I love Netgalley because I’ve discovered some books that I hadn’t ever heard of – or thought I would enjoy. I’ve also had the opportunity to read some popular books before they were published…and that’s pretty fun!! However, I’ve also had a few duds and a few books that I didn’t finish.

Here are some books I’ve read in the past few months via Netgalley:

The Gender Game by Bella Forrest – I finished this book in about 24 hours. It was a fun read and very fast-paced in my mind. It also has a cliffhanger ending leading into book 2 which comes out on November 21, 2016. As it says in the tagline, this book definitely reminds me of the Divergent series, which I enjoyed, and a bit of The Hunger Games. There isn’t as much camaraderie as Divergent has though…and not as much family as The Hunger Games. It’s definitely dystopian YA/new adult so if that isn’t your cup of tea, you probably won’t love this, but the world that Forrest built in this first book was pretty interesting to me. All in all, I definitely liked this book much more than I expected to, and I really enjoyed the characters and setting. I look forward to reading the second one later this fall. It looks like you can get the books on Kindle Unlimited too. This was probably in my top 5 Netgalley books along with Eligible (which I obviously loved!) The cover is cool too:

Leave Me by Gayle Foreman – I haven’t read any of Foreman’s YA novels although I know she has a lot of fans. I have to say that I really did not enjoy this book. The plot seemed a little bit too scattered for me and the subject matter made me feel a bit upset and stressed as a mother of 2 young children (although I can appreciate that the character was going through a tumultuous time and not everyone is the same parent etc. etc). It just didn’t work for me. However, I’m sure others would enjoy it and if you are a fan of her other works (which I might still try someday), you might enjoy this one.

The Wedding Belles series: To Have and To Hold, For Better or Worse, To Love and To Cherish by Lauren Layne

I really enjoyed all three of these books. I think the second one was probably my favourite (main character = HEATHER, ;)) but they were all fun to read. They are not amazing pieces of literature, buy they were fun summer reads. I especially think it would be fun to read these kinds of books (about NYC and wedding planners) while planning a wedding!

To Have and To Hold: 3 Autumn Love Stories by Betsy St. Amant, Katie Ganshert & Becky Wade– I accidentally requested this one thinking it was in the Wedding Belles series above (same title!), but it was a totally different book with three novellas. These were just OK for me. They were a bit short and not well developed enough but passed the time ok. I’m not really a novella person but they were fun to read while commuting and had happy endings. I just didn’t fully feel invested in any of the characters and they felt rushed – but that’s because they are short!

Keep Me Posted by Lisa Beazley – I’m sure you have seen this one talked about before. This book wasn’t too bad, but I found parts of it to be very unbelievable. It did make me want to keep in touch with my sister a bit better (even though I see her at least twice a month and talk to her once a week)…it also made me want to write some letters (but NOT scan them, haha). I could definitely relate to parts of this and all in all, it was fun to read.

The Guinea Stamp and The Georgian Rake by Alice Chetwynd Ley – I’ve read a lot of books in this genre and these ones just weren’t my favourites. There are much better Regency books out there to spend your time on. They still had cute endings, but the writing just wasn’t quite what I am accustomed to and it was hard to get through these.

Open When: Letters to Lift your Spirits– by Karen Salmansohm: this is an adorable book & a quick read (it’s not a novel). I love books like this that are well suited as a gift. I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to send this to someone who needs a little bit of extra cheer in their lives. The imagery and the words were really touching.

So there you have it…have you read anything fun lately via Netgalley?? If you’re a blogger and you haven’t tried Netgalley yet, you definitely should!

Up next for me is The Confectioner’s Tale, A Study in Scarlet Women, The Roanoke Girls, and The Gift of a Lifetime (closer to Christmas time :))

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I also have some thoughts I wanted to share on One True Loves to link up with Brie’s book club. I specifically re-joined Audible to listen to this book, so I’m determined to share some thoughts on it!! This was my first book by Taylor Jenkins Reid and I absolutely 100% loved it. In fact, I loved it so much that I read another of her books, After I Do, almost immediately after One True Loves and LOVED IT TOO. Something about her writing is just absolutely addicting. She writes about really unique situations and makes you wonder “what if??” the entire time you are reading.

In One True Loves, I was completely happy with the ending of the story even though I initially thought I could never be happy because I had no idea how someone could resolve a situation like that one. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in that situation. I wonder what it would be like if you had children? I guess it might be a bit different. There were a lot of intense emotions at play in this story.

I don’t want to say too much about the ending or what happens in the story, but of course there were some moments of uncertainty. I loved that this story focused on Emma as a person rather than Emma as a couple, in some ways. Of course, I also loved teh backdrop of the book store as a setting 😉

If you haven’t read this book yet, I highly, highly recommend it!! I listened to it and couldn’t listen fast enough (literally – 1.8 speed!) 😉 I also highly recommend After I Do, which I almost think I liked more (but I can’t actually decide).

I’m getting my hair cut tonight and I am SO excited. I have a post later this week about #17before2017, so watch out for that! 🙂