Show Us Your Books!

I've kept meaning to participate in the Show Us Your Books link up, but never got myself together to do so...until now!

A while ago I read Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave. It was a book I'd heard good things about from other bloggers, and read with my book club group.

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Part of the Goodreads synopsis is:

"There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide…
Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.
But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever."

The reviews on this book are pretty mixed. Some people love love loved it, and other people disliked it. I fell in the middle. It was an enjoyable story and I liked seeing the relationships between the characters develop and change. Plus, I learned a little bit about wine-making in the process. There wasn't anything earth-shattering about the book for me, but it was an enjoyable read.

I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars

The other book that I read over Christmas was called Hollywood Dirt by Alessandra Torre. I discovered it on a random search on Amazon for a new read and found this one for $4.99 with more than 4 stars so I gave it a shot!

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The Goodreads synopsis:

"Cole Masten. Abandoned by his superstar wife, Hollywood’s Perfect Husband is now Hollywood’s Sexiest Bachelor: partying hard and screwing even harder. Watch out Los Angeles, there's a new bad boy in town. 
Summer Jenkins. That’s me, a small town girl stuck in Quincy, Georgia. I cook some mean chicken and dumplins, can bluff a grown man out of his savings in poker, and was voted Most Friendly my senior year. 
We were from different worlds. Our lives shouldn’t have collided. But then Cole Masten read a book about my small town. And six months later, his jet landed on our dusty airstrip, and he brought Hollywood with him. 
From the start, I knew he was trouble. For our town. And for me.
Sometimes, opposites just aren’t meant to attract."

This book was a fun read. Although the main situation that occurs is slightly " too good to be true" watching the relationship between Cole and Summer unfold gets steamy. I enjoyed this one much better than the Crossfire series (well, the first book, I never made it past that one) because the writing was just better I think. If you're looking for an easy romance read, this is a good one that you'll likely breeze through pretty easily.

I gave this one 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I started reading The Fall Up, which is part of a series, but I feel like it might be too similar of a storyline to Hollywood Dirt after reading the first chapter so I might try and find something different in the meantime.

That's what I've been reading--what about you? Share some good ones with me!