Book Club Friday

What a flipping crazy busy week I've had!!! Between working extra hours for leaving work early to go bridesmaid dress shopping, the actual dress shopping, and getting a much needed hair cut/color this week I'm in search of some major downtime. I need a big heaping dose of crap TV and time to work on wedding DIY projects (because crafting is therapeutic). 

But before I go into a veg-out weekend, I'm sharing a couple of books I've enjoyed in the last month or so!

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Description via Goodreads:

"In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her."

In all honesty, I wasn't that excited to read this book, I'm not a huge fan of dystopian literature (I like it, it's just not one of my favorite genre's). I had received in the last Book Club Swap so I decided to give it a go, and after 2 or 3 chapters in I was hooked and read like a mad woman. It had a great mix of love story and action thrown in the mix and absolutely kept you wanting to read more. Unfortunately it does end on a little cliffhanger so I immediately got the book held at the library so I could read it soon. Thank goodness it became available for me this week, I don't know how much longer I could've waited. 

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Description via Goodreads:

"Carlie once ate a whole lemon meringue pie. But she regrets it. She regrets it the way a drunk regrets downing a bottle of Jack Daniels. It was soothing and horribly depressing all at the same time. Carlie, a 32-year-old employee at the Dollar General Store in Commerce, Georgia, dreams of love and literary success, in that order. But love and literary success don’t always come easy, especially for a tall woman with a big behind who stocks canned sweet potatoes for a living. She’s ten years late on college and only has $167.29 in the bank. In her estimation, she’s late on finding love too. The good news? Sometimes there are rewards for late bloomers."

I guess you could say the author of this book, Lisa Smartt, is a family friend. Her mother-in-law and my nana are really good friends. She had published her newspaper columns into book form a while back and the few I read were absolutely hilarious...so when I heard she was publishing a novel I had high hopes. After my aunt finished the book I gave it a go...and it was a really cute book! I thoroughly enjoyed it...it's just a simple love story between two people who find love a little later in life than expected. It's a really clean book, which is refreshing. I can typically rate a book by how fast I read it and I read this one in under a week, so that definitely makes it a winner!

What have you been reading lately??