How often do you sit down and read a book from cover to cover without doing anything else besides taking a pee break or foraging your pantry for more snacks?
Hardly ever, right? Who has time for that? We all have task lists as long as the Canada-USA border. We can’t just disappear from our busy lives to read a book.
Well, sometimes, I do.
People can try to shame me or make me feel guilty with their “Wow! Must be nice to do absolutely nothing.” And guess what? I don’t care. It is nice. I finally finished the big-girl quilt for my granddaughter’s birthday present (it took me a year) and I had a time to relax for a few minutes. I’m living my life how I want to, because we will ALL be dead soon (sorry to break that news to you), so why not spend my time the way I want to.
Last week, I was supposed to be on vacation from work. Didn’t happen. I worked a 50-hour work week due to a major client’s request for RUSH projects that needed to be done because there would be a stop-work order, and 50 other people would have nothing to do on a construction site unless I completed my work first. That’s a problem. One that I could fix. So, I pushed my vacation to the following week. That didn’t happen either. Same reason. Same fix.
So, when I finally dragged my butt into the house on Friday afternoon, I picked up a book and never looked back. I immersed myself between the pages and fell into the lives of fictitious people with whom I wanted to be friends with.
In the new release, SUMMER ROMANCE by Annabel Monaghan, I found a second chance romance between a newly single mother (with three kids ranging between six to twelve years old, negotiating a divorce with a selfish dick husband, and struggling with the loss of her mother) and a big city lawyer named Scooter (who has a small-town family that continues to be embarrassed about him being a difficult teen who got into shitloads of trouble and all he wanted to do was skateboard and never grow up). This might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I was once a single mom with three preteens, wondering if there would ever be a second chance at romance for me, so it was quite relatable. I loved it!
The hilarious story starts with Ali’s dog peeing on Scooter’s shoe in the dog park. It had me smiling from the moment the book started until I read the final pages. The amazing part is there were so many subplots you might think it would be confusing, but no, it was an easy beach read. The kind of book that takes away all my work stress away. The kind of book that shoves me into a feel-good-kind-of-day. There were moments of pull-on-your-heart-strings sadness, moments of seventh grade mean girl awkwardness, moments of wanting to slap someone for being so narcissistic, moments of love-making, moments of tranquility while watching the waves rush up the sandy beach, moments of friendship, moments of being a dog lover, moments of caring for others who aren’t your family, and moments of being such a good person when you don’t have to.
These are the feel-good things I love to read about when I am stressed out the wazoo.
I became a fan of Annabel Monaghan when I read her debut, NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT, and since then, she has become a pre-order kind of author for me. She makes me laugh and swoon over new book boyfriends, and I forget about everything else on my To Do List. Sometimes, this is precisely what I need to recharge for the chaotic work stress of next week. Basically, my life is a roller coaster of high stress moments and low feel-good moments, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So, if you are searching for a fun beach read, and want to disappear between the pages of a fun emotional book, then you might want to add this novel to your list. Of course, now I’m wondering, have you ever had a summer romance? How did that work out for you?
Loved the blog and welcome to my world of just doing what I want ,when I want. You still don’t have the amount of freedom I have but it will come. You still love your job and it sounds like you are doing great work for others as well. My moto is help when I can but make time for me. This is not selfish because it has taken years to earn this freedom. I always wanted to write a book but never had the courage. Love you more.
Thank you. I believe that many people want to write a book, and honestly, all you have to do is sit down and put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and add a few sentences to it every single day. Soon you will have a book. The problem comes when you need to edit the book, and structure it so people will understand what they are reading. Then, the hardest part is making the 100,000 word puzzle flow like a magical song to the booklover’s heart and soul. I’m working on that part right now. I hope to share one of my novels soon.
Well, the TBR pile just got bigger! Thanks, I’m looking forward to it. I’m building my ‘do nothing but read wish list’ for an upcoming vacation.
You’re welcome, Donna! I love reading vacations mixed with a little bit of writing time. Enjoy your vacation!
Heaven on earth is being able to shut the world out and just read. No shaming from me. I hope you get that vacation time soon! I was listening to TSNOTYAW while working through my task list and heard this author interviewed. I’ll look forward to reading it as soon as my reno is done. 🙂
Exactly! Reading is a wonderful way to block the noisy world from ruining your day. Good luck on your renovations, Diane. I hope you are on the deck reading a few novels as soon as humanly possible. Enjoy the rest of your summer.