August Books

Two great books this month to finish up my summer reads:

First was This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune.

I think this was the book of the summer, it seemed like everyone was talking about, which prompted me to read her first two books last month.  This time we meet Lucy who lives in Toronto. Five years ago she went to Prince Edward Island to meet up with her best friend, Bridget, who is from there.  But Bridget's flight is delayed and Lucy has to go to the house by herself, she stops in at a restaurant and ends up hooking up with a guy she meets there.  We follow the story back and forth between present day and each of her visits to the Island. 

I have been to PEI several times but it has been a few years, this book really made me want to visit again soon and luckily I have a friend that lives there. (Cindy, pencil me in for next summer!) It really is a charming island and the author really captures it, the lobster, the oysters, the red sands, the Anne of Green Gables references.  She even mentions Hurricane Fiona, which was a pretty devastating event for the Island a couple of years ago.  Her references to Toronto landmarks is also something that I enjoy. 

This trio of books, along with the one coming out next year, should be part of your summer reads!

The second book I read was None of This is True by Lisa Jewell.

This had a different tone from the other book I read this month.  Here we meet Josie, a 45 year old woman in London.  She is out for dinner with her husband and at the same restaurant is Alix, also celebrating her 45th birthday.  Josie is fascinated by Alix and introduces herself as her "birthday twin". They run into each other again and although Alix feels like Josie is a little weird, they strike up an acquaintance and Alix gets the idea to make a podcast about Josie's life. (Alix is already a podcaster but looking for her next project.) Interspersed with the story we get excerpts from a Netflix doc indicating there is more to this story than we think.

This was a book that definitely caught my attention and I wanted to keep reading.  It was also very creepy and reminded me of Baby Reindeer, which we did stop watching because it was so creepy.  Because of the Netflix doc transcript throughout, we knew that there was something "off" but were never quite sure what.  It was definitely a different type of thriller mystery book, and I would recommend it.