Hello Readers! We made it through November!! And what a month it has been. Highs and lows that pretty much sum up the whole year. But I’m not going to talk about anything going on outside of books, today. There’s too much.

I participated in NaNoWriMo for my seventh year (!!), I reached (and passed) my Goodreads goal of 100 books, and I wrapped up my yearly Popsugar Reading Challenge, as well. So quite the productive month. I’m excited to get to the holiday reads I’ve been waiting on all year!

If you look back at my November TBR, you’ll see that I read four out of the six books I intended to read. Thanks to a couple of extra ARCs this month, I ended up reading a total of 7 books, for a total of 2,487 pages! Not bad considering I also wrote 50,000 words for Nanowrimo. 😉

Be sure to check out The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction!

(Link to synopsis on Goodreads through the book title.)

November Wrap-Up

I started the month off wrapping up my read of the Slasher Girls & Monster Boys Anthology for Halloween. Overall, this one didn’t wow me, but there were a few good stories.

My Rating [usr 3]

For the western prompt on my reading challenge, I chose to read the third installment in the The Lady Janies, My Calamity Jane. Each book is a standalone but a fictional retelling that includes a historical “Jane”. I had the misfortune of reading this one during the election, too, so I’m not sure I gave it the attention it deserved. But it was fun!

My Rating [usr 3.75]
My Review

My next read, I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are, was a spur-of-the-moment ARC request. I really didn’t need to add to my pile of books, but I couldn’t resist this one by comedian and actress Rachel Bloom. It sounded like just what I needed to read during such a stressful election. And it was!

My Rating [usr 4]
My Review

Next, I picked up Hardcore Twenty-Four, my next book in the long-running Stephanie Plum series. It also crossed off a prompt on my reading challenge.

My Rating [usr 3]

Super Fake Love Song was one of my most anticipated books for this year, and it didn’t disappoint! It was the feel-good novel I needed.

My Rating [usr 4]
My Review

When I didn’t get approved for the third installment in the Moose Springs series, Enjoy the View, I reached out to my contact for the previous two books and they sent me an ARC! I was so happy, I had to read it right away, of course. Lesson learned—it never hurts to ask. 😉 LOVED Easton’s story.

My Rating [usr 4.25]
My Review

Finally, I picked up My Last Continent, a book that’s been waiting on my shelf for over a year. This one fulfilled my final prompt for the Popsugar Reading Challenge: the first book you touch with your eyes closed. I couldn’t put this one down! Lovely and atmospheric!

My Rating [usr 4.25]

November Book Haul

I added a couple of 2021 ARCs to my TBR, as well as a couple of physical books to my shelves thanks to paperbackswap.com, an Instagram contest (I think), and some books from Sourcebooks Early Reads program.

My ARCs

Ethan Frome is one of the first books that sparked my love of reading, so I’ll be excited to get to this modern-day version I picked up through Netgalley.

Synopsis:

A family is upended when their small-town life becomes the latest battlefield in the culture wars in this of-the-moment novel for readers of Meg Wolitzer and Fleishman Is in Trouble.

Life for Ethan and Zo used to be simple. Ethan co-founded a lucrative media start-up, and Zo was well on her way to becoming a successful filmmaker. Then they moved to a rural community for a little more tranquility–or so they thought.

When newfound political activism transforms Zo into a barely recognizable ball of outrage and #MeToo allegations rock his old firm, Ethan finds himself a misfit in his own life. Enter a houseguest who is young, fun, and not at all concerned with the real world, and Ethan is abruptly forced to question everything: his past, his future, his marriage, and what he values most.

Startling, witty, thought-provoking, and wise, Ali Benjamin’s exciting debut novel offers the shock of recognition as it deftly illuminates some of the biggest issues of our time. Taking inspiration from a classic Edith Wharton tale about a small-town love triangle, The Smash-Up is a wholly contemporary exploration of how the things we fail to see can fracture a life, a family, a community, and a nation.

Goodreads
2/2/21

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I was invited to read this one by Books Forward, and I couldn’t resist. I’m thoroughly intrigued.

Synopsis:

For fans of Jeff Zentner and Katie Henry comes a thrilling and funny debut about a teen raised in a doomsday community who plots her escape with the boy from the bunker next door.

Always be ready for the worst day of your life.

This is the mantra that Becca Aldaine has grown up with. Her family is part of a community of doomsday preppers, a neighborhood that prioritizes survivalist training over class trips or senior prom. They’re even arranging Becca’s marriage with Roy Kang, the only eligible boy in their community. Roy is a nice guy, but he’s so enthusiastic about prepping that Becca doesn’t have the heart to tell him she’s planning to leave as soon as she can earn a full ride to a college far, far away.

Then a devastating accident rocks Becca’s family and pushes the entire community, including Becca’s usually cynical little sister, deeper into the doomsday ideology. With her getaway plans thrown into jeopardy, the only person Becca can turn to is Roy, who reveals that he’s not nearly as clueless as he’s been pretending to be.

When Roy proposes they run away together, Becca will have to risk everything—including her heart—for a chance to hope for the best instead of planning for the worst.

Goodreads
2/23/21

My Paperbackswap books

• Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand
• Bluebird, Bluebird (Highway 59, #1) by Attica Locke

My Winnings

This box of goodies showed up on my doorstep from the publisher, and while I have a vague recollection of entering an Instagram contest, I really don’t know if that’s where they came from for sure. But they sound so cute! They’ll be a perfect quick-read for my reading challenge next year.

• Premeditated Myrtle (Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries, #1) by Elizabeth C. Bunce
• How to Get Away with Myrtle (Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries, #2) by Elizabeth C. Bunce

My Sourcebook Early Reads

I received a few more books through Sourcebooks Early Reads program. The children’s books are super cute and Christmas-y!

• How to Catch a Snowman by Adam Wallace
• Looky Looky Little One Merry Christmas! by Sandra Magsamen

I’m excited by the glowing reviews for Voices in the Snow!

Synopsis:

Clare remembers the cold. She remembers abandoned cars and children’s toys littered across the road. She remembers dark shapes in the snow and a terror she can’t explain. And then…nothing.

When she wakes, aching and afraid in a stranger’s gothic home, he tells her she was in an accident. He claims he saved her. Clare wants to leave, but a vicious snowstorm has blanketed the world in white, trapping them together, and there’s nothing she can do but wait.

At least the stranger seems kind…but Clare doesn’t know if she can trust him. He promised they were alone here, but she sees and hears things that convince her something else is creeping about the surrounding woods, watching. Waiting. Between the claustrophobic storm and the inescapable sense of being hunted, Clare is on edge…and increasingly certain of one thing:

Her car crash wasn’t an accident. Something is waiting for her to step outside the fragile safety of the house… something monstrous, something unfeeling.

Something desperately hungry.

1/7/20 (paperback)

My Purchases

Technically these aren’t “purchases” because they were free on Amazon. 😉

• Maple Sugar Crush by Beth Labonte
• Cupcakes at Christmas by Kate Hewitt

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Amazon First Read

I chose the thriller Every Last Secret by A.R. Torre as my Amazon First Read for November. It has amazing reviews!

How was your reading month? Have you read any of these books? Did you add any of them to your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!