What I Read in July: Dinah
Instead of focusing on a specific book this week, I wanted to share a quick overview of everything I read last month! It was definitely a month of lighter reads for me, I keep finding that my brain the last few months either can’t stop reading, or can’t focus on a book no matter what I do. July was somewhere in the middle - I didn’t read quite as much and was more drawn into zippy fiction with quite a few YA series in there and a splash of my favorite topic, royal romances!
You Are Not Alone
This thriller has been recommended by so many people and I have been on the waitlist for it forever! I loved that it was a fully female-driven story and not just about a complicated romantic relationship, as so many thrillers can be. Having lived in NYC it was easy to imagine the settings and see myself in some of the characters, which is always fun and makes me wonder how I would react if I was drawn into this kind of situation. I’m not easy to surprise with twists, but the twists and turns definitely had me on the edge of my seat and I was not sure how it would end.
Rebel Belle Series and Prince Charming
I started by reading Prince Charming, which has been on my list of royal fiction for a while. I thought it was a very charming and modern royal-adjacent love story and the drama was low stakes and silly. After reading this (and still having a wait for the next book in the series, I looked into Rachel Hawkins other books and found the Rebel Belle series, which I devoured in a week. Three books, about a high-achieving teen girl in Alabama who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up with powers that force her to protect the boy that has always been her academic rival from crazy outside sources.The female characters are smart and independent plus female friendship plays a HUGE role in the plot and their lives.
Okay, this book gave me major nightmares? I love a good vampire story and that the book was set in Charleston where I went to college, but this was definitely darker and more graphically violent than I expected. There was one scene with rats that I am still trying to shake off and also some very good ol’ boy attitudes that made me rage out.
I was late to the game on The Thousandth Floor series after first hearing about it during the Bad On Paper podcast episode about quarantine recommendations, and I finished the trilogy this month. The series is Gossip Girl in a future where New York City has been mostly replaced by a super sky scraper that contains different neighborhoods, Central Park, brownstones that have been moved, luxury hotels, etc. The main character is the teen girl living on the very top floor (1,000) and the first book starts with someone falling off the roof, then backtracks to show how they all got there and who it was that fell. Each book then starts with a different death. Such a fun YA series with a very inventive premise that gives a story about privileged youth a new angle.
Meghan and Harry: The Real Story
My one non-fiction pick this month came out in the UK and other countries in June, but in the US we just got it at the end of July. I haven’t finished it yet, but have found it interesting to see so much information about Harry and Meghan aggregated together. Lady C’s writing is very flowery and you can clearly hear her proper upper class British accent in her writing. It’s a lot of psychoanalyzing for someone who is not a qualified psychiatrist to be doing, and not many huge revelations yet, but if you want more information on either of them, it’s a great place to start. It’s also refreshing to see her holding Harry accountable and not just using the book to criticize Meghan.