I’m combining November’s Wrap Up and the December TBR because there aren’t that many new releases in December. Hopefully. I haven’t exactly plotted this out already. But either way, I’m behind so combining these two posts seems like a very logical choice. November was… a month. I put up my Christmas tree in early November and have slowly been decorating it ever since. I am not okay with the fact that I only have so many days where this pretty tree exists in my living room, if I’m being honest, so we’ll see if I actually take it down by mid-January. Oh! And I went to Disney world! I can’t believe I almost forgot the most exciting thing to happen. How silly of me. Anyway, let’s talk about the actual books.
November Books by Rating
5 Stars
I have been following Elyse Myers loosely since I found her via the Taco Bell date story, which genuinely made me laugh so hard I cried. I found her memoir felt like a true reflection of following her on Instagram, with some things she talked about having me giggling and a lot of it making me think. I don’t want to speak to diagnoses because I don’t actually remember any of them for certain, but certainly Myers is neurodivergent and deals with some mental health issues. In a lot of ways, I find her to be relatable and in other ways, I just appreciate seeing how someone else’s brain works. All in all, I appreciate this book for exactly what it is.
Direbound by Sable Sorensen is a fantasy romance book that I had on my radar for quite a while and wound up finally picking up. In September I had picked it up as a Blind Date for a Book from The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn and I believe the little blurb on it said “The Hunger Games x Fourth Wing” and I thought that sounded delightful. I still didn’t read it right away, as you can tell, but I finally did! And I loved it. I think this book is divisive, but I tend to be a vibes reader when it comes to romantasy especially so I had a fantastic time. I literally SCREAMED at an early plot reveal and had to text my sister in all caps about it. I was truly INVESTED in this book. And I am so excited to read the second book as soon as it comes out.
Two of the books I read because they were nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards Romance category were five stars: First-Time Caller and Beg, Borrow, or Steal. I owned First-Time Caller from the get go, but I put it off for absolutely no reason. I really loved it, which isn’t a surprise because I do love B.K. Borison. I think I was just nervous to enter a series that wasn’t Lovelight Farms because of how attached I was/am to those characters. But I loved these characters just as much and I really flip-flopping between the physical book and the audiobook. Beg, Borrow, or Steal caught me off guard by how much I loved it. This is “Eldest Daughter” coded to the nth degree and I loved the character development so much. I got the audiobook from my library and read it so quickly. But I wouldn’t mind owning a copy myself to return to.
Finally we have Quicksilver and Brimstone. I originally wasn’t going to re-read Quicksilver, but the weekend before Brimstone‘s release, I changed my mind and I read and annotated Quicksilver and had the best time. Plus I got to talk to one of my closest friends about Quicksilver and then also Brimstone, which just made the reading experience THAT much better. Brimstone is maybe not as good as Quicksilver, but Carrion Swift is a gem, so I loved it. Truly though, I had a great time. I’ve seen people not loving it, but I think I’m just more basic than they are and my vibes reading style really lends itself to books like this.
4.5-4 Stars
I picked up Fan Service because I heard… someone raving about it. I wish I could remember who. Anyway, I really liked the world building of this contemporary setting with the paranormal element, but something kept it from being an absolute favorite, but I definitely don’t know what. To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage reminds me that space is not for me and also made me so grateful that I’ve NEVER wanted to be an astronaut in my life. But also, I appreciated this look at Cherokee identity because there are multiple perspectives and it was very intriguing. Also, I appreciated that this book travels from Oklahoma to the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina because I used to live right by the boundary and that was really cool and fun to see. Ladies in Hating is a book that I owe you an ARC review for, but the tl;dr would be that Alexandra Vasti really is such an enjoyable historical romance author whose style of writing reminds me somewhat of Tessa Dare and fills that gap for me a little. Holiday Ever After by Hannah Grace was my airplane book on the way to Disney so that I would be “in the spirit” for A Very Mickey Christmas or whatever it was called. (Fantastic experience though. Highly recommend.) Also, really enjoyed the book! It was fun and sweet and very Hallmark movie coded, which made it perfect for the season. I don’t have much to add about the Kingfisher POV shorts, other than those matter a lot so you should definitely read it (you can read it for free on Callie’s website, but I needed the audiobook for sure). Then, Spiral by Bal Khabra is another book I read because it was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in the Romance category and I had a surprisingly fantastic time with the first book in the series and honestly, I enjoyed this one nearly as much. Maybe even more. Also, I really love reading about dancers. Or performers in general perhaps, but I really appreciated that aspect of the book.
Onto the second line… First up was Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams, which I soft DNF’d years ago because the second hand embarrassment was too much for me. I am so thrilled to tell you that upon finishing the book, I actually really did enjoy it because it is about a people-pleaser learning to please herself. And if there’s anything I love, it’s that exact character growth. Plus, it’s about practicing dating and that’s also delightful. Then I read Emily Wilde’s Compendium for Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett because it was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in the Romtasy category. I am baffled by its placement in this category, but I am glad to have completed the series. It was good, I just don’t think this series has swept me away enough to really understand everyone else’s love of this series. Then, I picked up Single Dad Dilemma, which was just as wonderful as I was hoping it would be! I loved it so much. I really like Karla Sorensen’s writing and her books generally are always hits for me, with very few exceptions. She’s also prolific so I appreciate that too. I returned to romantasy with The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent, which I’ve been supposed to have read for years now. I loved book one so much. This book probably would have been five stars if I didn’t wait like two years between books one and two, but I did think it was good! And finally, my last book of the month was The Anatomy of Magic by J.C. Cervantes. I have read both The Enchanted Hacienda and The Anatomy of Magic this year and I am obsessed. Unfortunately, the character choices in The Anatomy of Magic had me literally screaming in my car because WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? and while sometimes that’s a sign that I love a book, in this case, I almost DNF’d it because I was annoyed. I know that my mood can really affect my overall enjoyment of a book, but somehow writing that sentence made me really have to reckon with the fact that I am entirely too arbitrary.
3.5-3.0
All three of these books are books that I should have loved more than I did, but all three books were doing a lot of non-romance work and that’s sometimes a thing that really works for me and sometimes it just doesn’t. Unfortunately for these three books, they all wound up being pretty okay, but not my favorite reads. And I really wanted to love them.
December TBR
I have three ARCs for December:
Something Wicked has the most wild synopsis and I am definitely intrigued to actually pick it up. I’m behind as literally always, but hopeful that I’ll get to this by the end of the year and really love it. At Whit’s End by Bailey Hannah is a single mom romance where the kid’s dad is… useless and the kid is… trouble. But in a fun way. Anyway, very excited to dive more into that one. And finally We Who Will Die was a book of the month pick with pretty sprayed edges and apparently a book club pick for my local romance bookstore in February so I’m going to have to take really good notes, but I’m looking forward to it!
The other two December releases I’m super excited before are Sin Bin by Chelsea Curto and In a Second by Kate Canterbary.
Closing Thoughts
All in all, November was a really good reading month and I can only hope that December will result in me finishing things out strong. I have already read a favorite book of the year this month so there’s that! Are there any December releases I didn’t mention? What were your favorite reads of November?
xx
firewhiskeyreader 