July: What I Read & Arugula Recipes

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren Yellow cover. Christina Lauren books are so easy. Easy to get into, easy to follow, easy to laugh at, easy to like. Jess, a single mom and freelance statistician. Right off the hop we meet her best friend Felicity, a.k.a. Fizzy, her 7-year-old daughter, Juno, and her Nana and Pops, who raised her and are helping her raise her daughter. We also meet her grumpy love interest right away, Dr. River Peña, a geneticist who founded a DNA matchmaking company. This book gives off Ali Hazelwood vibes. There’s a little bit of science mixed in with romance. This is a good enemies to lovers story because their chemistry is different but palpable. I laughed out loud so many times reading this book, Cardboard Cutout, Seaman-Butkis bahahaha. I really liked Jess and her no nonsense approach to life, her situation and THE situation. When River and Jess get matched they begrudgingly agree to get to know each other for research purposes. I really loved Jess and Fizzy’s friendship, they were SO funny. I knew this would get a little bit muddled up, and I felt like the book started stronger than it ended but all around it was an easy, fun, and enjoyable read perfect for the beach.

A Vow in Vengeance by Jaclyn Rodriguez Chart Toppers. OK I am so in just from the prologue but 10 pages in, I’m giddy with excitement lol. This book starts like the Hunger Games, at a selection. The immortals choose 100 mortals during selection to cross the wall. Rune’s whole family has been taken over the wall during her short 20 years and she has had to become, The Wraith, a spy for a brutal nobleman, who now has a bounty on her head. Now, she hopes to be selected to cross the wall, and get her revenge. In the first 15 pages, we have met the FMC, her love interest, the MMC, and probably one of her sidekicks. I love that we meet them all so early on so that we can connect with them and watch their stories progress. Once the selected cross the wall, nothing is as they had assumed. Over the wall is the Forge. All the selected use tarot cards to find out what their magical ability is, and then they spend the year training at the Academy at the Forge. At the Academy, they learn the magic of tarot cards, with classes like the magic of major Arcana, divinations and readings, plus sparring, of course. When Rune picks her card or her card picks her, she is gifted with a card that only one other person has and Rune and Prince Draven find themselves roommates as the academic year begins. Quickly, and I mean very quickly, things escalate, not in spice, in relationships. I’m not sure if the tropes hit as hard as they could have. They’re not really enemies, close proximity seems like it was rushed, fated mates without chemistry and the Draven Rune trust all seemed so sudden and not fleshed out. This was a good book that felt very YA to me. The storyline seemed to be missing important details and the world building wasn’t as strong as I would’ve liked. However, the twists were big, the magic was cool and the FMC and MMC can’t lie to each other which is different and fun, although the next book will play out differently and I like how it was left on a cliffhanger but totally set up for what is to come in the next book.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke Debut Novel. 5 pages in and I’m having a visceral reaction to Natalie Heller Mills. I hate her. God has been brought up numerous times within the first 5 pages and by page 7, I’m not sure this is the book for me. In part 1 we meet Natalie, a successful homesteading blogger with the “perfect life”. But her perfectly curated life, in reality, is a sham and it’s falling down around her. In part 2, she is still awful. Maybe even more so. Natalie wakes up in 1855 and everything she has pretended to be is a reality and she is an actual trad wife. Well, Natalie is settling in to her new/old life, we are told a bit more about her, her history, and how she got to this point in her life. Natalie‘s college experience was awful, but it didn’t make me like her anymore. In fact, I liked her less. I really hated how the author/Natalie made “angry women“ out to be vile, hostile, stupid, and predatory. When in fact, the biggest predator was the church group taking her under their wing. I had to put this book down repeatedly because I was so angry. I guess I’m part of the uneducated angry women that used my university experience to complain about men and my place in life. Ugh. Honestly, waking up in a totally different time. Would be absolutely crazy and she actually handled it well but she’s not learning anything because she didn’t enjoy that life to begin with. Everything is just pretend with her. I finally found a few characters that I like in this book though, Mary and Maeve! I guess I’m happy that this book shows a version of being a trad wife that is ugly and dishonest but nobody in this book is likeable. Natalie doesn’t like her life. She doesn’t even buy the BS she is selling on Instagram. It was interesting though how she broke down the minutia of an influencer and how words online didn’t hurt as much as face to face judgements, also how hypocritical Natalie‘s “Christian“ lifestyle is. I mean Saint Natalie? Ugh, I am literally a food blogger and I cannot relate to Natalie on any level. I did not see that twist coming at all. Caleb‘s descent into the manosohere was eye-opening. Actually, once I got over my shock and anger, I realized this is how America is the way it is in 2026. I don’t normally read satire so it’s difficult for me to like this book. Did I have a lot of feeling about this book? Yes. Did I finish it in one day? Also, yes. Did the author make me hate a character as much as I love other characters? Yes. This book is very hard to rate but I will be thinking about it for a long time and I think by the end, I got it for what it was and not for what I wanted it to be.

Mad Mable by Sally Hepworth A book with an alliteration in the title. Oh Mabel and her friend Daphne are a hoot! This book is told from 81 year old Mabel’s perspective. Mabel lives on a nice street in a nice community in Australia. It is told in 2 parts then and now and the switch up every few chapters. Presently, Mabel and her best friend Daphne live on Kenny Lane along with a whole host of characters like 7 year-old Persephone. This is darkly funny book with cutting sarcasm and quick wit. It tickled my Commonwealth funny bone. In the past sections, you see Mabel‘s childhood, the abandonment, the people that cared, the people that didn’t and ultimately the people that made her who she is now. Who she is now is a woman whose neighbour died and is now a suspect due to something that she did in the past that helped lead to her nickname Mad Mabel. Mabel’s life is traumatic and her childhood is filled with adults that let her down. However, there are a handful of people throughout Mabel‘s life that truly care about her and I like that. I hate how Mabel was viewed in her world and I hate how she was treated by her town when she was the victim of child sexual abuse. Wow, I loved this ending! What a fabulous twist that I honestly didn’t see coming!

The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung 🇨🇦 Written by 2 authors & A book featuring Asian mythology. This book starts off with a lot of action right away. The main character is Alice an unlikeable food blogger, whose mom is a famous Chinese dissident. When all hell breaks loose Alice and her mom, Vivien Li are rushed to the White House as the political mystery/thriller unfolds. Alice seems unlikeable because she’s an adult that is petulant around her mom like a teenager or child. Her and her brother don’t know anything about their family, their mother, or their heritage and they come off seemingly privileged, spoiled, and entitled. The story goes, the entire world is under attack, but nobody knows who is doing the attacking. First every emergency alarm goes off throughout the entire planet. Next, all of the elevators are taken over, every single elevator on earth. Everybody knows the signals are coming from China, but are they from the Chinese government? The reader gets a behind-the-scenes account from the oval office to the conference call with all of the heads of state with the five eyes, to the president’s table in China. This book reads like a movie with different scenes. One minute you’re reading from the view of the Chinese president, the next minute Alice is on a plane, and the next paragraph is about what is happening in the oval office. It’s all over the place, yet relatively easy to follow. Of course, like any good political thriller, the best part is the last 150 pages when all the loose ends are tied up and everything becomes clear.

Finding Flora by Elinor Florence 🇨🇦 A book where the main character moves or has recently moved to a new location. I can tell right away that Flora is a strong woman and her story is going to be full of surprises. Flora is a young woman from Scotland newly brought to Canada by her new husband. After he shows her his true colours, Flora saves herself by jumping off the train taking them west. Luckily she meets a kind Nurse and she sets herself up with a new dream, homesteading near Red Deer in what becomes, Alberta. I love reading books that highlight the Canadian landscape and it was great to read about the history of the Canadian prairies. I didn’t like Flora at first. She thought she was better than everyone else and it rubbed me the wrong way. She was also impatient, not accepting of help and has no idea what kind of effort homesteading would take. She gets there though. I could NEVER be a pioneer, especially alone and I was terrified for the settlers as that first winter hit. I grew up in Manitoba and I know prairie winters. Flora settles on land surrounded by women. With her abusive husband searching for her and the Matriarch of the nearby town against her and the other women of “Ladyville” plus the weather and work, it makes for a very good, but very hard, story. What I dislike about pioneering books is that every time the characters take two steps forward, something happens that make them take five steps backwards. It is mind blowing to me that this was the case throughout history, not just in books, especially for women. As I read, the injustices just kept on adding up, which made me angry and frustrated. I know this is a book about resilience, and hope and strength, but I just don’t know where the settlers got their drive to keep on going against the government, the weather, and all the other things standing in their way. As someone born and raised in Winnipeg, it was interesting to read a book that talked a little about Métis history. This book is rooted in feminism and it shocked and angered me how people thought women should just be wives with no voices, barely 100 years ago! The battle is slow and ongoing but Canadians are good people and the community comes together and will continue to do so until our country is filled with people treated as equals. I was satisfied with the ending.

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi A book with a title containing an element from the periodic table & Challenge Faves. This book has been on everyone’s reading list for the past year and now I can see why. It’s an easy read and it is such a sweet little book. Mr. Theo is an elderly man from Portugal that has “business“ in the small town of Golden in southern USA. Theo is an interesting character and I enjoyed the way he was written. I enjoyed reading about Theo‘s interest in the 92 pencil portraits hanging on the café wall. Theo is so interested in the portraits that he buys them all one by one and returns them to their rightful owners, the artist’s subjects. As he meets with each one, he learns their story. Theo is in Golden for just a year, but makes a big impact on the town and the people who live there. I liked how thoughtful the author was about Theo’s story. I liked how he took the time to reflect on the cycle of the chestnut oak he sat beneath during his time in Golden. I liked his connection with nature and felt way more spirituality from that than any discussion about God or heaven, which I felt were out of place and not relevant to the story. Ellen’s story touched me. I love how his preconceived notions are wrong and he acknowledges that. I think we could all learn from Theo and how he listens intently and doesn’t judge people he makes people, like Katherine, see themselves as they are, perhaps for the first time ever. I loved the cello interactions and how the characters end up meeting with each other. His relationship with Ellen and her Noble Invention was my favourite but the fact that Asher, Minnette, her dad, and Derrick popped in and out of the story, led me to my own conclusion which I was proven correct about later in the book. I also loved Mr Kendrick and his story. I was sad but satisfied by the ending, although it all wrapped up very quickly while the rest of the book was slow and thoughtful, I liked the hopeful vibe of this book.

Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune 🇨🇦 Ruin the Friendship – A friends to lovers romance. I like the way Carley Fortune writes. It feels familiar and she hooked me right from the prologue. I loved Little Women and Jo was always my favourite character as well plus I love journalism and cooking so I was all in! I love all the characters and how much Canadianity there is in this book, even naming Canadian chef Michael Smith’s cookbook! Also, as someone who lives in the Okanagan Valley hearing it name dropped while talking about fabulous wines, was awesome! This book split up into flashbacks and memories of best friends George and Frankie growing up together and seeing them be there for each other as kids, teenagers, and as adults makes you fall in love with these two, they truly are best friends. After Frankie is stood up on her wedding day she has to reevaluate her life and two months after the fateful day, she runs away with George to Tofino, where she had planned to spend her honeymoon with her new husband. To help his BFF get over her breakup, George plans a 7 day vacation of healing, including themed days, to get Frankie’s mojo back. Have I mentioned that I love these 2? I’ve never been to Tofino but I love the Island and I loved the description of the scenery. As someone that lived near the McDougall Creek Fire, Derek wasn’t his name (it was Jason) but the West Kelowna fire chief was amazing and had all the traits that Derek has. I really like how she honours the whole when Harry Met Sally, men and women can be best friends vibes. It’s clear that one has romantic feelings and I like how the entire book, the other one realizes their feelings and we get to go along for that journey. The Wickaninnish Inn has been on my bucket list for 20 years. The way she describes the food, the atmosphere, the aesthetic, the natural feeling, and vibes of the place makes me want to go even more! The only problem I had with this book was it was only from Frankie‘s perspective. The miscommunication seemed out of left field because as BFFs they were pretty good communicators. I wish we would’ve seen where George was coming from. I absolutely loved how she described food in this book. Especially Canadian food, I just wish the spelling was Canadian ugh that is such an ick for me.

Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell A book with fruit on the cover I have read Rainbow Rowell before, but it was a young adult book, I remember how she discussed music in that book, I liked it. This book also begins with things that I like, music and rockabilly clothing lol I can picture Cherry’s style, and I like it! So, Cherry is in her mid 30s and recently separated. In the beginning of the book she takes herself to a concert and runs into an old friend from college, the boy she had a crush on years ago. From there the story suddenly splits into two, the present where she’s dealing with a soon to be maybe maybe not ex-husband at the same time as a new boyfriend and the past where Cherry fills the reader in on her marriage, how it began and how it ended. The overwhelming theme of this book though is Cherry’s weight. Cherry sees everything through the eyes of a “fat person“. It made me uncomfortable because I’ve always tried to look at people not based on their size, but I see that that’s the privilege I have. Cherry beats the uncomfortableness out of you by constantly, reminding the reader what she looks like. Also, her ex wrote a comic that has gone viral, and her character or the character based on her is Baby the fat caricature. I don’t think I like Tom. I’m not sure I like Cherry. I did like her family and Russ, but I’m just not sure. I’m not sure about the ending. I think this book was like the frames without think bubbles in the comic strip. Deep for some and empty for others. There were interesting parts of this book that never got flushed out, fertility, her sister‘s divorce, religion, working her way up the corporate ladder, single Dad, alcoholism, loss and so many things that were brought up, but never explored. Overall, I enjoyed the story and some of the conversations made me think but I wish this book had more meat on its bones.