Hello Readers! Much like my October TBR, I have big dreams for my November TBR, which is a mixed bag of sorts. I still need to finish so many books before we get to December, the month I try to always reserve for purely seasonal reads. AND I’m participating in Nanowrimo this month. So I highly doubt I’ll get to all of these, but I’m putting them here in hopes it’ll put more pressure on me to cross them off! 😉 One thing I’m determined to do is finish all the prompts on my Popsugar Reading Challenge for the year. I only have two books left, and I’m halfway through one of them. Yay!

Let’s take a look at what I’m optimistically hoping to read this month!

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win by Susan Azim Boyer

This one appeared on my October TBR, and I was almost finished with it at the end of the month, ultimately finishing it on November 1st. I’m still including it here since it will appear on my November Wrap-Up. You can check out my review to hear about how much I adored this one!

Synopsis:

Most Anticipated YA by Buzzfeed

A fresh spin on the cult-classic Election meets Darius the Great Is Not Okay in Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win when an international incident crashes into a high school election, and Jasmine is caught between doing the right thing and chasing her dream.

It’s 1979, and Jasmine Zumideh is ready to get the heck out of her stale, Southern California suburb and into her dream school, NYU, where she’ll major in journalism and cover New York City’s exploding music scene.

There’s just one teeny problem: Due to a deadline snafu, she maaaaaaybe said she was Senior Class President-Elect on her application—before the election takes place. But honestly, she’s running against Gerald Thomas, a rigid rule-follower whose platform includes reinstating a dress code—there’s no way she can lose. And she better not, or she’ll never get into NYU.

But then, a real-life international incident turns the election upside down. Iran suddenly dominates the nightly news, and her opponent seizes the opportunity to stir up anti-Iranian hysteria at school and turn the electorate against her. Her brother, Ali, is no help. He’s become an outspoken advocate for Iran just as she’s trying to downplay her heritage. 

Now, as the white lie she told snowballs into an avalanche, Jasmine is stuck between claiming her heritage or hiding it, standing by her outspoken brother or turning her back on him, winning the election or abandoning her dreams for good.

Told with biting insight and fierce humor, Susan Azim Boyer’s Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win is a fresh, unforgettable story of one Iranian-American young woman’s experience navigating her identity, friendship, family, her future, and a budding romance, all set against life-changing historical events with present-day relevance.

Goodreads
Published on November 1, 2022

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Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

This is a collection of three shorter novellas, and I have to be honest, I started reading this fully intending only to read the first novella to fulfill a prompt on my Popsugar Challenge more quickly. But I finished the first one and it left us on quite the cliffhanger, so now I have to finish it all. 😃 I could have just read the original book I intended for the prompt, which had less pages than this collection. Ha! Lesson learned.

Synopsis:

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Hopeless joins forces with the New York Times bestselling author of Mud Vein. Together, they have created a gripping, romantic tale unlike any other.

“How odd to be made of flesh, balanced on bone, and filled with a soul you’ve never met.”

Charlize Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They’ve been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning…they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love…every memory has vanished.

“I don’t care what our real first kiss was,” he says. “That’s the one I want to remember.” 

Charlize and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be…the more they question why they were ever together to begin with. 

“I want to remember what it feels like to love someone like that. And not just anyone. I want to know what it feels like to love Charlie.”

Goodreads

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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

I was invited to join in the blog tour to celebrate the release of the movie tie-in edition of this one, which you can check out here, if you’d like to see the trailer for the new adaptation. This one has been on my TBR and I’m hoping to read it this month before I watch the film!

Synopsis:

A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over–and see everything anew. 

Goodreads
Movie tie-in published on September 20, 2022

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Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce

I’m hoping to finally read the first Myrtle Hardcastle book to fulfill my final prompt on my Popsugar Challenge: A book set in Victorian times. However, I do have several things that would work, so I could change my mind. 😉

Synopsis:

Winner of the Edgar Award!
Finalist for the Agatha Award and Anthony Award!
 
Twelve-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle has a passion for justice and a Highly Unconventional obsession with criminal science. Armed with her father’s law books and her mum’s microscope, Myrtle studies toxicology, keeps abreast of the latest developments in crime scene analysis, and Observes her neighbors in the quiet village of Swinburne, England.

When her next-door neighbor, a wealthy spinster and eccentric breeder of rare flowers, dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtle seizes her chance. With her unflappable governess, Miss Ada Judson, by her side, Myrtle takes it upon herself to prove Miss Wodehouse was murdered and find the killer, even if nobody else believes her — not even her father, the town prosecutor.

Goodreads

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The Man I Never Met by Elle Cook

This one has mostly favorable early reviews, but some mixed ones, as well. When I read the synopsis, it sounded like my kind of romance—one that isn’t a guaranteed HEA. I know, I’m weird. 😂

Synopsis:

Is it possible to love someone you’ve never met? A young woman finds out in this sweeping will-they-or-won’t-they love story that begins with a chance wrong number dial. . . .

When Hannah picks up a call from an unknown number, she thinks nothing of it–it’s just an easygoing American named Davey who misdialed her while calling into a job interview. And when Hannah wishes him luck after clearing up the confusion, she never actually expects to hear from him again.

Then she gets a text saying he got the job and he’ll be moving to London, and she can’t help but smile. Soon their texts become phone calls that turn into video calls, and their friendship becomes a relationship they can’t wait to start in earnest once Davey lands in London in a month’s time.

But when Hannah goes to meet him at the airport, Davey isn’t there–and the reason why changes both of their lives in an instant. With their future together suddenly so uncertain, they don’t know what to do but try to move on from each other.

Though their chance at love seems lost forever, neither is never far from the other’s thoughts. Will fate intervene once more to bring the two together, or will Davey always be the man that Hannah never met?

Goodreads
Expected November 22, 2022

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Well Matched (Well Met, #3) by Jen DeLuca

When I was approved for the fourth book in the Well Met series, I knew that meant I needed to get caught up. I’m hoping to read both the third and fourth books this month!

Synopsis:

Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell.

Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire — a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favor too: she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher. April reluctantly agrees, but when dinner turns into a weekend trip, it becomes hard to tell what’s real and what’s been just for show. But when the weekend ends, so must their fake relationship.

As summer begins, Faire returns to Willow Creek, and April volunteers for the first time. When Mitch’s family shows up unexpectedly, April pretends to be Mitch’s girlfriend again… something that doesn’t feel so fake anymore. Despite their obvious connection, April insists they’ve just been putting on an act. But when there’s the chance for something real, she has to decide whether to change her plans — and open her heart — for the kilt-wearing hunk who might just be the love of her life.

An accidentally in-love rom-com filled with Renaissance Faire flower crowns, kilts, corsets, and sword fights.

Goodreads

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Well Traveled (Well Met, #4) by Jen DeLuca

I was so surprised (and thrilled) to be approved for the fourth book in the Well Met series. AND it’s a road trip romance, which is one of my favorite tropes!

Synopsis:

The Renaissance Faire is on the move, and Lulu and Dex are along for the ride, in the next utterly charming rom-com from Jen DeLuca.

A high-powered attorney from a success-oriented family, Louisa “Lulu” Malone lives to work, and everything seems to be going right, until the day she realizes it’s all wrong. Lulu’s cousin Mitch introduced her to the world of Renaissance Faires, and when she spies one at a time just when she needs an escape, she leaps into the welcoming environment of turkey legs, taverns, and tarot readers. The only drawback? Dex MacLean: a guitarist with a killer smile, the Casanova of the Faire… and her traveling companion for the summer.

Dex has never had to work for much in his life, and why should he? Touring with his brothers as The Dueling Kilts is going great, and he always finds a woman at every Faire. But when Lulu proves indifferent to his many plaid charms and a shake-up threatens the fate of the band, Dex must confront something he never has before: his future.

Forced to spend days and nights together on the road, Lulu’s interest in the kilted bad boy grows as he shows her a side of himself no one else has seen. The stresses of her old lifestyle fade away as she learns to trust her intuition and follow her heart instead of her head. But when her time on the road is over, will Lulu go with her gut, or are she and Dex destined for separate paths?

Goodreads
Expected December 6, 2022

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The Key to My Heart by Lia Louis

I’m a big fan of Lia Louis’ romances, and her next novel is one of my most-anticipated for the year.

Synopsis:

A heartwarming novel about hope after loss as a young widow receives mysterious messages of love from the “must-buy author” (Jodi Picoult) of Eight Perfect Hours.

Sparkly and charming Natalie Fincher has it all—a handsome new husband, a fixer-upper cottage of her dreams, and the opportunity to tour with the musical she’s spent years writing. But when her husband suddenly dies, all her hopes and dreams instantly disappear.

Two and a half years later, Natalie is still lost. She works, sleeps (well, as much as the sexually frustrated village foxes will allow), and sees friends just often enough to allay their worries, but her life is empty. And she can only bring herself to play music at a London train station’s public piano where she can be anonymous. She’s lost motivation, faith in love, in happiness…in everything.

But when someone begins to mysteriously leave the sheet music for her husband’s favorite songs at the station’s piano, Natalie begins to feel a sense of hope and excitement for the first time. As she investigates just who could be doing this, Natalie finds herself on an unexpected journey toward newfound love for herself, for life, and maybe, for a special someone.

Goodreads
Expected December 6, 2023

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The Stranded by Sarah Daniels

And just because I like to set the bar really high, I would love to get to my first ARC for 2023, so I can spend December reading only seasonal reads. When I accepted this ARC, the reviews were glowing, but I’ve seen some mixed reviews more recently. Let me know if you’ve read it!

Synopsis:

Snowpiercer meets The Hunger Games in a gripping near-future dystopian.

Welcome to the Arcadia. 

Once a luxurious cruise ship, it became a refugee camp after being driven from Europe by an apocalyptic war. Now it floats near the coastline of the Federated States – a leftover piece of a fractured USA.

For forty years, residents of the Arcadia have been prohibited from making landfall. It is a world of extreme haves and have nots, gangs and make-shift shelters.

Esther is a loyal citizen, working flat-out to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land. Nik is a rebel, planning something big to liberate the Arcadia once and for all.

When events throw them both together, their lives, and the lives of everyone on the ship, will change forever . . .

Goodreads
Expected on January 3, 2023

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What are you most excited to read this month? Have you read any of these books yet? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!