Of the four books I chose to review this month there were some clear winners for me. I’m going on a girls’ weekend trip soon during which I hope to get a lot more pleasure reading in but I’ll probably just end up chatting the whole time (I don’t get many uninterrupted adult conversations). I hope you find a book to add to your summer reading list from the recommendations below.

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Station Eleven

Not my typical read, but I liked Station Eleven a lot. It might hit a little too close to home as it’s about the aftermath of a global pandemic. I have not seen the HBO series but I would highly recommend reading this book.

A global pandemic wipes out 90% of the population within days. The people remaining live entirely different lives than they used to as civilization collapses. Roads are clogged with abandoned vehicles, gas goes bad after a couple of years, there’s no electricity, and there is no way to communicate with other survivors except in person. The country is now set up as small communities.

The story jumps between characters as well as from the time before the pandemic and in the years that follow. It focuses mostly on a well-known actor and his ex-wives plus a girl he was once in a play with. The girl is now a woman who travels from community to community putting on Shakespeare plays. Even though there is a lot of jumping around the story is easy to follow.

There is a bit of suspense in the book. I enjoyed how all the characters’ stories eventually intersect with one another.

The Last Story of Mina Lee

The Last Story of Mina Lee is super depressing and there are not enough redeeming moments for me. I would recommend reading Crying in H Mart instead.

A young woman is helping a friend move to LA and is going to stop in and say hello to her mother who she hasn’t seen in a while since she lives in Seattle. The mother is found dead. Police rule her death as an accident but the daughter is having a hard time fully believing this.

She starts learning things about her mother she never knew. The two had a rocky relationship. The reader learns the backstory about how the mom came to the States as well as her first job in the country, falling in love, what went wrong, etc. The daughter meets people from her mother’s past and she starts digging into her mother’s history even more.

You do learn what exactly happened in the end which is satisfying but I would say skip this one.

Wahala

The reason I didn’t like Wahala much is because of the sheer evilness of one of the main characters. Some parts of the book were interesting, especially certain cultural aspects, but how all the stories tie together in the end is so unbelievable it was hard to accept as the reader.

Three adult women are close friends. One is a dentist, dating a man her friends don’t consider good enough for her. Another is in a long-distance relationship with her husband and has a successful career her family doesn’t recognize. The third is a bored and frustrated mom and wife whose boss is attractive. All of the women are half-African but currently living in London.

One of the women starts bringing around a new person, a friend from her childhood. The newbie starts weaseling her way into many different aspects of the women’s lives causing chaos that they don’t realize right away.

The Hotel Nantucket

I love a good Elin Hilderbrand book. I wouldn’t even call The Hotel Nantucket a beach read, I’d call it a summer read. It’s quick and pleasant, there’s some romance but nothing hot and heavy. I enjoyed learning about all the different characters and their relationships.

A historic hotel is reopening after a billionaire from London purchases it sight unseen. He hires a local woman to manage the property and she is doing a fantastic job with the design elements. The owner’s goal is to get an anonymous hotel reviewer to give an elusive 5 keys review that no other hotel has ever gotten.

The manager is coming off of a huge breakup and feels the pressure to make this hotel the best Nantucket has ever seen. She hires a number of staff, each with their own unique story. The hotel itself is haunted by the ghost of a maid who died in a fire many decades ago. The reader learns why the ghost continues to haunt the hotel and what she wants.

Want more book reviews? Take a look at my June Book Reviews and Recommendations!