2020 Reading Challenge Reviews - Books 1 & 2

Hello readers! Welcome to 2020!

This year I've decided to do the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge again. You can find out more info on it on the Pop Sugar website or my Overview post from last year. I've also included the 2020 prompts in my '2020 Reading Challenge' post if you want to check those out. 

This year I'm going to be doing things a little bit differently. I'm still going to review every book that I read, but I may not always include the prompt. This is because, with some of the prompts this year, I think as I read more books I may want to shift some of the books around from the prompt I intended for them to one that fits them better or if another prompt comes along that fits their initial prompt better, etc.

I'm also not going to share every book I read on my instagram story this year, but will try to keep up with posting photos of them weekly so feel free to check that out if you're interested. :)

Here are my book reviews for my 1st and 2nd books of 2020:

Book 1: Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah

I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

Meghann Dontess and her sister Claire used to be best friends until decisions in their lives made them more like acquaintances. Meghann is now a divorce attorney who doesn't believe in true love and marriage, until she meets an unlikely guy who changes her mind. Claire, now a mother in her 30's, finds what she considers true love and announces that she is going to marry the love of her life after a short engagement. The wedding brings Meghann and Claire back together as Meghann worries about her little sister and Claire tries to get Meghann to open up and reconnect with her. As they get to know each other again, they help each other grow and become stronger as sisters.

Kristin Hannah is an author I've been meaning to read. All of her books come highly recommended to me by friends and coworkers, and I've finally gotten around to trying out one of her books that was loaned to me. I can see why they're so highly recommended.

It took a little while for me to get invested in the characters, but once I did I had to keep reading to find out what would happen next.

There was a bit of a twist in the life of one of the characters at the end. It reminded me of another book I read with a crazy life twist towards the end, but personally I think Kristin Hannah handled the twist in her writing in a really well thought out way. The twist helped link some loose ends together. Twists don't always do that in my opinion, so I appreciated that this one did.

I love that this book made me emotional in different ways. I was happy, I had some tears, I was annoyed. It made the characters feel more realistic.

Book 2: Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I gave this book 4.5/5 stars rounded up to 5/5 on Goodreads.

For this book I don't anticipate changing the prompt. The prompt I plan to use is "A book that won an award in 2019". Daisy Jones and The Six won the Goodreads Choice awards and the BookOfTheMonth.com Book of the Year award in 2019.

This book is a series of interviews with the fictional band Daisy Jones & The Six. However, it is written in a way that almost makes you think they were a real band. The band reached their peak in the late 1970's, and then broke up suddenly. The public has no idea why, until this series of interviews. Much of the book follows Daisy Jones, a young woman growing up in the LA area in the 1960's. She gets into clubs as a teenager and young adult, hangs around with male band members, and gets involved with the stereotypical sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Eventually, she decides she wants to be a star herself and begins writing and singing music. Eventually, she ends up joining forces with the band The Six. They're a rock and roll band fronted by lead singer Billy Dunne. Billy gets involved with all the same stereotypical lifestyle choices as Daisy, but when he finds out his girlfriend is pregnant, tries to turn things around. The book follows the two and their band from before they met, to when the band breaks up, to years later.

I loved the writing style and how different it was from many traditional books. I felt that the format really made you get to know all of the different characters. 

I also really enjoyed a lot of the common themes and how important they are to discuss. For example, there was stuff on mental health and addiction, stuff on female empowerment and what it was like to try to grow in a male dominated field, among so much more. Those topics just really stood out to me. 

Although this book was set in the 1970's, I think that a lot of the concepts carry over well to things that still happen in society.