OUR JUNE BOOK CLUB PIC IS The Good Sister!

Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life and disrupting her routine can be . . . dangerous.

When Rose discovers that she cannot fall pregnant, Fern sees her chance to pay her sister back for everything Rose has done for her. Fern can have a baby for Rose. She just needs to find a father. Simple.

Fern’s mission will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets that she long thought were buried.

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group towards the end of June! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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Our May book club pic is Life’s Too Short!

When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn’t expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn’t just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30, and Vanessa doesn’t want to take anything for granted. But after her half sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her baby daughter, life goes from “daily adventure” to “next-level bad” (now with bonus baby vomit in hair).

The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she’d be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua. Now she’s feeling things she’s vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group towards the end of May! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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Our book for April is The Kitchen Front!

Two years into World War II, Britain is feeling her losses: The Nazis have won battles, the Blitz has destroyed cities, and U-boats have cut off the supply of food. In an effort to help housewives with food rationing, a BBC radio program called The Kitchen Front is holding a cooking contest—and the grand prize is a job as the program’s first-ever female co-host. For four very different women, winning the competition would present a crucial chance to change their lives.

For a young widow, it’s a chance to pay off her husband’s debts and keep a roof over her children’s heads. For a kitchen maid, it’s a chance to leave servitude and find freedom. For a lady of the manor, it’s a chance to escape her wealthy husband’s increasingly hostile behavior. And for a trained chef, it’s a chance to challenge the men at the top of her profession.

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group towards the end of March! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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Spring is coming! For March, we’re doing a two part read!

I’ve picked Love At First by Kale Clayborn, as well as her book Love Lettering!

I read Love Lettering last year at this time and absolutely adored it. Love At First just came out this week, so for those of you who read through your local library and prefer books that have been out for awhile, I wanted to include Love Lettering too!

About Love At First:

Sixteen years ago, a teenaged Will Sterling saw–or rather, heard–the girl of his dreams. Standing beneath an apartment building balcony, he shared a perfect moment with a lovely, warm-voiced stranger. It’s a memory that’s never faded, though he’s put so much of his past behind him. Now an unexpected inheritance has brought Will back to that same address, where he plans to offload his new property and get back to his regular life as an overworked doctor. Instead, he encounters a woman, two balconies above, who’s uncannily familiar . . .

About Love Lettering: 

Meg Mackworth’s hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing custom journals for her New York City clientele. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Knowing the upcoming marriage of Reid Sutherland and his polished fianc e was doomed to fail is one thing, but weaving a secret word of warning into their wedding program is another. Meg may have thought no one would spot it, but she hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed Reid…

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group towards the end of March! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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It’s a good one!

So excited that our February book pick will be How To Fail At Flirting!

I read this book last month and absolutely LOVED it. The name doesn’t do it justice!

Here’s the scoop: One daring to-do list and a crash course in flirtation turn a Type A overachiever’s world upside down.

When her flailing department lands on the university’s chopping block, Professor Naya Turner’s friends convince her to shed her frumpy cardigan for an evening on the town. For one night her focus will stray from her demanding job and she’ll tackle a new kind of to-do list. When she meets a charming stranger in town on business, he presents the perfect opportunity to check off the items on her list. Let the guy buy her a drink. Check. Try something new. Check. A no-strings-attached hookup. Check…almost.

Jake makes her laugh and challenges Naya to rebuild her confidence, which was left toppled by her abusive ex-boyfriend. Soon she’s flirting with the chance at a more serious romantic relationship–except nothing can be that easy. The complicated strings around her dating Jake might destroy her career.

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group towards the end of February! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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A new year! We’re starting things off with a fun one!

This month, we’re reading Dear Emmie Blue.

Here’s the scoop: At sixteen, Emmie Blue stood in the fields of her school and released a red balloon into the sky. Attached was her name, her email address…and a secret she desperately wanted to be free of. Weeks later, on a beach in France, Lucas Moreau discovered the balloon and immediately emailed the attached addressed, sparking an intense friendship between the two teens.

Now, fourteen years later, Emmie is hiding the fact that she’s desperately in love with Lucas. She has pinned all her hopes on him and waits patiently for him to finally admit that she’s the one for him. So dedicated to her love for Lucas, Emmie has all but neglected her life outside of this relationship–she’s given up the search for her absentee father, no longer tries to build bridges with her distant mother, and lives as a lodger to an old lady she barely knows after being laid off from her job. And when Lucas tells Emmie he has a big question to ask her, she’s convinced this is the moment he’ll reveal his feelings for her. But nothing in life ever quite goes as planned, does it?

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group towards the end of January! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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With the busy holiday season, we’re picking two books for the months of November and December now, to read whenever we get to them! Super excited about these ones.

First up, In A Holidaze.

Here’s the scoop: It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.
But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.

Next, The Most Fun We Ever Had. I’ve had this on my list forever!

Here’s the scoop: When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are in a state of unrest. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator turned stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she’s not sure she wants by a man she’s not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. With the arrival of Jonah Bendt–a child placed for adoption by one of the daughters fifteen years before–the Sorensons will be forced to reckon with the rich and varied tapestry of their past: years marred by adolescent angst, infidelity, and resentment, but also the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile.

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group the middle of December! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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And it’s October! 6 months of our book club going strong! Here’s our October book pick…

We will be reading Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. I absolutely LOVE his books and am so excited to read this one along with you.

Here’s the scoop: Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. 

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group the last week of October – date to come! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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Woohoo! Time for our September book!

We will be reading One To Watch by Kate Stayman-London! I am so, so thrilled about this book – I’ve heard rave reviews!

Here’s the scoop: Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers—and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?

Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition—under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That’s it.

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group the last week of August – date to come! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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I’m so excited for our August pick!

We will be reading The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister.

Many of you have recommended this book to me and I am SO excited to read it along with you. It sounds wonderful!

Here’s the scoop: Once a month on a Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian’s restaurant for a cooking class. Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian’s soulful dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. And soon they are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create….

We will discuss the book in our secret facebook group the last week of August – date to come! Follow jessica’s book club on IG and facebook for details throughout the month, and to see what else I’m reading. xo

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