These are the books that I chose for the my Book of the Month for August. I just love Book of the Month! You get new hardback book releases for cheap. The first book you choose is $14.99 plus tax and each book (up to 2 more) is $9.99 each. Here is the link if you want to give it a try: Debbie’s Book of the Month Referral.
The Heart Principle By: Helen Hoang
This is an early release, and I am glad this was included in Book of the Month because it is the third book in Hoang’s series. I love this series because it of the disability representation in them. Here is the synopsis:
When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.
That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex—he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she has just started to understand herself. However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves.
The Maidens By: Alex Michaelides
This book was a June 2021 pick. I have decided to give Michaelides another chance, though I thought his first book, The Silent Patient, was just okay. I always try to give two chances to new authors before I stop reading them all together. Hopefully this book keeps me interested in his work. Here is the synopsis:
Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.
Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?
When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.
A Gentleman in Moscow By: Amor Towles
This is another back-list book. It was available in March of 2019, but first published in 2016. I have seen this book around and heard some not-so-great things about it, but l want to read this and form my own opinion about it. It sounds good, so we will see. Here is the synopsis:
With his breakout debut novel, Rules of Civility, Amor Towles established himself as a master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction, bringing late 1930s Manhattan to life with splendid atmosphere and a flawless command of style. Readers and critics were enchanted; as NPR commented, “Towles writes with grace and verve about the mores and manners of a society on the cusp of radical change.”
A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.
Do you agree with the choices I made? Have you read any of them? If so, what did you think? If you want to buddy read any of them, let me know.
Until next time keep reading.
Debbie's Reading Corner 