It's been a minute since I've done a books update. It's also incredibly hard for me to cope with the fact that summer is pretty much over. I'm not ready to say goodbye to warm pool days. While this summer I didn't get to spend many luxurious days lounging by the pool or at the beach with a book, I did still read a few good things over the last few months -- including a handful of five star books. 

So without further ado, here's what I read over the summer.

Five Stars

Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Five stars largely in part because I thought this was a lovely send off for the characters from Nantucket that I've grown to love over the last many summers. All of my favorites were back to celebrate the police chief's retirement, but of course, one last case lands in his lap before his retirement date at the end of the summer. I will miss Elin's books every summer.

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though this memoir is more than 10 years old, it still feels like an important story given all the conversations today around immigration. This is the story of Reyna Grande, who as a child is separated from first her father and then her mother as they came to the United States looking for a better life than what they had in Mexico. Her mother eventually returns to Mexico, and Reyna makes the trip across the border with her father when she's 9 years old. Separated from one of her parents, she grows up in the U.S. with the other. The book is equally really heartbreaking and hopeful. It's not an easy read, but it's a good one.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was just a lovely book to read. My favorite character was an aging octopus that had found ways to escape his enclosure. He was fun and charming, and I wish he had more chapters in the book. The humans in the book were just the right amount of flawed and broken for them to be endearing and lovable without tipping into completely annoying, though at least one of the characters had his moments.

Four Stars

Swimming with Ghosts by Michelle Brafman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was another one I was introduced to at the Gaithersburg Book Festival. A book set in the DMV at a summer swim club sounded right up my alley. It's a good family drama with trouble brewing at the pool when the club needs to find a new coach when the old one quits a week before the first meeting of the season. This book features and lovable and detestable cast of characters, the derecho that rocked this region in 2012 and the mess that overly involved swim parents bring.

Funny Story by Emily Henry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emily Henry tells great stories and this book wasn't any different. This is the funny story of how two people meet after both of their other relationships go belly up. Charming and fun and a great summer read.

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Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Sally Hepworth's books. They're twisty mysteries. This one was kind of dark, focusing on three girls who grew up in an abusive foster home. When years later, the home is demolished, a dead body turns up underneath it. The police start to investigate and the girls worry they are suspects.

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love a good enemies to relationship story line, and this book delivered on that front. Helen and Grant went to high school together, ended up on different sides of a tragedy and haven't seen or spoken since. And then they are thrown together on the set of a TV show where Grant is the screenwriter adapting Helen's book. Tore threw this quickly because it was a good read.

Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don’t Want to Forget to Remember by Lauren Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to this as an audiobook and there is something so nostalgic for me about Lauren Graham's voice. I wish there had been more stories from Gilmore Girls in this book, but I appreciated the few references and the handful of references to Parenthood too. Lauren Graham makes me laugh and listening to this book was really enjoyable.

Long Lost by Linda Castillo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not usually much of a short story person, but this was a nice break from longer books during a bit of a reading slump. Plus it was fun to see one of my favorite detectives solve a mystery in just an afternoon.

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read this book in almost one sitting at the pool on my birthday. Just a fun story about a travel nurse who’s never able to settle down, who meets a guy who maybe makes her want to do just that. Highly recommend for an enjoyable read

Three Stars

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book expecting a different kind of story. This book starts with a group of dedicated lap swimmers and what happens to them when the pool has to close because a crack appears. I expected the book to follow more of the characters, but it really zooms in on one. The book ended up being heavier than I expected from the blurb. Not bad, just very, very different than I anticipated.

The Unwedding by Ally Condie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book started a little slow for me, but it did pick up fairly quickly. Our recently divorced leading lady ends up trapped at a luxury resort by herself when a landslide blocks off access to the road. Members of the wedding party there are slowly dying one by one, and people are frightened that they will be next. The remaining guests scramble to find the killer and to safely leave the resort.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I feel like everyone raved about this as the summer's hottest mystery. And the storyline was good, but it was long and there were a lot of players and sometimes I had a very hard time keeping track of who was who. But I am a sucker for a book set at a bougie summer sleep away camp because so many things and go wrong and in this book that's absolutely what happens. The story takes place across multiple timelines (probably also why I was getting confused), and looks into the disappearance of two children from the same family nearly 10 years apart. It was good and I enjoyed the story, but I also got lost a lot because there was so much going on in some many different years.

This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Had a hard time giving this book a rating. I related so much to the main character wanting to find her happy place and finding peace and tranquility near the water. I was also down for a good love story, but there were other story lines here that drove me nuts, like the whole best friend running away before her wedding. It was a fast summer read.