Orange leaves, the smell of cinnamon & pumpkin, crisp cool mornings, warm lattes… sorry, am I getting ahead of myself here, or is anybody else excited for Fall to begin?!

With just a few weeks left of summer, I’ve decided to pick my top five reads that I’ve read during the sunny, hot days! I hope that you enjoy these reads too to end off your summer reading – I am left STILL thinking about them. Here we go…

5. ALL WE EVER WANTED by Emily Giffin

SUMMARY

Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville’s elite. More recently, her husband made a fortune selling his tech business, and their adored son has been accepted to Princeton. Yet sometimes the middle-class small-town girl in Nina wonders if she’s strayed from the person she once was.

Tom Volpe is a single dad working multiple jobs while struggling to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. His road has been lonely, long, and hard, but he finally starts to relax after Lyla earns a scholarship to Windsor Academy, Nashville’s most prestigious private school.
Amid so much wealth and privilege, Lyla doesn’t always fit in—and her overprotective father doesn’t help—but in most ways, she’s a typical teenage girl, happy and thriving.

Then, one photograph, snapped in a drunken moment at a party, changes everything. As the image spreads like wildfire, the Windsor community is instantly polarized, buzzing with controversy and assigning blame.
At the heart of the lies and scandal, Tom, Nina, and Lyla are forced together—all questioning their closest relationships, asking themselves who they really are, and searching for the courage to live a life of true meaning.

OPINION

I remember opening this book on a hot July morning by the lake, and I completely devoured this in that ONE DAY. I loved it! Now, this is a fairly typical opinion because I am a huge Giffin fan. Once I read her novels Something Borrowed and Something Blue on my two month Morocco trip a few years ago, I had to go find every book Giffin wrote at my public library and read them all in a month. But this one may have to be my second favourite Giffin, right after Something Blue.

My favourite thing about Giffin’s writing is her ability to jump from character to character in each chapter to offer a fresh, and different perspective. This really gives you a chance as a reader to form an opinion about every character, and where you stand on what’s right or wrong. I couldn’t stop reading about the lives of Nina, Tom, and Lyla. Giffin was able to take a complex situation in modern day, and give a thought provoking intake!

I really do wish we were able to read from Finch & Kirk’s perspective. I think it would have added a refreshing take on a scenario that seems to be too common. Nonetheless, the way the situation/dialogue was written had me so captivated – I just wanted to keep reading it!
This is a great summer read by the beach!

4. THE PERFECT MOTHER by Aimee Molloy

SUMMARY

Vanity Fair calls it one of the most anticipated books of the summer. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Scandal’s Kerry Washington.

An addictive psychological thriller about a group of women whose lives become unexpectedly connected when one of their newborns goes missing.

They call themselves the May Mothers—a collection of new moms who gave birth in the same month. Twice a week, with strollers in tow, they get together in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood; sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their new child-centered lives.

When the group’s members agree to meet for drinks at a hip local bar, they have in mind a casual evening of fun, a brief break from their daily routine. But on this sultry Fourth of July night during the hottest summer in Brooklyn’s history, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is abducted from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but the May Mothers insisted that everything would be fine. Now Midas is missing, the police are asking disturbing questions, and Winnie’s very private life has become fodder for a ravenous media.
Though none of the other members in the group are close to the reserved Winnie, three of them will go to increasingly risky lengths to help her find her son. And as the police bungle the investigation and the media begin to scrutinize the mothers in the days that follow, damaging secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are formed and fractured.

OPINION

Ah, my favourite! A domestic thriller twisted with suspense. I loved this novel! It had everything I look for in a domestic thriller: dialogue between unusual, curious characters, a bizarre mystery, & a plot that made a full circle by the end – definitely caught me by surprise.
This was a book that was on my TBR the moment I saw it be announced, and it did not disappoint. This was another novel that I could not put down, and was completely immersed into the lives of the May mothers.

3. THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid

SUMMARY

Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn’s life unfolds through the decades—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn’s story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

OPINION

I know that this book is about a year old, so I am WAY behind! It was sitting on my TBR shelf for quite some time, and I don’t know what came over me to start reading. But I was really happy and thankful that I did! Definitely a different read than my usual mystery/suspense thriller, but it was just.so.GOOD. 

I was in awe! This book was wonderfully crafted, heart wrenching, and at times inspiring. I found Evelyn Hugo to be frustrating, yet endearing in some of the choices she made throughout her life. But… it must be so difficult having to live in the spotlight, with everyone in the world knowing every single thing about you. I couldn’t imagine not having any of my own privacy. I found myself at times having to remember that this is a fictional story – that’s how real and raw the dialogue and characters are! Easily one of my favourite books!

2. THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN by Dot Hutchison

SUMMARY

Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.

In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding…

OPINION

So.. back to the mystery/suspense thrillers… this one may just be one of my favourite books I’ve ever read. I’m still sitting here thinking about it, trying to put my thoughts and feelings about this book into coherent sentences.

It was creepy, eerie, chilling, sad and beautiful. Hutchinson’s writing was unique, and while the story was written based on the victim, Maya’s retelling of her time in the Garden, it was wonderfully crafted. This book had me in chills, and at times tears on public transportation! This book messed me up in a good way. Maya retells the story of her time in the Garden, and she even gives the reader an in depth description of the “Gardner” and what he was like. And honestly, at times, the Gardner was humanized in a way where for a split second you actually feel bad for him. But then, you remember that he kidnaps young girls, tattoos butterfly wings on their back against their free will, and continues to do horrific things to them – all while taking care of them medically, nutritionally, and seeing them as his most prized possessions. I’m mad at myself for waiting this long to read this book, but it was so enjoyable with every page and chapter. I’ll definitely be getting the second and third book in this series!

*** This book does contain sexual violence that may be triggering to some readers.

1. I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK by Michelle McNamara

SUMMARY

A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.

“You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark.”

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” McNamara pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by McNamara’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.

OPINION

It was really difficult choosing this or The Butterfly Garden as my number one.. but it’s been so long since I’ve read a good true crime novel, that this book easily takes the #1 spot.

Riveting, creepy, & a “look over your shoulder” descriptive writing had me captivated in this read. I’m in awe of McNamara’s writing…she is talented no doubt. Her passion for true crime, let alone the strange case of the Golden State Killer bled through her carefully chosen words, and writing. What started out as a true crime blog, has now become a popular, must read book about a real serial killer.

The way she was able to describe the GSK’s crimes and how some of the living victims described what they saw and heard when the GSK entered their homes sends a chill up your spine. “Little eyes, in the dark, watching you…” I can safely say that reading this was most definitely a journey.
At times, I did find myself a bit confused in terms of the quick change in chapters, and the amount of people working on this case. BUT – the fact that this was real, the victims are real, the actions perpetrated by this monster were real, makes the deliverance of this story all the more terrifying. This isn’t just another fictional story about a killer, or a plot surrounding some domestic suspense, this a real story with actual encounters and descriptions from living victims. 

I find McNamara to be so inspiring – and it’s so tragic that she passed away before seeing the horrific GSK actually being caught.. thanks to her amazing work.

———-

So bookies, there it is! My top five must reads of the summer! It was very difficult to choose, and I spent a lot of time thinking about why I chose each one.

Will you be picking any of these up? Let me know 🙂

Until next time bookies,

Sam