Introducting the Happy For Now Newsletter!

When I get time between book projects, I have a tendency to blow things up and rebuild them, metaphorically speaking of course. This time, it’s my newsletter. I’ve switched platforms, renamed it, and have come up with a new format with content that I hope you’ll love. :)

If you are already a subscriber of my newsletter, there’s nothing you need to do except make sure you approve the new email address so it doesn’t get knocked into spam. (You should’ve gotten a newsletter this morning, so if you didn’t, check that spam folder.)

If you’d like to become a new subscriber, which you totally should, here are the fun things you can expect. (Plus, you’ll get a free downloadable reading journal!)

·       Book recommendations - I’m a voracious reader and read widely across genres, so there’s nothing I love more than sharing great books with other readers. (And I don't accept sponsored content, so the book recs are genuine book love.)

·       Romantic Movie Marathon reviews - A new feature where I’ll be watching romantic movies from across the decades and reviewing them.

·       Lists of things that are making me Happy for Now - These lists might include things like a TV show, a cookbook, a podcast, a productivity tip, an article I read, etc.

·       Annual Book Challenges - Each year I create one or two book challenges for the coming year and share all the details with you in case you want to join in.

·       Roni Loren book news - Cover reveals, new release alerts, and deal alerts.

If you’d like to get a feel for what the newsletter will be like, check out the issue below that went out this morning!

Introducing the RAD Reading Podcast!

Did you know I now have a bookish podcast?

Y’all know I love talking all things reading and giving book (and movie/TV) recommendations. I’ve been doing it on this blog for many years. But a few months ago, I got the urge to do something a little different with that kind of content.

I love a bookish podcast and I listen to a number of them every week, so that got me to thinking, what if I did one of these? There’s nothing I love more than talking about reading or passing along a great book, so why not do it over the virtual airwaves?

I was a little (a lot!) intimidated to learn the how-to’s of podcasting, and I’m definitely still learning, but I decided to take the leap. I teamed up with indie editor Dawn Alexander and we’ve launched RAD Reading, a bookish podcast where the R stands for refresh and the D stands for discover and where we help you do those two things for your reading life.

We have had so much fun this first month of episodes, and we have lots more to come! If you’d like to give us a listen (and we’d love it if you would!), links to the first five episodes are below. You can listen to the episodes on this website, through Apple podcasts, or you can add it to whichever podcast player you prefer.

How to Listen:

• On our website

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Acast  

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading

This month’s episodes:

The Life-Changing Magic of the DNF

Our first episode! Join us as we talk about our vision for the podcast, preview our weekly bookish themes, and then jump into our topic of the week--the life-changing magic of not finishing a book you’re not enjoying. And make sure you stay until the end to get our RAD Reading Book Recommendations of the week!

Feeling All the Fall Feels: Seasonal Book Recs

Fall is here! This week we’re talking about whether or not we’re seasonal readers and how to enhance those autumnal vibes with your reading choices. We’re also bringing you a big stack of book recommendations! Roni’s got a pile of recs from one of her very favorite micro-genres: dark academia & campus novels. And Dawn is bringing the heat with sexy football-themed romances and some fun seasonal rom-coms. Come feel all the Fall feels with us!

Making Your Own Reading Journal (AKA Fun with Office Supplies)

We love upgrading our reading lives, so this week we’re talking about one of our favorite ways to enhance the reading experience--creating our own reading journals! Plus, as always, we’re giving our RAD Reading Recs of the week.

October’s Read/Watch/Listen Recs

This week we’re giving you all of our favorites of the month! Join us as we share the books, audiobooks, TV shows, and movies that have gotten our highest marks.

They All Float: Our Best Halloween Recs

Happy Halloween! This week Roni freaks out Dawn with her scary book and movie picks (and episode title) and Dawn offers recommendations for those who prefer their Halloween on the gentler side. It’s a long one, y’all! We’ve got a pile of recs for you, including suspense, horror, true crime, and paranormal romance. Grab a bag of Halloween candy and join us!

That’s a wrap on our first month! Next month we’ll be tackling things like taming distractions so you can get more reading time and giving our best comfort reads.

Roni's August Recs: Read - Watch - Listen

Well…it’s been a month, y’all. I’ve never been so happy to see September 1.

First, all three of us (me, hubs, and the 13 year old) got symptomatic Covid at the start of the month. (All of us were fully vaccinated.) Hubs had it the worst, ending up with double pneumonia, but none of us had to go to the hospital—though we did make lots of visits to Urgent Care *waves at Beverly*. I’m so glad things didn’t get serious, but getting Covid did wipe out all the exciting things we had planned for August—vacations, a Foo Fighters concert, Brenda Novak coming to visit in person to interview me for her book club, my husband’s band’s first show since Covid started, and kidlet’s first few days of school. But we’re okay and that’s what counts. We’re all doing much better now.

Then this week hit. Many of y’all know I’m originally from Louisiana. Well, most of my family still lives there, and my parents live in Laplace. If you’ve watched the news at all, you’ve probably seen Laplace on all the news stations as they took a direct hit from Hurricane Ida. (My husband’s hometown of Houma was also directly hit.) My parents still live in Laplace and thankfully evacuated, but their house is in one of those neighborhoods they keep showing on TV with all the flooding and roof damage. They can’t get back yet to assess. So, August has been a rough go.

However, while convalescing from Covid and taking care of the fam, I did get some time to read, watch, and listen to things. That’s the beauty of stories, right? We can escape into them for a little while when reality is stressful. So I’m here to tell you my favorites of the month.

Read

In My Dreams, I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

About the book:

Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.

Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to her southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby's murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she'd been closest to since freshman year.

But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather's murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years' worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.

Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won't be able to put down.

My thoughts:

This was my favorite read of the month. Y’all know that I’m a huge fan of campus novels—particularly ones with a dark edge—so this hit that sweet spot. (Want more campus novel recs? Check out this list.)

This novel was everything I wanted it to be. Even though I’m prone to like a campus novel, I'm pretty picky about mysteries. I need them to be at least somewhat character-driven and not plot only. This one had both. It's not an easy thing to have a cast of seven important characters and make them all feel distinct. I didn't have to flip back once to see--wait, which character is this again? And I loved the dual timelines of their years in college and then ten years later at homecoming. It kept me turning the pages and trying to figure out who the killer was. I didn't guess. There were lots of red herrings that worked.

If you need your characters lovable, then this might not be for you. These characters were all flawed, but the author did a good job of showing why they were the way they were and that made them (most of them) sympathetic. (And as someone who was salutatorian twice--both in middle school and high school--I resonated with Jessica's salutatorian "always second place" frustration, lol.) Also, there's a tiny bit of a love story mixed in, which did my romance writer heart good.

I don't give out 5 star ratings easily, but this one was an easy one to rate. :) My one caveat is if the opening chapters (before the flashback to the past starts) don’t capture you, keep reading. I wasn’t sure when I first started reading if it was going to be for me, but once I hit those flashback chapters, I was in.

Disclosure: I was provided an ARC by Sourcebooks for an honest review and Sourcebooks is my publisher.

Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach

About the book:

Jenny Rosenstrach, and her husband, Andy, regularly, some might say pathologically, cook dinner for their family every night. Even when they work long days. Even when their kids' schedules pull them in eighteen different directions. They are not superhuman. They are not from another planet.

With simple strategies and common sense, Jenny figured out how to break down dinner—the food, the timing, the anxiety, from prep to cleanup—so that her family could enjoy good food, time to unwind, and simply be together.

Using the same straight-up, inspiring voice that readers of her award-winning blog, Dinner: A Love Story, have come to count on, Jenny never judges and never preaches. Every meal she dishes up is a real meal, one that has been cooked and eaten and enjoyed at least a half dozen times by someone in Jenny's house. With inspiration and game plans for any home cook at any level, Dinner: A Love Story is as much for the novice who doesn't know where to start as it is for the gourmand who doesn't know how to start over when she finds herself feeding an intractable toddler or for the person who never thought about home-cooked meals until he or she became a parent. This book is, in fact, for anyone interested in learning how to make a meal to be shared with someone they love, and about how so many good, happy things happen when we do.

My thoughts:

I picked this one up on a complete whim. It’s on Hoopla, so if your library has that, you can grab it there. Food memoirs are comfort reads for me, so when I was recovering from Covid (and had lost all smell and most of my taste, so couldn’t enjoy anything but kale salads and fruit), reading about this author’s dinner evolution somehow helped.

This is an easy read and technically listed as a cookbook, but I felt like this was much more memoir than cookbook. I loved reading about the author’s journey through making dinner from her early years when she was first married and then through motherhood. A lot of it mirrored my own journey, and it felt nostalgic to read about those days when she was first married and learning to cook.

I came into my marriage knowing how to cook three things—red beans & rice (like a good New Orleans girl), beef roast in a crock pot, and French bread pizza. Now, I own literally hundreds of cookbooks and consider myself a pretty savvy and adventurous cook. And I can look at my cookbook collection and see my own evolution from newlywed, to new mom, to mom of a foodie teen. I didn’t have the picky eater issue Rosentrach talked about when her kids were little, but everything else in the book felt like I’d been there too.

So, if you’re looking for an easy comfort read about food, this one might hit the spot. Plus, there are lots of recipes if you’re looking for that.

Watch

Modern Family (Hulu)

I know I am sooooo late to the boat on this one. When this premiered, my kiddo wasn’t even two yet. I didn’t have much time to watch grownup TV—or you know, brush my hair—so this one flew by me. I’d heard great things and had put it on my “one day” list, but when I was looking for a new show for my whole family to watch together, I decided to see if this one would be a good fit.

I’ve discovered that it is VERY hard to find a show that will entertain both me and the hubs AND also the 13-year old AND be age-appropriate for a young teen. Things are either too silly/kiddie or they jump to full out dirty humor. Not as much falls into the space in between. * puts on my Gen X back-in-my-day hat for a second * Back when I was growing up, sitcoms (and movies) were really good at innuendo that would entertain parents but went over kids heads and still had humor that kids could enjoy too. Those are so much harder to find now. * takes off hat * So I’m so thrilled to have found this one.

Yes, Modern Family has some sexual references, but they handle it in a way that I don’t feel awkward watching it with my 13 year old and he doesn’t feel awkward watching with us. And the show is SO FUNNY. We all regularly belly laugh to the point of losing our breath (which was a bit of a problem when we were still wheezy from Covid!) and it’s just straight up fun to watch. I don’t laugh aloud all that easily, but this one gets me on a regular basis. And it’s just a joy to hear both my husband and kiddo laughing just as hard. Family fun for all.

I’m already sad that we will one day get to the end and we’re only in the second season.

This is Pop (Netflix)

We are a music-loving family over here, so when I saw the description for this show, we decided to try it out. Each episode is a standalone documentary about a particular thing in pop music. For instance, there’s an episode about Boyz II Men, an episode about the rise of autotune, one on how Sweden played a huge role in pop music, another on the Brill Building.

The whole thing was fascinating and I learned so much. For instance, I now can’t NOT hear when a singer is autotuned—and realize that it’s kind of ruined pop music in a lot of ways. I also now can’t stop noticing nonsense lyrics from 90s/00s pop songs—lyrics I’ve sang over and over and never thought, “what does that even mean?” I want it that way. What way? What it do you want? The Backstreet Boys don’t even know. Lol.

The fam enjoyed the episodes too. You can hop around and don’t have to watch them in order if one topic interest you more than another. If you like music, I highly recommend checking these out—but be prepared to have the curtain peeled back on a few things.

Listen

Open Book by Jessica Simpson

About the book:

Jessica reveals for the first time her inner monologue and most intimate struggles. Guided by the journals she's kept since age 15, and brimming with her unique humor and down-to-earth humanity, Open Book is as inspiring as it is entertaining.

This was supposed to be a very different book. Five years ago, Jessica Simpson was approached to write a motivational guide to living your best life. She walked away from the offer, and nobody understood why. The truth is that she didn’t want to lie. 

Jessica couldn’t be authentic with her listeners if she wasn’t fully honest with herself first. 

Now, America’s Sweetheart, preacher’s daughter, pop phenomenon, reality TV pioneer, and the billion-dollar fashion mogul invites listeners on a remarkable journey, examining a life that blessed her with the compassion to help others but also burdened her with an almost crippling need to please. Open Book is Jessica Simpson using her voice, heart, soul, and humor to share things she’s never shared before.

First celebrated for her voice, she became one of the most talked-about women in the world, whether for music and fashion, her relationship struggles, or as a walking blonde joke. But now, instead of being talked about, Jessica is doing the talking. Her audiobook shares the wisdom and inspirations she’s learned and shows the real woman behind all the pop-culture clichés - "chicken or fish", "Daisy Duke", "football jinx", "mom jeans", "sexual napalm..." and more. Open Book is an opportunity to laugh and cry with a close friend, one that will inspire you to live your best, most authentic life, now that she is finally living hers.

My thoughts:

If y’all haven’t caught on to the pattern yet, I love a celebrity memoir audiobook narrated by the celebrity. This one took me a little longer to get through than Busy Phillips’ memoir that I read (and loved) in July. I think maybe because this one had less humor and tackled a number of heavy topics (TW: sexual abuse, alcoholism.) However, it was a good listen and I really did feel like she was being very open and vulnerable.

My favorite parts were when she was describing the years of trying out for the Mickey Mouse Club at the same time as Britney, Justin, Ryan Gosling, and Christina, and how not being part of that group kind of followed her (being the outsider.) I also enjoyed hearing the behind the scenes stuff about her and Nick Lachey’s reality show Newlyweds—which I most definitely watched every episode of when it was on, lol. (We’re close in age so I was only two years into my marriage when the show was on.)

She talks a lot about her faith and growing up with a pastor father. She gives dirt on people—looking at you, John Mayer. And unlike a lot of memoirs that feel very “I’ve been through these things and now I’m on the other side and have all this distance and perspective”, I feel like she’s still living through a lot of things. So, she has perspective on some but is still working through others.

And I had no idea that she was billionaire—yes, with a B—mogul because of her fashion company. Go on, Jessica.

Overall, a worthwhile listen but beware the heavy parts. Not one to listen to while your kids are in the car.

Alright, that’s it for this month’s round-up! What have you read/watched/listened to this month that was great?

Roni's July Recs: Read - Watch - Listen

How is it August already? This summer has had this weird feeling of being both slow and fast. Gretchen Rubin says, “The days are long but the years are short.” I think that holds true for this summer. The days feel long, but the months have been fast.

But slow, fast, or in between, July was a great reading (and listening) month! So, I thought I’d pass along some of my faves to you today.

Read

As I mentioned in last month’s Read/Watch/Listen post, my summer reading has leaned more dark than frothy, but this month I do have a few more light options mixed in as well. :) Let’s get started!

The Roommate by Rosie Danan

About the book:

House Rules:
Do your own dishes
Knock before entering the bathroom
Never look up your roommate online

The Wheatons are infamous among the east coast elite for their lack of impulse control, except for their daughter Clara. She’s the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move cross-country, the offer is too tempting to resist. Unfortunately, it’s also too good to be true.

After a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with a charming stranger. Josh might be a bit too perceptive—not to mention handsome—for comfort, but there’s a good chance he and Clara could have survived sharing a summer sublet if she hadn’t looked him up on the Internet...

Once she learns how Josh has made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the Wheaton’s most scandalous story yet. His professional prowess inspires her to take tackling the stigma against female desire into her own hands. They may not agree on much, but Josh and Clara both believe women deserve better sex. What they decide to do about it will change both of their lives, and if they’re lucky, they’ll help everyone else get lucky too.

My thoughts:

So this one was a pure delight. As a reader, I’m very tough on romances these days. It’s hard for me to turn off my writer brain, and I find myself analyzing things instead of just getting lost in a story. That was not the case here. I was able to fall into this fun story and simply enjoy the ride. The premise was frothy, light-hearted, and sex-positive. And don’t be fooled by the cartoonish cover. This one is steamy in content—if not in frequency. If you’re looking for a page-turning, sexy rom com, grab this one!

***

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

About the book:

Jodi Picoult, bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper and Small Great Things pens her most riveting book yet, with a startling and poignant story about the devastating aftermath of a small-town tragedy.

Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens--until the day its complacency is shattered by a school shooting. Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened before her very own eyes--or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show--destroying the closest of friendships and families. Nineteen Minutes asks what it means to be different in our society, who has the right to judge someone else, and whether anyone is ever really who they seem to be.

My thoughts:

Confession: I’d never read Jodi Picoult before. I think early on when she first became a big thing, people warned me that her books were tragic and sad. Back then, I didn’t read sad books ever. My reading tastes have evolved, though, and after hearing a recommendation for this one (from the podcast I mention below), I decided to give it a try.

As many of you know, I wrote a romance series with a school shooting as the main backstory (The Ones Who Got Away) so books about school shootings are a particular interest of mine. This one was so well done and was my favorite read of the month. It was heartbreaking and emotional with well-drawn characters that made me ache for everyone involved—including the perpetrator(s) [don’t want to spoil anything]. I also liked the courtroom aspects.

Don’t expect a happy read, but expect one that will stick with you.

***

I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott

About the book:

A charmingly relatable and wise memoir-in-essays by acclaimed writer and bookseller Mary Laura Philpott, “the modern day reincarnation of…Nora Ephron, Erma Bombeck, Jean Kerr, and Laurie Colwin—all rolled into one” (The Washington Post), about what happened after she checked off all the boxes on a successful life’s to-do list and realized she might need to reinvent the list—and herself.

Mary Laura Philpott thought she’d cracked the code: Always be right, and you’ll always be happy.

But once she’d completed her life’s to-do list (job, spouse, house, babies—check!), she found that instead of feeling content and successful, she felt anxious. Lost. Stuck in a daily grind of overflowing calendars, grueling small talk, and sprawling traffic. She’d done everything “right” but still felt all wrong. What’s the worse failure, she wondered: smiling and staying the course, or blowing it all up and running away? And are those the only options?

Taking on the conflicting pressures of modern adulthood, Philpott provides a “frank and funny look at what happens when, in the midst of a tidy life, there occur impossible-to-ignore tugs toward creativity, meaning, and the possibility of something more” (Southern Living). She offers up her own stories to show that identity crises don’t happen just once or only at midlife and reassures us that small, recurring personal re-inventions are both normal and necessary. Most of all, in this “warm embrace of a life lived imperfectly” (Esquire), Philpott shows that when you stop feeling satisfied with your life, you don’t have to burn it all down. You can call upon your many selves to figure out who you are, who you’re not, and where you belong. Who among us isn’t trying to do that?

My thoughts:

I love a good essay collection/memoir, and this one had me nodding along for much of it. If you lean toward the overachiever side of things, you’ll find a lot to relate to here. I found myself highlighting many different passages in my Kindle version, and as soon as I finished, I ordered a print copy to keep on my shelf. I can’t think of a better endorsement than that!

***

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

About the book:

Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.

2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.

My thoughts:

If you think the premise of Nineteen Minutes is dark, My Dark Vanessa says, “Hold my beer.” This book is not for everyone, y’all. And I will say that I was supremely uncomfortable reading a lot of it. All the trigger warnings, okay? The way that the teacher manipulates the young woman in the book is just so hard to read and witness. You can see the strings he’s pulling, but Vanessa is too young and vulnerable to see them. This book is a tragedy. I’m glad I read it but wouldn’t want to read it again. I think it’s a case study for anyone who ever thinks that a “relationship” between a grown adult and an under-aged girl is consensual. It’s not. And this is what it looks like when someone manipulates a child into thinking it was their idea. Dark dark dark. And sad. You’ve been warned.

Watch

In June, I was on a search for a new teen show to binge. In July, I found it—and a few other things!

Gossip Girl

The original Gossip Girl came out when I had just had a baby, so I missed the boat completely. I was spending those years watching Barney and Toy Story 3 on repeat. However, I’m glad that I now have a big pile of gloriously glittery seasons of Gossip Girl to binge.

I had to sign 750 books this month for the Brenda Novak book boxes. (Yay!) But signing all of those took about 8 hours over two days. Who kept me company during all that signing and packing of book boxes? Dan and Serena, Blair and Bass, Nate and Vanessa. I’m only in season 3 but I have enjoyed the over the top plots, the glitzy Upper East Side, and all the switching of relationships.

My happy TV place is soapy teen shows, and this totally fits the bill. Also, it’s fun to see Penn Badgley play someone who is NOT a serial killer like he does on YOU (though I do love his rendition of Joe.)

***

Fear Street 1994 - Part 1

If you are of a certain age like I am, the words Fear Street conjure up images of rows of teen horror paperbacks lined up in the back of Waldenbooks or B. Dalton at the mall. I was a big fan of the Fear Street books and Point Horror and all those fun teen horror novels with scary titles like The Wrong Number and The Stepsister.

I’m hoping horror is making a comeback in fiction. I know it’s still out there, but it used to be one of THE genres in the 80s and 90s. So, I was excited to see that Netflix was doing a trilogy of movies inspired by the Fear Street books. I’ve only watched the first one, set in 1994, and I thought it was a fun and campy homage to the kind of horror in those books. And if you watch closely, you’ll notice that they gave nods to a number of premises from the books in the movie. Like starting the opening in Shadyside Mall. Fun times. :)

***

Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

I didn’t read the book that this movie is based on, but when I read a review that said the movie is better than the book, I decided to give it a try. I’m really glad I did.

The premise is about a mom who used to be a famous, promising genius architect but then stepped away from that when she had a child. Now her child is a teen and Bernadette is getting overwhelmed by the mundanity of her life—annoying school moms, a house that will never finish being remodeled, etc. When things get to a breaking point, she makes a rash decision.

This movie is over the top and requires a good dose of suspension of disbelief, but I had a fun time watching it. And honestly, if you’ve ever been that mom who just can’t deal with one more thing, the thought of a temporary escape does hold a lot of appeal lol.

***

The Olympics

I would’ve watched more things this month but…the Olympics. Every time, I’m like, meh, maybe I’ll skip watching this time. Then I start and I’m instantly hooked and find myself watching weird sports I didn’t even know existed. Artistic swimming, anyone?

Listen

I have been doing A LOT of driving of the kiddo around to various camps and appointments and band rehearsals and ALL THE THINGS. I feel like school starting will actually feel like a break. But the good news is that with all that driving comes a lot of listening time!

This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Phillips

About the book:

A collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the beloved comedic actress known for her roles on Freaks and Geeks, Dawson’s Creek, and Cougartown who has become “[T]he breakout star on Instagram stories.... [I]magine I Love Lucy mixed with a modern lifestyle guru” (The New Yorker). 

Busy Philipps’ autobiographical audiobook offers the same unfiltered and candid storytelling that her Instagram followers have come to know and love, from growing up in Scottsdale, Arizona, and her painful and painfully funny teen years to her life as a working actress, mother, and famous best friend. 

Busy is the rare entertainer whose impressive arsenal of talents as an actress is equally matched by her storytelling ability, sense of humor, and sharp observations about life, love, and motherhood. Her conversational writing reminds us what we love about her on screens large and small. From film to television to Instagram, Busy delightfully showcases her wry humor and her willingness to bare it all. 

“I’ve been waiting my whole life to write this book. I’m just so grateful someone asked. Otherwise, what was the point of any of it?”

My thoughts:

This was recommeded on a few different bookish podcasts I listen to, and it was something I don’t think I ever would’ve sought out, but when I heard it existed, I realized—hey, I like Busy Phillips in everything I’ve ever watched her in and I’ve watched a lot of her stuff!

I’m so glad I gave this one a shot. Definitely go audiobook here so that you can get Busy’s narration. I loved her honesty, her humor, and her complete lack of filter. She’s that friend who’s always a little too much but you love that about them. I liked that the essays weren’t an attempt at blatant humor. Some were funny, some were poignant (and you can hear the tears in her voice), all felt real. And she’s not afraid to name names, so that’s always fun.

If you want something to get you through your commute, Busy will keep you good company!

***

Sarah’s Bookshelves Live podcast

I love a good bookish podcast, but it’s rare for me to find one with a host whose reading tastes align so closely to mine—at least in some categories. Sarah doesn’t read a lot of romance, so if you’re looking for that, this isn’t the podcast for you. But if you’d like recommendations on character-driven contemporary fiction, thrillers, literary fiction, non-fiction, and dark books, she’s got a lot of great episodes.

I’ve binged the entire list of episodes and have joined her Patreon to get more. So I’m definitely a fan! (A number of the books above were recommended on her podcast. Listening has caused me to spend a lot of book-buying money this month, lol.)

Alright, that’s it for this month! What have you read/watched/listened to lately that you loved?

NEWS: What If You & Me is out today!

It’s here! It’s here!

I’m so excited to share Andi and Hill’s book with y’all. This heroine is near and dear to my heart because I’ve wanted to write a horror-movie-loving heroine for a long time. I’ve always loved horror movies/books and have been fascinated by true crime—and didn’t understand why, since I’m an anxious person. But once I dug into the research and found out that many people who struggle with anxiety, particularly women, find comfort in horror and true crime stories (for a number of layered reasons), I knew I had to write a story about that kind of woman. Andi is the result of that.

And her hero, Hill, is one of my favorite kinds of heroes. Tough and gruff on the outside but hiding lots of his own wounds—and secretly a gooey cinnamon roll on the inside. Plus, he cooks!

I hope you enjoy spending time with Andi and Hill as much as I did! (Well, when they were cooperating and not being difficult characters who didn’t do what this writer wanted them to do. :) )

Grab your copy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | iBooks | Book Depository | Books-A-Million

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Here’s the official summary and scroll down for an excerpt:

About the book:

New York Times and USA Today bestseller Roni Loren blends heat and heart in this emotionally charged story of:

• A frightened woman longing to break free

• A wounded man searching for his purpose

• An unexpected friendship turned sizzling hot connection

• And an emotional climax that'll have them both learning to let go

The world can be a scary place. At least, that's what Andi Lockley's anxiety wants her to believe. It doesn't help that she narrowly escaped a dangerous man years ago, or that every relationship since has been colored with that lingering fear. But things are better now—she's channeling everything into her career as a horror novelist and true crime podcaster, and her next book may be the breakthrough she needs.

If only her grumpy new neighbor would stop stomping around at all hours of the night.

Former firefighter Hill Dawson can't sleep. After losing part of his leg in a rescue gone wrong, he's now stuck in limbo. He needs to figure out what he's supposed to do with his life, and he can't let himself get distracted by the pretty redhead next door. But when someone breaks into Andi's place, Hill can't stop himself from rushing in to play the hero. Soon, a tentative bond forms between the unlikely pair. But what starts out as a neighborly exchange quickly turns into the chance for so much more...if Andi can learn to put aside her fear and trust in herself—and love—again.

Excerpt:

Andi startled, a yelp escaping her, and nearly knocked over her tea. The loud sound repeated, and it took a second for her to realize it was coming from the door she’d just checked. Boom! Boom! Boom!

The afghan was clutched tight in her fist, and the movie still blasted, screams filling the living room. Her heartbeat thumped in her ears, and she stared at the door like it was going to splinter and the movie’s Ghostface was going to walk right in and disembowel her with his knife.

Andi’s logical brain registered this probably wasn’t the case, but that part was a distant whisper at the moment. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t turn off the TV. She was frozen in place.

The thunderous knocking started again. “Fire department. Open up!”

The words fire department penetrated her fear fog. Fire. Fire? That didn’t make any sense. Why the hell would the fire department be banging on her door in the middle of the night? Maybe something had happened in the neighborhood. Or maybe they had the wrong house.

Thinking it through helped a little. Finally, she was able to unfurl her fingers from the afghan and grab the remote to hit Pause. The silence that followed was almost as unsettling as the banging. The pounding on the door started again with an added threat to break down the door if no one responded. That got her moving. She hurried to her feet, headed to the door, and peered through the peephole. All she could see was a T-shirt clad shoulder as the man apparently leaned over to try to see through her front window.

A T-shirt, not a firefighter’s uniform. She cleared her throat and called out, “How do I know you’re a firefighter?”

Whoever it was stepped back and pointed to an NOFD insignia on his T-shirt, just visible in the peephole’s view. “Hill Dawson,” the man called out. “Your neighbor. Everything okay in there?”

Her neighbor? She reached for the pepper spray she kept in the drawer of her small entryway table, turned the latch on the lock, and opened the door, ready to spray if needed. Underneath the porch light, the outline of a man came into view. A very tall, broad-shouldered man. The werewolf. Complete with dark messy hair, a trimmed beard, and a scowl. He was equal parts gorgeous and intimidating—not unlike a real wolf—and her body tensed as though it couldn’t decide whether she should run like hell or rush forward and volunteer to play villager.

His brown eyes met hers, his searching look sending hot awareness through her, but then his gaze scanned downward. Only then did she remember she was standing there braless in a thin tank top and a pair of Wonder Woman pajama pants with a very formidable stranger on her doorstep. That snapped her out of her ridiculous staring. Who cared that he was attractive? He could still be there to hurt her. She crossed her arms over her chest and tipped up her chin, trying to look tough. “What’s going on?”

“So, you’re okay?” he asked, brows knit, his voice a deep rumble. His gaze flicked to the pink canister of mace still clutched in her fist. “I heard screaming. A lot of it.”

“Screaming?” She frowned.

He shifted, and her attention jumped to his right hand, the one hanging loosely at his side. The one holding a baseball bat. She stiffened, her mouth going dry and her mind racing past suspicion and into worst-case-scenario territory. What if he wasn’t a firefighter? What if he wasn’t her neighbor? What if he was there to rob/rape/murder/dismember her and wear her head as a hat?

She uncrossed her arms, her finger poised on the trigger of the pepper spray. She was suddenly much less concerned about her lack of bra and much more concerned that she’d be caught off guard and attacked.

The man frowned, his gaze tracking her weapon before looking at her again. “There was yelling and screaming. I could hear it through the wall. I thought you were in trouble.”

She narrowed her eyes. “How do I know you’re really a firefighter? Anybody could get a T-shirt.”

He tried to peek past her into the house and then lowered his voice. “Ma’am, if you’re in trouble, if there’s someone in there you’re scared of, just step outside and I can help.”

“Someone inside?” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m alone. It was a movie.”

Her brain screamed at her as the words slipped out. I’m alone?

Have you learned nothing? Don’t tell the stranger you’re alone in the house! She should fire herself from her own podcast.

“I mean,” she went on. “I’m not in trouble. The screaming was a movie. I was watching a horror movie.”

The stiff hold of his shoulders relaxed, and his gaze met hers again, disbelief there. “A movie? It sounded like you were getting murdered over here.”

“Just Drew Barrymore. Not me.” She shifted on her feet. “Maybe I had it a little too loud.”

He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat, and she realized her imagination hadn’t been far off earlier. This guy could be cast in a movie as lead werewolf. Scruffy and muscular in his navy-blue T-shirt and gray sweats. He was one full moon away from howling and ripping off that well-fitting shirt.

“A little too loud?” he asked, repeating her words. “It’s midnight. The screams were damn near vibrating my walls.”

That made her spine straighten and a flash of indignation rush through her. “Yes, it is midnight. And someone thought blaring songs about tractors was appropriate at this hour. I had to turn up my TV to drown you out.” She nodded at his weapon. “Do you make it a habit to scare the shit out of new neighbors by brandishing a baseball bat on their doorstep?”

He glanced down at his bat as if just remembering he had it, like it was a normal extension of his arm. He leaned over and set it against a planter out of her reach, then lifted a brow her way. “Says the lady with the pink pepper spray.”

“Hey, you’re at my door, man. I didn’t bang on yours.” She wasn’t going to put down her weapon. No, thank you.

He sighed, a long-suffering sound, and rubbed his forehead. “Okay, so you’re not getting murdered or the hell beat out of you.”

“I am not.”

“That’s good.” He nodded, almost to himself, and ran a hand over the back of his head.

“Agreed. I consider it a good day if I haven’t been murdered.”

He stared at her for a moment as if at a loss for what to say to that, and she was momentarily struck by how well his beard suited his tense jawline, by how long his eyelashes were, how his brown eyes

“I’m sorry if I scared you,” he said finally. “But maybe not so loud on the movies. I’m trained to respond to screams.”

Somehow the words trained to respond to screams sounded dirty to her ear, and heat bloomed in her cheeks. God. What was with her tonight? She cleared her throat. “Right. And maybe not so loud with the tractor music?”

His mouth hitched up at one corner, a lazy tilt of a smile. “I played no songs about tractors. There was no farm equipment referenced at all.”

She crossed her arms again and gave him a knowing look. “What about mommas, trains, trucks, prison, or gettin’ drunk?”

A low chuckle escaped him, and he coughed, as if trying to cover it. “Touché. No promises there.”

***

Grab your copy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | iBooks | Book Depository | Books-A-Million

Add to Goodreads