Review: 32 Days in May

32 Days in May by Betty Corrello
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Right now, he sees me the way I want to be seen: healthy. 

32 Days in May was a story of finding yourself after getting a chronic diagnosis and what that can all mean when falling in love. Nadia lived in New York and had a high paying job in advertising when she starts to feel bone deep tired, losing control of her body leads to losing her job. After getting diagnosed with Lupus, she moves into her family's small duplex beach house in her hometown. Her dad is calling people trying to get her a job, her older sister is constantly pressuring her to “get out” and live, and her doctor just set her up with his cousin, Marco, who just so happens to be a former tv star who hasn't really been heard from in years after getting arrested in an airport with party drugs. It's when Marco suggests no strings attached dating for only the month of May, that Nadia begins to realize that even if her life doesn't look the same, it can still be worth living. 

He looks at me and sees another sorta-cute local girl armed with a self-fashioned tristate, tough-girl attitude that he knows all too well, well enough to kick right through. 

But he has no idea what he's up against. Deep in the crevices of my mind, my own chaos demon rattles her chains. 

This was all told from Nadia's point-of-view and she has one of those warped, some gallows, sense of humor, I got her and found her funny but I can see her personality not working for everyone. Luckily, it worked really well with Marco's, he loved how she didn't give him the “star treatment” and how it helped him to get out of his head. Marco's was the lost for her but trying to hide it so he doesn't scare her away, who wants to really make a go of things beyond the month and it's Nadia who has to work through her emotional issues. Along with her health issues and the emotional journey she goes on to learn to live with them, there's also discussion of her suicidal thoughts for trigger warnings (it's lightly touched on one or two times until towards the ending of the book where we see her in that suicidal moment). This was more of Nadia's story and while we get some talk about Marco's addiction issues, it isn't until something like the last five pages we get fuller details about his past life. Since it came so late, it felt awkward to me and I actually could have did without them because by that time, it didn't really flush out his character more to me. 

Maybe that's what being alive is. You don't get to surface, new. You break away; you start again; you molt old skin, altogether too tight and wrong, and while scars fade, they never disappear. At least not right away. Along with the romance, which I thought worked as Nadia and Marco played off each other well, but still think this was more of Nadia's journey, we get a look at the complicated sisterly relationship. I'm sure many will relate to the highs of giggling together with the person that gets you and the lows of that same person knowing you so well they know the exact correct buttons to push to anger and devastate you. There was also Nadia's neighbors who brought different perspectives to her life to help round out her character. 

I've met a man who takes my picture. 

You'll probably want Nadia to tell Marco about her sickness before the latter second half moment she does but the author also did a good job making her understandable to be seen a certain way. This was sweet, funny, emotional, and with an open door scene, sexy. Nadia's walls were fortified with sarcasm, teasing flirting, and vulnerability but Marco had the compatibility tools to finally break through, while also sharing parts of himself to have Nadia also falling in love.

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Review: Summertime Punchline

Summertime Punchline by Betty Corrello
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.7 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

For many years, I'd had a single goal in life: never ever move back to Evergreen, New Jersey.

It feels like Delfina is finally getting her big break when she gets a coveted slot at a make you or break you comedy festival. Wanting to really hone her set, she quits her job at a pub and comedy club, only to walk in on her boyfriend of three months with her roommate. Suddenly, Del is jobless and homeless and on her way back to the hometown she never wanted to see again ten years later. 

We disagreed, we argued, we sometimes found ourselves alone and then things happened that were never mean to happen. That was it. 

Told all from Del's point-of-view, Summertime Punchline had all the highs and lows of being late twenties, your friends all in different places in life, coming into who you really want to be in your career and personal life, finally dealing with those pesky childhood traumas, and an added bonus of a second chance romance. Del was raised by her grandmother, her parents were substance abuse addicts, her mother fatally overdosed when she was young and her father was a deadbeat flitting in and out of her life. While this didn't really deal with Del missing her mother (she was very young when her mother died and her grandmother sufficiently filled the role for her), she did have unresolved issues with her dad. Her issues with him not being there for her when she was a child ebbs and flows throughout the book, finally looking at how it effected her and then how she feels and is willing to move forward now that he has been clean and sober for years. It was a little bit of a different take, with Del wanting to forgive him, and while I'm one to lean more sinking into the hurt, pain, and staying behind walls characters, I did enjoy this kind of restoring route of Del's moving on. So, if you're looking for a forgiveness and willing to build daughter-father relationship, this would hit those points for you. 

Flirting on a Ferris wheel was one thing, but sharing bunk beds? 

Pretty early in the beginning, Del runs into Eddie, her high-school nemesis, friend, and crush. There are flashbacks in this that stretch throughout the whole book to show moments in their friendship that lead to them being close and also ending up not talking for ten years. It's basically that high-school relationship of two kids that have strong feelings but don't have the maturity to deal with them yet, along with not the best home-life mucking things up even more for them. We do get more of an insight into who Eddie's character is in the later second half of the book, as Del and him talk, exposing to readers his story. I did feel some chemistry between them and was rooting for them to get together, they at turns had some good by-play and steamy scenes but I still have to lean this is more Del's journey than Del and Eddie together; a good romance but not the main point. 

His next words came out slow, dark eyes burning into mine. “No games.” 

If you remember me being excited about the mention of the tv show “Hacks” in the blurb, well, it was a little less in there than I expected. Del's move back to Evergreen and staying with her grandmother is for her to be able to rewrite her whole set, because it was all about her relationship with her boyfriend and after the breakup she can't do those jokes anymore. The story seemed to constantly want to stay away from Del actually doing or focusing on this, the moment that really only corresponds is the moment she realizes that she's made her set jokes all about her, making the joke on her, and she doesn't want to do that anymore. However, it doesn't seem like she really wants to be a stand-up comedian too much either because then we get how she is a great singer and maybe wants to be a musician too? It felt a little bait and switch, but she ends up morphing into a kind of Bloodhound Gang comedian with writing songs that are funny. (She performs a song about her crappy dad memories and everyone was hooting and hollering in the audience, didn't really tickle my funny bone but, ymmv) 

I felt the ending rushed the resolving of the issues that Del had been wading through, ending up dampening some of those satisfied feelings you get after journeying with the character. This had more of a happily-for-now (an epilogue does expand on this more) but you'll still enjoy how Del and Eddie end up. This was a great beach read that had those summertime vibes (boardwalk ferris wheel!), secondary characters you'll love (Alfonso! I want a Nan and Alfonso romance stat), a romance that was slow in the making but all the better for it, and main character Del coming into her own in the best way. A debut that makes me exited for what comes next from the author, pick it up this summer!

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Delfina couldn't wait to leave her New Jersey hometown in the dust but 10 years later, she suddenly finds herself right back where she started. 

She's lost her apartment and boyfriend but has 45 days to come up with a new comedy set for a big festival, taking that next step she's always dreamed of. 

But an old crush has shown up to complicate things and Delfina is suddenly seeing relationships and home in whole new ways. 

This sounds like a perfect summer read, the Jersey Shore for setting and Max's tv show Hacks was mentioned in the blurb, count me in! 

Summertime Punchline by Betty Corrello purchase link

Lemon Basil Chicken Pasta recipe

I loved this one! Perfect for a lighter feeling pasta in the summer.