The Book Nook Chronicles

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June was a slower reading month for me, with some personal things coming up near the end of it that really put me off reading all together. I’m only highlighting 4 of the 6 books I read in June within this round-up. One of the not featured books is an advanced reader copy (ARC) that I am writing an in-depth stand alone review of closer to the book’s publication date. The second was a picture book ARC, which I’ve reviewed on StoryGraph.

I’m curious for those of you that actually read this book blog of mine (if there are any of you really out there):

I feel kind of silly reviewing them as someone who doesn’t have kids of her own kids yet, but as an honorary and actual aunt to a lot of little humans, I have a love for picture books that cannot be denied.

Let me know in the poll above if you would like to see picture book reviews going forward.

First-Time Caller Review

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5.0 on StoryGraph

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Author: B.K. Borison

Page Count: 437

Publication Date: February 11, 2025

First-Time Caller is officially my favorite romance of 2025. I’ve been reading a lot more romance this year than I ever have and a lot of them have been hit or miss, but First-Time Caller hit every mark for me.

First and foremost, this book is a reimagining of Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle–which is actually an adaptation of An Affair to Remember, but most people don’t know that. Since the story has been re-written three times, it clearly has good bones.

The modernization of the story is really what got me. I loved the juxtaposition between the main couple, Aiden and Lucie. They were the perfect grump / sunshine trope, with Aiden burnt out from his time in modern-day radio and the strong, vivacious Lucie who’s a freaking mechanic! B.K. Borison also did slow burn right. She built the tension between the two characters flawlessly, but gave you bits of romance at just the right moments so you weren’t pulling your hair out by the end of the novel.

The true icing on the Berger cookie for me however was the fact that the book is set in Baltimore. Having married a man from Maryland, I’ve learned to love so many things about the state and its quirks. The many references to things like crab chips, Berger cookies, and Fell’s Point made me homesick for my third favorite place in the U.S. (Chicago and Upstate NY still hold 1st and 2nd).

First-Time Caller is the first book in B.K. Borison’s Heartstrings series (all of which are rumored to be inspired by 80s/90s rom-coms) and I’m already chomping at the bit for book 2 to come out in February.

3.75 on StoryGraph

Trigger Warning: This book contains a miscarriage.

This book was wild.

Oracle Night was my book club’s read for June. Our prompt for the 6th month of the year was “a book Rory Gilmore reads in Gilmore Girls.” There are a TON of classics on that list like Beowulf and Shakespeare, so the book club bestie in charge of selecting this title went with one of the more modern titles that was available.

This was my first experience with Paul Auster and it was a trippy experience. I listened to the audiobook and I don’t recommend it. This novel jumps around between the main character’s actual life and a notebook the main character is writing in (stories within a story are apparently Auster’s jam). This approach probably works really well in a physical copy where the stylization of the print can be adjusted and changed. When you just have one reader tackling the complexities of Auster’s work, its all blurs together into one confusing fever dream.

It was a fever dream I was here for, however, so much so that I ended up re-listening to the last 15% of the book twice to make sure I heard everything correctly. The twists and turns in this book, along with the touches of magical realism that could easily just be coincidence, were intoxicating.

There were a few characters and subplots that really felt unnecessary (the miscarriage in particular felt cruel and unusual), but overall I’d read this book again, simply for the mind games.

3.0 on StoryGraph

I kinda hated this book. The Talented Mr. Ripley was my book club’s May read and I ended up finishing our June read first because I disliked this book so much.

The prompt that inspired this read was “a book set in your favorite location.” The book club bestie who selected this one loves Italy, and had heard promising things so the fact that I disliked this one is no fault of hers.

At first I thought the novel was simply about a con man, but as soon as I found out it was about a serial killer, I was out. I was also really bummed by the dated takes on mental health and homosexuality (it was written in the 50’s so these issues didn’t come as much of a surprise).

Overall, the book was ok, but it got predictable about 1/3 of the way through and just boring after that. The only thing I liked about Mr. Ripley was his distain for the upperclass.

I hear there’s a new Netflix series called “Ripley” based off Highsmith’s Mr. Ripley book series. I hope they were able to take the bones of this book and turn it into something good.