Happy Hump Day and welcome to the WWW Wednesday post for December 7, 2022! WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words, where bloggers share the books that answer these three questions (the Three Ws):
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish reading?
- What do you think you’ll read next?
If you want to participate and you have a blog, answer the three questions above and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. If you do not have a blog, leave a comment with your responses. Have fun, and check out what other participants are reading. You may just find your next great read.
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Note: All book descriptions are from Bookshop.org.
What are you currently reading?
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
The Villa is a NetGalley ARC that’s due to release on January 3, 2023. I’m about 60% into the book and I’m really enjoying it so far. Rachel Hawkins’ writing style has accessible flow and pacing to it. The construction of the story is intriguing. I often think about the characters and the history of Villa Rosato/Villa Aestas. I estimate that I will finish reading The Villa by Thursday or Friday this week.
Description
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.
Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album–and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.
As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred–and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.
Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge–and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.
Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle–the birthplace of Frankenstein-–The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.
What did you recently finish reading?
Disappearing Acts by Terry McMillan
This is my first Terry McMillan book and I’m excited to read the rest of her catalog. I struggled between rating this book anywhere between 4 and 5 stars, but reminiscing on the emotions that it took me through propelled me to rate it a full 5. Disappearing Acts is undoubtedly a new favorite of mine.
Terry has an impressive ability to develop three-dimensional characters and complicated relationships. Readers will find the characters to be equally amicable as they do annoying and unbearable.
I recommend this book to the hopeless romantics and book clubs that enjoy dissecting toxic relationships and its counterparts. This book was fun and stressful.
Description
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan comes an honest look at a modern romance, from love at first sight to painful reality to working toward a happy ending….
Franklin Swift was a sometimes-employed construction worker and a not-quite-divorced dad of two. Zora Banks was a teacher, singer, and songwriter. They met in a Brooklyn brownstone, and there could be no walking away….
In this funny, gritty love story, Franklin and Zora join the ranks of fiction’s most compelling couples as they move from Scrabble to sex, from layoffs to the limits of faith and trust.
Disappearing Acts is about the mystery of desire and the burdens of the past. It’s about respect–what it can and can’t survive. And it’s about the safe and secret places that only love can find.
What do you think you’ll read next?
Underneath the Sycamore Tree by B. Celeste is another ARC I’ve committed to reading before its release date of January 3, 2022. The title, cover, and first line of the book description are why I requested it from the publishers. Based on the full description, I hope to shed some tears while reading.
Underneath the Sycamore Tree by B. Celeste
Description
Time is a luxury we don’t all have…
Emery Matterson’s life has been broken for a while. First, she lost her twin sister to an incurable autoimmune disease, then her father left, then her mother fell apart when Emery herself was diagnosed with the same disease that killed her sister. The only option for Emery seems to be to move in with the father she hasn’t seen in ten years, and start over.
Enter Kaiden Monroe, the brooding athlete who has baggage of his own. Kaiden makes Emery feel normal. Hated. Cared for. Loathed. And…loved. Somewhere along the way, Emery finds solace in the guy with the sad eyes.
But everything happens in stages. And nothing good ever lasts.
From fan-favorite author B. Celeste comes an raw, real, and unforgettable story of love and loss between two young people grappling with the harsh reality of invisible disease.
QOTD (Questions of the Day)
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Let me know in the comments below.
Happy Reading!
