Wednesday, April 10, 2019

What I've Read Wednesday


I had a very slow reading time in February/beginning of March.  Like when I was pregnant the first time, I literally cannot read in that first trimester brain funk from about 6 weeks to 13 weeks.  I just couldn’t.  I did manage to finish a couple things, but then the last week of March when I started to feel better I rattled off 3 books on our break!

Today, I am sharing the books I read this past week.

Pawley’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank is the 5th book in the Lowcountry Tales series.  This is a series that you most definitely do not need to read in order.  They sometimes have characters that show up in other books but you could read literally any in this series as a standalone.  I picked this up from fill a bag day at our local library many moons ago.  I am working on clearing off some shelf space as we make room for another human in our house!

Pawley’s Island is the story of Rebecca Simms and her very messy divorce, Huey Valentine and his generous nature, and Huey’s best-friend Abigail who retreated to the island after heartbreak.  These three mesh and bring about a nice quick story about friendship, moving on, and helping each other out. 
I like these books because they are quick reads that delve into characters and have a lot of South Carolina low country thrown into them.

Shem Creek by Dorothea Benton Frank is the 4th book in the Lowcountry Tales series.  Which I totally read after the 5th.  I only noticed one character that was in this book that made a brief cameo in the 5th book as a buyer of art.  But I read these books so far apart normally that I wouldn’t even notice when other characters pop in!

Shem Creek tells the story of Linda Breland and her escape from New Jersey to her childhood home of South Carolina.  She needs to leave New Jersey because she is worried about her youngest daughter and sick and tired of only meeting men who forget to mention they are married!  This book covers her career transition and how she and her daughters adjust to their move.  I read it in one day.  Super quick.

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs is the second book in her Friday Night Knitting Club series.  I honestly read the first book over 10 years ago and you could totally read this book as a standalone too.  They make enough references to things that happened in the first book that it worked.  Because I literally couldn’t remember anything besides that I loved the first book! If I was a person with oodles of time, I’d re-read the first and then read this, but clearing the shelves is the main goal right now!

The book joins up with the characters 5ish/6 years since the last book.  It catches you up with their lives and how they are changing and growing and if they are all the same people who met together and perhaps touches on if they have out grown each other.  This was a sweet tale, with international travel and good character growth. 

All of the books I read this week were super quick, totally would be great beach reads and had great characters.  Which, if we delved into the week before was all murder and mystery.  I keep it changing!

I just started Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen and I’m about 10 pages in.

What did you read this week?

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