Despite its mixed reviews, I liked Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. I liked the voice and the story, but it was unnecessarily long and I didn’t like the ending. It’s the story of Toby who has just separated from his wife, Rachel. He is left with his children and misses a lot of work to figure out how to cover their care. The point of view was somewhat challenging to follow, but overall, there was something about this story that I liked more than I thought I would. But, I didn’t love it and the bad reviews don’t surprise me.

You Me Everything (why no punctuation?) by Catherine Isaac is a pleasant, quick read with a somewhat predictable ending. However, even though you could suspect how it was going to end, it didn’t make the story less enjoyable. While the subject matter has a depressing overlay, overall, there’s hope. Jess and her 10-year-old William head to France to spend time with William’s father (who Jess broke up with several months after William’s birth). Jess is reluctant to take this trip because her mother is in a care home, suffering from Huntington’s disease. Throughout the story we get glimpses into why Jess is in her current state and why it’s hard for her to take this vacation. There are some elements of the story that are a little annoying — her friendships aren’t fleshed out very well and there are characters that seem unnecessary — but for the most part, this was a nice diversion and would make good escapist or beach reading (and it’s only $5.49 for the Kindle version).

How to Forget is the second memoir written by Kate Mulgrew. While I enjoyed it, I liked her first, Born with Teeth (reviewed here) more. The book is about Mulgrew’s return to Iowa to take care of her parents in the final months of their lives. The first half is about Mulgrew’s father and the second half is about her mother. The section on her mother was tough to read – it’s about her mother’s Alzheimers disease and, because of the eight-year progression (as opposed to her father’s rapid decline and more sudden death), it seemed even more hopeless.

Reese Witherspoon is letting me down. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott wasn’t a great read for me (following my disappointment with her other pick, The Whisper Network). The premise of The Secrets We Kept was a good one – Amazon says: “A thrilling tale of secretaries turned spies, of love and duty, and of sacrifice–inspired by the true story of the CIA plot to infiltrate the hearts and minds of Soviet Russia, not with propaganda, but with the greatest love story of the twentieth century: Doctor Zhivago.” (Clearly I’ve gotten lazy and am not even writing my own synopses!) However, the execution left a lot to be desired. I was, frankly, bored by this story. It could have held much more intrigue and excitement. Perhaps part of the issue for me is that I haven’t read Doctor Zhivago, but nevertheless, this was one to skip for me.

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker has been on my list since Reese picked it last year. And, while it got better as it went (and I really liked the message), the characters weren’t very likable and I found the story dragged so much that I was just speed reading to get to the end (which I predicted long before the “big reveal”). It’s about sexual harassment in the workplace and how a small group of friends at a business worked through that harassment. The chapters alternate with testimony and detective questioning.

Verity by Colleen Hoover was a quick and enjoyable thriller, but a bit more risqué than my usual choices. Nevertheless, I blazed through it in an evening because I wanted to find out the conclusion. Lowen is financially unstable (at best) and is surprised to be asked to ghost write for a well-known author, Verity Crawford, after Verity’s car accident. To do her research, Lowen ends up living in the Crawford’s home, where of course, creepy things happen. From start to finish, this was a creepy story, but I didn’t expect some of the twists, which made it a good read.

Fiona Davis’ books are a mixed bag for me. I kinda liked The Masterpiece and really liked The Address). Chelsea Girls was good enough that even though I had to speed-read because someone else wanted it from the library and, though it was late and I was tired, it kept me awake and interested. It’s the story mostly of Hazel, but also Maxine, who meet working for the USO. It’s the McCarthy era and Hazel and Maxine’s Broadway hopes and dreams are in peril because of their communist connections. The story is fast-paced and was interesting to me since it’s a topic I don’t know much about. I enjoyed it.

I have a love-hate relationship with Joshilyn Jackson’s books. Some I really enjoy and some not so much. I liked The Almost Sisters, I loved Someone Else’s Love Story, reviewed here, and I didn’t at all like The Opposite of Everyone. Her latest, Never Have I Ever was OK, but not fantastic. In this one, main character Amy’s life is upset when Roux comes to town and upends the book club and other facets of steady neighborhood life. Somehow, Roux knows Amy’s deepest secrets, that even her husband and best friend don’t have any idea about. Things get trickier and trickier for Amy and you certainly want to keep reading to find out what happens. However, this one was a bit slow and not suspenseful enough for my liking. I didn’t hate it, but it was only so-so for me.

Those People by Louise Candlish was meh. The premise was interesting – a nightmare couple moves into a quiet block where neighbors know each other and close down the street each weekend to let kids run free. This couple runs a used car lot off their front lawn, erects scaffolding to do repairs themselves, destroys an exterior wall, all while playing loud music all the time. And, the quiet previous residents ask politely and finally lose it around this rude and selfish couple and their property-value destroying ways. People end up dead and theres’s a mystery to uncover. Each chapter begins with notes from a police inquisition from various neighbors and then the story works backwards chapter by chapter until the “incident” and then forwards again afterwards. I wanted to like this one, but everyone in the book was annoying and it was slow and a little dull. I only finished it to find out whodunit. I wouldn’t bother grabbing this one if I were you.

I followed a story of one introvert (The Bookish Life of Nina Hill reviewed here) with another: Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. This novel was on a bunch of lists this summer. I had read her previous book How to Walk Away (reviewed here) because I got it free for my Kindle. This is the tale of Cassie, one of a few female firefighters in Austin who moves to Massachusetts to help her mother (who left Cassie when Cassie was sixteen) after eye surgery. Cassie, like Nina Hill, has sworn off love after a traumatic experience. I wish I had not read these two similar stories one after the other. And, while at first, I thought the two stories were going to be redundant, once I got going with this one, I really enjoyed it (more than Nina Hill, in fact). Again, this is a summer romance more than anything and much of it is predictable, but if you are looking for a good, quick, enjoyable story, this is a great choice.