the sunday lit

instagram pinterest goodreads tumblr
    • Home
    • About
    • Contact


"why do something that's probably going to hurt?"
"oh doll, because it hurts so much more not to."

    Gretchen Acorn is a bullshit artist, like her ancestors before her. Though they dealt in more physical scams, her methods are more sophisticated. She is in fact, a medium. Or well, she's pretending to be one in order to swindle rich Washingtonians and in return, she gives them closure and healing. That's her one guiding motto - she has to leave her clients better off than she found them. 

    One of her best customers, a widow who's been seeing her regularly for a while, before leaving for a holiday, refers her to Charles, a friend whose goat farm needs her particular skills. It appears to be haunted, which is quite upsettingly, though understandably, preventing its sale. On her arrival, Gretchen is met with a handsome young man, apparently the grandson of the person she'd been expecting to meet. That first meeting doesn't quite go as planned, as he sees right through her, calls her a charlatan and chases her away.

    Miffed about losing out on the money she'd have been paid, Gretchen still goes to leave - only to come face to face with a ghost. He introduces himself as Everrett, he is over hundred years old and is happy to finally have someone see him since he died. He explains to a stunned Gretchen that he had been doing tricks in the house in order to stop the sale, as he is certain Charlie will die if he leaves the farm, due to the same family curse that led to his own untimely demise.  Appealing to his kind nature, Gretchen manages to convince Charlie to let her stay for a month as "help", in which time she plans to convince him not to sell. As the kidding season is starting, and no help due to a severely limited budget, Charlie lets her stay on. As time passes, Charlie seems to warm up to her, but always ends up putting up a wall between them as he remembers his low opinion of her profession. 

    Soon enough, Gretchen warms to the place and to both Charlie and Everett, as well as the cure goats; she goes to farmers' markets, she goes with Charlie to visit his grandpa when he has a rough episode due to his memory loss, she helps deliver goats even. The tension between her and Charlie grows with each passing day, and she keeps falling in love with the life she's carving out for herself. Promoting the farm on social media, organizing goat yoga classes - she is all in on saving the farm.

    After her a Charlie finally give in and sleep together, she reveals some of her past. She also realizes that se could let Charlie go - let he be free to pursue his dreams, by marrying him and thus becoming the Waybill that stays behind on the farm. The agreement is settled, though Charlie doesn't seem very pleased about it all. But when Everrett drops on more bomb on her, will Gretchen be able to hold on to this life she's created or will she lose her home and Charlie in the end?

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
No comments


"i am the quiet one in my family. the one with her nose always in a book because she prefers worlds where she doesn't have to interact with other humans. it's so much easier to read about relationships than to foster them. less dangerous too."

    This is the second book in a series apparently, which I didn't know when I bought it but... whatever. Maybe I'll get round to reading the rest of them someday.

    We follow Annie here, a shy and socially awkward flower shop owner, who is the sweetheart in her hometown. Whenever she goes on a date it ends in disaster because she doesn't know how to behave and how to talk without either rambling on on letting awkward silences build. But she wants a marriage and family like the one her parent (who died when she was very young) had and she'll do whatever to get it.

    Will is the bodyguard to Amelia, the pop superstar who happens to be Annie's future sister-in*law. Due to this connection the two are in close proximity and when Amelia's scheming results in Will being Annie's dating coach everyone thinks it'll all be just fine. 

    But Annie's had a crush on Will since she's met him and the tattooed tough guy is developing tender feelings toward his sweet pupil. Though they try to deny their feelings, they run rampant. It doesn't help that the rest of the town thinks they're truly a couple and are holding votes on whether the relationship should go on. Still, Will's instructions help Annie gain some much needed confidence and his easy demeanor makes her relax and gives her an opportunity to just be herself.

    Alas, Annie wants a husband, kids and the picket fence life, and Will is never going to be able to give her that. She wants the stability that makes Will's skin crawl. Watching his parents' marriage made him swear never to enter into such a contract himself, and yet... What are they to do when their hearts aren't in sync with their heads?
Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
No comments

"i couldn't leave gus here alone. if  he was descending into the darkness, i was going to tie a rope between our waists and go down with him."

    This is perfection in book form, I loved it so much. It's primarily a romance book, but it is also about growing up, realizing people aren't perfect, about grief and fear, about facing your own demons.

    January and Gus are novelists; she writes romance, he writes literary fiction. And they're college rivals. At least in January's recollection. And this summer, they are also neighbors. January has a perfect life, or as close to it as one can get, which seems irreparably shattered when he father dies. The man she has idealized had been keeping secrets - and one of them shows up at his funeral. He had been cheating on her mother while she was sick with cancer.

    Once a staunch romantic, January turns into a cynic when the one relationship she viewed as perfect, the one she had been striving to create for herself, turns out not to be so. Broke, with a crippling writer's block and looming deadline, January moves to her father's secret Michigan beach house she inherited.

    Things get worse once she realizes that he next door neighbor is none other than Augustus, whom she knew back in college, and with whom she had a bit of a rivalry going on in their creative writing classes. He seems a bit down on his luck as well, and this turns into a bonding experience. As they get to talking, they hatch up a perfect plan to overcome their respective writer's blocks: January will write  a literary fiction novel and Gus will try out his hand at romance and a happily-ever-after.

    As a part of this project, they help each other immerse into the genre - they take one another on different outings (romantic dates and cult research trips) every weekend. Soon, sparks start flying. But, they hate each other, right? Well, as it turns out no, they don't. But despite the undeniable chemistry that's been brewing between the two since their very first meeting, they have to face their own issues before they can give in to what seems unavoidable.

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
No comments


 "over the past two weeks, i've discovered that in this city of millions, you are one of a kind."

    (Relatively) short and sweet seems to be my bit this summer. There are some stakes in this one (pun not entirely intended) but you wholly know that all will be resolved happily, so... Not too much tension here.

    Cassie is an art teacher who cannot find a good job and is on a very low income and a strict budget. Not allowing her friends to help her out financially she answers a Craigslist ad renting out a room. The owner seems somewhat weird, but it's better than being homeless, right?

    Frederick is kinda weird, even by vampire standards. After waking up from a century of sleep caused by his friend accidentally poisoning him at a party, he finds himself in a drastically different world. In order to help him acclimatize, said friend suggests he get a roommate to ease the way. But Cassie is very pretty and keeping his hands to himself, despite his 300-year-old propriety, is getting harder every day.

    When Cassie gets home earlier one day and discovers a fridge full of blood bags, she is in for a surprise. Initially apprehensive and angry, she finds that she still likes the softy vampire and they commence a relationship after she moves back in. If only his mother understood and if only she hadn't facilitated Frederick's engagement to another vampire. Oh, well...

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
No comments


 "is there anything better than iced coffee and a bookstore on a sunny say? i mean, aside from hot coffee and a bookstore on a rainy day?"

    I loved this book so much. It brought out some feelings I wasn't ready for and I hold so much tenderness for these lovely characters. It's my first Emily Henry but definitely not my last. I may have just found another favorite author.

    Nora is a literary agent and Charlie an editor in NYC. They meet under less than ideal circumstances (by this I mean - they have a meeting where she's just gotten dumped over the phone again and he has a plane home to catch because his father has had a stroke; he rejects her client's book flat out and she is almost personally insulted.)

    Nora's sister Libby is her opposite: where Nora is cold and guarded, Libby is sunshine and sweetness. In her third pregnancy, she decides to take Nora on a trip to Sunshine Falls (the setting of the best-selling book Charlie rejected) for some sisterly bonding. Unable to deny her sister anything, Nora agrees. What she didn't count on was seeing Charlie there - the thought that this was his hometown had never even crossed her mind and he so thoroughly doesn't fit in. But there they were, navigating the awkwardness.

    Spending time with him makes her rethink her life philosophy - that she is the antagonist in every rom*com, the high-powered city slicker girlfriend in every love story that gets left by the hero when he finds a down-to-earth sweet small town girl of his dreams. If only this exact scenario hadn't happened to her. More than once, actually. On the other hand, Charlie is certain that he could never be anyone's hero or the romantic lead in any story. Yet still, something between them is crackling. When Libby reveals the reason for their trip, the person Nora turns to is the one she once despised.

    With their time running out, they both try to put on brave faces and soldier on. But maybe those stories they thought they'd never be a part of are being written. Maybe they are the leads in this love story...

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
No comments


 "these was something just so reassuring about books. they had beginnings and middles and ends, and if you didn't like a part, you could skip to the next chapter. if someone died, you could stop on the last page before, and they'd live on..."

    What to say about this book that has kept me up at night, a book I devoured and would love to read for the first time a hundred times more? It's the second Ashley Poston novel that I picked up and I will be reading everything she puts out without question. It has touched something in me, I truly cannot believe how much of myself I saw in these characters that are nothing like me, an yet...

    Clementine has inherited her late aunt's apartment in New York, but the quirk she was never told about is that it has the power to take you back 7 years into the past. Still grieving the loss of a person who has meant so much to her, one day Clementine finds a young man in her apartment. Iwan claims he was allowed to crash by her aunt who is on a Europe summer trip with her niece. Confounded and angry at first, Clementine is soon confronted with the truth of what is happening when she goes back to her apartment the next day and Iwan, and her aunt's furniture, aren't there. But she keeps sporadically being taken back to him and a deep connection forges with this sensitive soul who has big dreams and calls her Lemon.

    Complications arise when the publishing company she woks at is courting a chef to publish for them - the rising star James - and she realizes she knows him, though he seems to draw a blank on her. It's Iwan, seven years older, seven years removed from her, and she is stumped on what to do. He seems to have changed so much, lost so much of himself and sharpened in order to fit in with the expectations placed on him.

    Can Iwan and Lemon come back to each other? Have Clementine and James truly lost these integral parts of themselves or are they just buried under grief and sadness, hidden out of sight so they'd be able to go through life painlessly? As they navigate their relationship in the present and Clementine struggles with not revealing things to Iwan in the past - as well as with the inevitable loss of her aunt, they both come out of it wiser and stronger, ready to be in love.

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
No comments
Newer Posts
Older Posts

About Me



I blog from time to time about things that inspire me. Lately, I have been getting back into the habit of reading, and my posts reflect that. I'm also always trying to take pretty photos, with varying degrees of success.


Follow

Follow

Blog Archive

  • ►  2025 (17)
    • ►  March (8)
    • ►  February (6)
    • ►  January (3)
  • ▼  2024 (60)
    • ►  December (9)
    • ►  November (6)
    • ►  October (7)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (6)
    • ▼  June (6)
      • Happy Medium | Sarah Adler
      • Practice Makes Perfect | Sarah Adams
      • Beach Read | Emily Henry
      • My Roommate Is a Vampire | Jenna Levine
      • Book Lovers | Emily Henry
      • The Seven Year Slip | Ashley Poston
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (4)
    • ►  March (4)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (3)
  • ►  2023 (13)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (7)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  February (1)
  • ►  2022 (6)
    • ►  February (4)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2021 (4)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  January (1)
  • ►  2020 (31)
    • ►  December (6)
    • ►  November (9)
    • ►  October (8)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  March (1)
  • ►  2019 (13)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (5)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  July (1)
  • ►  2018 (21)
    • ►  December (4)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  August (4)
    • ►  July (4)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (1)
  • ►  2017 (1)
    • ►  December (1)
  • ►  2016 (1)
    • ►  February (1)

Created with by BeautyTemplates