It’s time for another reading roundup! It’s getting so close to the end of 2021, and I absolutely cannot wait to get my goodreads reading challenge roundup. I absolutely loved looking through it from my 2020 reading challenge, and I absolutely tripled how much I read this year.
I was kind of hoping I would hit 100 books this year, but my pace started slowing down toward the end of the year, and I think that’s mainly because I haven’t been listening to as many audiobooks. I will probably end out in the high 80s, and I am more than happy with that!
Here’s what I read in November 2021.
The Wedding Date, Jasmine Guillory: 2 Stars
Description: Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.
On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…
After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…
They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want…
My thoughts: Okay, so what happened is I mistakenly read the second book in this “series” that I didn’t even realize was a series until I saw it said (The Wedding Date #2) beside The Proposal title on goodreads!
I had high hopes for this one since I remembered liking the Proposal a lot, but it fell short for me. I am not the biggest romance fan- I like when books have an element of romance to them, but just the general modern romance is harder for me to look past all the cheesiness. This felt sooo cheesy to me, and I did get so frustrated when Alexa and Drew’s issues just stemmed from a lack of communication more than anything else. I don’t think I will continue with this series, but if you like romance more than me, I’m sure this is a great one!
To explain the series thing a little more, there are some common characters throughout the stories, but you don’t have to know anything about the previous to get any of the subsequent books.
The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller: 4 Stars
Description: It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace” — the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside.
Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives.
As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.
My thoughts: This is such a good example of the problem with audiobooks sometimes. I started out by listening to a free audiobook version of this through the library, and I just could not get into it. I kept seeing it absolutely everywhere, so I decided to pick it up when Target was having a huge book sale.
I ended up absolutely loving it! It reminded me slightly of All Adults Here, Where the Crawdads Sing (the setting), and a few other books that I’ve loved.
I really liked how all the flashbacks were intentional in building up the background for all the characters and justifications for their future actions. The story kept unfolding differently than I thought it would, but I loved all the plot points and felt like everything was really intentional.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix: Stars
Description: Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.
Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia’s life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they’re more likely to discuss the FBI’s recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.
But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club’s meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he’s a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she–and her book club–are the only people standing between the monster they’ve invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.
My thoughts: Wow, it’s been a minute since I read something I was this obsessed with. I thought about this constantly throughout the day when I couldn’t read it, just waiting for the moment I could pick it up again. That’s usually the best sign of a 5 star book for me, but I do not think this book is for everyone.
There are several scenes that are disturbingly gruesome, but that doesn’t bother me too, too much when it’s just something I can skim over and force myself not to imagine too vividly. I loved how easy it is in this book to visualize the characters, the homes, the neighborhood, etc.
Even though there are fantastical elements to this, I actually think it’s really good symbolism for greed and contains a lot of themes of friendship and what it means to be a good friend. There were also contrasts between the evil or shortcomings of “characters” in the true crime books the women read and then how they acted when evil was on their own doorsteps.
Be aware, the men in this book could not gaslight the women more, and that was SO frustrating for me at times. It just got frustrating when so much of the plot was dedicated to them burying their heads in the sand and so much of the conflict happening because of that alone. But I still loved it so much! I described the plot to my husband for like 30 minutes because I needed to talk to someone else about it, but I didn’t think he would actually like reading it!
Eight Perfect Hours, Lia Louis: 4 Stars
Description: On a snowy evening in March, 30-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone. All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear.
The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again, but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence.
My thoughts: This was my One More Page book club pick for the month, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s the perfect book to get even slightly in the holiday spirit- even though it’s not really set at Christmas time, there’s snow, going out of your way to help people, divine intervention and a weekend trip to Edinburgh involved. So cute and quaint, and I really loved the two main characters. I appreciate any kind of romance story that doesn’t make the main point of conflict communication mix ups (SO annoying for me), and this was completely free of that!
The Blue Bistro, Elin Hilderbrand: 5 Stars
Description: Adrienne Dealey has spent the past six years working for hotels in exotic resort towns. This summer she has decided to make Nantucket home. Left flat broke by her ex-boyfriend, she is desperate to earn some fast money. When the desirable Thatcher Smith, owner of Nantucket’s hottest restaurant, is the only one to offer her a job, she wonders if she can get by with no restaurant experience. Thatcher gives Adrienne a crash course in the business…and they share an instant attraction. But there is a mystery about their situation: what is it about Fiona, the Blue Bistro’s chef, that captures Thatcher’s attention again and again? And why does such a successful restaurant seem to be in its final season before closing its doors for good? Despite her uncertainty, Adrienne must decide whether to open her heart for the first time, or move on, as she always does.
Infused with intimate Nantucket detail and filled with the warmth of passion and the breeze of doubt, The Blue Bistro is perfect summer reading.
My thoughts: I definitely judged this book by the cover (it’s just very cheesy 2000s), but my mom told me I would love it. Well, she was completely right. I have come to discover that I love any book set in either the foodie/restaurant world or the book world, and this is all about the restaurant life. I absolutely loved the sneak peak into that life, and the love story was really good and authentic in my opinion. I never felt like any of the dialogue was cheesy, which is one of my number one priorities for any kind of romance.
Definitely give this older Elin Hilderbrand a chance!
Delicious!, Ruth Reichl: 4 Stars
Description: Billie Breslin has traveled far from her home in California to take a job at Delicious!, New York’s most iconic food magazine. Away from her family, particularly her older sister, Genie, Billie feels like a fish out of water—until she is welcomed by the magazine’s colorful staff. She is also seduced by the vibrant downtown food scene, especially by Fontanari’s, the famous Italian food shop where she works on weekends. Then Delicious! is abruptly shut down, but Billie agrees to stay on in the empty office, maintaining the hotline for reader complaints in order to pay her bills.
To Billie’s surprise, the lonely job becomes the portal to a miraculous discovery. In a hidden room in the magazine’s library, Billie finds a cache of letters written during World War II by Lulu Swan, a plucky twelve-year-old, to the legendary chef James Beard. Lulu’s letters provide Billie with a richer understanding of history, and a feeling of deep connection to the young writer whose courage in the face of hardship inspires Billie to comes to terms with her fears, her big sister and her ability to open her heart to love.
My thoughts: Oh my gosh, the only thing I hate about this book is how long it took me to read it. If you like cooking, food, finding new restaurants, etc., please read this book! It’s so good. The storyline is so good, and I found myself thinking about it all day long.
It was more than easy to get lost in the words of Lulu’s letters, and Billie’s life was so interesting to me. I loved how the story of her sister unfolded, and I just can’t recommend this more. Everything had the sweetest ending, without being cheesy or predictable.
I always like to note when I read or listen to a book, and this was the first audiobook I have read in a while. It was a terrific audiobook performance!
The only reason this has four stars instead of five is the romance element. I really felt like it was unnecessary and I can’t help but feel like Billie’s love interest is a total dud- maybe it was just a bad audio performance of his character, but I wasn’t a fan of him at all.
What I’m reading next:
The House in the Cerulean Sea (currently reading)
The Woman Outside My Door (currently listening)
In a Holidaze – got the Kindle version for $1.99 on a special deal! I don’t know how long it will last, but I wanted to share in case.
A History of Wild Places (My BOTM pick!)
Thank you for reading this reading posts! I can’t believe I’ve been doing these consistently all year, but now I really can’t see myself stopping. I hope you all are as interested in the reading content as I am!
