September 2020 Book Recs

I love reading in the Fall. The idea of cuddling up on the couch with a good book and soft blanket sounds heavenly! This last September was typical for the mid-Atlantic. We started the month in Summer and ended in Fall.

Here are quick reviews of the four books I read last month.

Last month I mentioned my new-found love for the Bromance Book Club series. This month I read Lyssa Kay Adams’ second book in her series called Undercover Bromance. This book follows the same male book club but this time focuses on a different member. Braden Mack is a Nashville nightclub owner who can dish out the romance advice to others but has a hard time finding lasting love in his own. It’s another light, fun read with several reappearing characters from the previous novel. I can’t wait for the third book to come out later this year!

Rebecca Serle’s In Five Years was a five star read for me about Dannie Kohan, an ambitious Type-A lawyer who lives in New York City. Dannie has her life all planned out (I can relate!) but gets thrown for a loop when she falls asleep one night and seems to travel five years into the future where she has a totally different life with a new apartment and new man in her life. She seems to forget this dream until four and a half years later when her best friend starts dating the man from Dannie’s dream. I thoroughly enjoyed this non-traditional love story.

I was so excited when my library reservation for Hamilton: The Revolution became available earlier than expected. I reserved the audiobook version because it had a shorter hold AND I wanted to hear Lin-Manuel Miranda read sections of the book. Overall, I loved hearing about how the story came together and details about the various collaborators and actors involved. This book is was written by Lin as well as Jeremy McCarter. Lin narrated the footnotes that he personally wrote. My only complaint is that the footnotes are read at the end of the book reading, so you lose the context for the comments. Many times this didn’t matter, but I may need to borrow the paper copy of the book so I can catch all of his notes.

The Absence of Mercy by John Burley is a thriller about Dr. Ben Stevenson, the small town coroner who is responsible for examining the bodies gruesomely murdered by a killer. I had a hard time getting through this book. The story was told in the eyes of too many (all male!) characters that I sometimes got them confused or couldn’t keep them straight. And, without spoilers, I think the book missed an opportunity to explore the perspective of Ben’s wife, dealing with a possible serial killer so nearby and threatening her family. The book also seemed to just end and felt unfinished. I’ve liked other novels by John Burley, so I would try another, but this one certainly wasn’t my favorite.

Please let me know if you’ve read anything particularly good lately that I should pick up.