completely unnecessary. This book is honestly too trauma heavy and it feels like every terrible thing that could ever happen is crammed into one book. DO NOT RECOMMEND.
Beckett,
If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.
I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.
My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.
And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.
So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.
Please don’t make her go through it alone.
Ryan
The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose (3.5/5)
Twisty, easy read.
Would you defend your husband if he was accused of killing his mistress?
Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned.
The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.
Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers. Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home. Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.
But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?
The Wedding People by Alison Espach (3.5/5)
I thought this was solidly good but not as hype-worthy as you saw all over socials. I appreciated having such heavy subject matters talked about in a real way and treated with respect but also infused with humor. It reminded me of the book A Man Called Ove.
A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.
Sandwich by Catherine Newman (3.5/5)
Really liked this one but it had that problem where a book tries to address TOO MANY topics all in one manuscript. And Rocky ranted…a lot.
For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.
This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.
It’s one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.
The Change by Kristen Miller (4/5)
Another book about menopausal women. Out there but funny and an enjoyable read.
In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment…
After Nessa James’s husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she’s left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn’t take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead—a gift she’s inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.
On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn’t left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriett’s life is far from over—in fact, she’s undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis.
Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw—until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.
Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl’s murder leads to more bodies, and to the town’s most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don’t apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriett will take matters into their own hands…
QUESTIONS
Your turn! Would love to hear your thoughts on any of the above titles!
What’s the worst book you’ve read recently?
And the best?
