AFTER THE LAST PAGE

After my unforeseen hiatus from technology (due to my favorite laptop going ka-put), I have so many books to share. I've read 54 books already this year, and with  nearly three more months left to this year, I still have some big goals to reach. 

So, let's talk about talk the books I've read lately and what I would recommend (and those I wouldn't, too).

In Katherine Center’s new release, The Bodyguard, Hannah Brooks meets Jack Stapleton, a household name actor who’s just moved into town. Hannah might look like a kindergarten teacher, but she’s far from it—she’s actually a Executive Protection Agent, aka bodyguard and Jack is her newest client.

After her mom dies, her boyfriend/co-worker breaks up with her, and her best friend is found sleeping with said boyfriend/co-worker, Hannah is ready to jet off to literally anywhere else. When her boss gives her a new job protecting an A-list celebrity from a middle-aged corgi-breeding stalker in their hometown, she isn’t exactly thrilled–but, it’s just a few weeks and then she can jump onto the next plane to escape…right?

Except, when Hannah meets Jack, she’s pleasantly surprised. He’s nothing like she expected and his only goal isn’t movies, but to stick around while his sick mom gets better. Hannah’s job is to protect the family (and Jack), but Jack doesn’t want to worry his mom, so they come up with a plan—Hannah will secretly be his bodyguard while pretending to be his girlfriend.

The Bodyguard is an adorably romantic, laugh-out-loud funny comedy with perfect summer vibes.

Eliza Brightwell's family is from London, but when word on the street is that Australia is the place to be, the entire family moves in the hopes of making a fortune from the pearl trade. Taking place in the Industrial Era, Moonlight and The Pearler's Daughter follows Eliza as she steps foot in a new place--a place that just might make or break her family.

As the story progresses, we're taken 10 years forward, when Eliza goes to meet her father's pearling boat at the dock. Except, as the crew starts to disembark, it becomes clear that her father isn't on the boat and no one knows what happened to him. Determined to find her father, with nothing more than an inkling that he's still alive, Eliza sets sail on a new adventure. With the help of her friend Min, and her new male friend, Axel, Eliza searches for the truth of what really happened to her father.

Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter is a story of adventure, romance, corruption, and secrets.

TW: THIS REVIEW MENTIONS SEXUAL ASSAULT, RAPE, AND GENDER INEQUALITIES 

Reviewed by The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, Lessons in Chemistry is certainly a book that has gained speed quickly.

Set in California in the 1960s, Lessons in Chemistry is the story of Elizabeth Zott. Zott is a female scientist on an all-male research team in a time where women were more often housewives than chemists. Zott is working on an important project when she meets Calvin Evans, an infamous scientist also working for the same research company. While the two seem like an unlikely pair, their time together is much more than romantic chemistry—that is, until Evans suffers from a tragic accident.

Left alone with a dog and an unborn child, Elizabeth has to learn to handle motherhood as an unwed mother. Struggling with inequality, the difficulties of her field, and her role to her child, Zott finds herself reluctantly leaving the research facility and starting a cooking show with a fellow parent. Her unusual approach to cooking proves revolutionary and gains her a large following. Yet, as her following grows, so does the implication that women don’t just belong in the kitchen.

Compared to Where’d You Go, Bernadette and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Lessons in Chemistry is described as witty, laugh-out-loud funny, and must-read debut.