This month’s books in progress list is going to be a little bit shorter than usual, but I assure you I have a good excuse. The reason is that I’ve been knee deep in Christmas stories as I put the finishing touches on my holiday reading list (going live November 26th, mark your calendar!), and I don’t share those books on my monthly list because I don’t want to spoil the surprise.
Have you started reading Christmas books yet? Until I started blogging, I didn’t read anything holiday related until I put up my tree, which always happens on Black Friday because I’m not a big shopper. Funny story, my girls actually have no idea that people shop on the day after Thanksgiving. They believe that’s the day everyone decorates their house!
All jokes aside, now I start this seasonal reading around September-ish, to ensure I have enough time to compile a good list for you guys. After the list is published I do keep reading holiday stories just for my own enjoyment and almost always send out some bonus suggestions a few weeks after the official list comes out, so make sure you are subscribed to my email list so you don’t miss those extras.
So anyway, while I have been reading as much, if not more, than usual, I only have about 80% as many books to share this month as I usually do. But I think they are good ones, so hopefully quality will make up for quantity in this situation.
P.S. in case you missed the PSA in my last books in progress post, I’m still using Kindle Unlimited and I’m falling more in love every day. I had originally planned to cancel it once my free trial was over but I think I’m going to keep it! Once I realized how many great books are available (waaaay more than when I first tried it out 4-5 years ago) I decided it’s really a deal. Several of the books on this list are available through KU.
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Just Finished:
This is Kimberly Duffy’s third book, and in my opinion, the best one yet. Gussie is an adventurer who flouts social convention, which leads to a scandal that drives her to flee to India to visit her old friends Catherine and Specs. She arrives to find that Specs is not the gangly boy she remembers and that India calls to her as a place she might call home, if only she can find her place and overcome her feelings of inadequacy. I loved the individual personal growth journeys that Gussie and Specs experience, as well as their romance and the way they grow together. Throw in Specs’ work as a doctor during a bubonic plague epidemic and the cultural differences between India and America, and Gussie has much to learn and many challenges before her.
When beauty influencer Molly finds out she is being considered as host for a tv show, she decides to take her manager’s advice and find a charitable institution to volunteer with in hopes of bolstering her resume. She becomes a mentor at a transitional home for kids who have aged out of foster care, and soon finds herself immersed in their world and attracted to the home’s director, Silas. Everything is going according to plan, until a betrayal brings her whole world crashing down and threatens to take the home and community she’s come to care deeply about with it. What I liked most about this book was that Molly mostly made good choices. There were a lot of times when she could have made a poor choice that would have resulted in more drama and an easier way to create story conflict, but the author did a great job of showing how even if you try your best, sometimes life is just hard.
The third and final installment in the Brothers in Arms trilogy was my favorite of the three. It was action-packed, with humor and a sweet romance, plus a few unexpected twists that I really didn’t see coming. You can read my full review, which includes a description of the plot, for more thoughts.
In Progress:
Interesting fact: the reason Michael Crichton has a co-author on this book is because he passed away in the middle of writing it. The premise of this book is highly intriguing (young researchers trying to survive in a wilderness test after being recruited by a tech company) and the first few pages had me totally hooked because I had no idea what was going on and I wanted to find out! So far the story does not seem to have suffered from the change in authorship, but I’m not that far in so I guess that could change. Based on my previous experience with both authors, I’m expecting it to remain solid and be a satisfying read.
If you like curmudgeonly heroes, look no farther. Business man Gray is irritated by constant attempts to infiltrate his greenhouse and capture his valuable specimens, but he might be willing to compromise at least a little for the lovely, charming, genuine botanist Annabelle. But things are not as they seem, and Annabelle, much to her chagrin, has an ulterior motive for courting Gray. I like the botanical details in this book and the inside look into the history of the spice trade (Gray’s business). I’m about 25% in and interested to see how things will play out.
Book two in the Shadow and Bone trilogy is off to a great start! The Darkling has survived The Fold, and his power has only grown, but Alina is beginning to understand more of how Grisha abilities work. Armed with new information, she now has plan, albeit a dangerous one. With the help of Mal and some unlikely allies, will she be able to defeat the Darkling and save Ravka?
Up Next:
I’m a big fan of Tea Cooper and her Australian set multi-timeline historical novels. This one is centered around a young woman and an old map that may hold clues to the whereabouts of her missing aunt. This book comes out tomorrow (Nov. 16th) and I’m very much looking forward to reading it!
A friend recently recommended Emma St. Clair for her fun rom-coms, and I think this is the one I want to try first. She has several to choose from, so if I like this one I will have a whole list of books to read after that! This one sounds like a contemporary marriage of convenience story, and you know I’m all about marriage of convenience so I can’t wait.
For more great book recommendations, check out Modern Mrs. Darcy’s monthly quick lit post and be sure to look at all the awesome comments from other readers sharing what they are currently reading.
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