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November was a good month for reading: I loved pretty much everything I read, and I hit my goal of reading 52 books this year!
Let’s get to the reviews.
Beach Read by Emily Henry
While this would have been a delightful summer read, I loved it just as much in the fall! It tells the story of two authors, Augustus and January, who live next to each other on Lake Michigan for an entire summer. They write polar opposite styles: he writes whodunnit murder mysteries, and she writes romance novels. But they’re both experiencing extreme writer’s block, so they make a deal to switch genres and see who gets published first.
The story was light and fun, which was exactly what I needed leading up to the election. Plus, it’s set in a west Michigan beach town that sounds eerily similar to where Sean and I got married, so how can I not love it?
Rating: 5/5 stars
Beard Necessities by Penny Reid
Beard Necessities is the last true book from the Winston Brothers series that I loved so much this year. It’s about Billy, the second-oldest Winston brother, and Claire McClure (aka Scarlet St. Claire), whose origin story is told in Beard With Me. It’s a great culmination of the whole series: the family is together in Italy, and everyone teams up to get Billy and Claire together once and for all.
I loved it. I loved this series. I can’t wait to read more by Penny Reid.
Rating: 5/5 stars
A Beardy Bonus by Penny Reid
A Beardy Bonus is technically the final book in the Winston Brothers series, but it’s a bit of a weird one. I loved reading it, but not nearly as much as the actual novels themselves. This one was more of a grab bag of different chapters that got cut from the previous seven books, which make it a little hard to follow.
It was fun, but I think it would be better reading each bonus chapter after you read the book it was based on.
Rating: 4/5 stars
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Vanishing Half was such an interesting read, and so appropriate for 2020. It’s set in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s and follows two Black twin sisters, Desiree and Stella Vignes, and their two daughters, Kennedy and Jude. Desiree and Stella ran away from home at 16, moving to New Orleans and living out a new life together. But Stella secretly passes for white and begins a new life, leaving Desiree behind. Years later, Kennedy and Jude meet by chance, and the whole story begins to unravel.
The book was definitely slow at first, but once you really get into it, it’s hard to put down. I learned so much from this book, and it really gave me new perspectives.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
Ugh, I love this book series from Lyssa Kay Adams. I started it back in March with Bromance Book Club, and Crazy Stupid Bromance, the third book in the series, came out at the end of October. I purchased the ebook as soon as it came out, because seriously, I love this series so much.
It follows two formerly minor characters from the second book, Noah and Alexis, who have been best friends for 18 months but have each secretly wanted more. Then Alexis meets her father and his family, and all hell breaks loose.
Rating: 5/5 stars
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
I read my first Christina Lauren novel back in October 2019, and I will gladly read anything this writing duo puts out from now on. I saw that In a Holidaze had a 6+ month wait from my library, so I ended up buying it and reading the whole thing within 24 hours. It was such a great holiday read!
Mae is spending Christmas at the Utah cabin where she and her family and family friends have spent every holiday since before she was born. But it wasn’t the picture-perfect holiday she expected, and when she finds out the cabin is about to be put up for sale, she throws a desperate wish out to the universe: show me what will make me happy. But the joke is on her, because her family gets in a car accident, and when she wakes up, she finds herself on the plane to Utah… six days earlier.
Rating: 5/5 stars
Behind the Masks by Susan Patron
In this fictional diary, you meet Angeline Reddy, a young girl living in Bodie, California in the late 1800s. Her father, a lawyer for many criminals in town, is found murdered, but she and her mother are certain he’s still alive somewhere.
It’s on my 101 in 1001 list to read all of the Dear America books, and this one was available from the library so I snatched it up! I hadn’t read this one book before; it came out in 2012, when I was in college. It was alright; I’m not a big fan of westerns, and this definitely fell in that genre. It was still fun, though, and I learned more about the Gold Rush, which was interesting!
Rating: 3/5 stars
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