TBR for my Honeymoon-Turned-Staycation-Because-Oh-Well

Hello readers!

I was supposed to be getting married today and off to our honeymoon tomorrow – but if you read my Weekly Wrap from a few weeks ago, you know that instead we eloped in March because, well, who knows if we’d even be able to marry in April at all. It was beautiful, and I am still getting used to calling my husband “husband” without giggling (we’re failing there).

So in the end our honeymoon was cancelled – which is okay, we sort of knew that would probably happen anyway, so we’re used to the idea by now and frankly, both of us could use the rest. This pandemic has been so exhausting. We will use the time to play boardgames, read, play with our cat and enjoy the sunlight from the balcony. It will be really nice!

I’ve no idea if I will actually do much reading, somehow on vacation we tend to watch movies or cook together  a lot more than read, but I surely hope so! I’ve fallen tragically behind on my reading challenge (1 book), so I can’t afford to do other things, like, say, chores or spend time with my husband, until this grave error is corrected. Here are the books I’m hoping to get to these next two weeks:

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

Feels like I’ve been reading this forever! I love it very much (depending on the ending it might be a 4 or 5 star read), and I’m very close to the ending at this point, with around 100 pages to go. I just love the drama, the glamour and crudeness, and all the scheming. It’s glorious but must be taken in small doses (for me), and so it takes a while.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

I look so much forward to adding some romance to my reading! It’s been a lot of literary fiction lately and, in keeping with the spirits of the springy weather (it’s so sunny and warm here!) and some semblance of honeymoon, this is such a perfect read. So far it’s nice and looks like it will be a grumpy/sunny pairing, which I LOVE.

Meet Cute Club by Jack Harbon

This just sounds SO CUTE, I’m all for it. Yes for some cute small-town bookish romance! Much like Beach Read, I’ll pick this up because it sounds adorable and sounds like the perfect light read for a relaxing vacation!

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

In continuing with the Women’s Prize Longlist, I have 3 books on my shelf: this one, A Thousand Ships and Hamnet, and I expect this and Ships will be my least favorite of the three, so I want to get them read as soon as possible, otherwise if they don’t make it to the shortlist, I will just not pick them up. I’ve heard this is good but not memorable… we will see!

The King of Crows by Libba Bray

Not sure I can finish this on vacation (I don’t listen to books a whole lot), but hopefully! Would be nice to start a new book!

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

I’m not too excited for another Greek retelling, honestly. I dread it will be another fine-but-boring book, and it’s not all that thin, either. I will try to keep an open mind!

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

I’m so excited for this, it looks like the exact kind of historical fiction I enjoy! I look so much forward to this and I’m fairly confident it will be shortlisted. So I’m leaving this last on my TBR because even if it’s not, I would still like to pick it up!