Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A modern rewrite of Pride and Prejudice, Good Fortune takes place in New York City and centers on Elizabeth Chen. Elizabeth lives with her Chinese immigrant parents and her four sisters in a small apartment, helping her parents with their restaurant while trying to find a satisfying career. Elizabeth’s mother Jade also works and a real estate agent, and ends up selling the beloved community center to atypical New York City buyers, Brendan Lee and Darcy Wong. Elizabeth worries that these buyers will destroy everything she loves about the community service and is determined to fight for her neighborhood, even if it means going head to head with the arrogant and condescending Darcy. Eager for her daughters to get ahead in the world, Jade keeps the investors close and Elizabeth is begrudgingly forced to spend more time with Darcy. Elizabeth forms her own prejudice towards Darcy, which she is forced to confront when betrayal and secrets are revealed.

Firstly, thank you so much to @netgalley and @harperviabooks / @harpercollins for the advance copy! This book was EVERYTHING. Adaptations of popular favorites can be so tricky, but Chau’s work was impeccably executed. It managed to keep all of the things I love about Pride and Prejudice—the witty writing and banter, the well developed characters, the complex relationships—while also providing an entirely new perspective. I definitely think retelling the story through the Chinese-American experience made the original Pride and Prejudice’s themes of family dynamics and class issues even more poignant. The storyline closely followed that of the original, and had excellent pacing and sharp dialogue. The tension between Darcy and Elizabeth was perfect. Lovers of Pride and Prejudice should RUN to get this book when it releases on July 11!

Viola Davis’s memoir starts with tales from her childhood, growing up in Central Falls in poverty, enduring severe racism and abuse, and learning to cope with the trauma that she suffered. Viola Davis tells stories from her life and how she was eventually able to embrace all of the things mainstream media and society told her were wrong about her. She shares her struggles and vulnerabilities, and how she was ultimately able to arrive at peace, understanding, and the achievement of her dreams.

This was an incredibly powerful and poignant memoir. Viola Davis is an incredibly strong woman who has endured many horrific things throughout her life. She comes across as humble and pragmatic, despite all of her success and the trauma she endured. I especially loved the chapter where she discussed meeting her husband; it was so beautiful and I’m so glad she was able to find a loving, caring, and supportive partner. And I love that she read the audiobook!

Nora Hamilton writes romance movie screenplays for a living, so she has the recipe for the perfect love story down pat. But when her husband tells her that he wants a divorce, her writing takes a different tone and her script gets picked up to be a major motion picture that will be shot at her home. Enter Leo Vance, a charming yet directionless movie star who is cast as her ex-husband. When the film wraps and the crew leaves, Nora goes to watch the sunrise on her porch—where she finds Leo passed out with an empty bottle of tequila. Leo convinces Nora to let her stay in her guesthouse for a week to clear his head, and as the couple grows closer and Leo comes to know Nora’s two kids, Leo decides to extend his stay and invades more of Nora’s space than she anticipated. As the film rises to fame and Leo gets cast in an other major movie, will the two be able to make their relationship work?

This books was so cute! I devoured it in one sitting. The pace was great and it had a lot of humor. I especially enjoyed how Leo became so involved with Nora’s kids, it was so heartwarming to see their relationships with him after their dad left them and Leo really stepped up. This was such an adorable rom-com with all the warm and cozy vibes. Definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a lighthearted read!

Set in New York and partially in China over three decades, Paper Names tells the story of what it means to be American through three different individuals. Tony moved with his wife and three year old daughter from China to the United States, sacrificing everything for a better future for his family. His daughter Tammy, who we are introduced to when she is nine and follow through adulthood, struggles with the expectations of her Chinese parents and her own personal desires. Oliver, a handsome white lawyer, has a dark family secret, and lives in the building where Tony works as a doorman. When one of the building’s residents is attacked, Tony steps in and becomes a hero, and the lives of Tony, Oliver, and Tammy become intertwined forever.

Trying to make it through my @bookofthemonth backlog! Lou’s debut novel is a powerful story of family, parents’ expectations, and the ripple effect that decisions cause over time. The characters have so much complexity and nuance to them, and it was easy to connect with each of them despite their shortcomings. The book switched between different time periods, but the story still felt very linear. Focusing on both Tony as the parent and Tammy as the child also gave a lot of depth and different points of view to the immigrant experience. This was a great family drama that I highly recommend!

Astronaut Mark Watney is screwed. After a severe dust storm forces his crew to evacuate, Mark is left behind on Mars, his crew thinking he is dead. Mark finds himself stranded and has no way to let anyone on Earth know that he’s still alive. And even if he did, he would run out of food and supplies before anyone would be able to get him. With a background in botany and engineering, Mark is forced to get creative and inventive to be able to survive. Once NASA discovers that Mark is still alive, it become a race against the clock to save Mark before Mars kills him.

A celebration of science, ingenuity, a man’s will to survive, and humankind’s instinct to help one another, The Martian was an entertaining book with a roller coaster of a plot. I really enjoyed the writing style and Mark’s character; he had a good sense of humor about everything and kept a positive attitude while figuring out creative ways to survive. There was a little too much math/science talk for me, but then again I’ve never been much of a math or science person. I’ve read Project Hail Mary by the same author and really enjoyed that one, and to me The Martian lacked a little bit of the complexity that PHM had. The audiobook performance was great and overall I enjoyed this!

The lake cottage in Maine is Harriet’s happy place, a place where she and her four best friends Sabrina, Cleo, Kimmy, Parth, and her fiancé Wyn escape for a week of fun every year. When Sabrina’s dad decides to sell the cottage, the group takes one last trip. The only problem? Harriet and Wyn broke up months ago, and haven’t told the rest of their friends. When Sabrina and Parth announce that they plan to get married on their last day at the lake house with all of their closest friends surrounding them, Harriet and Wyn decide they can’t burst the group’s happiness and tell them that they broke up. But after years of being in love, Harriet and Wyn find it harder to fake than they expected, and they are forced to confront the reasons their relationship ended.

This book broke my heart and then put it back together, but in the best way. It’s been a while since a book made me cry like this one did. I loved it so much. Emily Henry has such an uncanny ability of capturing the nuances of emotions and what it means to love, and that come across so intelligently in her writing. She also writes about growing up so well—moving away from your friends, figuring out who you are in adulthood, experiencing burnout, enduring the loss of loved ones. All of it was spot on and so poignant. I also really loved the friendships, especially between Harriet, Sabrina, and Cleo. Emily Henry can do no wrong and I can’t wait for her next book!

Sarah Morgan is a powerful and successful criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C. The same cannot be said for her husband Adam, a struggling writer who has had little success in his career and lives in the shadow of his wife’s success. In the couple’s lake house in the woods an hour outside of D.C., Adam engages in an affair with a local woman, Kelly Summers. When Kelly is found brutally stabbed to death in Sarah and Adam’s bed in the lake house, Adam becomes the prime suspect, and Sarah decides to be his attorney. As twists and secrets are revealed, will Sarah be able to prove her husband’s innocence before it’s too late?

Review of this book are really polarized, and I can see why! I had to really suspend my disbelief to enjoy this book for what it was—there is no way a criminal defense attorney would be able to represent her husband in his trial for the murder of his mistress, and there were a lot of other legal system inaccuracies that I had to choose to ignore or I wouldn’t have finished the book. Once I got past that, the plot and the twists kept me interested. I was able to guess most of the major twists or at least the gist of them. The writing wasn’t anything groundbreaking but I was entertained. The characters were all terrible people and it was hard to cheer for any of them, but I think that was kind of the point.

Meredith Fox and her large family have been vacationing at her grandparents’ farm on Martha’s Vineyard for as long as she can remember. This summer, however, will be Meredith’s first time back since her sister died. The entire family will be gathering for her cousin Sarah’s wedding, and Meredith is feeling overwhelmed—especially since her boyfriend and date to the wedding just dumped her. Missing her sister more than ever, Meredith dives head first into the family’s traditional game of Assassin. Determined to win in her sister’s honor, Meredith forms a secret alliance with Wit, the groom’s stepbrother, which many not only cost her the game, but also her heart.

This book was a great summer read, with its setting in Martha’s Vineyard that was so well described I felt like I was there. More than just a cute summer romance, this book really had a lot of depth exploring the family’s grief and how to honor the loss of their loved one as their lives continued. I loved the big family—coming from a really small family it’s always fun to read books with huge families with close relationships. And the game of assassin was so fun, I love how that was incorporated into the story. It brought back memories of playing that game as a teenager. There were also a lot of Taylor Swift references!

This novel is told through the points of view of two different women. Olivia, a beekeeper, moved back to her sleepy hometown in New Hampshire with her son Asher several years ago, escaping the violence of her husband. Lily relocates to New Hampshire with her mom for her final year of high school, ready for a fresh start. Their paths cross when Asher falls for Lily and the two start dating. Everything seems to be going well—until Olivia receives a phone call that Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned for her murder. As secrets are revealed, Olivia realizes her son has hidden many things from her, and she begins to question his innocence.

This book was really moving. In classic Jodi Picoult fashion, there is a contentious trial and a major plot twist revealed about half way through. I’m not one to give spoilers but the twist was super unexpected. I loved the different points of view that both authors provided, and everything flowed so perfectly despite there being multiple voices involved. The authors’ notes at the end also provided a great insight to how the book was written and what both authors brought to the story. I also loved that Jennifer Finney Boylan had a dream that she and Jodi Picoult wrote a book together—and her dream came true! The audiobook performance was also great.