A puppy! And upcoming events! And did I mention the puppy???

I am so sleep deprived but she is adorable

Hello hello newsletter friends! In the month or so since I’ve written to you, I’ve gained a new member of the family. Meet Rosie!

I took this picture a week ago and she’s already so much bigger

She is a German Shepherd/Aussie Shepherd mix, I fell in love with her as soon as I met her, and she is 16 weeks old and a bundle of energy. (She is frolicking around me as I type this, wondering why I’m sitting at a desk and not playing with her). I adopted her through Rocket Dog Rescue, a great organization here in the Bay Area, and they made everything super easy. She loves all people and wants to greet them (read, jump on them, we’re working on that) and gets sad when they don’t greet her, she wants to play with all other dogs even when she’s a little scared of them, and she loves long walks and running after balls and eating my plants. She is a delight and she’s sleeping at my feet as I type this and also I am very sleep deprived and behind on everything but very happy. If you don’t already follow me on Instagram and you like puppy content, follow me there — I post a lot of pictures and videos of her in my stories!

I already have a list of dog related things I’ve bought that I’m going to recommend to any dog people in my next newsletter (once I’ve had time to see if they really pan out) but for now I will recommend just one thing: Hoka sneakers. Many many people have talked about how these sneakers were the best, but I sort of ignored all of this, because I have flat feet and bad ankles and often shoes that work for other people don’t work for me. But after two weeks of two-three times a day dog walks, none of my other shoes were cutting it, so I ordered some Hokas in desperation and hope, and they’ve been so so great. My ankles aren’t sore anymore, my arches feel fine, even my back feels better than it did before. If you were on the fence, go for it. They have a quiz on their site to see which style you should order depending on your feet and what you’re going to use them for, and I ordered the least ugly of the styles they recommended to me (the Cliftons) and they worked great.

I have two books to recommend to you today, and I am doing events with the authors of both of these books in the next few days! If you’re in the Bay Area, please come see us! First, It Happened One Fight, by Maureen Lee Lenker, is a very fun romance set in Old Hollywood that any romance reader or film fan will love. We will be discussing it at Books Inc. in Laurel Village in San Francisco on Saturday, July 29th (that’s tomorrow, to those of you reading this newsletter on Friday!) at 7 pm and I would love for you to join us! We’ll both be signing books afterwards.

Second, Kiss the Girl by Zoraida Cordova is the third book in the Meant to Be series (my book, By the Book, which came out last year, was the second, and If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy was the first!), and is a fantastic Little Mermaid reimagining, and it comes out on Tuesday, August 1st. And on that very day, Zoraida and I will be at Books Inc. in Laurel Village in San Francisco at 7 pm to talk about this princess/rock star/road trip romance! Please come hang out with us!

Also, I have an event coming up in the next few weeks that I’m very excited about: I’ll be back in Denver for the first time since 2019, to do an event with the Denver Public Library! I’ve always had a fantastic time every time I’ve been to Denver, so please come join me and help keep this streak alive.

No recipe today, because I have had very little time for cooking since getting the puppy, but she’s now sleeping on a more regular schedule (fingers crossed that this continues!) so more recipes will come in the next newsletter!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Jasmine