We Live and Breathe Books: Five Star Friday

Five Star Friday is my version of the monthly wrap-up. On the first Friday of each month, I will share my five-star reads from the previous month. Fingers crossed, I have lots of books to tell you about.

This month, I was able to read 25 books, and I had 2 five-star reads. I was actually worried that I would have NO five-star books, but in the last week, I had two!

Paper Ghosts by Sarah Addison Allen
Published by St. Martin's Press on September 1, 2026
Age/Genres: Adult, Enchanted Realism, Fiction
Rating: five-stars

Goodreads

Part ghost story, part love story and steeped in magical realism, Paper Ghosts will transport you to a place where old secrets echo through the years and love finds a way of bringing us home.

Every family has its secrets . . .The Wester women live inside theirs.

For decades, the women of Wester House have unsettled and fascinated their small, timeless North Carolina town. Their home is full of whispers, old griefs, and uncanny knowing. But when Willamena Wester reaches out to the granddaughter she once pushed away, long-buried truths begin to stir.

1976:
Restless young Willamena falls for a stranded musician who brings freedom and the promise of another life to her carefully controlled world. Their brief, incandescent love story promises to escape the pull of the Wester legacy until Willamena makes a fateful choice that changes her life forever.

Present Day:
Returning home is the last thing Bailey Wester wants. Yet as she reconnects with Willamena, the grandmother she feared, Bailey begins to understand the love, heartbreak, and impossible choices that shaped the women in her family and realizes the past may not have been trying to haunt them after all.

A luminous novel filled with Sarah Addison Allen’s stunning prose and signature blend of romance, Southern charm, and wonder, Paper Ghosts reminds us that in order to have the future we really want, sometimes we need to live with the past, and not let go of it.

I loved Sarah Addison Allen's books so much, and she did not disappoint. This was very emotional at times, and I couldn't help but want more for these women. It was heartbreaking to see what happened to Wills, and though I appreciated her intent to not allow her granddaughter to suffer the same fate, there were a lot of obstacles to overcome. The magical touches were interesting, and there was one that was so beautiful. I may crying right now thinking of it, but it was perfection and so meaningful in this story. That's why I love her books. It's those little touches of magic that are small but so grand.

Star-Crossed Summer by Devon Daniels
Published by Berkley on July 7, 2026
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Rating: five-stars

Goodreads

When a Hollywood starlet is unexpectedly reunited with the costar who broke her heart, their chemistry has her questioning what’s reel and what’s real in this heartfelt summer romance about first loves and second chances.

It’s been ten years since the fateful summer Scarlett Everhart filmed The Lost Letter, the tearjerking romantic drama that catapulted her to worldwide fame and set her on a collision course with Ryder Perry, the movie’s intense, irresistible leading man. The pair’s fiery onscreen chemistry captured audiences' hearts—while their whirlwind affair offscreen shattered Scarlett’s into a million pieces. Determined to move on, she made a vow: to focus on her career, leave Ryder in her past, and never, ever look back.

A decade later, Scarlett’s kept that promise. She’s become one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading ladies and is on the cusp of the biggest role of her career. And if she’s been unlucky in love, at least she’s managed to put her ill-fated relationship with her former costar—and the public’s obsession with the pair’s star-crossed romance—behind her. That is, until a sudden twist of fate thrusts her and Ryder back together in the seaside South Carolina town where they first fell in love, then fell dramatically apart.

As old sparks reignite, Scarlett is swept back into the love story that once defined her life, forcing her to reckon with the choice that tore them apart…and the devastating secret she’s been keeping since their breakup all those years ago.

This was a second chance romance that made my heart explode. The fact that they still had so many deep feelings for each other after a decade had me tearing up as I hoped for this reunion to be a success. The reasons why they belonged to each other just kept piling up for me until the end when my heart exploded and the happy tears were flowing. I was so moved, I had to give this book all the stars.