Booking It July

Check out what the ladies are reading over at Life as Mom. Once again sucked in by the hot reads table at the library.  That just proves that displaying books prettily gets readers to pick them up. 

I read Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann. It is about a vintage clothing buyer and proprietor of a vintage clothing store that finds a journal sewn inside the coat.  The journal belonged to a young woman who wanted to become a clothing buyer for a department store during a time when woman faced some challenges in this field. It was a light enjoyable read. I wish it was a little more fleshed out especially at the end in regards to how Olive story ended.  It was a quick summer read.

I also read The Expats by Chris Pavone recommended by the Modern Mrs Darcy.

An international thriller, The Expats is the story of a seemingly ordinary working mom, Kate Moore, whose husband, Dexter, is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg—a move that will unravel everything they believed about each other. Kate and Dexter have struggled to make ends meet, so they jump at the chance to start a new life abroad with the promise of rich rewards. But Kate has been leading a double life, and leaving America forces her to abandon her dangerous but heroic job. She soon discovers that it will be harder than she thought to shed her past, especially while coping with the weight of an unbearable secret. Dexter seems to be keeping secrets of his own, working long hours for a banking client whose name he can’t reveal. When another American couple befriends them, Kate begins to peel back the layers of deception that surround her, revealing a heart-stopping con that threatens her family, her marriage, and her life. - Amazon

I really enjoyed how the story unfolded. It was a good compelling read. I also read The Accident by Chris Pavone as well. This one I enjoyed even more.  Chris Pavone slowly unfolds this story.

As dawn approaches in New York, literary agent Isabel Reed is turning the final pages of a mysterious, anonymous manuscript, racing through the explosive revelations about powerful people, as well as long-hidden secrets about her own past. In Copenhagen, veteran CIA operative Hayden Gray, determined that this sweeping story be buried, is suddenly staring down the barrel of an unexpected gun. And in Zurich, the author himself is hiding in a shadowy expat life, trying to atone for a lifetime’s worth of lies and betrayals with publication of The Accident, while always looking over his shoulder. -Amazon

I also read The Phantom of Fifth Avenue by Meryl Gordon. This is another book about the mysterious heiress Huguette Clark.  I once again came away from this book thinking that Huguette was not crazy but eccentric.  Huguette was wealthy beyond imagination and I don't think we can understand the burden and privilege that comes with that fully. This book also confirms to me once again that her personal nurse took advantage of her relationship with the heiress even if the heiress didn't feel that way.   There were also others in her personnel circle such as her accountant and lawyer who also took advantage of  her. This book delved more into the will contest and I found that fascinating. I did a previous review on the book Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman. Bill Dedman broke the story on Huguette Clark so his book was also quite interesting if you are fascinated with   the story of Huguette Clark.