As much as I love my Kindle for travel and bedtime reading, I can’t seem to walk into a bookstore without buying three new books; the result is a book pile that’s getting out of control. I’ve been slowly chipping away at it over the past few months, and thought I’d share my July reads here; this feels particularly apt given that my last post (a whopping 578 days ago) was also a reading list.

She Regrets Nothing, by Andrea Dunlop

At her mother’s funeral, Laila Lawrence meets the glamorous cousins she didn’t know she had. Drawn in by their wealth and glittering lifestyles, she leaves her small-town life to join them in Manhattan, where she uncovers family secrets and becomes entwined in scandals.

I considered leaving this book unfinished (having recently read somewhere that the best way to read more is to not read books you’re not engaged in), but I stuck with it for the storyline. I found the character development a bit lacking (or maybe it was just that so few of the characters were actually likable), particularly in comparison to the other books I read this month.

My rating: 3/5 stars

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Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo

This one has been the darling of Instagram for the last month or two, and with good reason. It’s a non-fiction account of female desire, following the sex lives of three very different women: Lina, whose husband won’t touch her; Maggie, a high schooler who has an affair with her English teacher; and Sloane, whose husband likes to watch her have sex with other men and women.

The author embedded herself in the lives of these women, and the result is an in-depth account that reads like fiction. I burned through this one in a weekend and highly recommend it.

My rating: 5/5 stars

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The Ramblers, by Aidan Donnelley Rowley

This book follows three 30something friends from college through Thanksgiving week in Manhattan as they navigate love and friendship – and that’s about all I can say without giving too much away.

I read this book over 4th of July weekend, and it was so engrossing that at moments, I forgot that I wasn’t really in New York and it wasn’t actually Thanksgiving. I enjoyed reading about characters who are single and solidly in their 30s – it felt relatable in a way that a lot of other books in this genre haven’t.

My rating: 5/5 stars