Are you looking for the perfect summer read? As we head into summer vacations and beach time, Jen and Ashley are sharing some of the latest books we can't stop reading.
Featuring Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) and Angie Thomas’s Nic Blake and the Remarkables (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), we'll be sure to share with you some picks that will keep your reading momentum going wherever you find yourself this summer.
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Bookish Check-in
Ashley - Elizabeth Lim’s The Dragon’s Promise (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen - Sonali Dev’s Recipe for Persuasion (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Our Recs for Books We Can't Stop Reading
Ashley - Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen - Angie Thomas’s Nic Blake and the Remarkables (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Give Me One - Two Years Ago in June
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Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.
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Bookish Check-in
Ashley was reading...
Elizabeth Lim’s The Dragon’s Promise (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the Publisher:
"Princess Shiori made a deathbed promise to return the dragon's pearl to its rightful owner, but keeping that promise is more dangerous than she ever imagined.
"She must journey to the kingdom of dragons, navigate political intrigue among humans and dragons alike, fend off thieves who covet the pearl for themselves and will go to any lengths to get it, all while cultivating the appearance of a perfect princess to dissuade those who would see her burned at the stake for the magic that runs in her blood.
"The pearl itself is no ordinary cargo; it thrums with malevolent power, jumping to Shiori's aid one minute, and betraying her the next—threatening to shatter her family and sever the thread of fate that binds her to her true love. It will take every ounce of strength Shiori can muster to defend the life and the love she's fought so hard to win."
Jen was reading...
Sonali Dev’s Recipe for Persuasion (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the Publisher:
"Chef Ashna Raje desperately needs a new strategy. How else can she save her beloved restaurant and prove to her estranged, overachieving mother that she isn’t a complete screw up? When she’s asked to join the cast of Cooking with the Stars, the latest hit reality show teaming chefs with celebrities, it seems like just the leap of faith she needs to put her restaurant back on the map. She’s a chef, what’s the worst that could happen?
"Rico Silva, that’s what.
"Being paired with a celebrity who was her first love, the man who ghosted her at the worst possible time in her life, only proves what Ashna has always believed: leaps of faith are a recipe for disaster.
"FIFA winning soccer star Rico Silva isn't too happy to be paired up with Ashna either. Losing Ashna years ago almost destroyed him. The only silver lining to this bizarre situation is that he can finally prove to Ashna that he's definitely over her.
"But when their catastrophic first meeting goes viral, social media becomes obsessed with their chemistry. The competition on the show is fierce…and so is the simmering desire between Ashna and Rico. Every minute they spend together rekindles feelings that pull them toward their disastrous past. Will letting go again be another recipe for heartbreak—or a recipe for persuasion...?
"In Recipe for Persuasion, Sonali Dev once again takes readers on an unforgettable adventure in this fresh, fun, and enchanting romantic comedy."
Books We Can't Stop Reading - Our 2023 Recommendations
Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the Publisher:
"A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.
"But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn’t as much of an outsider at Granby as she’d thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.
"In I Have Some Questions for You, award-winning author Rebecca Makkai has crafted her most irresistible novel yet: a stirring investigation into collective memory and a deeply felt examination of one woman’s reckoning with her past, with a transfixing mystery at its heart. Timely, hypnotic, and populated with a cast of unforgettable characters, I Have Some Questions for You is at once a compulsive page-turner and a literary triumph."
Angie Thomas’s Nic Blake and the Remarkables (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the Publisher:
"Internationally bestselling superstar author Angie Thomas makes her middle grade debut with the launch of an inventive, hilarious, and suspenseful new contemporary fantasy trilogy inspired by African American history and folklore.
"It’s not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool—like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much—like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.
"All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she’s never heard of...to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed."
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