The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch follows the Gentlemen Bastards, a group of trained thieves, as they plan their biggest scheme yet. Rather than steal from the poor, why not take a some thousand gold crowns from the highest echelons of Camorr? It’s not like they’d miss it. Yet despite fooling even the highest crime boss in their land, things suddenly start to go awry. A coup in the crime world and sudden suspicion from those in power complicate their plans. Will Locke and his gang be able to keep their game up while surviving the bloodshed?

Back in March, when I was traveling to the Fungal Genetics Conference, my PI finished a book he was reading and immediately handed it to me– mid-flight– to read. Unfortunately for him, I was in the middle of a book (El Oro de Los Sueños) and had another (Remarkably Bright Creatures) all queued up. But as airplanes are somehow the best place for me to read as of late, I finally embarked on the book he made me read suggested on my latest trip to Boston.

For 70-year old Tova Sullivan, working as a night cleaner at the local Sowell Bay Aquarium helps keep her busy. Between the monotony of polishing glass and sweeping floors as well as the gentle presence of sea life, she can escape the grief of losing her loved ones. Five years prior her husband died of cancer, and thirty years ago her teenage son died via suicide, or so the police say… Tova has never believed this, though. Each night, she talks to Marcellus the Giant Pacific Octopus, and each night he listens.

One night, she finds him out of his tank, tangled in cords after raiding the trash bin for a snack. After saving his life, he vows to help her in some way. Giant Pacific Octopus are, as the sign in the aquarium says, remarkably bright creatures. Although they can’t speak with humans, they have a high understanding of patterns, information, and the world around them. Throughout the book, we are given snippets of Marcellus’s internal monologue as he tries to help Tova. Will he be able to before she retires and he, being extremely old for a Giant Pacific Octopus, dies?

A year ago on a trip to Ireland with his grandmother, Texas cowboy Maverick Callahan finds himself in a one night stand with Irish bartender Bridget O’Malley. With only a picture to remember her by, he is certain he’ll never see her again. That is, until he returns to his grandmother’s ranch to help her after a hip surgery and finds Bridget there, in tow with a child, no less!

For Bridget, life has been nothing kind to her. After the deaths of her best friend and her husband, Bridget is given responsibility over their baby daughter, Laela. With the support of her grandmother, she makes it work, but when her grandmother dies she is left with nowhere to go. Thankfully, her grandmother’s friend in America offered her a short term job to get her back on her feet. What are the odds that Bridget’s grandmother and Maverick’s knew each other?

A number of years ago, I was volunteering at my local library for the summer. As I normally do, I get hooked on a certain genre at a time, and in this case, I was enjoying all things graphic novel. During the downtime in helping kids register for the summer reading program, I’d read through them like water. Graphic novels had started getting quite popular and my library was very good about getting new books in regularly. I went through ones like Sweet Tooth and Saga, “covers” of books like Percy Jackson and Frankenstein, even children’s books like Roller Girl and Smile. When I picked up Beautiful Darkness, I figured it was another cutesy kids’ book. The art colorful and sweet, the title making me think it’ll be a fairy tale with the darkest things being the woods at night. Oh boy, was I wrong.

After a crushing separation and bankruptcy of her and her partner’s design business, Polly Waterford moves to the somewhat isolated and run-down island of Mount Polbearne on the little money she has left to figure out her next steps. With so much free time and so little to do, she pours her heart into baking as a release. The townspeople, including the cute beekeeper from the American South and the charming local fisherman, adore her breads and desserts, so much so that they try to hide it from her disgruntled landlady and owner of the only (and terrible) bakery in town. Author Jenny Colgan takes us along as we watch Polly’s struggles and victories in love, individuality, death, business, and friendship.

Who would have guessed that when rivals First Son of the United States Alex Claremont-Diaz and British Prince Henry have to pretend to be friends for the sake of international relations after a wedding cake mishap, love was under the surface and ready to blossom. Yet despite the growing feelings, the two must keep their relationship a secret as not to disrupt Alex’s mother’s campaign nor paint the image of the Crown in the “wrong light.” Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston sweetly takes you through their hidden romance as they take on life in the global spotlight.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab takes us to a London where magic exists and those in possession of it can travel between alternate worlds. After Black London, filled with unquenchable and evil power, became a threat to the others, the doors were shut down to all except the Antari, a nearly extinct race of people who still have the ability to make these doors. To do so, they must use blood and a piece of the other worlds, which is only impossible for Black London, where no trace exists in the others any longer… or so we believe. The story has us follow Kell, an Antari from the lush and magically blessed Red London and Lila, a supposedly human girl with a penchant for trouble from the lacking Grey London, as they try to escape the power hungry White London’s rulers and return a powerful talisman to Black London.

In order to convince her best friend Anh that she is over the ex Anh wants to get with, Olive Smith, PhD candidate at Stanford, kisses a random man in the hallway to put on a ruse. It just so happens that that man is not only one of the department’s best researchers, but is also one who is rude, moody, and notorious for treating his students like trash. Yet, rather than filing a Title IX complaint, Dr. Adam Carlsen agrees to fake-date Olive for the time being so her plan could work. Shocked by his agreement, Olive goes on fake dates with him only to find the dates are feeling more and more real each time.

Book in hand, you are taken to the little island home of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. There, she presents to you a few specially collected shells from the nearby sands and explains what each one means to her in regards to life and relationships. You are shown the channeled whelk, the moon shell, the double-sunrise, the oyster bed, and the argonauta. You are taught about the ebbs and flows of living, of your right to discovering yourself, to the multitude of ways relationships can take form, and how to be alone. After, you are treated with an author’s reflection about two decades after the original publishing, allowing her to point out where she feels she went wrong, where she went right, and how her past thoughts apply to herself in a new stage of life.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a book where a summary would give away the story, and with it, its meaning. But to explain, Gabriel Garcia Marquez follows the mystical and miraculously uncommon, commonplace lives of a doomed family in town of Macondo, a make-believe town situated in the tropics. You get to experience their sometimes dull, sometimes incredulous lives while also receiving information on various events that are actually disguised commentary of real happenings and feelings of real people. It is a must-read book that somehow manages to confuse, bore, delight, and upset all in one go (or in many, as I had to due to the number of times I put it down due to simply feeling frustrated or tired of it).

Upon finishing Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea, I was afflicted with those bittersweet post-book blues, hooked on her gilded descriptions and luxurious world-building. In a state of literary withdrawal, I purchased The Night Circus but sadly became too preoccupied by other obligations to finish it then and there. Now with more time on my hands, I restarted the read, devouring the book in about two days and again wanting more. I was skeptical that this book would live up to her other work, or technically the opposite as this was published first, and it nearly did. While there are a lot of similarities in the pace of the plot and other various details, they both pull you into their worlds and give a story lover the ode they desiderate for.

When it comes to romance novels, a common trend is girl meets boy, they develop a case of the hots, problem strikes, and with their love they solve the problem and live happily ever after. I won’t lie, they’re fun to read, no doubt. Like any other genre, it gives the reader a chance to jump into another’s life and escape from the mundane. Though, it is a bit more difficult to live vicariously though a character when you can’t relate to them. Sure, use a dash of “suspension of disbelief” and you’re all set, but it really is not the same.

Ali Thomas, daughter of one of Hollywood’s biggest 60’s stars, owns a chocolate shop in St. Magdelana, CA. There, she takes in the strays of the town, helping those around her through either her desserts or her kind heart. When her local handyman hires a reserved and mysterious worker Matt Baker, it unadmittedly becomes love at first bite of truffle. Together, they realize they need to work through their past demons before their romance can finally be.

Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea melodically tells the tale of booklover and son of a fortune-teller Zachary Ezra Rawlins as he ventures into his story, one beneath the earth in gilded caverns of books and glowing ballrooms. After stumbling upon an old, author-less book in his university’s library, he realizes he is one of the characters within it. Trying to figure out how this could be, he traces the origins of the book and finds himself at a high class, literary-themed party. There, he meets Dorian and Mirabel, learns the truth of the Starless Sea, and goes on an adventure to save it and those he loves.

Sisters by Choice follows the stories of three ambitious women, two cousins and one first cousin once removed, as they struggle with making their dreams a reality. Together on Blackberry Island in the Pacific Northwest, they learn from each other and grow– Sophie Lane, rebuilding her cat product company after a fire while dealing with her internal trust issues; Kristine, starting a new bakery while trying to save her marriage; and Heather, trying to move away from her abusive leech of a mother. Mixed in, you get a douse of romance as Sophie toys with the heart of local Tai Chi instructor Dugan with a mysterious past.

As a kid, I used to be a voracious reader, devouring whatever book made its way into my hands. Then, when high school hit, I found that I could only muster up that type of an appetite for books during summer. Well, since starting college, I haven’t had any time truly off (summers meant studying for the MCAT, doing research, etc.), so reading was never made a priority. After a friend gifted me a book for Christmas and I found I was struggling to read it, I decided I needed to just read without any strings attached, like before. Just reading in any way I like, maybe books with no purpose other than to entertain, ya know? So, I picked up a book I started ages ago and let myself enjoy it. That book would be Butterfly Bayou by Lexi Blake (go ahead, judge me). After reading it, I made a Goodreads page and decided I’d also post my reviews on here, because why not? OH, link to the Goodreads here if someone is reading this and wants to friend me. I’m always happy to find people to get/give book recommendations. Anyways, here is my review, nothing special, but if you’re looking for a romance novel, here ya go!