The Sunday Post [47]

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly at the Caffeinated Reviewer! It's an opportunity to share news, post a recap for the previous week, showcase books, and highlight what's planned for the week ahead.

News:

If your child is done with school for the year, I envy you. We still have three more weeks. Apparently, the school year starts later in Virginia? We started in Texas, so it feels like this year is never going to end. The coronavirus and homeschooling haven't helped. It's starting to feel like summer, so it would be nice if we could act like it's summer too! We actually inflated the swimming pool the other day, and the monsters spent HOURS outside. They loved it! Thankfully, Jacob was home, so he stayed out there with them while I got some stuff done inside. 

Our caterpillars have pupated (formed into chrysalides)! We're going to move them to their habitat today, so they'll have room when they emerge as butterflies! It's such an amazing process. Squirming, wriggling caterpillars are transforming themselves into beautiful butterflies with wings! Can you imagine crawling around for the first half of your life, only to fly endlessly for the duration? Our son has been learning about life cycles at school, so it's been nice to have something he can see firsthand. 

I miss having my husband home during the week, but we're slowly developing a new routine. Everything is starting to reopen around here (even the beaches), so I have a feeling things will get worse before they get better. When I get groceries, very few people are actually wearing masks (definitely not staying six feet apart) and only a handful of employees working at the store have one on. They're handling everyone's groceries, yet not taking all of the necessary precautions. IT'S SO FRUSTRATING. When did life start to mean so little? If you're not worried about yourself, at least help keep other people safe. Children have started contracting the virus with devastating results, and I don't want my children to die because someone else feels like this pandemic is a hoax, or that wearing a mask would be a waste of their time. It hurts NO ONE for you to wear a mask, but has the potential to help EVERYONE else.

Previous week on the blog: 

• Sunday: NA
• Monday: Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab (★★★★☆) Review
• Tuesday: NA
• Wednesday: My Weekly Pull [116] & Can't-Wait Wednesday [91] Post
• Thursday: NA
• Friday: NA
• Saturday: Don't Read the Comments by Eric Smith (★★★★☆) Review

What I'm currently reading:

Love Songs & Other Lies by Jessica Pennington 🎧

Changeling (The Oddmire, #1) by William Ritter

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

• I started the audiobook for Love Songs & Other Lies, and I'm really enjoying it so far! I'm only an hour or so into it, but I have a feeling it's going to be full of drama. It's one that has been on my TBR for a while, so I'm happy I'm finally finding the time for it.
• I started the first book in The Oddmire series with my son last night, so I haven't read enough to form an opinion yet. I hope it's good, since our last book (Spark and the League of Ursus) wasn't a hit.
• I am enjoying The Jane Austen Society way more than I thought I would! I've never been the biggest Austen fan (the terminology and phrasing typically go over my head), but this book is making me want to read Austen so I can share the love these characters so clearly have for her stories.
• The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea is a book I won several weeks ago, but that only arrived recently. I opened it immediately to read a few pages, and it's DARK. I cannot wait to see where the story goes!

What I plan on reading next: 

Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner

Out Now: Queer We Go Again! by Saundra Mitchell & Various

The Court of Miracles (A Court of Miracles, #1) by Kester Grant

What I'm watching:

Avatar: The Last Airbender is on Netflix! Obviously, that's what we've watched all weekend! ;)

Challenge updates: 

• Read the Alphabet Challenge 12
• Audiobook Challenge 12 / 50+
• Beat the Backlist Challenge 23 / 110
• Discussion Challenge 2 / 1-10
• Goodreads Challenge 180 / 365

Current giveaways:

Don't forget to enter my Twitter Giveaway for an ARC of Mary Kay Andrews' Hello, Summer! It might not have been the beachy romance I was expecting, but the murder mystery was wonderfully written. :) You can read my review here!

Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews

Synopsis (via Goodreads): New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Beach Reads Mary Kay Andrews delivers her next blockbuster, Hello Summer.

It’s a new season...

Conley Hawkins left her family’s small town newspaper, The Silver Bay Beacon, in the rearview mirror years ago. Now a star reporter for a big-city paper, Conley is exactly where she wants to be and is about to take a fancy new position in Washington, D.C. Or so she thinks.

For small town scandals…

When the new job goes up in smoke, Conley finds herself right back where she started, working for her sister, who is trying to keep The Silver Bay Beacon afloat—and she doesn’t exactly have warm feelings for Conley. Soon she is given the unenviable task of overseeing the local gossip column, “Hello, Summer.”

And big-time secrets.

Then Conley witnesses an accident that ends in the death of a local congressman—a beloved war hero with a shady past. The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it gets. As an old heartbreaker causes trouble and a new flame ignites, it soon looks like their sleepy beach town is the most scandalous hotspot of the summer.

𑁋𑁋𑁋

I received a complimentary review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

I went into this one thinking ROMANCE and SUMMER FUN, but ended up with a big, fat MURDER MYSTERY. The synopsis says Andrews is Queen of the Beach Reads, but suspenseful books are not what I want to read while I'm lounging on the beach. I want romance! I want hot, fiery passion! I want something light and funny! I do not want deer guts, entitled white men, and a main character that only cares about herself. 

Additionally, Conley doesn't witness an accident, she stumbles across one after it happens (a very significant detail). She also doesn't have an "old heartbreaker" causing trouble (if anything, she was the one that broke someone's heart), and the "new flame" is an untended ember in a bonfire. Skelly (hated his nickname, but liked the guy) was a childhood friend and old neighbor, so he and Conley had a past. He was interested in getting to know who she was now, but Conley was too focused on what she wanted to stop and consider someone else's feelings. She frequently told Sean Kelly (Skelly? Get it?), her G'mama, and her sister, Grayson, that she was only there temporarily. She could clearly see how her being around had positively impacted their lives, yet she wouldn't even entertain the idea of staying.

The book was too long, and I disliked how many different articles and bulletins I had to read. Most of the information was meaningless (like what people were wearing at an event), and I wish all of that had been condensed so only relevant information was shared. I didn't need to read an entire news article that the characters were going to discuss at length over the next few pages. Conley also used people when she was working on a story, by asking them for favors, or betraying their confidence. She simply cared about the rush of writing on a deadline. That's shitty, selfish behavior.

Also, I was on page 60 when the POV changed without warning, which was incredibly frustrating. Suddenly, we're following a strange man around instead of Conley. We know who he is on the simplest of levels, so nothing of consequence. He seems like a nice guy, but alludes to something dark and life-altering in his past. I honestly had no idea why his input was necessary for the story, and think it could have been reworked to make everything less confusing and more mysterious. His observations made certain things transparent, instead of them being alluded to over time. I understand what the author was trying to accomplish, but maybe save all his thoughts for the end? Like, they find his journal or something instead?

However, with that being said, I did enjoy the overall story that Andrews crafted within the lengthy 558 pages of Hello, Summer (yes, it's a beast). This was my first Mary Kay Andrews book, and it will likely be my last. It has nothing to do with the book itself (which really did have an exciting murder mystery), and everything to do with the fact that these aren't the types of stories I typically go for. I want more kissing and fun dialogue, and less murder and manipulation. I was surprised numerous times throughout Hello, Summer, and felt like Conley really had to work for the information she received. It felt believable, although her personality left a lot to be desired.

The secondary characters were complex and interesting, each of them contributing to the story in their own way (oftentimes obnoxiously (looking at you, Rowena)), and the plot kept me invested in their lives. If you enjoy a good murder mystery, or like piecing together clues and trying to determine the outcome before the main character, then Hello, Summer might be a book for you! The story itself was well-written, even if the synopsis was a bit misleading. (★★★☆☆)