I'm back to round up my most recent books from my
last book review post!
Before I get to the books, I wanted to just briefly document the BEST trip that I brought one of these books along with to read recently. Whenever I travel I always fit in extra time to read on the plane and waiting at the airport and this April I was able to take another quick trip to Nashville and fit in plenty of reading during my travels there!
This was my third trip to Nashville and I am COMPLETELY obsessed with the town now. I detailed my very first trip here:
My Girlish Whims Does Nashville but wanted to update here with some new favorites we have found in Nashville since then. I once again piggy backed on a work trip that bae had that brought him to Nashville Wednesday-Friday so his work covered his flights and hotel for part of the stay. I flew out Thursday night to meet him and we stayed into the weekend and it was SUCH a fun time again!
One of my favorite parts of this trip was that we definitely took advantage of the nice weather and hung out on a lot of roof top bars on Broadway. I think the roof tops can sometimes be a little less crazy than the bars that are dark and packed full of people around a band. The nicest roof top we visited was at Blake Shelton's bar
Ole Red the first night of my trip. There are such gorgeous views of the city up there - especially in the dark when everything is all lit up! It's also a little classier place - you can actually order a prosecco and get it served in a real glass as opposed to the plastic that most bars on Broadway serve with. If you want to avoid some rowdy crowds but still be able to experience Broadway and get some great views this is definitely worth a visit.
Friday after bae was done work we also tried some more roof tops down on Broadway: we went back to
Acme Feed and Seed which everyone seems to be obsessed with when I asked for recommendations for Nashville but we really didn't like it our first time there. Our second time back it was a little better, I think the best part about it was that we met a bachelorette party there that we became friends with and hung out the rest of the day with, lol. Overall though our FAVORITE place on all of Broadway would have to be
Jason Aldean's bar. They have an indoor bar/restaurant but they also have an upstairs bar/stage/roof top combo which is where we spent a ton of time. They have live music in the indoor section from awesome musicians, and the roof top section is BIG with plenty of couches and tables and chairs to just relax on and enjoy the sunshine, some drinks, and company from new friends around you!
As much as we love Broadway, it's definitely worth getting OFF of the main strip and seeing the rest of Nashville as well. For the rest of the weekend we stayed at an AirBnB right in the 12 South neighborhood which is SO cute and has a ton of things to see/do/eat all that were within walking distance from our AirBnb. We grubbed out on some good BBQ at
Edley's BBQ, I dropped $200 while shopping at Draper James which is a cute boutique owned by Reese Witherspoon (read: cute but EXPENSIVE!) and there are a bunch of murals around the neighborhood that are perfect for photo opps.
The one thing we didn't do on our last trip to Nashville but we had on our first trip was take about a 40 minute uber ride outside of the city to visit
Arrington Vineyard. We made the time to go back this year and I'm SO glad we did! Before we headed to the winery we had brunch at
Whiskey Kitchen (you know I'm always down for a mimosa on vacation) and then walked around the Gultch neighborhood a bit before grabbing our uber outside the city.
Don't get me wrong: the wine is great at Arrington and the tasting experience is always informative and a good time - but personally what I love best about coming out here are the views and just relaxing on the property! The vineyard is tucked away in the gorgeous rolling hills of Tennessee and you just cannot beat the views: there is no better spot to buy a bottle of wine and sip and relax near Nashville than right here. As an added bonus - it's normally pretty packed with other people doing tastings and it's easy to find some friends to talk to. This time around we made friends with some girls who had brought their corgi to the tasting and oh my word. What a cutie he was. Wine, puppies and relaxation. Can't beat it!
On our last day in Nashville we spent some more time walking around 12 South Neighborhood before our flight home and I visited the spot I will now and forevermore ALWAYS visit when I go to Nashville:
Five Daughters Bakery. I don't even LIKE donuts normally but they make these 1,000 layer croissant donuts that are just TO DIE FOR and after having one on my last trip - I knew we needed to come back. They come in all different flavors but I enjoyed just the basic Vanilla Cream and let me tell you. NO DIET is worth not eating one of those donuts on a trip to Nashville. I'm salivating now just THINKING about how good it was.
Anyway - after a whirlwind weekend it was time to hop back on a plane to fly home to Pennsylvania...and start a new book on the trip back ;) Here is the full round up of books I read this time around!
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By Beatriz Williams. Synopsis from Amazon:
New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams
brings us the blockbuster novel of the season—an electrifying postwar
fable of love, class, power, and redemption set among the inhabitants of
an island off the New England coast . . .
In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite,
secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high
society, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World
War. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose
summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda’s
catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and
swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister—all long legs
and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy
Island scion—is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of
Winthrop society.
But beneath the island’s patrician surface, there are really two
clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet
obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic
workers who earn their living on the water and in the
laundries of the summer houses. Uneasy among Isobel’s privileged
friends, Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father
keeps the lighthouse with his mysterious wife. In summer, Joseph helps
his father in the lobster boats, but in the autumn he
returns to Brown University, where he’s determined to make something of
himself. Since childhood, Joseph’s enjoyed an intense, complex
friendship with Isobel Fisher, and as the summer winds to its end,
Miranda’s caught in a catastrophe that will shatter Winthrop’s
hard-won tranquility and banish Miranda from the island for nearly two
decades.
Now, in the landmark summer of 1969, Miranda returns at last, as a
renowned Shakespearean actress hiding a terrible heartbreak. On its
surface, the Island remains the same—determined to keep the outside
world from its shores, fiercely loyal to those who
belong. But the formerly powerful Fisher family is a shadow of itself,
and Joseph Vargas has recently escaped the prison where he was
incarcerated for the murder of Miranda’s stepfather eighteen years
earlier. What’s more, Miranda herself is no longer a naïve
teenager, and she begins a fierce, inexorable quest for justice for the
man she once loved . . . even if it means uncovering every last one of
the secrets that bind together the families of Winthrop Island.
This book was on my “to be read” list for a
while, and I was so excited when my turn came up to rent it for free on
overdrive. I really enjoyed the book. From the start of the novel you
know that some type of tragedy occurred when Miranda
was last on the island 18 years prior – you just don’t know WHAT it
was. The book then jumps back to the first summer that Miranda visited
the island. It was full of the vacationing elite and hardworking locals – the
island almost gave me similar vibes to Nantucket
and all the books I have enjoyed reading that took place there. The
book followed a few different narratives and a few different time
frames: I will admit at times I was a bit confused when the book flashed
back to feature other characters in the past and
then described them again in the present. It did eventually click for
me though as to who each character was now versus then and it really
did add a lot to the story line and drama and love triangles the book
featured. If you can get through the confusion
I really think the book is worth the read. I loved following Miranda’s story line on the island as a young girl, but I also loved how the book picked
her story back up again in the modern time and continued to finalize the
mystery and story which ultimately ended in
with a good amount of drama and suspense that kept me reading and
reading until it was done!
