Summer time and the book hauls make the living easy…

With the way these heat waves are going, those “dog days “of summer are sounding as old school as rotary phones. 

Fortunately, reading is one trend that always stays in style and a great excuse to stay in the shade. I stocked up at my local library just before the worst of the warm weather and have already finished one of my trio of library loans over the July 4th weekend (more on that one later)!

That leaves me with two other great books to cool down such as Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura. Archeologist Corrie Mejia is given the chance of a lifetime as a mysterious figure recruits her for an expedition to recover an ancient knife said to belong to legendary Aztec warrior Chimalli, who she believes is her ancestor.

With such personal stakes, Corrie is eager to make this trip despite having to work with an old rival, Ford Matthews. Ford is hoping to find the knife and collect the reward promised by their mutual benefactor in order to help his ailing mother, making this team up strictly professional yet as they face various challenges along the way, love is the one treasure that is hard to avoid on this journey.

I’ve heard great word of mouth about this book and happy to see the action-adventure romcom genre being revived in such a fresh and engaging way. Should be the best kind of book bound blockbuster movie fun:

Speaking of movie fun, there seem to plenty of gothic thrills to be found in my next pick, Sarah Penner’s The London Seance Society.

The group of the title is a male dominated organization but in need of assistance in solving a murder mystery in their midst and the most qualified person to do that is renowned medium Valudine D’Allaire, along with her assistant Lenna.

Lenna is more of a skeptic yet joins D’Allaire to discover what happened to her sister Evie, who died under mysterious circumstances on All Hallows Eve. As the strange death at the Seance Society also occurred on the same date, there may be a connection between both unusual demises but are the culprits in or out of this world?

I’ve been curious about Penner’s work for awhile and I do have The Lost Apothecary on hand(saving that one for the fall season). However, something about this book intrigues me to take a seat and see what the literary spirits have in store here:

Not long after my library visit, Book of the Month Club released their July selections and one of them was an instant must-have for me.

Meg Shaffer follows up her magical novel The Wishing Game with a new standalone book entitled The Lost Story. 

When Emilie seeks out well know finder of  the lost Jeremy Cox, to recover her long lost sister Shannon, she has no idea how treacherous that trail is or who she will ultimately deal with.

Turns out Jeremy knows full where Shannon is as he and his former best friend Rafe met her years ago when they became lost in the woods as teenagers. The three of them wound in a magic kingdom called Shanadoah, where Shannon stayed behind as Queen Skya.

Going back there is not easy, as Jeremy and Rafe have been estranged from each other since those days and need to reunite in order to return. While Emilie is determined to find her sister, she isn’t sure what to expect and neither are the companions leading her there certain of what lies ahead for her or them.

I truly enjoyed The Wishing Game with its Willy Wonka inspired energy and now that Shaffer is giving a Chronicles of Narnia type of tale, my favorite fantasy themed cup runneth over indeed!:

My add-on that was The Love of my Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood, which is already a Good Morning America book club selection to boot!

Our story begins as our leading lady’s life ends; Delphie finds herself in an afterlife waiting room due to an unfortunate hamburger incident and while there, meets Jonah, who never expected to have an untimely demise either.

As the two of them have the ultimate meet cute, it turns out that Jonah’s arrival was a mistake that is quickly corrected. Nevertheless, Delphie is certain that they are true soulmates and makes a deal to return to Earth to find him. However, she only has ten days to do so or back to the beyond she goes.

With such a literal deadline, Delphie takes chances that she never would have before and perhaps this last chance at love is making her life truly worth living. 

This plot description just sounded so great and as I am a big fan of supernatural themed shows such as Ghosts and The Good Place, this seemed to be the ideal summer read for me:

So, I do hope that all of you are keeping as cool as can be with some great books this summer and taking a break from the overheated media(although reruns of favorite shows are fun) as well.

Oh, and the library book that made my holiday weekend extra entertaining? That happened to be Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. While I did love Daisy Jones and the Six, it’s been tricky for me to finish another one of TJR’s books since then.

That streak was thankfully broken by this novel featuring the comeback of a controversial tennis star, known as “The Battle Axe” determined to reclaim her record breaking title from a promising up and comer. 

The emotional journey that Carrie goes on is as gripping as any sports event being played live (and I am so not a sports person!) and just as exhilarating when the end result approaches. Such a great read and one that I am glad to have started my summer with; hopefully the best is yet to come: