December turned out to be a good month of reading! A lot of cute books, some holiday reads and a parenting book mixed in too!
Out of all the books I read this month, “A Study in Charlotte” was probably my least favorite. There are so many “Charlotte Holmes” books out there, and while I enjoyed the plot line and reading about the young duo of Holmes and Watson in a college aged setting, there were just things about their personalities and how the book was written that I was crazy about. The writing itself just was hard for me to pick up the rhythm of, so it just seemed like it took me a long time to get through it. Language wasn’t great sporadically, but I don’t remember it being awful or constant. The mystery plot line itself was pretty good though, I wasn’t expecting the outcome that the book had.
I read the first of these series recently, and didn’t expect myself to continue through the series, but when I saw that she had a Christmas book, I thought I would go ahead and read “Nantucket Neighbors” to get to it hehe. Yes, if a holiday book is in sight then I’ll go for it! I honestly think her writing has gotten better as she goes, I enjoyed this book more than the first one. The story of Lisa and her home turned bed and breakfast continues, as does her romance with the restaurant owner. The book also continues the relationships of her kids, and just different things they are involved in. It was a cute, easy read! My only complaint is that I felt like it ended rather abruptly!
I loved this little Christmas book, it was so simple, easy, predictable, I read it in like a day and a half haha! Those are the kind of Christmas reads I like this time of the year! “Nantucket White Christmas” had the same core family members, and then a few new characters as well. It was fun to see the relationships that formed and how they spent their Christmas holiday together on Nantucket! Again, I probably wouldn’t group this author in the same circles as Nancy Thayer, but it wasn’t that bad!
I listened to “Finding Freedom” and had a lot of mixed thoughts on it…I love British royalty, I vividly remember so much growing up from the loss of Diana and my mom following the store…so I’ve just always been somewhat interested in the families, the weddings, the day to day life…It was shocking to hear of things coming out with Harry and Meghan, so I was just curious to hear more of their side of the story. I loved hearing the story of how they got together, and how their relationship progressed…of all of the charity work they were involved in and just hearing of their love for each other. But I will say that there were many times were I felt like ok, you got yourself involved with the royal family, surely you knew what you were signing up for. There were a lot of occasions in this book when I kind of felt like her expectations of the situation she found herself in were off, or maybe just like the book was somewhat of a pity party…that’s not to excuse the way the media treated her by any means, it was just a little weird at times listening to this one.
“In A Holidaze” was another cute holiday read…Maelyn is living with her parents, not really enjoying her current job, but every year her family joins another family at their cabin to celebrate the holidays. She has grown up with their sons, and has had an immense crush on one since she was little. This Christmas though she blows things up getting involved with the younger son and wishes she could go back and change things…just like so many magical Christmas stories she gets her wish, and gets to relive the days leading up to Christmas multiple times until she finally gets it right and figures out how to make decisions and live the life she wants. It was a cute read, there was some sporadic bad language here an there, very unexpected most of the time but not constant throughout the book. There were times the book was a little slow but it was an entertaining for this time of the year.
“If We’re Not Married by Thirty” was also a cute British holiday read, another story of friends that grew up together and make a pact to get married if they’re still single when they are 30. One part I loved was that they had sent letters and corny magnets to each other over the years, so they each had a collection on their refrigerators. I loved the way they meet up, of course there are some ups and downs in their relationship but the ending was sweet. Little more language in this than I would prefer, it was kind of like the last book and just really random here and there. The book spanned over the Christmas – New Year time frame, which I like to read during this time of the year!
This was the best parenting book I have listened to this year, maybe ever. Hunt, Gather, Parent had such a refreshing look on parenting and so many easy things to implement or adjust within your own family. I loved the overall feel of including your kids in as much as you possibly can concerning things around the house and meals, to approach your family more of a team rather than everyone having independent roles of each other. It was also really cool to hear how other cultures function and the effect it has on their children. I think also this book gave me a lot of hope, sometimes being a mother is truly daunting and I have no idea if I am doing anything right…this book made things feel so simple and gave me a way to approach parenting that was more positive. I loved this book, could see myself listening to it again at some point, which is saying a lot because I rarely do that!
My last book of 2021 ended up being one of my favorites of the year…“The Mountain Between Us” was just so good. Ben and Ashley take a charter flight out of Utah trying to get ahead of a massive snow storm, Ashley is trying to make it back for her wedding and Ben had an important surgery he was trying to get back in time for…their charter flight goes down in the middle of the wilderness in Utah, with no one aware that they were even on a flight. Ashley is injured and Ben has to figure out how they can survive and get out of this no man’s land they fell into. It was such a great read, with such an unexpected twist in the end that just broke my heart. This was one of those books that I was so immersed in, it stayed with me during the day and I had to have a day or two afterwards to just process it.
I hope you found something interesting this month, I will do one more post for this year as a review over everything and pick my top favorite reads for the year! If you want to see the rest of my reads for 2021, check out my Book tab or these links below! You can follow me on Goodreads here!
What I’m Reading – November 2021
What I’m Reading – October 2021
What I’m Reading – September 2021
What I’m Reading – August 2021
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