Hot Girls Read Podcast

Julia

I’ve started the New Year with a ski holiday in the French Alps with my family, and the journey to the mountains started with a 6 hour train ride — needless to say, I got some reading in! On the train, I decided to continue with ‘Love of Fat Men’, a short story collection by Helen Dunmore, and I feel like the sensation of hopping from story to story made the hours go by faster! I’ve already mentioned my thoughts on the collection in a previous post so I won’t wax on too much: the variety of povs and characters make for fun reading, though a recurring character has emerged multiple times now and it is interesting to discover her in snippets across time and space; the stories are short and sweet with an acidic twist of tension that has kept me turning the page; most of the stories take place in the winter aside from the first and last pages which are stories of summer — I might have preferred all the stories to be cold and wintry to hold the collection together.

Here in the Alps, our cosy apartment views of snow covered chalets and soaring mountains create a lovely (though very distracting) backdrop for après-ski reading! I’ve begun ‘Night’ by Edna O’Brien, which was gifted to me by a dear friend. The story is a sort of inner monologue by an ‘unhinged’ narrator who can’t sleep, and so far it’s like nothing else I’ve read before

Ayesha

For my first ARC of the year, I am reading “The Reunion” by Beth Reekles. This is the second time I’m participating in a book campaign with ChallyPop and we are very excited! 

Synopsis: Ten years after graduating, the class of 2014 are back at Tisdale Comprehensive for the reunion, packed into a school gym full of familiar faces – and many new secrets. MOST LIKELY TO END UP TOGETHER: Shaun and Steph were each other’s first love. Now, they’re settled and planning the perfect wedding – to other people. Could reconnecting spark a new romance? MOST LIKELY TO BECOME FAMOUS – Bryony was supposed to travel the world, rule the West End, have a dazzling career as a TV actress. Instead, she’s a drama teacher who exaggerated her whole life on Instagram. MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED – Hayden was told he’d achieve great things, like be on the cover of TIME, win a Nobel prize…or, the accolade his daughters just awarded – World’s Best Dad. Is it too late for him to turn things around, and more importantly, does he even want to? MOST LIKELY TO KILL EACH OTHER – Ashleigh was an A+ student, and Ryan the star of the school rugby team. After years of putting each other down, they left school each convinced they would have the better life. Now, that old rivalry draws them back together in a new, intoxicating way – one they’re both determined to hide. It’s an evening of power cuts, fire alarms, sneaking off to explore classrooms in the dark, stolen kisses, and heated fights – it’s like they never left at all.

My take so far: I don’t know why I was thrown but this book is set in the UK! No issues whatsoever – we get the culture and all the lingo. As someone who also graduated high school in 2014, it’s nice to read about fellow classmates attending a reunion. I, however, did not attend my 10-year reunion. I am looking forward to the story as the premise sounds like a 2000s romcom that I’d love. Stay tuned for updates!