Where did July go? I feel like I blinked and I missed it, but I know I read a fair amount of books. Here are some of my July reads. Some I loved (The Most Famous Girl in the World) and some were harder to get through (Nine Minutes Eleven Seconds). Read on for my reviews!

As always, thank you to NetGalley and BookSirens for providing me with these ARCs.

june roundup

The Plus One (NetGalley)

Author: S.C. Lalli
Publication Date: 8/13/2024

Attending a wedding at a resort in Cabo as the plus one to a VIP guest sounds amazing on paper. What could be better than a luxurious and all-inclusive suite? It has all the makings of a dream vacation…until the future Mr. and Mrs. turn up dead.

That’s a fast and effective way to put a damper on a weekend getaway.

When Shaylee “Shay” Kapoor accepted the invitation to attend the extravagant wedding of the very influential Radhia Singh and Raj Joshi, she anticipated it would mean a few days of pretending to fit in with the social elite her boyfriend Caleb is so seamlessly a part of. When R adhia and Raj turn up dead in Raj’s bed, things take a darker turn than Shay could have imagined.

While everyone seems quick to blame the couple’s death on drugs, Shay knows there is more at play due to the secrets she has been keeping.

This fun, fast-paced thriller is guaranteed to create a solid choice for a beach read for any genre fan. Shay, while flawed, is an intelligent and intriguing protagonist; it is refreshing to have someone who isn’t blonde and blue-eyed leading the way. Shay is complicated, interesting, and smart – a perfect combination when it comes to a protagonist. The best thing about her is that she is open about her flaws, creating a sense of trust with the reader. This makes it easier for the audience to feel invested in the story, and, as a result, will make for a fun read for fans of smart thrillers.

The Most Famous Girl in the World (NetGalley)

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The Most Famous Girl in the World is a hot mess of a book I will 100% recommend to my friends.

Why is it a hot mess (which I mean as a compliment)? It isn’t the plot; while the storyline is a bit convoluted, it is engaging and feels fresh, using ripped-from-the-headlines tactics to garner interest (who doesn’t love a good Anna Delvey reference?).  This book is guaranteed to intrigue a wide audience. However, that’s not what makes it special.

What sets this book apart from the many wanting to profit off our favorite Robin Hood of swindlers (or whatever a Robin Hood who gives to himself would be considered) is the insanely flawed protagonist of this novel.

Rose is a complete degenerate who somehow manages to be likable. We should not like her; she is frustrating, selfish, and destructive. She is also funny, self-deprecating, and unapologetically herself. It’s refreshing, even as you want to slap some sense into her. I’ve never felt so conflicted with a character, as she made me laugh, but I also wanted to yell at her most of the time. She’s both lovable and frustrating.

This book is meant to be a satire of multiple genres, and Iman Hariri-Kia pulls it off well. She manages to take the fun conceits of Bret Easton Ellis, like poking fun at high society obsessions, as well as including cameos from earlier novels (in her case, A Hundred Other Girls). Caveat: Hariri-Kia could hate this reference (apologies). However, I grew up with his books (this is something only my therapist needs to read into), and these are things he does extremely well.

Hariri-Kia does a great job of adding a modern twist and humor to her writing. She is clever, somewhat overwhelming (the sex scenes are not what anyone would refer to as “closed-door”), and very entertaining. If Hariri-Kia were to write another installation of Rose’s journey, I would be happy to read along – especially after some of the twists and turns this book took at the end. At the very least, I would like to get some coffee with Rose – she fascinated me as a protagonist.

When I Was Alice (BookSirens)

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As Grace Brighton’s brother Ryan lies in a coma, she feels desperate to save him. In a wild act to do so, she climbs to the top of the Hollywood sign to make a wish….

And finds herself transported back to the early 1950s.

Somehow, Grace has found herself living the life of up-and-coming Hollywood star Alice Montgomery. To return to the present day and her life as Grace Brighton, she must figure out what went wrong in Alice’s life.

This story is an innocent and delightful blend of time-travel romance and mystery. Grace is well-intentioned and, despite her modern ways, innocent as a protagonist; she genuinely only wishes to save her brother while finding herself. She simply needs to find her way back to the present day.

While the story is mostly PG, there are elements in this book that foreshadow the Me Too movement; while unpleasant, it is interesting to experience how this impacts Grace in the novel. This adds depth to what could have been a fun yet very lighthearted mystery.

Overall, When I Was Alice is entertaining, and does a great job transporting the reader back to old Hollywood. It would be interesting to see what more lies ahead for Grace and her love interest Dalton; hopefully, author Jennifer Murgia has more in store for her.

The Divide (NetGalley)

Author: Morgan Richter
Publication Date: 8/20/2024

Jenny St. John hasn’t had much luck since her promising acting career never took off. Now she’s barely making ends meet as a grifting psychic in Morgan Richter’s quirky thriller The Divide.

When Jenny’s former director – and boyfriend – Serge is murdered, she finds herself pulled into the world she never quite got to enter: The Hollywood Elite. Things get weirder and weirder for her as she tries to solve the mystery, including learning about her own (possibly murderous) doppelganger.

The Divide is a fun mystery that gives cheeky nods to genre troupes without being cloying. Having the Hollywood element is a fun conceit, especially as Richter pokes fun at different aspects of celebrity culture (Goop, influencers). Several side characters are interesting and entertaining.

As for the main character, Jenny is a mess, but she knows it, making her many errors more tolerable and the reader can’t help but hope she gets her life together.

Overall, this was a fun read. Thanks as always to NetGalley and Knopf for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Prey (NetGalley)

Author: Hilary Norman
Publication Date: 10/01/2024

Two mysteries merge into one with mixed results in Prey, Hilary Norman’s gothic mystery.

In the book's first part, the reader is introduced to Harriet Yorke. Harriet is an artist living in London during the Blitz in 1941. However, she soon finds herself in additional danger when she becomes the target of a serial killer.

This section starts strong; the background on what led to the serial killer’s origin adds depth to the character, and the plot is intriguing. The writer does a good job of building tension throughout this section, and when the reader is transported to 2019, it is clear the past will come up again.

Unfortunately, things fall apart in the second part. The second half feels like a less well-done version of the first half, and I felt like I was waiting to see how everything connected without being fully invested. The other part that lets it down is the second villain’s story is not explored like in the first part; while this is done to build suspense, it makes it less compelling.

Overall, this was a good gothic mystery and would be an enjoyable read for a rainy day. I only wish the author had spent time only focusing on the first half or written it with flashbacks, as the 2019 setting lets the rest of it down.

Nine Minutes Eleven Seconds (BookSirens)

Author: L.V. Pederson
Publication Date: 1/10/2025

When Madison accepts an executive assistant job in Silicon Valley, she anticipates it will be the fresh start she needs; instead, it turns into her worst nightmare.

Know is the place to work in tech, and Madison is ready for the opportunity. However, when she learns the person who held her job before was killed in a hit-and-run, she starts to get a bad feeling, and it only worsens when she meets her boss face to face. He seems so familiar to her, and it makes her uneasy. Buckle up kids, this is when it takes a weird turn: Her boss looks familiar because he is Mohamed Atta after excessive plastic surgery.

Yes, that Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 attacks. Madison has a personal connection to Atta, as her father had been seated next to him on Flight 11. How can he still be alive, and what horrible thing is he planning?

I anticipated this would be a thriller set fully in the tech world, so the 9/11 twist was unexpected (though I guess that’s on me, given the title). Personally, I was not a fan of this element; it almost felt disrespectful to the memory of those who lost their lives on that day to reimagine it this way. The other aspect I did not enjoy was the relationship between Atta and Madison.

To put it bluntly, it was clear to me a man wrote this. Atta is very sexually charged, and so his interactions with Madison are all aggressively inappropriate. This would be uncomfortable to read in general, but the FBI decides to have Madison allow herself to be sexually assaulted by him, as well as send him an explicit video of herself. This is, of course, to trap him. Now, I am not in the FBI, but I would imagine it is not common practice for them to ask civilians to send risqué videos of themselves to dangerous terrorists.

Overall, I was rather disappointed with this book. I wanted to like it going in, as the premise seemed promising, and the beginning was intriguing. However, it took a hard right into a territory unappealing to me as a reader. It was the handling of 9/11 and the sexualization of the main character that I struggled with the most. I think this book will have an audience (and plenty of reviews I’ve read support this), but it wasn’t for me, and I needed a palate cleanser once finished.

Until next time - cheers and happy reading!

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