April Showers brings…May flowers!! Happy May, everyone, I hope the allergies aren’t keeping you down too long. This is one of my favorite times of year because the weather during the day is beautiful and the nights are still pretty cool. It’s a perfect combo for outdoor activities and cuddling up on the couch for an evening read. Did you enjoy last month’s post? Make sure you check it out because this month’s vibe are feel-good stories. They may have some depth, but the overall theme is light and homey, and probably a few laughs along the way.
Don’t forget to subscribe and keep scrolling for some feel-good stories! All the books mentioned in this blog can be found at my new fancy Amazon storefront for ease.
Feel Good Reads I Love
Have I convinced you to read Anne of Green Gables yet? No? Well, that’s ok because she will just keep on showing up whenever I am asked for a positive, wholesome, fun-loving story. This is a perfect story to read this season. Anne is such an inquisitive young girl and spends most of her time outdoors with her friend. This is a great story surrounding friendship and the complexities of what makes a family.
This is one of my favorite feel-good series to read. It’s a group of guys who are in this book club where they read old mass-produced romances to try and fix their actual relationships. It’s wild and hilarious, and honestly, the audio narrator did a fantastic job! Right now, there are 5 books out, and I would recommend reading these in order because some couples will show up in later books. I will say there are some steamy scenes in these, so be prepared to have a fun time!
Imagine walking into your late Aunt’s apartment that you inherited, only to find out that someone else is currently living there…but in a different time!
In this story, we have our FMC who is living in the present, but whenever she leaves the apartment, she may enter back 7 years in the past, where we meet our MMC. Over time, they sort of figure out what happened between them and see if they can rekindle their love for each other. The banter and the vibes were interwoven all throughout this story.
My favorite parts were the reminiscent flashbacks with the quirky Aunt. If you enjoy this one, I would recommend Poston’s other books as well; they are all written with a quirky vibe and have this really enjoyable magical realism element to them.
This is my first book that I’ve read from this author, and I can tell you purely from her writing style and witty banter between the characters, I will absolutely be reading more by her.
This is your classic and cozy enemies-to-lovers tale, involving 2 scientists, Ornithologists to be exact, who are both on the hunt for an especially rare bird to win a competition that will name them Birder of the Year. Regardless of whether birds are your vibe, this is some of the best banter that I’ve read in a while, and the journey to follow the clues to find the bird is really a fun adventure.
This is more of a low-stakes cozy fantasy, so you don’t have to use your brain too much to be able to get a good laugh out of this one. This is also a series, and (book 2) just released April 8th of this year!
I recently read The Spellshop, and it was a pleasant surprise. A lot more cozy than I was expecting, but the side characters in this small village really helped the story progress.
We have an estranged, anti-social librarian whose best friend is a talking plant who, after fleeing a burning building with all of her precious books, ends up on a remote island where she must hide her use of magic. But of course, whenever you move to another area, you need money. Our FMC secretly uses her magic to make…jam. This sounds so odd, but you will absolutely devour this story. While getting accustomed to her new way of life, she starts to meet the community on this island, and they will not leave her alone. She is then forced to become more social, and she learns that she can open up and start to depend on those who are showing up for her.
Again, I appreciated this story a lot more than I anticipated. The start was a bit slow, but once the quirky personality started showing, I just could not put this story down.
This is another author where I really enjoyed her writing style and hope to dive into her backlist also.
If you love a quirky set of characters and southern vibes, I will always recommend this series. Now I believe this is still an ongoing series, with about 25 books currently, but they are fairly short and really fun.
The first book sets us up with our FMC Fortune, who works for the CIA and is a witness to a crime, and so she has to go undercover, and they place her in this tiny town in Sinful, Louisiana. Here Fortune runs into 2 high-maintenance old women who just can’t seem to not get into trouble, but they are seriously a cackling good time!
Each book is roughly the time frame of about a week, and I think I’m on book 6 or 7, and I love the audiobooks. The narrator did a great job with the southern accents and really gives each character their own personalities. This is easily one of my go-to series to get me out of a slump because they aren’t super long, and I know I will get a good laugh at some point.
Oh sweet Ove! This is one of the few book-to-movie adaptations I have yet to watch, but it is on my to-do list. I think this was one of my first Backman stories, and he truly has a gift for writing complex and quirky characters with a lot of depth. And his range of novel topics is quite impressive.
This is one of his lighter books that just totally pulls at your heartstrings. Ove is this grumpy old man who doesn’t really like anybody and likes to be by himself, until life just can’t help but to envelope him and force him to interact with others, and he begins to open up and find some solace even in the lonely moments. I laughed, I cried happy tears, and this is just an overall really enjoyable piece of fiction.
TBR
These are books that I’m hoping to read this season, so I will be adding their synopsis since I haven’t actually read them. But all of them just sound so much fun!!
I am trying to read more translated fiction these days, and I have found that most Japanese stories have a really beautiful hint of magical realism sprinkled in their stories. And there’s food, how can I not want to read this story!
What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?
Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that’s not the main reason customers stop by . . .
The father-daughter duo are ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they can recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories—dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.
These are beautiful graphic novels of 3 books that I bought to read with my kiddo. I think she’ll appreciate the art and the themes of friendship and all the magical creatures.
After discovering a lost tea dragon in the marketplace, Greta learns about the dying art form of tea dragon caretaking from the kind tea shop owners, Hesekiel and Erik. As she befriends them and their shy ward, Minette, Greta sees how the craft enriches their lives—and eventually her own.
A book about books and quirky characters is always going to be a win for me! This just sounds like a super pleasant story that I can’t wait to dive into!
The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner, and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.
When the father, Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all – or mostly all – excited to meet her! She’ll have to speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?
It’s time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn’t convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It’s going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.
Hopefully, these ‘May Flowers’ bring you more joy and happiness than the obnoxious sneezes! I’d love to know which of these sounds up your alley, or if you think you would recommend one to a friend or family member, feel free to share that as well. Here’s the Amazon link again, all this books mentioned in one easy location. Stay well and safe friends.
Happy Reading!
Book Reviews & ARC’s
Firstly, I want to say thank you for considering me for your book reviewers; I am super excited. I love to read and encourage adult readers to take the leap, pick up a book, slap on a pair of headphones, and listen to an audiobook. While I love reviewing ARCs and books from authors, I want to provide guidelines and answer frequently asked questions on our process.
See HERE for further ARC requests
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