MINI REVIEWS: November & December 2019

This is my last set of mini reviews for 2019. I am not going to be doing another set of mini reviews based on month. I did it for all of 2019 and enjoyed doing it, but want to break up my reviews into categories. Ones I have planned so far are “books with less than 1,000 Goodreads Reviews” and “Reading my Bookstagram followers favorite books”. I also am planning to post mini reviews for individual books on my Bookstagram which is something I have not done consistently.

November was a decent reading month, especially considering I was extremely busy. However, in December I fell into a reading slump which I am still not entirely out of.

But, here is what I did manage to read in November and December in between the stress of school and work, Christmas shopping, a cold, and just life. There are many rereads here because I only read rereads for a weekend which was awesome.

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Books I read that will get full reviews: Wife After Wife (coming next weekend)

Until It Fades by KA Tucker
After The Simple Wild I went on a KA Tucker binge. This was my third book by her and it was alright. I enjoyed the beginning of the novel, but by the end it was hard to stay engaged with the story. I wasn’t a fan of the ending and not much about this book is memorable. It also is a bit cliche at times and nothing special. That being said, it is not a bad book, I just did not love it. 3.5/5 stars

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
This book has got mixed reviews, but I loved it. I may not have entirely understood the world, but I loved our characters and Queen Leigh’s writing is amazing as always. I was lucky enough to see her on her tour of this book which was awesome. This one made it onto into my top ten books of the year. There are serious triggers for this book including rape, molestation, drug/alcohol use/addition, murder, sexual assault, and I am sure there are more. Read with caution if you have triggers. 4.5/5 stars

Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry
100% don’t know how to rate this book and at this point, will not be giving it a star rating. I was a bit let down (stupid hype), but also I just sort of feel weird about the whole thing and without expressing my complex feeling about Catholicism and religion in general, I don’t know how to express my feelings regarding this novel. I also don’t want to talk about my faith and my struggles with aspects of it on the internet.

I did like the humor and the frank discussions of religion and the representations of different types of people with different faiths. I also did like all the historical anecdotes and the cleverness behind the whole thing.

Honestly, I think I was too old to read this. This book comes to the conclusion that everyone has their own faith journey and as long as you respect others and do no harm it’s fine. It also says that you can’t judge people for they faith. Seeing Micheal learn this was something that perhaps I needed when I was a teen myself, but now I don’t. I agree with the messages of this novel (mostly), but I don’t need this story the way others might. Which is why I don’t feel right rating it.

This story absolutely should exist, but as someone who already has complex faith discussions with people and knows people of all different religions it was not anything new to me. I also find it interesting that all the ratings that are less than five stars are people who have interesting relationships with religion. No Rating

Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters
As a slight disclaimer I read this when I had a cold so I might have enjoyed it a bit more than normal. I also was able to binge it which is something that tends to make me like novels better. It is usually impossible for me to read while I am sick so bless this cold for allowing me to read during it!

Anywho! This novel is so much so much fun. I loved the main character and all the different meet cute situations. Any book that discusses rom-com seriously is a win in my book. My only complaint is that the ending was dragged out a bit longer than I would have liked and I was not completely satisfied with it. 4.5/5 stars

*I won an arc of this book from a Goodreads giveaway. All thoughts are my own*

Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
I chose this as one of my October (?) Book of the Month picks. Unpopular opinion ahead, but I was not the biggest fan of this one. It is a solid romance novel and I loved the representation of a chronically ill main character and the writing was clever and fun, but I could not get invested in the characters at all. Honestly, I think this was a me problem rather than the book itself since it is getting tons of praise. I did love Talia Hibbert’s writing and think I will enjoy the sequel more, Take a Hint, Dani Brown. 3/5 stars

Evie Drake Starts Over Linda Holmes
I read this book in one night and stayed up until 1am to finish it. Did I regret this? A bit. I honestly do not remember exactly why I enjoyed this one so much. But, I fell into the story and enjoyed the characters. Plus there is a cute small town, an injured athlete who is finding himself, and the two main characters are roommates. Yes THEY WERE ROOMMATES. Trigger warnings for emotional abuse. 4/5 stars

Maybe in Another Life Taylor Jenkins Reid
TJR always writes characters are feel like real people. This plot was weird (and the reason I put this one off for so long), but I love how it looked at the idea of meant to be and fate. This novel explores the idea of what it means to be home in terms of the location and the people. I tore through this book, gasped at one point, and almost cried a few time. Parts of the plot were slow and I didn’t love the split timeline, as it was a bit hard to keep track of the different timelines. I would have appreciated a chapter marker or indicator. The ending also was a bit unsatisfying, but I did like it as a whole. 4/5 stars

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (reread) I read this book every November. Well this was my second November reading it and I see myself continuing with this tradition in the years to come. I do my rereads by listening to the audiobook because I love it so much. The two narrators are phenomenal and the story is such a slow build. I love these characters so much and this story will always have a special place in my heart. 5/5 stars 

I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella (reread)
This is my favorite Sophie Kinsella book. It has everything featured in her other books, but for some reason this one just sticks out. I think I just love the text conversations they have and am endeared to Poppy and Sam even though they both are annoying at times. This book is just a fun time and rereading it in November was a great time. I am so sad that I had to get rid of my copy of this book due to mold (lol) and am now on the hunt for a new copy. 5/5 stars

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (reread)
This is another one of my go to comfort reads, but this one is also emotional and sad. Low key it was more emotional than I remember. I also was a bit bothered by a few of the plot lines (aka the MC being “saved” by a guy like the entire book). There is also a problematic autism joke, that was a bit yikes. BUT. I did still really enjoy rereading this book. Anytime you put some crazy characters into a car I’m going to have fun with the book. In this one we have a math genius child who gets car stick (which means they cannot take the freeway), an emo teen, a broke single mom who is at her wits end,  a businessman who has daddy issues and is being investigated for insider trading (it was an accident okay), and a big stinky dog. It is a wild ride. 5/5 stars 

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata (reread)
Look might be my all time favorite romance novel and it definitely is my favorite MZ book. Just read my gushing review or read the book to see why. I feel like I talk about this book all the time so I am not going to say anything else. 5/5 stars

 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo, Tree