Hi, hello! My storytelling + book reviews posts are back! On the first Tuesday of every month, I’ll send this out, and as long as you’re subscribed, you’ll get this in your inbox.
The Monthly Edit Includes:
A short, personal essay
Obsessions from that month
Recipes I’m looking forward to
Book reviews
I’m so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in!
There's something about being back in my childhood bedroom in Colorado that makes me so reminiscent of when I lived here!
This time, one surfaced that explained a lot: I've been a writer since elementary school, and long before I fell for a good murder mystery, I was writing them!
When my parents brought my baby sister home, I wasn't sold on her. But the moment she learned to crawl, I saw her potential! The many crimes we could commit! I mean the playdates…what have you.
See, I had a hobby. I'd sneak into the refrigerator, pull out the eggs, and smash them on the kitchen floor. Pure delight! But it was slow going for a one-woman operation, and I needed help scaling.
Enter my crawling, unsuspecting (but willing!!!) accomplice.
Somehow, I got her into the kitchen. Got her to help me open the refrigerator door and then proceeded with crimes.
When my mother discovered the two of us standing in our egg-based art installation, she pointed the finger at me immediately. Unacceptable. I stood my ground and informed her that this miscarriage of justice would not stand!
I had nothing to do with it. The real culprit was the baby on the floor, clearly.
To my absolute horror, my mom did not believe my sister created this mess. For days I argued my case, and for days I was unbelieved.
Fast forward a few years. I never forgot that fateful day. But I did learn to write. And then one day, our teacher assigned us to write a short story and bind it into our very own book.
I saw my opening.
With great craftsmanship and skill, I wrote the story about how my sister, on her own, opened the fridge door and proceeded to crack all the eggs.
I illustrated the crime scene myself, careful to keep myself nowhere near it. This was a serious work of nonfiction! Also, conveniently, an edge-of-your-seat mystery (who broke the eggs?).
Here’s the thing about being a child: once a book is published, it’s true. That’s just how it works.
I brought my masterpiece home and presented my accurate, thoroughly researched account of the incident. Justice, at last, had been served!
This is a story about how my lifelong love for murder mystery books started when I wrote one. Or a story about my love for writing. Or maybe my love for committing crimes and getting away with it. WE SHALL NEVER KNOW!
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The Cocktail of the Summer!
I cannot stop putting peaches into everything, and I definitely had to put them in a cocktail.
This Peachy Bourbon Smash is so fresh and juicy! I also have a batch version listed here!
A Denim Jumper I Want to Live In
This jumper is so pretty on!
It’s truly an easy one-and-done piece! It has the just-right amount of comfy stretch. It's designed with a boat neckline, cinched tie-back, and skort bottom.
I thought I’d need to go up a size because it is form-fitting, but nope! It is true to size.
Finally, How I Tame My Fly Aways
Due to humidity and new hair growth (I’ve been on a hair growth journey!) I have so many little hairs sticking out.
My hairdresser used this product on my hair, and not only does it tame flyaways, but it also adds shine and can add texture! I bought it before I even left my hairdresser’s chair.
Everything Jars
Why are these jars the perfect size?! Wide enough and tall, but not too tall! I make drinks in these and also use them to prep salads, dips, and sides that we eat off of all week. I purchased two and now own four 🥹
Everyone keeps asking me about the straws I use in these. Here they are!
THE Miracle Hair Product!
Like I said, I’ve been on a hair care journey and now my hair care routine is almost as extensive as my skin care routine.
Thankfully, I found this product, which both adds volume AND protects against heat styling. 2-in-1! And the volume is insane. I’m obsessed!
My Get Ready Routine Changed For the Better!
It’s summer, and please tell me why, for my whole adulthood, I would just be sweating while still doing my skincare and makeup routine…over a sweaty face?!
Then I found this portable fan and VIOLA! My face stays cool and dry, so I can apply skin care and makeup without sweating it off before it’s barely applied!
The full July meal plan is out and it is packed with recipes that will make this the most memorable summer yet!
Recipes that are eaten with our hands, outside at a picnic table, at the park, or by the pool, like:
The BEST Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps
Fully loaded hot dogs with creamy coleslaw
In-N-Out Smash Tacos
We’re also sticking to our theme of less-cooking-more-assembling summer of meals! Dishes like:
Loaded Baked Potato Bar
The last Chicken Salad Sandwich recipe you’ll ever need
Crispy Rice Mediterranean Bowls
If you want my full meal plan, weekly prep-ahead tips, and the downloadable grocery list for every week, you can sign up here!
Here are the books I read in June!
I’m also sharing one that I DNF’d so quickly because the character development drove me nearly crazy.
The Anniversary by Alex Finlay
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
This book is equal parts nail-biting thriller and tender story about two broken people finding their way toward each other across a decade of damage.
I did not expect to have my heart wrecked quite as thoroughly as it was!
Every year on May 1st, a serial killer stalks a small Midwestern town.
On May 1, 1992, two teenagers who barely know each other have their lives derailed in a single night. Jules, the high school golden girl, survives a brutal attack by the elusive May Day Killer and spends the next decade haunted by one question: why was she spared?
Quinn, who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, lands in juvenile detention and comes home to find his mother has been murdered.
By morning, Jules and Quinn’s lives are permanently, irrevocably linked.
What makes this book unlike anything else I’ve read?! The story revisits Jules and Quinn on one single day each year, May 1st, for the next decade!
One day. Every year. Watching their lives unfold in snapshots while the May Day Killer is still out there, still hunting, and the clock is always racing toward another anniversary.
I was fully invested from page one, and I did not figure out who the killer was until the very end. Which is saying something because I am always trying to figure out who the killer is.
Why You Might Like It
A completely unique story structure that drops you into a single day each year. Such a brilliant way to move through a novel!
Two protagonists whose lives you become deeply, helplessly invested in.
The kind of serial killer mystery where you will absolutely be pointing fingers at the wrong person the entire time
What Surprised Me Most: How invested I became in Quinn and Jules’ lives.
Into the Blue by Emma Brodie
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 🌶️🌶️
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
This book is everywhere, and I get it. I completely get it. But also…why am I crying on a sunny June day every time I pick up this book?!
In the summer of 2000, seventeen-year-old AJ Graves is stuck working at a video rental store in her small Massachusetts town when Noah Drew, the youngest son of a famous acting dynasty, walks in and changes everything (naturally)!
The two forge a bond so deep and electric it practically vibrates off the page, first as friends, then as acting partners, until one day Noah disappears without a word.
Seven years later, fate (and a casting director) throws them back together on the set of an intergalactic TV show, where their on-screen chemistry keeps bleeding dangerously into real life. Noah is carrying a secret. And when it finally comes out, everything changes.
The book opens at the end, then drops you all the way back to the beginning, so you can watch exactly how they got there. I was hooked immediately. The writing is captivating, the character development is so rich that AJ and Noah have taken up permanent residence in my brain like actual people I know personally and worry about.
Here is my honest warning though: this book is sad. Searingly, devastatingly sad. I flew through the first 75% and then found myself actively avoiding it for weeks because it just made me sad. Like, put-it-down-and-stare-at-the-wall sad.
I still loved it. I am so glad I read it. But if you pick this up expecting a breezy summer beach read, please adjust your expectations accordingly. This is more of a cry-alone-on-your-porch read.
Why You Might Like It
If you love a good spicy romance, this is it!
Right person, wrong time energy at its most agonizing (and I mean that as a compliment).
Characters so fully realized you will forget they are not real people.
The structure, opening at the end and working back, pulls you in immediately.
What Surprised Me Most: I went in for the hype and came out absolutely wrecked. Emma Brodie writes the kind of love story that doesn't leave you when you close the book.
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The Final Target by Nora Roberts
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Mystery, Romance
Arden Bowie is a newly published author on the debut-author circuit when a fan named Dustin shows up at her first signing with a smile that reads a little too hungry.
Then he shows up at the next event.
And the one after that.
He just wants writing advice, Arden tells herself. So she agrees to coffee. One cup of coffee later, she realizes she has made a catastrophic miscalculation.
What follows is a harrowing assault, a disturbingly short five-year sentence for Dustin courtesy of his very wealthy mother, and Arden uprooting her entire life to start over in Oregon before he gets out.
What I love about Nora Roberts is that she drops you so deep into her characters’ lives, their routines, their friendships, their homes…that the book reads like literary fiction for the first half. You are living Arden’s Oregon life with her, furniture shopping at flea markets, meeting the neighbors, watching a romance simmer. And then the thriller machinery kicks in and suddenly you are white-knuckling it to the finish line. The whiplash is delicious!
Why You Might Like It
Nora Roberts writes characters you want to move next door to and check on regularly.
The slow-simmering first half makes the thriller elements hit twice as hard when they land.
A romance that fits into the story without distracting from the mystery!
What Surprised Me Most: I went in for the thriller and left completely besotted with a fictional woman living in Oregon with her dog. Arden Bowie deserved everything good and I will not be taking questions.
Don’t Believe it by Charlie Donlea
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (I know 😭)
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Charlie Donlea is my book slump emergency exit! He has never let me down. Until now. Kind of…
The premise is objectively fantastic. Filmmaker Sidney Ryan has built her career on exonerating the wrongfully convicted, and her latest real-time documentary series, The Girl of Sugar Beach, is about to become the most-watched documentary in television history.
The question at its center: did Grace Sebold murder her boyfriend Julian while on a spring break trip to St. Lucia, or did she spend ten years rotting in a Caribbean prison for a crime she didn’t commit?
Sidney is investigating live, week by week, episode by episode, while millions of viewers watch the whole thing unspool in real time.
Like I said. Objectively fantastic.
And yet. For reasons I cannot fully prosecute in a court of law, I was never fully inside this one.
The pacing dragged in places I desperately needed it to move. The ending nearly clawed its way back into my good graces. Nearly. And then the very last page dropped me off a cliff with no rope and no explanation.
Why You Might Like It
The real-time documentary premise is such a fun concept.
If you loved Making a Murderer or Serial, this fictional riff on that world will come close to scratching the itch.
The twists, when they land, land with real force.
What Surprised Me Most: I have recommended Charlie Donlea to approximately everyone I know! And I still will, but I’ll have you start with The Girl Who Was Taken.
Counterweights: An Essential Practice for Holding Hope in a Heavy World by Shannan Martin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Faith, Nonfiction
My June morning read! Every morning I reached for my cup and coffee and this book which perfectly and hopefully carried me into summer!
I’ve been a devoted reader of for years because she does something I can’t get enough of: she reaches directly into the murky, half-formed feeling living somewhere in your chest that you have been unable to name, hold it up to the light, and hand it back to you perfectly articulated.
Counterweights is built around one deceptively simple idea: life hands us a fistful of heavy things we never asked for and cannot put down. So what do we do? We fill the other hand with something equally weighty in the opposite direction.
Not toxic positivity.
Not a gratitude journal.
Not pretending the hard stuff isn’t real. Just the honest, scrappy, daily practice of noticing the good that is hiding in plain sight right alongside the devastating.
This book could not have arrived at a better moment, when every day seems to bring more devastating and horrific news. Shannan does not look away from that or dress it up in a bow. She walks straight into the mess and then shows you how to find your footing anyway.
Why You Might Like It
Shannan’s writing is the kind that makes you feel profoundly understood.
Practical and hopeful without being preachy or saccharine, this is hard-won wisdom, not bumper sticker optimism.
The perfect morning read! Nourishing in a way that actually sticks to your ribs.
Essential reading for right now, in this specific moment in America, when the heaviness keeps compounding.
What Surprised Me Most: Every single chapter opens with a joyful list! I am a list girlie to my core, and those lists alone were worth the price of admission.
AND NOW…
Here is the book that had me screaming so much I DNF’d it and never looked back (well, until now, when I just have to tell you about it). You know the drill, less than amazing reviews are behind the paywall. Little secrets for my members!
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