Rewind Wednesday (August)

 

I've been filling my summer weeks with books, including re-reads of some well loved favorites! It's definitely been a Chloe Liese heavy summer, as I am enjoying her books in audio (The Bergman Brothers series) and physical (The Wilmot Sisters series):


Author
: Chloe Liese

Title: If Only You

Publisher: Berkley

Date Published: 04/11/2023

Format: audiobook

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


A longtime good girl and unapologetic bad boy score the love of their life when they least expect to in this swoony, slow-burn sports romance.

Ziggy Bergman is tired of being underestimated. Sure, she’s the youngest player on the National Soccer team and the baby of the family, but that doesn’t mean she still deserves to be treated like a kid. It’s time for her angelic image to get a makeover. What better way to do that than hanging out with trouble incarnate and her brother’s best friend, Sebastian Gauthier?

Sebastian has hit rock bottom. His hockey career and sponsorships are in jeopardy of ending if something doesn’t give. Seb’s not willing to actually change his destructive ways, but he’s happy to pretend he’s a reformed reprobate by faking a friendship for publicity with sweet, shy Ziggy Bergman.

When faking starts to feel real, Ziggy and Seb discover an unexpected friendship they’re happy to hold on to. At least, until their once-fake friendship becomes the most loving, empowering relationship they’ve ever known, and the end goal—for both of them—changes.



Author: Chloe Liese

Title: Two Wrongs Make a Right

Publisher: Berkley

Date Published: 11/22/2022

Format: physical book

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.

Soon their plan is in place: Fake date obnoxiously and convince the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash everyone’s hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.

To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to wonder: What if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?



Author: Christina Lauren

Title: Dirty Rowdy Thing

Publisher: Gallery

Date Published: 11/04/2014

Format: physical book

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫


Despite their rowdy hookups, Harlow and Finn don't even like each other... which would explain why their marriage lasted only 12 hours. He needs to be in charge and takes whatever he wants. She lives by the Want-something-done? Do-it-yourself mantra. Maybe she's too similar to the rugged fisherman - or just what he needs.



Author
: Elizabeth Wurtzel

Title: Prozac Nation

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Date Published: 10/01/1995

Format: physical book

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐


A harrowing story of breakdowns, suicide attempts, drug therapy, and an eventual journey back to living, this poignant and often hilarious book gives voice to the high incidence of depression among America's youth. A collective cry for help from a generation who have come of age entrenched in the culture of divorce, economic instability, and AIDS, here is the intensely personal story of a young girl full of promise, whose mood swings have risen and fallen like the lines of a sad ballad.



Author: Jenny Lawson

Title: Furiously Happy

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Date Published: 09/22/2015

Format: physical book

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest:

"I've often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that ‘normal people' also might never understand. And that's what Furiously Happy is all about."

Jenny’s readings are standing room only, with fans lining up to have Jenny sign their bottles of Xanax or Prozac as often as they are to have her sign their books. Furiously Happy appeals to Jenny's core fan base but also transcends it. There are so many people out there struggling with depression and mental illness, either themselves or someone in their family—and in Furiously Happy they will find a member of their tribe offering up an uplifting message (via a taxidermied roadkill raccoon). Let's Pretend This Never Happened ostensibly was about embracing your own weirdness, but deep down it was about family. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it's about joy—and who doesn't want a bit more of that?



Author: Chloe Liese

Title: Only and Forever

Publisher: Berkley

Date Published: 04/02/2024

Format: audiobook

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


Viggo Bergman, hopeless romantic, is thoroughly weary of waiting for his happily ever after. But between opening a romance bookstore, running a romance book club, coaching kids' soccer, and adopting a household of pets—just maybe, he’s overcommitted himself?—Viggo’s chaotic life has made finding his forever love seem downright improbable.

Enter Tallulah Clarke, chilly cynic with a massive case of writer’s block. Tallulah needs help with her thriller’s romantic subplot. Viggo needs another pair of hands to keep his store afloat. So they agree to swap skills and cohabitate for convenience—his romance expertise to revive her book, her organizational prowess to salvage his store. They hardly get along, and they couldn’t be more different, but who says roommate-coworkers need to be friends?

As they share a home and life, Tallulah and Viggo discover a connection that challenges everything they believe about love, and reveals the plot twist they never saw happily ever after is here already, right under their roof.



Author: Chloe Liese

Title: Better Hate Than Never

Publisher: Berkley

Date Published: 10/10/2023

Format: physical

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio shared backyards as kids, but as adults they won't even share the same hemisphere. That is, until Kate makes a rare visit home, and their fiery animosity rekindles into a raging inferno.

Despite their friends' and families' pleas for peace, Christopher is unconvinced Kate would willingly douse the flames of their enmity. But when a drunken Kate confesses she's only been hostile because she thought he hated her, Christopher vows to make peace with Kate once and for all. Tempting as it is to be swept away by her nemesis-turned-gentleman, Kate isn't sure she can trust his charming good-guy act.

When Christopher's persistence and Kate’s curiosity lead to an impassioned kiss, they realize "peace" is the last thing that will ever be possible between them. As desire gives way to deeper feelings, Kate and Christopher must decide if it’s truly better to hate than to never risk their hearts—or if they already gave them away long ago.



Author: Kylie Scott

Title: Lick

Publisher: Momentum

Date Published: 07/01/2013

Format: audiobook

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫


Waking up in Vegas was never meant to be like this.

Evelyn Thomas’s plans for celebrating her twenty-first birthday in Las Vegas were big. Huge. But she sure as hell never meant to wake up on the bathroom floor with a hangover to rival the black plague, a very attractive half-naked tattooed man, and a diamond on her finger large enough to scare King Kong. Now if she could just remember how it all happened.

One thing is for certain, being married to rock and roll’s favorite son is sure to be a wild ride.


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