Here it is, the sixteen books I read in January! All of the 5 star books have their own individual reviews, so be sure and check those out. Secret of the Sassafras is a reread (still loved it!) But the other 5 star books are all very highly recommended! If I had to pick my 3 favorites that you NEED to add to your TBR I would say The Women, by Kristin Hannah; One Summer in Savannah, by Terah Shelton Harris; and The Frozen River (probably my top favorite of the month,) by Ariel Lawhon.
And what about February? I have several books at the top of my list of hopeful reads for next month. I may have to interrupt my mood reading in exchange for some beta reading, but until I know for certain, here’s a short video with some that I hope to read very soon:
I’m still playing catch up from the end of last year, so here are my reads from December 2023. The ones that had the most impact on me have already been addressed on the blog, either in written or video form. I highly, highly recommend Signs of Life, Divine Rivals (plus its sequel Ruthless Vows,) and How To Be Remembered.
Twenty one books for November, not bad! Lots of Christmas-themed books, lots of historical romance, some rom-coms and YA. I feel like I’ve stayed fairly up to date on reviews, so I won’t repeat myself here. I will say that my best new author discovery has been Caroline Fyffe, who wrote An American Duchess and Heart of Eden. These are both parts of a series that I plan to continue and have been really excellent. They are available on Kindle Unlimited with audio. On to December! (Seriously, how did that happen? Wasn’t Halloween, like, yesterday?)
It’s been an interesting month of listening to books while traveling, reading banned/controversial books for my online challenges, finishing the Sweater Weather series, peppering in a few Halloween selections, and enjoying some fiction and historical romance. No complaints!
The stars above are based on the Goodreads rating system and, as you can see, there are a few 5 star books. I LOVED October in the Earth, Practice Makes Perfect, Windsong Manor, and Miss Fleming Falls in Love. I hope to write reviews of them eventually, but I’ve been terrible about that these last few weeks. Until then, I highly, highly recommend them all!
Now, on to November. I have two advanced copies that I need to read for the month and then I’m pretty free to read what I want. So, what do I want? Holiday books? Mood reads? Books patiently sitting in my TBR? Yes to all.
Well, so much for promises! September did not turn out at all like I expected, thanks to a nasty flu that landed me in bed for nearly two weeks. Right after that, my time was dedicated to prepping for a trip to southern Utah and the trip itself. BUT…amidst those things, I did manage to find a few bookish gems.
Best Book of the Month:Curveball, by Barry Zito. A fascinating memoir by World Series Champion pitcher Barry Zito, it explores his unusual family, unorthodox religious upbringing, the pressure of professional sports, and the complete lack of fulfillment that comes from fame and fortune. This book is a winner and I’ll be posting a full review very soon. Possibly today.
Best Audiobooks:The Matrimonial Advertisement, by Mimi Matthews and Hello Stranger, by Katherine Center. Audiobooks are their own animal in the literary world because the narrator is crucial to the enjoyment of the story. I’d read both books before and loved them just as much on audio. Hello Stranger, narrated by Patti Murin, kept my husband and I company for our recent road trip. It made time fly!
Best Series:Sweater Weather, by various authors. Stay tuned, because this is a series I’m going to be reviewing in about a week. It is comprised of seven books, each by a different author and released weekly, about the residents of Harvest Hollow, NC. These are clean rom coms with fun, yet sensitive and flawed, characters. The last book will come out this Thursday on Kindle Unlimited. Read them and find your favorite!
Biggest Disappointment:Still Life, by Louise Penny. Oh, the ever-loving hype that this book and its continuing series have received. I decided to try it and was spectacularly underwhelmed by its bland characters and anticlimactic ending. Inspector Gamache is no Hercule Poirot.
October Delights: Let’s end on a positive note, shall we? Here are some books from this last week that I highly recommend. More on them in the near future!
August has been only a semi-productive reading month, but better than I expected after a very slow start. It’s been a hodge podge of advance copies, historical fiction, regency romances, a cute story of a pet fox, and a fantastic contemporary novel with time travel. Here are some of the highlights:
Best Book of the Month:The Seven Year Slip, by Ashley Poston
I LOVED this book. Imagine a magical apartment in NYC, one that transports you seven years into the past. This is what happens to Clementine when she inherits her aunt’s flat in a one-hundred year old building. Problem #1: Seven years ago her aunt was alive, traveling abroad, and had sublet the apartment to a young man named Iwan. While Clementine and Iwan learn to share the space in the past, she is also vying for a promotion at a literary agency in the present. Problem #2: Every time Clementine goes home she doesn’t know if she will stay in the now or be swept back seven years. Despite that, there is a certain advantage of knowing the past and the present, because she has the power to change things for the better. It isn’t as confusing as it sounds, but it is incredibly clever. Some will figure out the “twist” (I did) and some will not, as well as the hint that is always given when the time slip is about to happen. This is my second Ashley Poston book and I think I may have liked it even more than The Dead Romantics. She takes the modern rom-com concept and adds a bit of magic that I’ve never seen anyone do better. 9.5/10 Stars
Biggest Disappointments:Shark Heart by Emily Habeck and Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Oh, these two books! I was so looking forward to both of them, especially Shark Heart, the story of a newly married couple who receive the news that the husband is changing into a Great White Shark. Such a unique concept that was executed so poorly, due to flashbacks and tangents. Oddly, this was exactly the problem (plus a ton of language) in Happiness Falls, the story of a Korean American family where the dad goes missing one morning. The youngest child, a 14 year old non verbal autistic son with Angelman Syndrome, is the only person who saw what happened. Again, a superb concept with so much potential. And, again, a plot bogged down by tons of minutiae. Sadly, 6/10 Stars for each of these.
Best Author Discoveries: Ashtyn Newbold and Martha Keyes
I’ve been in a clean historical romance mood lately, and happily surprised at the way certain authors create distinctive stories within the boundaries of time period norms. Aside from personal favorites Sally Britton and Joanna Barker, Ashtyn Newbold and Martha Keyes do a very good job of this. I loved the characters, dialogue flow, and plots in both of Ashtyn Newbold’s books I read this month. Martha Keyes writes a lot of books set in late 18th century Scotland. The writing is a bit more cumbersome because characters use a heavy Scottish accent, but I’ve enjoyed the characters and their stories. Although Unrequited, set in England, was a misfire for me.
The Captain’s Confidante: 9/10 Stars
The Matchmaker’s Request: 9/10 Stars
The Innkeeper and the Fugitive: 8.5 Stars
Of Lands High and Low: 8/10 Stars
Unrequited: 6/10 Stars
Expatriate Women in 1940’s Paris:The Paris Assignment by Rhys Bowen and The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel
These two books would make good reading for a college paper because there are so many parallels between them. Both books are about women who move to France and get swept up in marriages with men who do not live up to their expectations. Both women are separated from their children. Both are put to work during the war, doing jobs they never expected to do. I doubt all of these similarities were intentional (even the titles are similar) but I still liked each book. The plots are still individual enough to stand firmly on their own as decent stories of strong women making impossible choices during a very turbulent time. 9/10 Stars for each.
It’s been an interesting reading month! Beta reading and recovering from beta reading made for less books on my own time. (I don’t mind at all.) Participating in a “Christmas in July” reading challenge made for some unusual summer choices.
Favorite: HELLO BEAUTIFUL, BY ANN NAPOLITANO I really wanted to dedicate an entire blog post to this book, but I just didn’t have the mental bandwidth. Suffice to say, I loved it. It is a polarizing book. I know some who have not enjoyed it and felt it was slow paced. For me it was about the writing, which is to be savored. There was something old-world about it, one that did not depend on shock value to convey a lovely story. I definitely recommend it. I also recommend reading it in print or digital form as opposed to listening to the audio. It could be interpreted as a modern-day Little Women (one boy, several sisters,) but is still very much its own unique plot. It’s quite character-driven, so be prepared to follow them around a lot as they navigate their lives. 9/10 Stars
Surprise favorite discovery: AGAINST THE POLLUTION OF THE “I,” BY JACQUES LUSSEYRAN I have a new historical hero, and his name is Jacques Lusseyran, a French Resistance leader who survived time in a Nazi concentration camp. A blind French Resistance leader. Lusseyran lost his sight in a freak accident when he was eight years old, yet still accomplished and lived through more than most of us could ever imagine. He was brilliant and humble, with strong opinions that he expressed with terrific eloquence. This is one of two books he wrote before dying in 1971 at the young age of 46. His most notable work, which I have yet to read, is called And There Was Light. Seek out his work. He needs more attention. 9.5/10 Stars
Biggest disappointment: DELIVER ME, BY ASHLEY HAWTHORNEDeliver Me was a double-whammy let down. First, because the author said she would send me an advanced copy and never did. Second, because a story with a great premise and potentially fantastic characters plummeted into a pile of literary ashes. I was so intrigued at the idea of a pastor’s daughter exchanging letters with an inmate convicted of murdering his father, that I ended up buying the book. It started out wonderfully and kept my attention until the midpoint. At this point it turned vulgar and graphic. The writing became lazy and I stopped caring. It toyed with my feelings and lost all of its depth. Sadly, there is no way I can recommend it. 3/10 Stars
And on to August! I have two advanced copies that need reading and reviewing very soon: The Paris Assignment, by Rhys Bowen, and Summer in the Spotlight, by Liz Johnson. Both will be released on August 8, so I’d better get cracking!
It’s been a good reading month! I discovered lots of wonderful books.
This month’s favorites:
Sons of Blackbird Mountain, by Joanne Bischof
Daughters of Northern Shores, by Joanne Bischof
The Managing Miss, by Heidi Kimball
Reforming Lord Neil, by Sally Britton
Hope Between the Pages, by Pepper Basham
The Lady and the Lionheart, by Joanne Bischof
Miss Devon’s Choice, by Sally Britton
and a reread of the unforgettable Letters to the Lost, by Brigid Kemmerer
An amazing month of historical and regency romance!
In July my book group is having a fun “Christmas in July” challenge. So between Christmas books and my beta reading adventure starting up again in a few days, July should be interesting! In the meantime, check out some of of my favorites, especially the ones I read this month by Joanne Bischof. Treasures, every one of them!
This is it for May! I’m posting my wrap up a little early because I doubt I’ll finish another book by tomorrow.
This very cool calendar is brought to you by the free app Bookmory. It’s available with iOS and Android. I have it set so that books appear on the dates they were completed. Shout out to my bookish friend, Bernadette, who told me about it.
How about that big chunk of empty space in the middle of the month? Can you tell that was the week I spent beta reading and glued to my computer? I’m getting mentally prepared for the possibility that June could have a week like this too. We’ll see!
If I had to pick my favorite books for the month, I would definitely choose the ones that have 5 stars on the graphic:
Weyward, by Emilia Hart (fiction, magical realism, women’s fiction)
Schooled, by Gordon Korman (fiction, YA, middle school)
A Heart Worth Stealing, by Joanna Barker (clean historical romance)
The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley, by Courtney Walsh (Available June 13) (fiction)
All of these have individual reviews on this site and are worth your time. In a reading slump? They will come to your rescue. I promise. (ooh, that’s dangerous)
Readwithkristie.com 