July 2016 Top Reads

I started doing a monthly faves/top reads because with the number of books we read in a year, I was having a hard time remembering the ones I loved when December came around and I wanted to do a round up--that's pretty terrible isn't it? It may be terrible but it's true.  Some months we have so many good reads that it's hard to narrow it down..as a matter of fact when I look at some of our older monthly round ups, I see that I made no effort to narrow it down...but here's the thing, if everything is a favorite, then it feels like nothing is, right? So, I'm trying to be more selective in the monthly round ups--just picking the best of the best of the month because to be honest, we don't post anything on the blog that we don't like. If we DNF a book or don't feel comfortable with recommending it, we don't feature it here. You may see that Courtney will put a low star review on goodreads, indicating that we tried but failed to like it, but we made a decision a while ago to only promote books here that we liked--even the problematic ones..even the ones that we have quibbles with but overall like (we'll mention the flaws when we see them).  So why this long-winded post about our favorites? Because. Because last month I realized that I was torn between putting books on the favorites list that I enjoyed vs. the ones I thought were the best of the month because I've learned that even tiny blogs like this one can somehow offend and be blacklisted and I had to think about whether I wanted to be honest or try to have everyone like us. I decided to be honest. All the books we review are, in our opinions, good books but not all of them are, or can be, the best books and that's what this list should be. So without further adieu, here are our favorites for July:

Click on the graphic above to purchase on Amazon.

The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz--gorgeous southern novel that solves the mystery of a bourbon business that no longer exists and weaves the past and present into something unforgettable.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy--welcome to the U.S. after a huge apocalyptic event and see it through the eyes of a father trying to protect and nurture his son. 

Stealing Home by Nicole Williams--Major league baseball + the rare unicorn of a female trainer meet, fall for each other, and hide it. Secrets, lies, clandestine meetings= sexy goodness.

The Hard Count by Ginger Scott--two high school seniors who love to hate each other, or do they? find out if the feelings they develop can survive her father coaching him, bigots, and family trials. One of Scott's best.

Anything But Minor by Kate Stewart--hilarious. But if you must know more--a minor league baseball player and a nerdy pilot meet and have the funniest and most unlikely romance I've read in a while.

Strong Signal by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell-- a beautiful online gamer + a grumpified military guy 'meet' because of a gaming move gone wrong (or right depending on who you ask). They are sweet and charming and wonderfully grumpy and messed up and I can't wait to read the second book in this series (released just this month!).

I already have a few books that I am eager to share with you in August and I'm narrowing down my reading list to what I really want to read because school starts soon and my free time will be sorely limited *sobs*. I can't wait to share our top picks with you. In the meantime, happy reading.