Next to last book review of the year, WHAT??
November was a big month of reading for me. I read 12 books bringing my total to 115! I had an updated goal of 120 after I knew I would get to 100, so now I think I'm going for 125. I read all over the place this month - romance, historical fiction, science fiction, not as much diversity as I aim for but some that were very good!
The Shacking Up series by Helena Hunting - Okay. So. I am always open with you guys about my love of romance novels, and I'm not often embarrassed by this love...but these covers are something else, ha! Helena Hunting is a FUN writer and I think her books are always solid and well written and these were no exception. I would recommend all of her books. Some of these are more like PG/PG-13 and some were seriously R.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - I have intended to read this book for years {it was one of the oldest books on my Goodreads TBR} and I was putting it off because I knew it would make me sad and be hard to read. I was 100% right, and this was 1000% worth it. This stories follows best friends in Afghanistan starting in the 1960s through the early 2000s - through Russian occupation, the Taliban takeover, being an immigrant in America. It was phenomenal.
The Awakening by Nora Roberts - I will read everything Nora Roberts writes and some of it I love and some has gotten stale or repetitive. This is a new trilogy and is very similar to many of her other trilogies, and I enjoyed it and am excited for the next one.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood - Absolutely adorable. A plotline we've seen a million times {fake dating} but it felt fresh and wonderful. I loved this so much and never wanted it to end. One pretty heavy PG-13 scene.
When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton - A sort of follow-up to Next Year in Havana and continues to follow the Perez family after their exodus from Havana when Castro took over. This story followed the sister Beatriz who is a badass. I love continuing to learn about the history of Cuba and enjoy this family.
Eliza Starts a Rumor by Jane L. Rosen - A few years ago Nine Women, One Dress was a book I loved, so I was excited to read another book by this author, and I was not disappointed. She has a way with character development that has these wonderful people get under your skin and take hold. Eliza is the moderator to her area message board and {like the title says} starts a rumor to breathe a little life into the board...and all hell breaks loose. It took me a minute to warm up to this one, but once I did I was ALL in.
A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli - I work with so many people in India, I love reading books set there. This was an adorable little romance about an Indian American who goes to India for her best friend's wedding {over Diwali} and her life plan changes after meeting someone.
The One by John Marrs - What would you do if you could do a DNA test to find our soulmate? This book follows 5 people who have and holy sh*t, this was a total mind f*ck, and I loved every minute of it. I started this at 8 PM and finished at 2:30 AM, literally couldn't put it down. Every chapter ended in a cliffhanger, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I even put it down at 1:00 AM but picked it back up again to finish because I couldn't go to sleep! SO SO SO GOOD.
