Sharing a roundup of the books I’ve read lately and if they’re worth adding to your collection.
Hi friends! How are you? I hope you had an amazing weekend!
Today, I wanted to share the books I read lately and share my ratings with you. I haven’t made reading as much of a priority lately – admitedly, I’ve been doomscrolling a lot – but there have been some real winners in the mix.
Here’s what I’ve read lately:
Books from lately
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
Kristin Harmel is one of my all-time favorite historical fiction authors and her latest book did not disappoint. I devourved it on the flight home from Orlando and couldn’t read it fast enough. This is the story of Colette Marceau, a woman in her 90s who has spent her entire life as a jewel thief. It alternates between the early 2000s and WW2, and as the events of her childhood unravel, we learn more about her family, why and how she started stealing jewels, the details involving her sister’s disappearance, and a very special bracelet.
Historical fiction is one of the genres that immediately captures my attention and holds it for the entire book. These stories are always heartbreaking, but I was talking with a friend about it and she agreed that they’re beautiful stories of resilience and they always seem to have exquisite writing and rich character development. 5/5 – highly recommend this one
From Amazon:
Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.
But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.
Seventy years later, Colette – who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations – has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.
I’m a huge fan of Frederik Bakman, but he definitely has a particular style. I feel like you can feel the characters and their personalities, but in this case, the main characters are a bit of a chaotic mess, so this book also felt chaotic. It was a slow burn, and took me forever to finish it, but the ending was excellent. 3.5/5
From Amazon:
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
This was another one that I flew through and couldn’t wait to see what happens.
The man Beth loves is being tried for murder, but at the beginning of the book, we have no idea which man this is, or the events surrounding the trial. It flashes between past and future, and is a total pageturner. I also did NOT see the ending coming and it was extremely satisfying. It totally lives up to the hype. 5/5
From Amazon:
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.
A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.
I still have my Book of the Month membership, but haven’t used it in quite a while. The selection hasn’t felt very exciting, but I keep adding books to my TBR list that I come across on Instagram.
On my nightstand right now:
So tell me friends: what are you reading right now? Any historical fiction that you loved recently? My heart is already preparing for The Nightingale premiere next year.
xo
Gina
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