published: 2019
read/heard: 4/3-4/2020
book: 28 in 2020
I was smart.SYNOPSIS
I just had a thick layer of stupid that had settled on top of me.
But I was still wild when I needed to be.
Lillian and Madison were unlikely roommates and yet inseparable friends at their elite boarding school. But then Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly in the wake of a scandal and they’ve barely spoken since. Until now, when Lillian gets a letter from Madison pleading for her help.
Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth.
Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her—urgently and fiercely. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for?
THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
really liked this read.
I hope to reread it sometime in the future (but less be honest, I probs won't).
Its more than just kids catching fire.
LONG VERSION
what a weird concept.
kids that catch on fire!
this book was another reason I got BOTM finally.
Idk why I didnt just buy it on the side since it had already been out....but anyway....
You meet Lillian and she's, I wouldnt say given up on on life but more so, she knows how it is, so she doesnt ready exert too much when the return isnt going to be worth it.
Shes friends with Madison. Well, that's a long stretch. They were friends in school and now they just keep in touch via letters that are always sent/received at the same time. So when this one arrives out of schedule, it surprises Lil but the idea of getting away from home appeals to her so shes okay with it.
she arrives not knowing what she's needed for but then learns that Mads wants her to take care of her husbands kids and the one catch is that they spontaneously catch 🔥.
She has no kid training whatsoever, but she takes the job.
...and then the story ensues and its heart warming and funny and honest and it takes a turn that I wasnt expecting.
I was thinking "well, a story about kids who catch on fire has to be comedy-ish. Right?"
And it is but it's so much more.
For a small book it packs a punch.
With this job, we learn past truths about their friendship, about who gives and and who takes more and why and we get Lil discovering what her life in this moment is all about.
....and the ending.
it's pretty obvs you have to suspend disbelief with this story (because kids cant really catch on fire! ....right? Lol.) The story couldve kept the whole theme of make believe (I'm not wording this correctly) and made the ending some sort of fairytale solution kinda deal for everything that happened but instead Wilson makes it relatable to real life, I would say.
Sometimes shit hits the fan. Sometimes you get what you didnt even know you wanted but just because you did doesnt mean that you're 100% sure it's what you wanted or what you're ready for.
this book was dope.
(Bahaha)
...and while everyone was great, my fave character has got to be Mary. she was the fucking best. 😂
give that woman her own side story!
I'm really glad I read this.
I'm glad I spent a BOTM credit on this.
I'm glad I own this book.
Have you read this?
Did ya like it?
thx for reading!
jump over for spoilers
#bookslesreads on IG
published: 2020
pages: 328heard: 3/30 to 4/1/2020
book: 27 in 2020
I can feel everything and survive.
SYNOPSIS
its hella long. read here.
its hella long. read here.
THOUGHTS
tbh, i'd never heard of Glennon Doyle or what she does or what she's about. but then Elise posted about her book and i kept seeing it everywhere and that cover kept calling to me that i finally got it at Costco while the world was hoarding everything and i was hoping to score toilet paper. (future les: remember that time!?)
while there is so much that i can say about this book the two things that i will say about it are that:
1) this is a B E A U T I F U L book that i am so grateful to have read BUT i completely understand that while i read it, i probably didn't embrace it fully. there are lessons that i learned but there are other lessons that will hit me later on as well and hopefully even better.
1) this is a B E A U T I F U L book that i am so grateful to have read BUT i completely understand that while i read it, i probably didn't embrace it fully. there are lessons that i learned but there are other lessons that will hit me later on as well and hopefully even better.
2) this is the kind of book that will forever teach me something new ever time i re-read it. i hope to pick this up in the future and remember how i felt as i read it and embrace whatever lesson is teaching me in that moment.
i have not read her first book so i cant speak on that but in this one, she talks about the end of her marriage and how in the instant that she saw her now wife she knew. THERE SHE IS.
this book is about love and acceptance and lessons and learning and more than all of that.
while there are a lot of faves, i have to say that one that stuck with me is the one where someone asks her about how to deal with her daughters coming out.
she talks about how when she found her one, she told her family but they were hesitant because, well, life! in the end she learned that her and her wife and their kids were an island and they were happy and that they couldnt allow others to penetrate that. because you can never make everyone happy. if they want to be on the island, they need to abide.
they're at a soccer game or something like that when her mother calls her and tells her that she misses her grandkids and wants to see them but she tells her that until she gets on board with her life, she cannot see her grandkids. she cannot allow the boat to sink to save someone who isnt willing to put in the work to help keep it afloat.
in the end she told the mother something along the lines of "if you have to choose between being a mother or a daugther, choose mother. every damn time. your parents had their turn to build their island. your turn."
UGH!
the feels.
UGH!
the feels.
(chapter: Islands page 189-194)
tbh, at this moment in my life, i do not know if being a mother is something i want to do or even have the heart to do but this one got to me because its true. if i do ever become a mother, i like to think that i will be the type of mother that will be there for her children and that i'll build an island that others have to earn a place on. its about moving forward.
i can go on forever about why this is good and what it taught me and opened me up to.
but ill leave it here.
All of our suffering comes when we try to get our resurrection without allowing ourselves to be crucified first. Pain is not tragic. Pain is magic. Suffering is tragic. Suffering is what happens when we avoid pain and consequently miss our becoming....
at the time i read this book, i was idle.
at the time of this post, i am living magic. i am becoming.
already learning lessons about how to bloom and how to grow.
beautiful.
if you can get a copy, do so.
(dont take that lightly, that's not something i ever say! and if youve been following me a while, you know that's true)
thanks for reading!
#bookslesreads on IG
pages: 302
heard: 3/27-28/2020
book: 26 in 2020
Dying is easy. It's not dying that's hard.SYNOPSIS
Margaret Jacobsen has a bright future ahead of her: a fiancé she adores, her dream job, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in one tumultuous moment.
In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Margaret must figure out how to move forward on her own terms while facing long-held family secrets, devastating heartbreak, and the idea that love might find her in the last place she would ever expect.
THOUGHTS
I remember hearing Cassie (in things you save in a fire) talk about remembering the girl in the plane and how her story will forever stick with her and for some reason that little tidbit stuck with me.
I just so randomly happened to find out that there's a short story about that girl and Cassie meeting and that this book just happens to be about the girl in the plane; Margaret.
It started out pretty good for me. I had just finished her latest book thanks to an arc from netgalley that I did not end up liking so this one was starting pretty strong for me given what I'd just read and I couldn't get enough of it.
and then.....iduno somewhere along the line it just fell kinda flat.
she has her accident, she's in the hospital, her "fiancé" ends up being a douche bag, his mother and her mother end up being a bag of dicks as well (her mom redeems herself later on).
She meets Ian and sparks fly for both of them but of course it's never that easy.
Shit happens, she's released, some other things that I don't want to spoil happen here and in the end, it all...works out.
and of course it was going to work out because this is what these type of stories always do but Idk, I just feel like it all worked out too neatly? If that makes sense.
while it isn't happy go lucky and sunny for Maggie after the accident, I do feel like it was fast? Or easy....I don't know exactly how to describe it but it was bing, bang, boom and done.
I don't know.
I think for me, it kinda just falls when she's released. I didn't like the way that she was written in that scene in her home. I'm all for owning your shit but it just felt a little...too much.
Aaaaaand then, that scene on the boat.
And with K, you saw it coming right? Cause I did.
There are other side stories in there that add to the story but just overall even with those, eh. It fell flat for me. It was more so added drama just to add to the story.
I did like the epilogue because it ended up being more about everyone instead of just her. There is a bit of heartbreak but its life ya know. But overall, the epilogue I guess ended up working out for me because it just shows how life is i guess.
I did this as an audio read (thanks to scribd) and I've got to say, i don't know how audiobooks work but if you're going to have a Scottish man as the main dude in the story, splurge for a Scottish man to do the man parts because at points home girl was Scottish and at others she was Russian and overall, it wasn't the best.
Also, if you've heard it (or do hear it)....did you notice the change in the woman narrating? The first few chapters you get one voice. Once Maggie lands in the pt thing with Ian and shes listing off some bones, the voice completely changes.
Anyway, yea...Idk, this is the third KC book i read in like a week span but I gotta say they're not some of my faves.
now i'm wondering if i truly did love TYSIAF or if i just glossed over it and didnt think too hard as i was reading it.
anyway, jump over for spoilers.
thanks for reading!
published: 2019
pages: 15
heard: 3/10-11/2020
book: 25 in 2020
pages: 15
heard: 3/10-11/2020
book: 25 in 2020
from Katherine Center, New York Times bestselling author of How to Walk Away, comes a short story The Girl in the Plane, featuring Cassie Hanwell, the courageous female firefighter at the heart of Things You Save in a Fire.
THOUGHTS
this was a quick listen to about.....the girl in the plane.
in things you save in a fire, i forgot what happens but Cassie mentions that a story about a girl being stuck in a plane that will forever stick with her when she's facing accidents or something like that.
so in this story, we meet Margaret.
she has a huge fear of flying but of course the dude she is dating is a getting his license to become a pilot and on this day, without a license or permission or anything he takes her on a flight.
she's fucking terrified and in her guts she knows she shouldn't be going but of course she ignores it because she always does as he says.
they take off.
the reason for the trip is that he wants to show her where this other dude proposed to his gf on the beach using rocks spelling it out on the sand and well, he was going to use the same rocks to propose to her too. but they were up too high so they couldn't see them. he proposes to her anyway and everything is fine but once they head back it goes bad.
the reason for the trip is that he wants to show her where this other dude proposed to his gf on the beach using rocks spelling it out on the sand and well, he was going to use the same rocks to propose to her too. but they were up too high so they couldn't see them. he proposes to her anyway and everything is fine but once they head back it goes bad.
and in the end, they end up in an accident.
she's forever changed.
he walks away without a single scratch. (or any repercussions to his fuck up)
at first he's worried about leaving her alone in the plane and then Cassie shows up.
Margret claims to feel just fine and is setting up all these plans with Chip to go have dinner after they check her out but in reality she is way far off worse.
they end up transporting her to a hospital via airlift and of course Chip can go but when she asks him to he says he can't because the medics won't let him.
that's when Cassie knows he won't be around much longer.
in the hospital, Cassie runs into Ian (i don't remember how they know each other)* and she's eager for them to meet. she just feels it.
...and i forgot how it ends LOL
this i thought was a cute little side story.
i liked this story more than her actual story (how to walk away) (that one is coming up next) i can understand wanting to give Margret more space to voice her story but had it just ended here, i would have been fine with that. this did more for me than her own book did. (or tbh, i could've just not read it).
its a super quick listen to so if you have time, i recommend it.
...and obvs no spoilers because i basically spoiled it all up above. (sorry not sorry!)
anyway, thanks for reading!
...and obvs no spoilers because i basically spoiled it all up above. (sorry not sorry!)
anyway, thanks for reading!
kthxbyye!
pages: 320
read: 3/20-26/2020
book: 24 in 2020
SYNOPSIS
Samantha Casey loves everything about her job as an elementary school librarian on the sunny, historic island of Galveston, Texas—the goofy kids, the stately Victorian building, the butterfly garden. But when the school suddenly loses its beloved principal, it turns out his replacement will be none other than Duncan Carpenter—a former, unrequited crush of Sam’s from many years before.
When Duncan shows up as her new boss, though, he’s nothing like the sweet teacher she once swooned over. He’s become stiff, and humorless, and obsessed with school safety. Now, with Duncan determined to destroy everything Sam loves about her school in the name of security—and turn it into nothing short of a prison—Sam has to stand up for everyone she cares about before the school that’s become her home is gone for good.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
its a no from me dawg.
also, the long version might have some spoilers so beware. especially if you want to read this. this doesn't come out until July so beware if you read past thiiiis.
LONG VERSION
I wasnt too crazy about this read.
I understood 100% why Duncan was the way he was given what'd happened to him in his past but he was so damn unlikable that I detested the first 11 chapters. I kept hesitating to go back and pick this up and I believe he's the sole reason why.
And Sam.
I get her hurt too.
100,000%.
She was dealt a very crappy hand early in life and I sympathized with her there. She just wanted love. but when it came to her feelings for Duncan, she was annoying. she has this grand love for him and it's all based on being near him. they didn't even have a speaking relationship, it's just pure infatuation from afar for her*. She feels so deeply for someone whom she's made no effort to involve in her life and instead chose to run away because she couldn't handle the fact that he was living his life. And honestly, it's not just her fault; they're both to blame but ugghhh...
By this point we all know what Center's stories are all about so its not like I'm spoiling anything.
Once I passed chapter 11, I flew through this book but ultimately it fell flat.
So many things were just too unbelievably unbelievable.
Sam really doing that thing at the pier.
This school being built by Max & Babette, whom both are loved by the entire community for it to end up with Max fucking Babette over like that?! Or whatever the fuck happened there.
The end part with Clay. I don't know man but that shit came out of left field. It was never discussed how he even knew to be there or how he even ended up there. Was he just walking around and then BAM! did he just leave on a leisurely walk because his POS dad was never going to come through?
The subject is brought up a bit earlier but it is not justified in any type of way.
actually none of this story is.
this story has a lot of points that are and could be potentially even more serious but they are glossed over to be cute.
this whole story was.
a lot of serious shit happens and its just glossed over. all for the purpose of a feel good, cutsie story and while that usually flies with me just fine, i never over think it but in this case, it just didn't end up working for me.
You know when you're reading an okay-ish book but between one good part and the next theres just a buncha shit you have to sludge through?
That's this story.
It's all filler.
nothing really goes on. and what's serious is just tied up to be cute so it's never really resolved.
anyway, this is out in July so......well, fuck it. jump over for a few spoilers.
i left a lot out anyway...mostly cus i don't remember but also cause im over. it.
thanks for reading!
kthxbyye!
#bookslesreads on IG
published: 2020
pages: 402read/heard: 3/15-20/2020
book: 23 in 2020
I've learned that we grow from walking through it, and a lot of people don't even know they have that option. You either conquer it, or you let it destroy you.
SYNOPSIS
too long, read here
MY THOUGHTS
MY THOUGHTS
i have no idea why i wanted to read this book.
i wasnt a huge Jessica Simpson fan growing up but i did know of her (obvs) and i can recall really liking her on Newlyweds.
i noticed that she kind of left the scene but i never really looked into it and then this year in February, she released this book.
and I've seen it everywhere.
and more importantly, everyone that has read it is raving about it.
and so i'd see it everywhere: at target, online, all over bookstagram and finally at barnes and noble where i caved in and got it.
AND I AM SO GLAD THAT I DID.
i absolutely loved this book.
im in a huge funk so i started reading this but then i went the audio route thanks to Scribd's free 30 day trial....and i gotta say, im so glad that i did.
it was nice to hear and learn about her story as she reads it to you.
i never really delve into any celebrities life so it was interesting to see how she was trying to make it into the Christian music scene and how it went a completely different way.
it was intriguing to read/hear about her marriage to Nick. how it started, how it went and ultimately how it ended.
i didn't know that she was sorta linked to Johnny Knoxville and it was interesting to hear about the whole John Mayer ordeal (cause i'd heard about it in the tabloids but you know, this is more in depth). then there was Tony Romo and oh man. and i absolutely loved to read about how her and Eric connected and how they are still a beautiful loving family.
i do think all of that was intriguing but perhaps my favorite part has to be the way that she takes you on a journey into the person that she has become and everything that she went through to get there.
she is a completely open book (tada! lol)
i loved hearing this in her voice because she takes you through the motions as well.
when the story was happy, she was happy but when she is talking about painful moments you can hear it in her voice.
such an amazing job all around.
overall, i'm really glad that i read this book.
so, so good.
there were a lot of gems in this one buuuuut i'll leave you with my absolute fave:
the look i was going for was sexy but saved. come hither but leave room for the lord.
lolololololololol!!!
no spoilers cause what is there to spoil? but also, read it!
if ya end up reading it, let me know what you think!
kthxbyye!
#bookslesreads on IG
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