December 2019 Book Reviews

Happy 2020!

I’m so excited that my first post of the decade is a monthly book review. These are my favorite posts to write so it seems like the perfect way to start of another year on the blog.

In terms of reading, 2019 went out with a bang. I read twelve books in December. You read that right – TWELVE! Most of those books happened in the cozy time between Christmas and New Years; life seems to slow down in that period of time and it allows for lots of time to read while cozied up by the Christmas tree. It’s just the best!

I loved 11 out of 12 of the books I read and I’m excited to share them so let’s get started!

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Lucy and Joshua are coworkers and enemies who spend their days playing hate-fueled games at their competitive jobs. One day, a new promotion is announced and tension increases as they’re both vying for it. As things escalate, they actually get to know one another a little better and realize perhaps they don’t hate each other as much as they thought they did. I really enjoyed this book! There weren’t really any  unexpected twists and turns, it was just good old fashioned chick lit fun. I enjoyed the characters, thought the storyline was fun and interesting, and was invested in watching Lucy and Josh’s relationship develop. I will say, it has some pretty rated-R scenes and language, so heads up if you try to avoid that.

The Other’s Gold by Elizabeth Ames

This book follows four girls who are strangers to one another when they are assigned as roommates in their freshman year at college but quickly become best friends. The book is broken up into four chronological sections from college all the way to motherhood and describes how their relationships with one another grow and are tested as each girl makes her biggest mistake. While it was intriguing to see how the other girls reacted to one another’s mistakes, I found that I didn’t really love the story because I didn’t really love or connect with the characters. We’ve all done things we regret terribly, and I think I would have liked this book more if I liked the characters more or understood what made their friendship so everlasting despite huge differences? I’m not sure. Also, when a book is centered around things people do that they regret or that alter lives, you see the underbelly of human motivations. Seeing what led each girl to her mistake often left me feeling sad (or even icky) but I think that is actually an indication that the author did a great job exploring why and how we are led to make mistakes. Overall, I finished the book and felt just so-so about it.

Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

This book reminded me of The Golden Hour because it follows completely fictional main characters that have interactions with a character that actually did exist in real life. In this case, we meet two characters, perfumer Sophie and press photographer James who are brought together by none other than Grace Kelly. Unlike the Golden Hour, I actually felt like the famous person and the events from history played a big part in the plot. One day, Sophie is running her little perfume shop in Cannes, France when Grace Kelly unexpectedly ducks inside to escape being photographed by James. Sophie hides Grace, but meets James in the process. Their brief encounter sets the wheels in motion on a chain of events that will eventually connect all three characters as they prepare for the wedding of the century where Grace is to become Princess of Monaco. This is the type of historical fiction I love best and I found this book to be a delightful read. I was charmed by Grace (and spent tons of time on Wikipedia afterwards learning more about her) and fell in love with James and Sophie. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that I wish the authors had chosen to do something different with one aspect towards the end. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to my fellow historical fiction lovers.

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

I received a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas and as Justin and I traveled to Virginia to spend time with his family I got to put it to use. This book has been on my To Be Read list for a long time so I was excited to dive in.

This thriller follows Amber, a woman fueled by her poor upbringing and desire for money and power, and her quest to befriend/manipulate beautiful socialite Daphne and insert herself into Daphne’s world. I’m not going to lie, the first part of the book was frustrating to read and I had a hard time enjoying it BUT then about halfway through things shifted and it became addictive. I was completely fascinated and flew through the rest of the book. Now, without spoiling anything, I will say that this book had some very similar elements to another book I have previously read. Because of that, there were a few things that were meant to be shocking that I already suspected thanks to to the other book. I wish I hadn’t read the other one first because I actually liked this book SO much more and think it would have been even better with the element of surprise. Even so, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend!

Haven Point Series (Books 1-8) by RaeAnne Thayne

I’ve been following Megan’s bookstagram (an instagram account devoted to books and reading!) lately and have discovered that she and I have similar reading tastes. So when she raved big time about this book series, I knew I had to check it out. Guys. This is the perfect lighthearted reading! It’s like reading a Hallmark movie in book form. Sweet, fun, romantic (but not rated-R *steamy* if ya know what I mean 😉 ) and enjoyable! I got through EIGHT books in the 10-book series (they are all super quick, easy reads that I can finish in a day). While I do have my favorites, I liked them all! I’m not going to recap each book, but just the series in general. The books are all centered in a fictional town of Haven Point, Idaho and they alternate between happening at Christmas time or in the summer (book 1 at Christmas, book 2 in summer, book 3 in Christmas, so on so forth…). First of all, it’s a good thing that Haven Point is fictional or I’d be packing up my family and moving to Idaho. The town sounds adorable! And each book centers around two residents of the town and their journey towards love. Each book can stand alone, but it’s fun to read them in order because you see snippets of all the characters throughout one another’s books (so you read how characters A and B fell in love in one book, then in a future book that centers around characters C and D, one chapter may include C and D at the wedding of A and B. Or you meet one character in book one, and even though her love story doesn’t happen until book 8, you see a little of her backstory so by the time you start “her” book, you feel like you know her a bit. Does that make sense?) I’m honestly so glad I found this series when I did because it was absolutely perfect to read snuggled up by a Christmas tree. I still have a few more books in this series to read (and then there’s a sister series called Hope’s Crossing that also has some character crossover) so safe to say I have a lot of RaeAnne Thayne in my future when I’m craving some lighthearted love. If you cringe at the thought of a Hallmark Christmas movie, this series probably isn’t for you. But if you enjoy them, I recommend checking this out!

Whew! What a way to end the year, huh? I have lots of books already on my TBR list for 2020 (and one of my 20 for 2020 goals is to read 60 total books) so here’s to another great year of reading!

What’s on your “must read” list this year?