It’s time for another Quick Lit post! Modern Mrs Darcy, one of my favorite book blogs, hosts a link up once a month for fellow readers and bloggers to share what they’re reading lately. These quick reviews offer a mid month glimpse into my reading life.
I don’t want to jinx it, but with adding romance novels back into my book picks, I’ve been reading a good amount of books each month. With that I’m going to start sharing two separate book review posts each month, one mid month and one covering the rest of the month’s reading.
December is off to a good start again in my reading life. Most of my reading has been romances with three Christmas ones to embrace the holiday spirit! Here are five books I’ve read so far this month.
What I’ve Been Reading Lately in December:
Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber
I enjoyed listening to this short audiobook while I wrapped Christmas gifts. Twelve Days of Christmas is a quick holiday romance. After a few run ins with her scrooge of a neighbor, Cain, Julia decides to embrace the holiday spirit and kill him with kindness. She is working on a new blog as part of a competition for a new job and her best friend thinks it’s a great idea to document her kindness project in order to gain readers. Over the twelve days before Christmas though Julia gets more than she bargained for as she and Cain turn from strangers to friends and maybe something more.
The audio version of this story was only 5 hours long so this was a short and sweet listen. The story was ok. It served the holiday mood I was looking for. Julia crossed the line on many occasions and made me cringe with her justifications. I enjoyed her insights into kindness though.
Pucked Love by Helena Hunting
In Pucked Love, we finally get Charlene and Darren’s story. They’ve only been dating for two years!
I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this final novel in the Pucked series. Charlene and Darren have been tight lipped about their relationship in the previous books. We just know Violet refers to him as Mr. Grey occasionally and Lily observes their interaction to be a cat and mouse game. I was braced for 50 Shades of Grey contracts and sex rooms.
Pucked Love is nothing like that. Darren and Charlene are both intensively private people struggling to overcome their troubled childhoods. Their relationship has progressed slowly because of that. When the NHL puts together a new team a draft is on the horizon and things aren’t looking good for Darren who’s playing one of his best seasons. As the chance of separation looms over the couple, they each try to figure out what they mean to one another and how to have a serious relationship without scaring the other away.
This final novel was a satisfying conclusion to the series. I read the previous novels last month. The connection between Darren and Charlene was sweet, sexy, and fragile. This book had darker subject matter like Lance’s story in Pucked Off which gave it a different tone than the first books in the series. I’m excited to continue reading Helena Hunting’s cross over series, All In, which follows the next group of Chicago hockey players.
Majesty by Katharine McGee
Majesty is the second and final book in Katharine McGee’s American Royals series. I read the first book last month. Warning: It’s hard to talk about this book without spoilers for the first one.
The Washington Royals are overwhelmed by grief as Beatrice grapples with being the first Queen of America. Her mother and advisors are still pushing for a wedding and though she grows closer to her fiancee, she still isn’t sure she’s ready to get married. Samantha reverts back to her party princess ways and enters into a fake relationship to make a past love interest jealous. Nina is avoiding the palace but winds up involved with someone that puts her right back into the spotlight. Daphne puts everything on the line with her scheming to get Prince Jefferson back.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand the action and tension build in way where I had a hard time putting the book down. But it went in a completely different direction than I was expecting with how the love stories were set up in the first book. I wasn’t a fan of that. It also ended with only two of the four point of view characters’ stories resolved. While I didn’t hate that, the series didn’t feel complete.
The Boss Who Stole Christmas by Jana Aston
After seeing it featured on a few romance lists, The Boss Who Stole Christmas was one of the books on my holiday TBR list. As of this writing, it is available on Kindle Unlimited. This Christmas romance novella was a sweet surprise!
Holly Winter is asking Santa for a new boss this Christmas. Nick Saint-Croix has recently taken over his family’s toy company and while he doesn’t look like a old scrooge, Holly couldn’t imagine a grumpier manager. When he demands she accompany him last minute on business trip to Germany, she would give anything to get out of it. But seeing Nick away from the office makes him seem less like a Grinch and more like someone she could begin to tolerate.
I understand why romance readers are singing Jana Aston’s praises. This quick, cute, funny, and sexy story checks all the boxes. I loved the atmosphere of both Reindeer Falls, Michigan and Nuremberg, Germany. There was a lot packed into this short novella. I can’t wait to dig into the other two books in the series.
Faking Under the Mistletoe by Ashley Shepherd
Faking Under the Mistletoe was another book on my holiday TBR list for December. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited as of this writing.
Olivia Langley throws herself into her role of “Santa’s Executive Helper” at the New York PR firm where she is interning. Her boss, Asher McGowan, is the definition of a grinch this holiday season as he recovers from a break up. When Olivia and Asher find themselves at the same party along with his recent happily-in-love ex, Olivia schemes a fake relationship between the two of them to help her boss save face. Over the month of December though, she begins to realize there’s nothing fake about her feelings for Asher.
This book started out great. I love the way Ashley Shepherd writes witty banter! My issue was there’s so much dialogue with very little background on the characters. I had a hard time keeping the secondary characters straight. This book is a standalone novel but apparently there are crossover characters from her previous book and I felt lost in those connections.
The tone of this novel also changes significantly in the middle of the story. At the beginning of the book, there is a trigger warning for reference to a past sexual assault. On the page though, there are multiple scenes of sexual harassment, groping, and misconduct. I didn’t feel like this subject was treated with the seriousness it deserved. I also didn’t like the way Asher and Olivia joked about harassing one another and the power imbalance in their relationship either. The story had so much potential but those issues really brought it down for me.
What are you reading lately?
2 responses to “What I’ve Been Reading Lately: December Quick Lit”
Ahhh I love seasonal reading – especially holiday romances for right now when the escape is so necessary! I haven’t read any of Helena Hunting but your review makes me want to pick up the series.
I also read romance (among others) over the past few weeks – including Ben’s Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle by Penelope Peters which I really enjoyed.
Here’s my quick lit for December: http://www.everyoneslibrarian.com/blog/quick-lit-december-2020
Exactly! I’m very grateful I discovered these new (to me) romance series this year when I needed to escape the most. I will definitely check out Penelope Peters! Thank you for stopping by!