We have officially entered 'freezing weather' territory. For me, this means a lot more days spent curled up in a blanket watching Netflix & drinking hot chocolate. One thing that I love to do & definitely need to make more time for is reading! I was on a role towards the end of 2016 flying through books & then came to a pause needing some good new books to read; I've been pretty good about keeping up with my fashion & tabloid magazines though ;). Read on for 10 of my must read books & please, please, please share your latest favorite book so I can add it to my list :)






Sweatshirt: Nike (on sale, also available in black) | Leggings: Forever 21 | Sneakers: Nike | Kindle: Amazon

XO,
Michelle Paige


10 Books to Read this Winter

  If you loved Little Big Lies, read What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Alice is 29, crazy about her husband, & pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym & is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers she’s getting divorced, has three kids, & is actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a decade, & find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. 

 I am such a fan of the way Liane Moriarty writes. Her books are so easy to speed through but the twists in each story make them exciting to read. Next on my reading list is her book, Truly Madly Guilty.

 If you loved Something Borrowed, read First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
Growing up, Josie & Meredith shared a loving relationship. When tragedy strikes, their bond splinters. 15 years later, Josie & Meredith are following very different paths. Josie, a first grade teacher, is single. What she wants more than the right guy is to become a mother. Determined to have the future she’s always wanted, Josie decides to take matters into her own hands. Meredith is the model daughter with the perfect life. A successful attorney, married to a wonderful man, raising a daughter. Yet lately Meredith feels dissatisfied, wondering if she chose the life that was expected of her rather than the one she desired.  As the anniversary of their tragedy looms, & secrets from the past begin to surface, Josie & Meredith not only confront the issues that divide them but also come to terms with their own choices. 

 This is my current read & while I'm not finished with it yet, I look forward to my train rides so I can continue my chapter! 

 If you loved The Devil Wears Prada, read The Knockoff by Lucy Sykes
As editor in chief of Glossy magazine, Imogen is queen of the fashion world until Eve, her twenty-something former assistant, returns from business school with plans to knock Imogen off her pedestal, take over her job, & re-launch Glossy as an app. Imogen doesn’t know Facebook from Foursquare but she will do anything to reclaim her kingdom, even if it means channeling her inner millennial & going head to head with a social-media monster.

 As a working girl, I loved this story. It touches on the differences between millennials and other generations in the workplace, plus it's clever & centered around life at a fashion magazine. What's not to love?

 If you loved Gone Girl or The Girl On The Train, read Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll 
As a teenager, Ani endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, & handsome fiance, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve. But Ani has a secret. There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private & painful that threatens to bubble to the surface & destroy everything.

OR try Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
More than 20 years ago, Claire and Lydia’s sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, & now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con & struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror & heartbreak of their loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed. The disappearance of a teenage girl & the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? 

 While I love a good love story, my favorite kind of books are often thrillers. Gone Girl & Girl on the Train are definitely two of my favorite books. These two are up there when it comes to addictive books that are suspenseful & SO twisted. 

 If you loved Bridesmaids, read I Take You by Eliza Kennedy
Lily’s fiancé Will is a brilliant, handsome archaeologist. Lily is sassy, impulsive, fond of a good drink & has no business getting married. Lily likes Will, but does she love him? Will loves Lily, but does he know her? As the wedding approaches, Lily’s nights—& mornings, &  afternoons—of booze, laughter & questionable decisions become a growing reminder that the happiest day of her life might turn out to be her worst mistake yet.

 Like the movie Bridesmaids, this book was straight up enjoyable. I love a strong, funny, sexy female lead & Lily is most definitely all of those.

Love a good love story? Read Who Do you Love by Jennifer Weiner
Rachel & Andy are just 8 when they meet one night in the ER. Born with a heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, & she's intrigued by the boy who shows up alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy's taken back to a doctor &  Rachel's sent back to her bed, they think they'll never see each other again. Yet, over the next 3 decades, Andy & Rachel meet again &  again—linked by chance, history, & the memory of the first time they met, a night that changed both of their lives.

This story made me laugh & cry because it was so heartwarming & charming. When a book is able to make me get emotional, I always rate it as a winner.


 Loved the Shopaholic series? Read I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella 
Poppy has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus, but one afternoon her happily ever after begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill, but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number so the hotel can contact her when they find her ring.  Perfect! Except that the phone’s owner, Sam, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back & doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages & wading into his personal life.  Poppy & Sam begin to upend each other’s lives through emails & text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, & hiding her left hand from Magnus & his parents, she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

OR try Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella
Meet Emma, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few secrets: Sammy the goldfish in my parents’ kitchen is not the same goldfish that Mum gave me to look after when she and Dad were in Egypt. I weigh 128 pounds. Not 118, like Connor thinks. It was me who jammed the copier that time. In fact, all the times. I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is. Then she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger. But come Monday morning, Emma’s office is abuzz about the arrival of Jack, the company’s CEO. Suddenly Emma is face-to-face with the stranger from the plane, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her. 

 I love that these stories have a little bit of everything - a little humor, a little love, a little adventure, a few twists and turns. These books are easy page turners! 

  Bonus: read To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once?
16 year old Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved. When she writes, she pours out her heart & soul & says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed...

 This story brought my back to my middle school/high school years when I thought I was madly in love with every boy I laid eyes on. It made my laugh & reminisce on my own mess of a high school love life.






* All book descriptions are via Amazon.com



Last week, we loved Annessa from Seeking Sunshine & Sarah from Trendy & Tidy's winter weather looks.