Thanks to that long week between Thanksgiving and the actual end of the month, I packed in quite a few books in the second half of November.
I read a total of 14 books last month and have eight reviews to share with you today.
This marks the end of my fall reading. I finished my fall TBR with 29 of the 35 books read and one DNF. I’m very happy with that. I’ll dig into this reading season more next week when I share my Fall TBR Wrap Up.
This month I enjoyed a couple of buddy reads over on Fable in addition to my monthly book club picks.
As is our tradition, we decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and I’m getting into the holiday spirit with a couple Christmas romances from my holiday TBR.
I’m sticking with the in-depth review format of my nonfiction pick of the month. Be on the lookout for a review of Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin, the November selection for Pearls of Wisdom book club, later this month.
November Reading Wrap Up:
By the Season and Reason
Fall Reads
- There Are No Saints by Sophie Lark
- Marriage for One by Ella Maise
- A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (also a buddy read)
- His Pumpkin Pie by Alexa Riley
- Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb
- Fated Mates by Alicia Montgomery
Book Club Picks
- Always Mine by Laura Pavlov
- Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin
Buddy Reads
- Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead
12 Authors from My Reading Life Bucket List
- Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
- Serendipity: 10 Romantic Tropes, Transformed edited by Marissa Meyer
Next in Series
- His Christmas Cookie by Alexa Riley
Holiday TBR
- Homecoming King by Penny Reid
- Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
Recaps and Reviews
You can find my reviews for Always Mine (5 stars), Conversations with Friends (4 stars), There Are No Saints (4 stars), and Serendipity (3.5 stars) in my Mid November Reading Recap.
Marriage for One by Ella Maise
Rating: 2 stars
Steam Level: 2
I found this book on a list of romance novels to read for Thanksgiving. Plus a romance booktuber shared it as one of their all-time favorite romances so I added it to my fall TBR.
It is available on Kindle Unlimited. However I listened to the audiobook.
Book Blurb:
“Jack and I, we did everything backward. The day he lured me into his office-which was also the first day we met-he proposed. You’d think a guy who looked like him-a bit cold maybe, but still striking and very unattainable-would only ask the love of his life to marry him, right? You’d think he must be madly in love. Nope. It was me he asked. A complete stranger who had never even heard of him. A stranger who had been dumped by her fiancé only weeks before. You’d think I’d laugh in his face, call him insane-and a few other names-then walk away as quickly as possible. Well…I did all those things except the walking away part. It took him only minutes to talk me into a business deal…erm, I mean marriage, and only days for us to officially tie the knot. Happiest day of my life. Magical. Pop the champagne… Not…” Read more on goodreads.
My Thoughts
I found this book boring. And the set up was shockingly unbelievable for how much time was spent going over it in painstaking detail. I never felt a connection with either main character and the entire conflict was pretty dumb.
At 520 pages and almost 16 hours on audio, this book was WAY TOO LONG!
There were a couple of funny, swoony, and spicy moments but they didn’t make up for the slog of day to day detail and endless internal dialogue.
I’m also confused on why this was featured on a Thanksgiving book list. There’s a chance I spaced out and missed it but I don’t recall any mention or scene with Thanksgiving in this story.
Reading Life Insight
I wish I had DNF’d this one but I can be stubborn once I’ve put it on a reading list and in this case I purchased the audio.
DNFing books is something I want to get better at. I did DNF one book on my fall TBR at least when I was pretty certain I wouldn’t enjoy it.
I’m curious to count up how many books I rated less than 3 stars this year and see what I can learn from that for future reading choices.
It’s another reminder to me to trust my gut when it comes to overly long romance books (they often don’t work for me) and perhaps to stick to recommendation sources I already know I can trust.
Some seasons are for venturing out and trying something new and some are better for sticking with the tried and true.
Questions to Consider for Your Own Reading Life: Where do you fall with DNFing books? Is it something you do easily, something you’d like to do less of, or something you’d like to do more of? What about the story or your reading experience makes you DNF a book?
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
Rating: 4 stars
This is the seventh book in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series. It was on my fall TBR.
I buddy read it with my friend Nicole. Funnily enough, it was about a year ago that we read the sixth book Bury Your Dead (4.5 stars) together too.
Note: While this title isn’t available on Kindle Unlimited, I was very surprised to see that the first six books in the series are. At least as of this posting.
Book Blurb:
““Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”
But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow’s garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara’s solo show at the famed Musée in Montréal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Québec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they’ve found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.”
My Thoughts
I wound up giving this one 4 stars because it got amazing at the end, but man it was a slow read for at least the first half of the book. Maybe more.
I loved the setting of Three Pines. The atmosphere there always feels perfect for a cozy read (even though this one was set in summer I believe).
It was fun to be back among familiar characters like Clara, Myrna, Olivier, Ruth, etc and see what was happening in the village.
I enjoyed getting to know Clara deeper as this one focused a lot on her art, her past, and her marriage with Peter.
I also loved seeing Gamache and Beauvoir working together in person and how their relationship has evolved after the events of the last book. They have equally powerful professional and personal relationships and it’s always interesting to see that balance.
There are so many layers to these books with the internal struggles of each character, the way they relate to one another, and the way the murder mystery becomes an examination of human nature.
Reading Life Insight
The end of this book made me want to continue the series but honestly before that I was really wondering if this series is right for my reading life right now.
These books almost always start out slow and take me awhile to get into. This one felt exceptionally difficult to get into. I rarely feel like I want to pick one of these books up and keep reading. This was definitely one I had to “force” myself to keep going with.
The hard part is that I always wind up enjoying these books in the end so it’s a bit of a conundrum for me.
It’s not a series I want to binge but I’m also starting to feel like I lose a lot of important information if it’s been too long between books. I wish there was a cast of characters list at the front of each book.
I also don’t want to binge read this series because I think these mysteries are great for slower and deeper reading. There’s always a lot to discuss when buddy reading.
I will probably continue because the next one could be very interesting with the new series arc that Penny seemed to be setting up in this one. I also hope to make reading slower and deeper a theme for my reading year in 2024 so this series could complement that nicely.
Questions to Consider for Your Own Reading Life: Do you enjoy slow paced books? Or is there a time and season for them in your reading life?
His Pumpkin Pie by Alexa Riley
Rating: 3 stars
Steam Level: 3
I read this novella from my fall TBR on Thanksgiving Day. I checked out the ebook via Hoopla, an app I have thanks to my library.
Book Blurb:
“Pumpkin is on a plane back home for Thanksgiving when the man beside her becomes the jerk nobody wants to sit beside. When a dark and handsome Russian comes to her rescue and makes the sleazy neighbor switch seats, she’s forever in his debt.
Miller wasn’t planning on coming back to Texas this soon, but an emergency lands him on a commercial flight with a woman that he can’t keep his eyes off of.
Will this chance meeting change their lives forever? It’s Thanksgiving…and anything can happen!
Warning: Kick your feet up on Turkey Day and escape those family judgments with a little romance.”
My Thoughts
I was excited that this is indeed a Thanksgiving read!
Pumpkin and Miller’s meet cute on the plane was really fun and sweet. I was willing to overlook the name Pumpkin – her sister is Cookie.
Unfortunately the story went downhill from there. It was very over the top dramatic and entirely unbelievable. Which could be some readers’ cup of tea. I was hoping for a cute sweet “normal” slice of life holiday read.
The spicy scenes were quite steamy but the virgin heroine and the hero’s demand of no protection had me raising my eyebrows.
This had a lot of tropes that I don’t love – billionaire hero, virgin heroine, and instalove (they fall in love, get pregnant, and decide to get married in the course of a day). The evil in-laws were another over the top element for me.
The epilogue was also surprisingly sad and a little scary although there was an HEA.
I went on to read the other novella in this series, His Christmas Cookie. It featured his brother, Frost, and her sister, Cookie. I was curious about those two. Plus the tropes sounded more up my alley. Unfortunately the over the top drama of evil characters again wasn’t for me.
Other Books in the Series that I Read this Month:
- His Christmas Cookie (3 stars)
Questions to Consider for Your Own Reading Life: Do you enjoy reading books or novellas that feature the current holiday? Books centered around Thanksgiving seem to be quite a blank spot in the romance market. If you have any Thanksgiving romance recommendations please share them in the comments!
Homecoming King by Penny Reid
Rating: 4.5 stars
Steam Level: 2.5
I fell in love with Penny Reid’s Winston brothers series (and the two spin offs) around this time two years ago. I binge listened to those books while I was up at all hours with my newborn son.
The first book in Reid’s holiday romance series, Three Kings, seemed like a great addition to my holiday TBR. I listened to the audiobook.
Book Blurb:
“Rex “TW” McMurtry’s perpetual single-hood wouldn’t bother him so much if all his ex-girlfriends didn’t keep marrying the very next person they dated, especially when so many of those grooms are his closest friends. He may be a pro-football defensive end for the Chicago Squalls, but the press only wants to talk about how he’s always a groomsman and never a groom. Rex is sick of being the guy before the husband, and he’s most definitely sick of being the best man at all their weddings.
Bartender Abigail McNerny is the gal-pal, the wing-woman, the she-BFF. She’s dated. Once. And once was more than enough. Privy to all the sad stories of her customers, ‘contentment over commitment’ is her motto, and Abby is convinced no one on earth could ever entice her into a romantic relationship . . . except that one guy she’s loved since preschool.
The guy who just walked into her bar.
The guy who doesn’t recognize her.
Who is drunk and needs a ride home.
The guy who has a proposition she should definitely refuse.”
My Thoughts
I loved this one!
It was such a fun use of the fake dating trope. I loved the combination of past small town setting – shout out to Texas Hill Country!-, Austin, and pro football.
It was festive, funny, romantic, and sexy. Both Rex and Abby did a lot of healing from their pasts. It was beautiful to see how they supported one another especially how important it was to Rex to give Abby time and space to figure things out when their relationship changed.
I loved Joy Nash’s audio narration! She does a lot of Penny Reid’s books so her voice adds to the nostalgia for me at this point.
The only thing that kept it from being a 5-read was not having Rex’s POV. That would have been amazing! It also felt a pinch long with the slow burn.
Questions to Consider for Your Own Reading Life: Do certain authors, series, or narrators give you a feeling of nostalgia? Which ones and why?
Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb
Rating: 4 stars
This was another Thanksgiving themed read from my fall TBR.
I used to love this mystery series, In Death. In case you didn’t know, J.D. Robb is Nora Robert’s pen name for her futuristic murder series that follows homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke.
I thought it would be fun to catch up with the characters. This was jumping into book 37 – there are currently 57!
Book Blurb:
“Lieutenant Eve Dallas has plenty to be grateful for this season. Hosting Roarke’s big Irish family for the holiday may be challenging, but it’s a joyful improvement on her own dark childhood.
Other couples aren’t as lucky as Eve and Roarke. The Reinholds, for example, are lying in their home stabbed and bludgeoned almost beyond recognition. Those who knew them are stunned—and heartbroken by the evidence that they were murdered by their own son. Twenty-six-year-old Jerry hadn’t made a great impression on the bosses who fired him or the girlfriend who dumped him—but they didn’t think he was capable of this.
Turns out Jerry is not only capable of brutality but taking a liking to it. With the money he’s stolen from his parents and a long list of grievances, he intends to finally make his mark on the world. Eve and her team already know the who, how, and why of this murder. What they need to pinpoint is where Jerry’s going to strike next.”
My Thoughts
Holy cow! I forgot how dark and disturbing this series is.
I struggled with my rating for this one because I actually had to skip or skim the chapters told from Jerry’s (the murder’s) POV. Being in his head was way too toxic for me! But I feel like that’s also a testament to how great the writing is.
So I landed at 3.75 stars but since I don’t do quarter stars, I rounded up to 4.
The insights into human nature however disturbing were more powerful than I remember the series being.
It was fun to read Eve again and see how far she has come as a character, making sense of her life, healing from her traumatic childhood, moving forward in her career, and how her marriage with Roarke is going. I also forgot about so many side characters like Peabody and Mira. It was fun to check back in.
The main question of this book seemed to revolve around how does a child who had everything turn out so empty while some children who had nothing rise above? A very interesting question but overall this was a very sad book.
It could be fun to dip into another mystery down the line in the series to see how everyone is doing but overall I think this one is way too dark for my current reading tastes.
Reading Life Insight
This book drew me in and I read it pretty quickly but mostly because it horrified me.
I’ve known a lot of readers who enjoy dark reads like this series though.
Picking up this series again definitely made me wonder what those readers are getting out of it. Not from a judgmental standpoint but a genuine curiosity about our different reading tastes. What is it that draws them into stories like these and what do they enjoy about it?
Questions to Consider for Your Own Reading Life: How dark do you like your reading to get? Do you feel like you’re good at picking books that fall in line with your personal preference? How do you handle it if/when you get in over your head? If you are someone who wants darker/disturbing stories and you feel comfortable sharing, please let me know in the comments what draws you in and what you enjoy about these reading experiences.
Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
Rating: 4 stars
Steam Level: 2
I tried The Charm Offensive (3.5 stars) for A Dose of Romance’s January selection but didn’t love it. I recently saw so many fun reviews for this one I added it to my holiday TBR.
Book Blurb:
“One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.
Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.”
My Thoughts
I really enjoyed this one!
Second chance romance is one of my favorites and I bought into the connection that Jack and Ellie forged on their one day together last Christmas.
Add in a snowy holiday setting, all the festive events, a good dose of family drama, and I had a really fun time with this story.
There were a few heavier themes to this holiday romance. One was seeing Ellie grow through her fear of failure and learn to accept her mistakes as just that mistakes, but that they don’t mean she’s a failure as a person. Her struggle felt very relatable.
I definitely enjoyed this one more than The Charm Offensive. I also thought it was funny I started the year with Alison Cochrun and read her other book near the close.
Questions to Consider for Your Own Reading Life: How many chances do you give an author? Who’s an author whose second book worked better for you than their first? Or for a more festive and fun question – What’s your favorite holiday book based on a Christmas song? Or which song do you wish had a story based on it?
Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead
Rating: 4.5 stars
Last year I fell in love with Ashley Winstead’s writing in both In My Dreams I Hold a Knife (5 stars) and The Last Housewife (5 stars). This is her newest thriller release. I enjoyed buddy reading this with my friend Alisha over on Fable.
Book Blurb:
“Beware of the dark. You might like what you find…
Ruth Collier has always felt like an outsider, even as her father rains fire and brimstone from the church pulpit. In Bottom Springs, his word is as good as law.
But there are things the townspeople fear more than God, like the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to kill sinners in their beds on moonless nights.
When a skull is found deep in the swamp, a hunt for the Low Man begins. Suspicion turns to Everett – Ruth’s oldest friend, with a dark past. As Ruth and Everett grow closer, Ruth begins to unearth the town’s secrets, determined to discover the truth.
But as the line between good and evil grows ever thin, how far will Ruth go to save the person she loves most?”
My Thoughts
This was my second buddy read and tandem read of the month – I read along with the ebook while listening to the audio.
Ashley Winstead is an author to check your trigger warnings carefully with. She puts a content warning at the start of her books which is helpful.
I didn’t love this one as much as her first two thriller books (she also writes romance which I’m still eager to pick up). I felt like I didn’t follow the path she was weaving for the reader as well in this one.
The conversation with the author at the end was brilliant and cleared some things up for me. This is a really difficult one to talk about without spoilers.
I loved what Winstead did with using Twilight as a sacred text for Ruth trying to make sense of love as a teenage girl and the world she was born into.
This is probably my favorite setting of her three thrillers. It gave me Where the Crawdads Sing vibes. It was so atmospheric in the way she wrote nature with the swamp, the ancient trees used in spiritualism, and the parallels of animals and beasts to the people in town.
This is one that will make you question your own moral compass, how we even come to define what’s good and evil, and how these values can be warped to fit our own narrative or the narrative of those who reside in power.
Reading Life Insight
I loved this conversation with the author (all of Winstead’s are enlightening) and in this case I really needed it to make those last connections with the text.
I almost always read the author’s note or interview with the author if one is featured at the end of the book.
Katherine Center and Lisa Jewell are two authors who usually include one and I love that extra insight into their writing lives or mindset when they were creating.
In the conversation with an author, Winstead takes this even further connecting the themes and message she was hoping to get across to the reader and what elements she included or how she shaped her writing to support those.
Questions to Consider for Your Own Reading Life: Do you enjoy reading author’s notes or interviews with the author in the back of the book? How often does it influence your reading experience? Or would you prefer to be left alone to draw your own connections and conclusions letting the story stand on its own?
Fated Mates by Alicia Montgomery
Rating: 3.5 stars
Steam Level: 2
This series, True Mates, was recommended to me months ago by my friend Corinne when I asked for more shifter recommendations since I’m still pretty new to that area of paranormal romance.
I put this one on my fall TBR and it was also featured on the October Edition of What’s in My Kindle Unlimited Library.
Book Blurb:
“Private investigator Alynna Chase is drawn in to the world of werewolf shifter clans when she encounters charming and sexy Lycan, Alex Westbrooke.
For centuries, werewolf shifters have moved among human society undetected, hiding in plain sight. The New York clan, hiding behind the powerful Fenrir Corporation, has ruled the East Coast for over two centuries, holding great power and position in both human and Lycan hierarchy.
Alynna suddenly finds herself in the center of this secretive society world when her true heritage is revealed – a full-blooded Lycan, born of the fabled True Mate pairing between her human mother and powerful Alpha father. Drawn deeper into their world, she feels a magnetic pull towards Alex.
As Alynna takes her place in Lycan high society, Alex knows he could never have her. He’s a newcomer to New York and a member of the current Alpha’s security team, making her beyond his reach. But the attraction between them is too powerful, and he risks everything to have her.
However, a threat to the clan and Alynna’s life draws them closer together, and Alex will do anything to protect her, even risk getting too close and defying Lycan hierarchy.
With so many things at stake, will their affair end in disaster or have these two lonely souls found what they’ve been looking for?”
My Thoughts
This was a fun book to wrap up my fall reading with!
It was a quick read and a different take on the shifter world than I’ve read before.
While I didn’t love it, for much of my reading time I enjoyed it more than the dark thriller I was reading concurrently. This one just felt lighter and fun which made it a great escape!
I do wish we had gotten to know Alex a little better. I didn’t connect with him as the hero and even found myself rooting for Liam instead for part of the book.
The connection between Alex and Alynna was total instalust to instalove. I did love the last slice of pie moment near the beginning. I wish we had gotten more interactions like that to build up to their feelings of love.
It was an interesting world Montgomery set up with this secret Lycan society within the modern world. It’s a very sophisticated take on shifters making them refined as powerful business people and billionaires.
Montgomery set up the next two couples well in this first book and there’s still an ongoing mystery around Alynna so I may continue the series when I’m in the mood for some quick escapism.
Questions to Consider for Your Own Reading Life: Do you have books, authors, or series that you hold onto for when you need the escapism? If so what are some of yours?
What was your favorite book from November? Remember if you know of any great Thanksgiving reads, leave me your recommendations in the comments.
