Welcome to 'Read In Color', In this segment of Readers Recs we're spotlighting books with bold, eye-catching covers in shades of red, orange, and green- the colors of passion, creativity, and growth🌈. Join us as we dive into these colorful reads and discover new favorites!
❤ READ IN COLOR >>> RED EDITION ❤
• WOMEN OF GOOD FORTUNE BY SOPHIE WAN
BLURB:
Friends who steal together, stay together
A reluctant bride and her two best friends plot to steal all the gift money from her glitzy high-society wedding in this dazzling, heartfelt, funny novel for fans of Crazy Rich Asian
GOODREADS RATING: 3.6/5
GENRE: Humor|| Crime Fiction
• THE DONOR BY CLARE MACKINTOSH
BLURB: She gave you everything. But what does she want in return?
When Lizzie's daughter Meg is given a life-saving heart transplant, Lizzie feels hugely grateful to the nameless donor. Then she receives a letter from the donor's mother, Karen, asking to meet, and it seems like the least she can do.
But as soon as Karen is welcomed into their lives, Lizzie feels something isn't right. And before long, she can't help but worry that by inviting Karen in, she might have put Meg in danger . . .
GOODREADS RATING: 3.9/5
GENRE: Thriller
• VERY BAD COMPANY BY EMMA ROSENBLUM
BLURB:
Every year, executives at the trendy tech startup Aurora gather the company’s top employees for an exclusive retreat in Miami, and this year Caitlin Levy—Aurora’s newest hire—is joining the team as head of events. The benefits are outstanding: a seven-figure salary, stock shares, a discretionary bonus, limitless vacation days—what could possibly go wrong?
When a fellow high-level executive vanishes after the first night, the disappearance has the potential to derail the future of the company’s sale and cost everyone on the team millions. Now more than ever, Caitlin and her colleagues must continue the charade—partaking in team-building exercises, group brainstorms, dinners—in order to keep the future of Aurora afloat amid all the fatal speculations.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.3/5
GENRE: Domestic Fiction||Suspense
• HOW TO STOP TIME BY MATT HAIG
BLURB:
The book follows protagonist Tom Hazard through his 400-year life as he loses himself to fear and seeks purpose. This novel deals with themes concerning the inevitability of change and learning to find happiness.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.8/5
GENRE: Historical Fiction || Fantasy
• THE MARRIAGE CLASS BY ADESUWA O'MAN NWOKEDI
BLURB: One Class. Ten Couples. Ten Decisions.
Abi and Raymond are engaged to be married and have started marriage class. It is an exciting step in their journey to the altar...if you discount Abi's cold feet and the resurfacing of her ex fiancé, her ex fiancé who is now married to someone else. Abi's heart is torn in two very different directions; the calm and steadfast love she has with Raymond, and the chaotic yet exciting passion she had with Lucas.
And they are not the only couple struggling. In their fast-tracked marriage class, the nine other couples include a billionaire playboy reluctant to get married a third time, a couple engaged after a whirlwind romance and now struggling with the reality of getting to really know each other, a couple engaged after an almost two-decade long relationship, a couple engaged after a surprise and not-exactly-desired pregnancy, a couple who met on social media but now with differing views about just how much of their relationship should be for the 'gram and how much should be private, a groom fifteen years younger than his bride, and a bride marrying a man she has never met.
By the end of the marriage class, all ten couples find themselves at crossroads, their relationships tethered by one very key question. Will they...or won't they?
GOODREADS RATING: 4.1/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• GLORY BE BY DANIELLE ARCENEAUX
BLURB:
The first in a vivid and charming crime series set in the Louisiana bayou, introducing the hilariously uncensored amateur sleuth Glory Broussard.
It’s a hot and sticky Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Glory has settled into her usual after-church routine, meeting gamblers at the local coffee shop, where she works as a small-time bookie. Sitting at her corner table, Glory hears that her best friend—a nun beloved by the community—has been found dead in her apartment.
When police declare the mysterious death a suicide, Glory is convinced that there must be more to the story and, with her reluctant daughter, with troubles of her own, in tow, launches a shadow investigation in a town of oil tycoons, church gossips, and a rumored voodoo priestess.
As a Black woman of a certain age who grew up in a segregated Louisiana, Glory is used to being minimized and overlooked. But she’s determined to make her presence known as the case leads her deep into a web of intrigue she never realized Lafayette could harbor.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.8/5
GENRE: Cozy mystery
• PRIDE,PREJUDICE AND OTHER FLAVORS BY SONALI DEV
BLURB:
Sonali Dev launches a new series about the Rajes, an immigrant Indian family descended from royalty, who have built their lives in San Francisco... Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:
· Never trust an outsider
· Never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations.
· And never, ever, defy your family
Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.
Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge him by his rough beginnings and place pedigree above character. He needs the lucrative job the Rajes offer, but he values his pride too much to indulge Trisha’s arrogance. And then he discovers that she’s the only surgeon who can save his sister’s life.
As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s stunning desserts. But before a future can be savored there’s a past to be reckoned with...
A family trying to build home in a new land. A man who has never felt at home anywhere. And a choice to be made between the two.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.7/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• THE HEART PRINCIPLE BY HELEN HOANG
BLURB:
The story follows Anna, a professional violinist who is experiencing creative burnout after a video of her performing goes viral on YouTube. At the same time, her serious boyfriend suggests they see other people before making the commitment to marry each other.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.9/5
GENRE: Romance
• THE BACKTRACK BY ERIN LA ROSA
BLURB:
Nearly twenty years ago, Sam Leto left her small hometown of Tybee Island, Georgia, to pursue her dreams of becoming a pilot. While she’d prefer to keep flying away from her painful childhood memories, her beloved grandmother Pearl decides it’s time to sell the family home. Reluctantly, Sam is summoned back to pack up the house.
The 2000s nostalgia from Sam’s old bedroom hits immediately: Fall Out Boy posters, drawers of roll-on body glitter and even her favorite CD player with a mixtape from her best friend, Damon Rocha. Damon was always a safe place and Sam often wonders what if her teenage self admitted her feelings for him back then…
Mysteriously, the CD player still works all these years later. And somehow it has the power to show Sam an alternate version of her life.
Song by song, Sam receives flashbacks from her past—senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren’t as she remembers them; they show what could have been. Suddenly, Sam knows exactly what would have happened if she’d taken a chance with Damon—and she can’t help feeling she made a terrible mistake leaving Tybee all those years ago.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.7/5
GENRE: Time Travel
• THE MEMO BY RACHEL DODES|| LAUREN MECHLING
BLURB:
If you could rewrite your life story, would you dare?
Do you ever feel like your life doesn’t measure up to everyone else’s—and wonder if you just didn’t get the memo helping you make the right choices?
Jenny Green dreads her upcoming college reunion. Once top of her class, the thirty-five-year-old finds herself stuck in a life that isn’t the one she expected. Her promising career has flamed out (literally) and her deadbeat boyfriend is cheating on her (again). All her friends seem to have it all figured it out, enjoying glittering lives and careers that she can only envy from the sidelines. Did she just not get the memo they all did?
As it turns out, she didn’t!
When she arrives at her alma mater for the festivities, she receives a text from an unlisted number. “Jenny Green: please collect your memo.”
Somewhere on campus, a discreet female-led organization provides comprehensive memos to select students, a set of instructions that are a blueprint for success.
The first time around, Jenny didn’t receive hers. Now, she’s being given the second chance she wants—an opportunity to relive her life and make all the right decisions this time around. But at what price?
GOODREADS RATING: 3.4/5
GENRE: Time Travel
• NOSY NEIGHBORS BY FREYA SAMPSON
BLURB:
Nothing brings neighbors together like someone else’s secrets… At Shelley House, the walls have ears, and they’re attached to a ragtag duo of busybodies ready to pry, snoop, and generally annoy their neighbors into solving a crime.
Seventy-seven-year-old Dorothy Darling has lived in Shelley House longer than any of the other residents, and if you take their word for it, she’s as cantankerous as they come. But Dorothy has her reasons for spying. And none of them require justifying herself to Kat Bennett.
Twenty-five-year-old Kat has never known a place where she felt truly at home, and crumbling Shelley House is no different. Her neighbors find her prickly and unapproachable, but beneath her tough exterior, Kat’s plagued by a guilty secret from her past.
When their apartments face demolition, sworn enemies Kat and Dorothy agree on just one thing: they must save their historic building. But when someone plays dirty—and one of the residents is viciously taken down—Dorothy and Kat seek justice. The police close the investigation too soon, leaving it up to the unlikely amateur sleuths—with a playful Jack Russell terrier at their side—to restore peace in their community.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.8/5
• PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION BY EMILY HENRY
BLURB:
People We Meet on Vacation follows Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen, two best friends who are opposites in every way. She is a wild child with insatiable wanderlust while he is laidback and would rather stay home with a book. Every summer they come together for a week long vacation; until one trip where everything is ruined and they stop speaking for two years.
While Poppy is living her dream of being a travel writer of a popular magazine, she finds herself stuck and unhappy. She recalled the moments where she was truly happy was when she and Alex were travelling. Attempting to rekindle this lost bond, she contacts him again for one last trip to Palm Springs.
This eventually leads them to uncover their history together as platonic friends, including memories from previous trips and their respective relationships, family struggles, and most especially: what happened to the trip to Croatia two years ago
GOODREADS RATING: 3.9/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• THE SUN SETS IN SINGAPORE BY KEHINDE FADIPE
BLURB:
Basking in Singapore's nonstop sunshine, Dara, Amaka, and Lillian are living the glamorous expat dream--until a mysterious (not to mention handsome) new arrival infiltrates their tight-knit community and ruins everything:
For Dara, a workaholic lawyer from the UK, Singapore is opportunity. Every day, brokering deals for her firm's wealthy clientele, she gets closer to her ultimate goal: making partner.
For Amaka, a sharp-tongued banker from Nigeria, Singapore is extravagance. Gucci, Prada, Hermès--she loves nothing more than to luxuriate in the major department stores that call her name on Orchard Road.
And for Lillian, a former pianist turned "trailing spouse" from the U.S., Singapore is reinvention. In a stunning apartment with 360° views, the island seems to glitter as far as the eye can see.
But complications are looming in the form of an enigmatic stranger, whose presence exposes cracks in Singapore's beguiling façade. Dara's ambitions mean she has no life outside the firm, and her insecurities are threatening to derail the promotion she's spent the last six years striving for. Amaka is desperate to escape the chaos she left behind at home and hiding a spiraling shopping addiction that's endangering her very sense of self. And while Lillian's life may be the envy of outsiders, a new obsession is imperiling everything--and everyone--around her.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.4/5
GENRE: Literary Fiction
• THE DATING PLAYBOOK BY FARRAH ROCHON
BLURB:
When a personal trainer agrees to fake date her client, all rules are out the window.
When it comes to personal training, Taylor Powell kicks serious butt. Unfortunately, her bills are piling up, rent is due, and the money situation is dire. Taylor needs more than the support of her new best friends, Samiah and London. She needs a miracle.
And Jamar Dixon might just be it. The oh-so-fine former footballer wants back into the NFL, and he wants Taylor to train him. There's just one catch—no one can know what they're doing. But when they're accidentally outed as a couple, Taylor's game plan is turned completely upside down. Is Jamar just playing to win . . . or is he playing for keeps?
GOODREADS RATING:3.8/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• QUEENIE BY CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS
BLURB:
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.9/5
GENRE: New Adult Fiction
• THE CELEBRANTS BY STEVEN ROWLEY
BLURB:
It's been a minute--or five years--since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they've reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living "funerals," celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living--that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.
But this reunion is different. They're not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.
The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.6/5
GENRE: Literary Fiction
BOOKS SHOWN IN THE GREEN SERIES💚
• FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS BY SHANI AKILAH
BLURB:
A group of young, Black British friends navigate their way through the ups and downs of modern London life, in this richly imagined collection of linked stories.
These are the people who sustain us through good times and bad.
Meet Niah and her friends. They’re young, they’re smart, they’re part of a tight friendship group determined to make the most of every day. And their lives are about to change forever.
From the tingling excitement of a new relationship to the challenges of online dating, from the shadow of racism in the workplace to the isolation of Covid-19, the stories in For Such a Time as This burst with romance and friendship. This stunning new collection is a powerful snapshot of the relationships – and moments – that make us who we are.
GOODREADS RATING: 4.2/5
• READY OR NOT BY CARA BASTONE
BLURB:
Eve Hatch lives for surprises! Just kidding. She expects every tomorrow to be pretty much the same as today. She loves her cozy apartment in Brooklyn that’s close to her childhood best friend Willa, and far from her midwestern, traditional family who has never really understood her. While her job is only dream-adjacent, it’s comfortable and steady. She always knows what to expect from her life . . . until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.
The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve’s loyal friendship with Willa is feeling tense, right when she needs her the most. And it’s actually Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help Eve. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and is . . . suddenly kinda hot? Then, as if she needs one more complication, there’s the baby’s father, who is (technically) supportive but (majorly) conflicted.
Up until this point, Eve’s been content to coast through life. Now, though—maybe it’s the hormones, maybe it’s the way Shep’s shoulders look in a T-shirt—Eve starts to wonder if she has been secretly desiring more from every aspect of her life.
Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.
GOODREADS RATING:4/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• WEATHER GIRL BY RACHEL LYNN SOLOMON
BLURB:
A TV meteorologist and a sports reporter scheme to reunite their divorced bosses with unforecasted results in this electrifying romance from the author of The Ex Talk.
Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.
In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.
Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?
GOODREADS RATING: 3.6/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• OPPOSITE OF ALWAYS BY JUSTIN A REYNOLDS
BLURB:
When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack.
But then Kate dies. And their story should end there.
Yet Kate’s death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever. Jack isn’t sure if he’s losing his mind.
Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate’s death, he’ll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And when one choice turns deadly for someone else close to him, he has to figure out what he’s willing to do to save the people he loves.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.6/5
GENRE:Time-Travel YA FICTION
• GHOSTLY BY KATE SERZENTA
BLURB:
He thought ghosting was just a dating term…
Daring lawyer Gabriel Vane has his dream job, a luxury high-rise apartment, a glamorous lover, and a massive scandal on his hands, possibly connected to said lover. To save his career, he needs to vanish—and what better place to hide than a dilapidated Victorian house in a sleepy town? He expects nosy neighbors and bad plumbing, but not a peppy ghost with anxiety issues.
Eternal incorporeal life has its perks, but after decades of binging sitcoms and lifestyle magazines, Ida Huxley wants proper, human company. Too bad her newest tenant—and the first person able to see her in over a century—is a work-obsessed, cynical snob.
In exchange for some peace and quiet, Gabriel agrees to fulfill the terms of a mysterious contract that will allow Ida to pass on and not end up a vengeful spirit. When sparks (and haunted objects) begin to fly, they have to either risk their carefully planned futures, figure out how to get sensual in two different planes of existence—or somehow bring Ida back to life.
GENRE: Paranormal Romance
• MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER BY OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE
BLURB:
In Lagos, Nigeria, Korede is a nurse in a close relationship with her younger sister, Ayoola. Ayoola is the more beautiful, favored sister, and possibly sociopathic. For the third time in a row, Ayoola has stabbed her boyfriend to death, supposedly in self-defense. Like the previous times, Korede helps dispose of the body and clean away the evidence.
Korede feels unappreciated as she constantly dreads that they will be caught and that Ayoola will kill again, confiding in none but a comatose patient in the hospital she works at. She is in love with Tade, a kind, handsome doctor who does not notice her affection. However, upon meeting Ayoola, he is immediately enamored with her and they begin dating. Korede fears that Tade will be Ayoola's next victim and must reckon with what she is willing to do for her sister.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.7/5
GENRE: Thriller
• DIAL A FOR AUNTIES BY JESSE Q SUTANTO
BLURB:
What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family?
You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue!
When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline.
It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business—"Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!"—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie's perfect buttercream flowers.
But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?
GOODREADS RATING: 3.7/5
GENRE: Humorous Fiction|| Mystery
• ROYAL HOLIDAY BY JASMINE GUILLORY
BLURB:
Vivian Forest has been out of the country a grand total of one time, so when she gets the chance to tag along on her daughter Maddie’s work trip to England to style a royal family member, she can’t refuse. She’s excited to spend the holidays taking in the magnificent British sights, but what she doesn’t expect is to become instantly attracted to a certain private secretary, his charming accent, and unyielding formality.
Malcolm Hudson has worked for the Queen for years and has never given a personal, private tour—until now. He is intrigued by Vivian the moment he meets her and finds himself making excuses just to spend time with her. When flirtatious banter turns into a kiss under the mistletoe, things snowball into a full-on fling.
Despite a ticking timer on their holiday romance, they are completely fine with ending their short, steamy affair come New Year’s Day...or are they?
GOODREADS RATING: 3.5/5
GENRE: Holiday Romance
And with that we have come to the end of the list 🎉. Keep your reading list bright and bold! 🌟📚 Thanks for tuning in to 'Read In Color' - see you in the next segment next week Friday.
❤ READ IN COLOR >>> RED EDITION ❤
BOOKS SHOWN IN THE RED SERIES ❤
• WOMEN OF GOOD FORTUNE BY SOPHIE WAN
BLURB:
Friends who steal together, stay together
A reluctant bride and her two best friends plot to steal all the gift money from her glitzy high-society wedding in this dazzling, heartfelt, funny novel for fans of Crazy Rich Asian
GOODREADS RATING: 3.6/5
GENRE: Humor|| Crime Fiction
• THE DONOR BY CLARE MACKINTOSH
BLURB: She gave you everything. But what does she want in return?
When Lizzie's daughter Meg is given a life-saving heart transplant, Lizzie feels hugely grateful to the nameless donor. Then she receives a letter from the donor's mother, Karen, asking to meet, and it seems like the least she can do.
But as soon as Karen is welcomed into their lives, Lizzie feels something isn't right. And before long, she can't help but worry that by inviting Karen in, she might have put Meg in danger . . .
GOODREADS RATING: 3.9/5
GENRE: Thriller
• VERY BAD COMPANY BY EMMA ROSENBLUM
BLURB:
Every year, executives at the trendy tech startup Aurora gather the company’s top employees for an exclusive retreat in Miami, and this year Caitlin Levy—Aurora’s newest hire—is joining the team as head of events. The benefits are outstanding: a seven-figure salary, stock shares, a discretionary bonus, limitless vacation days—what could possibly go wrong?
When a fellow high-level executive vanishes after the first night, the disappearance has the potential to derail the future of the company’s sale and cost everyone on the team millions. Now more than ever, Caitlin and her colleagues must continue the charade—partaking in team-building exercises, group brainstorms, dinners—in order to keep the future of Aurora afloat amid all the fatal speculations.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.3/5
GENRE: Domestic Fiction||Suspense
• HOW TO STOP TIME BY MATT HAIG
BLURB:
The book follows protagonist Tom Hazard through his 400-year life as he loses himself to fear and seeks purpose. This novel deals with themes concerning the inevitability of change and learning to find happiness.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.8/5
GENRE: Historical Fiction || Fantasy
• THE MARRIAGE CLASS BY ADESUWA O'MAN NWOKEDI
BLURB: One Class. Ten Couples. Ten Decisions.
Abi and Raymond are engaged to be married and have started marriage class. It is an exciting step in their journey to the altar...if you discount Abi's cold feet and the resurfacing of her ex fiancé, her ex fiancé who is now married to someone else. Abi's heart is torn in two very different directions; the calm and steadfast love she has with Raymond, and the chaotic yet exciting passion she had with Lucas.
And they are not the only couple struggling. In their fast-tracked marriage class, the nine other couples include a billionaire playboy reluctant to get married a third time, a couple engaged after a whirlwind romance and now struggling with the reality of getting to really know each other, a couple engaged after an almost two-decade long relationship, a couple engaged after a surprise and not-exactly-desired pregnancy, a couple who met on social media but now with differing views about just how much of their relationship should be for the 'gram and how much should be private, a groom fifteen years younger than his bride, and a bride marrying a man she has never met.
By the end of the marriage class, all ten couples find themselves at crossroads, their relationships tethered by one very key question. Will they...or won't they?
GOODREADS RATING: 4.1/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• GLORY BE BY DANIELLE ARCENEAUX
BLURB:
The first in a vivid and charming crime series set in the Louisiana bayou, introducing the hilariously uncensored amateur sleuth Glory Broussard.
It’s a hot and sticky Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Glory has settled into her usual after-church routine, meeting gamblers at the local coffee shop, where she works as a small-time bookie. Sitting at her corner table, Glory hears that her best friend—a nun beloved by the community—has been found dead in her apartment.
When police declare the mysterious death a suicide, Glory is convinced that there must be more to the story and, with her reluctant daughter, with troubles of her own, in tow, launches a shadow investigation in a town of oil tycoons, church gossips, and a rumored voodoo priestess.
As a Black woman of a certain age who grew up in a segregated Louisiana, Glory is used to being minimized and overlooked. But she’s determined to make her presence known as the case leads her deep into a web of intrigue she never realized Lafayette could harbor.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.8/5
GENRE: Cozy mystery
• PRIDE,PREJUDICE AND OTHER FLAVORS BY SONALI DEV
BLURB:
Sonali Dev launches a new series about the Rajes, an immigrant Indian family descended from royalty, who have built their lives in San Francisco... Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:
· Never trust an outsider
· Never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations.
· And never, ever, defy your family
Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.
Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge him by his rough beginnings and place pedigree above character. He needs the lucrative job the Rajes offer, but he values his pride too much to indulge Trisha’s arrogance. And then he discovers that she’s the only surgeon who can save his sister’s life.
As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s stunning desserts. But before a future can be savored there’s a past to be reckoned with...
A family trying to build home in a new land. A man who has never felt at home anywhere. And a choice to be made between the two.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.7/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• THE HEART PRINCIPLE BY HELEN HOANG
BLURB:
The story follows Anna, a professional violinist who is experiencing creative burnout after a video of her performing goes viral on YouTube. At the same time, her serious boyfriend suggests they see other people before making the commitment to marry each other.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.9/5
GENRE: Romance
🧡 READ IN COLOR >>> ORANGE EDITION 🧡
BOOKS SHOWN IN THE ORANGE SERIES 🧡
• THE BACKTRACK BY ERIN LA ROSA
BLURB:
Nearly twenty years ago, Sam Leto left her small hometown of Tybee Island, Georgia, to pursue her dreams of becoming a pilot. While she’d prefer to keep flying away from her painful childhood memories, her beloved grandmother Pearl decides it’s time to sell the family home. Reluctantly, Sam is summoned back to pack up the house.
The 2000s nostalgia from Sam’s old bedroom hits immediately: Fall Out Boy posters, drawers of roll-on body glitter and even her favorite CD player with a mixtape from her best friend, Damon Rocha. Damon was always a safe place and Sam often wonders what if her teenage self admitted her feelings for him back then…
Mysteriously, the CD player still works all these years later. And somehow it has the power to show Sam an alternate version of her life.
Song by song, Sam receives flashbacks from her past—senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren’t as she remembers them; they show what could have been. Suddenly, Sam knows exactly what would have happened if she’d taken a chance with Damon—and she can’t help feeling she made a terrible mistake leaving Tybee all those years ago.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.7/5
GENRE: Time Travel
• THE MEMO BY RACHEL DODES|| LAUREN MECHLING
BLURB:
If you could rewrite your life story, would you dare?
Do you ever feel like your life doesn’t measure up to everyone else’s—and wonder if you just didn’t get the memo helping you make the right choices?
Jenny Green dreads her upcoming college reunion. Once top of her class, the thirty-five-year-old finds herself stuck in a life that isn’t the one she expected. Her promising career has flamed out (literally) and her deadbeat boyfriend is cheating on her (again). All her friends seem to have it all figured it out, enjoying glittering lives and careers that she can only envy from the sidelines. Did she just not get the memo they all did?
As it turns out, she didn’t!
When she arrives at her alma mater for the festivities, she receives a text from an unlisted number. “Jenny Green: please collect your memo.”
Somewhere on campus, a discreet female-led organization provides comprehensive memos to select students, a set of instructions that are a blueprint for success.
The first time around, Jenny didn’t receive hers. Now, she’s being given the second chance she wants—an opportunity to relive her life and make all the right decisions this time around. But at what price?
GOODREADS RATING: 3.4/5
GENRE: Time Travel
• NOSY NEIGHBORS BY FREYA SAMPSON
BLURB:
Nothing brings neighbors together like someone else’s secrets… At Shelley House, the walls have ears, and they’re attached to a ragtag duo of busybodies ready to pry, snoop, and generally annoy their neighbors into solving a crime.
Seventy-seven-year-old Dorothy Darling has lived in Shelley House longer than any of the other residents, and if you take their word for it, she’s as cantankerous as they come. But Dorothy has her reasons for spying. And none of them require justifying herself to Kat Bennett.
Twenty-five-year-old Kat has never known a place where she felt truly at home, and crumbling Shelley House is no different. Her neighbors find her prickly and unapproachable, but beneath her tough exterior, Kat’s plagued by a guilty secret from her past.
When their apartments face demolition, sworn enemies Kat and Dorothy agree on just one thing: they must save their historic building. But when someone plays dirty—and one of the residents is viciously taken down—Dorothy and Kat seek justice. The police close the investigation too soon, leaving it up to the unlikely amateur sleuths—with a playful Jack Russell terrier at their side—to restore peace in their community.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.8/5
• PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION BY EMILY HENRY
BLURB:
People We Meet on Vacation follows Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen, two best friends who are opposites in every way. She is a wild child with insatiable wanderlust while he is laidback and would rather stay home with a book. Every summer they come together for a week long vacation; until one trip where everything is ruined and they stop speaking for two years.
While Poppy is living her dream of being a travel writer of a popular magazine, she finds herself stuck and unhappy. She recalled the moments where she was truly happy was when she and Alex were travelling. Attempting to rekindle this lost bond, she contacts him again for one last trip to Palm Springs.
This eventually leads them to uncover their history together as platonic friends, including memories from previous trips and their respective relationships, family struggles, and most especially: what happened to the trip to Croatia two years ago
GOODREADS RATING: 3.9/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• THE SUN SETS IN SINGAPORE BY KEHINDE FADIPE
BLURB:
Basking in Singapore's nonstop sunshine, Dara, Amaka, and Lillian are living the glamorous expat dream--until a mysterious (not to mention handsome) new arrival infiltrates their tight-knit community and ruins everything:
For Dara, a workaholic lawyer from the UK, Singapore is opportunity. Every day, brokering deals for her firm's wealthy clientele, she gets closer to her ultimate goal: making partner.
For Amaka, a sharp-tongued banker from Nigeria, Singapore is extravagance. Gucci, Prada, Hermès--she loves nothing more than to luxuriate in the major department stores that call her name on Orchard Road.
And for Lillian, a former pianist turned "trailing spouse" from the U.S., Singapore is reinvention. In a stunning apartment with 360° views, the island seems to glitter as far as the eye can see.
But complications are looming in the form of an enigmatic stranger, whose presence exposes cracks in Singapore's beguiling façade. Dara's ambitions mean she has no life outside the firm, and her insecurities are threatening to derail the promotion she's spent the last six years striving for. Amaka is desperate to escape the chaos she left behind at home and hiding a spiraling shopping addiction that's endangering her very sense of self. And while Lillian's life may be the envy of outsiders, a new obsession is imperiling everything--and everyone--around her.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.4/5
GENRE: Literary Fiction
• THE DATING PLAYBOOK BY FARRAH ROCHON
BLURB:
When a personal trainer agrees to fake date her client, all rules are out the window.
When it comes to personal training, Taylor Powell kicks serious butt. Unfortunately, her bills are piling up, rent is due, and the money situation is dire. Taylor needs more than the support of her new best friends, Samiah and London. She needs a miracle.
And Jamar Dixon might just be it. The oh-so-fine former footballer wants back into the NFL, and he wants Taylor to train him. There's just one catch—no one can know what they're doing. But when they're accidentally outed as a couple, Taylor's game plan is turned completely upside down. Is Jamar just playing to win . . . or is he playing for keeps?
GOODREADS RATING:3.8/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• QUEENIE BY CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS
BLURB:
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.9/5
GENRE: New Adult Fiction
• THE CELEBRANTS BY STEVEN ROWLEY
BLURB:
It's been a minute--or five years--since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they've reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living "funerals," celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living--that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.
But this reunion is different. They're not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.
The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.6/5
GENRE: Literary Fiction
BOOKS SHOWN IN THE GREEN SERIES 💚
BOOKS SHOWN IN THE GREEN SERIES💚
• FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS BY SHANI AKILAH
BLURB:
A group of young, Black British friends navigate their way through the ups and downs of modern London life, in this richly imagined collection of linked stories.
These are the people who sustain us through good times and bad.
Meet Niah and her friends. They’re young, they’re smart, they’re part of a tight friendship group determined to make the most of every day. And their lives are about to change forever.
From the tingling excitement of a new relationship to the challenges of online dating, from the shadow of racism in the workplace to the isolation of Covid-19, the stories in For Such a Time as This burst with romance and friendship. This stunning new collection is a powerful snapshot of the relationships – and moments – that make us who we are.
GOODREADS RATING: 4.2/5
• READY OR NOT BY CARA BASTONE
BLURB:
Eve Hatch lives for surprises! Just kidding. She expects every tomorrow to be pretty much the same as today. She loves her cozy apartment in Brooklyn that’s close to her childhood best friend Willa, and far from her midwestern, traditional family who has never really understood her. While her job is only dream-adjacent, it’s comfortable and steady. She always knows what to expect from her life . . . until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.
The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve’s loyal friendship with Willa is feeling tense, right when she needs her the most. And it’s actually Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help Eve. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and is . . . suddenly kinda hot? Then, as if she needs one more complication, there’s the baby’s father, who is (technically) supportive but (majorly) conflicted.
Up until this point, Eve’s been content to coast through life. Now, though—maybe it’s the hormones, maybe it’s the way Shep’s shoulders look in a T-shirt—Eve starts to wonder if she has been secretly desiring more from every aspect of her life.
Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.
GOODREADS RATING:4/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• WEATHER GIRL BY RACHEL LYNN SOLOMON
BLURB:
A TV meteorologist and a sports reporter scheme to reunite their divorced bosses with unforecasted results in this electrifying romance from the author of The Ex Talk.
Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.
In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.
Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?
GOODREADS RATING: 3.6/5
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
• OPPOSITE OF ALWAYS BY JUSTIN A REYNOLDS
BLURB:
When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack.
But then Kate dies. And their story should end there.
Yet Kate’s death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever. Jack isn’t sure if he’s losing his mind.
Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate’s death, he’ll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And when one choice turns deadly for someone else close to him, he has to figure out what he’s willing to do to save the people he loves.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.6/5
GENRE:Time-Travel YA FICTION
• GHOSTLY BY KATE SERZENTA
BLURB:
He thought ghosting was just a dating term…
Daring lawyer Gabriel Vane has his dream job, a luxury high-rise apartment, a glamorous lover, and a massive scandal on his hands, possibly connected to said lover. To save his career, he needs to vanish—and what better place to hide than a dilapidated Victorian house in a sleepy town? He expects nosy neighbors and bad plumbing, but not a peppy ghost with anxiety issues.
Eternal incorporeal life has its perks, but after decades of binging sitcoms and lifestyle magazines, Ida Huxley wants proper, human company. Too bad her newest tenant—and the first person able to see her in over a century—is a work-obsessed, cynical snob.
In exchange for some peace and quiet, Gabriel agrees to fulfill the terms of a mysterious contract that will allow Ida to pass on and not end up a vengeful spirit. When sparks (and haunted objects) begin to fly, they have to either risk their carefully planned futures, figure out how to get sensual in two different planes of existence—or somehow bring Ida back to life.
GENRE: Paranormal Romance
• MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER BY OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE
BLURB:
In Lagos, Nigeria, Korede is a nurse in a close relationship with her younger sister, Ayoola. Ayoola is the more beautiful, favored sister, and possibly sociopathic. For the third time in a row, Ayoola has stabbed her boyfriend to death, supposedly in self-defense. Like the previous times, Korede helps dispose of the body and clean away the evidence.
Korede feels unappreciated as she constantly dreads that they will be caught and that Ayoola will kill again, confiding in none but a comatose patient in the hospital she works at. She is in love with Tade, a kind, handsome doctor who does not notice her affection. However, upon meeting Ayoola, he is immediately enamored with her and they begin dating. Korede fears that Tade will be Ayoola's next victim and must reckon with what she is willing to do for her sister.
GOODREADS RATING: 3.7/5
GENRE: Thriller
• DIAL A FOR AUNTIES BY JESSE Q SUTANTO
BLURB:
What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family?
You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue!
When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline.
It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business—"Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!"—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie's perfect buttercream flowers.
But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?
GOODREADS RATING: 3.7/5
GENRE: Humorous Fiction|| Mystery
• ROYAL HOLIDAY BY JASMINE GUILLORY
BLURB:
Vivian Forest has been out of the country a grand total of one time, so when she gets the chance to tag along on her daughter Maddie’s work trip to England to style a royal family member, she can’t refuse. She’s excited to spend the holidays taking in the magnificent British sights, but what she doesn’t expect is to become instantly attracted to a certain private secretary, his charming accent, and unyielding formality.
Malcolm Hudson has worked for the Queen for years and has never given a personal, private tour—until now. He is intrigued by Vivian the moment he meets her and finds himself making excuses just to spend time with her. When flirtatious banter turns into a kiss under the mistletoe, things snowball into a full-on fling.
Despite a ticking timer on their holiday romance, they are completely fine with ending their short, steamy affair come New Year’s Day...or are they?
GOODREADS RATING: 3.5/5
GENRE: Holiday Romance
And with that we have come to the end of the list 🎉. Keep your reading list bright and bold! 🌟📚 Thanks for tuning in to 'Read In Color' - see you in the next segment next week Friday.
Don't forget to follow me for more bookish fun, share your own favorite 'Read In Color' picks with me Instagram and also on Facebook.
Which color should I do next, i would love to hear your answers in the comment section 😊
Which color should I do next, i would love to hear your answers in the comment section 😊
Do purple 💜😉
ReplyDelete