I can't believe it's the end of 2021, where did the year go! I feel like it was just March and I was going into labor with Avery! Because I was going to have a baby this year I only set my reading goal to 15 books - but I met that goal the day went into labor. As of today, December 30, I have read 109 books!
This is also the year that I discovered audiobooks and a whole new reading experience opened up to me! With the audiobooks, I discovered Sebastian York, the best audiobook narrator on the planet. I plan on listening to more books in 2022.
Title: Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone (Outlander Book #9)
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Pages: 928
Rating:
Published: November 23, 2021
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I am struggling to get through this book. I'm enjoying it but I still have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I'm not going to like it overall. It's the second to last book and I just don't want the series to be over. I absolutely love the characters and I am just not ready to let them go until the 10th, and final, book.
Title: In A Holidaze
Author: Christina Lauren
Pages: 304
Rating: 4.5 stars
Published: October 6, 2020
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Comfort and tradition are the name of the game for Maelyn Jones when it comes to her Christmas vacation. Ever since Maelyn was born her family, and family friends, vacation at the snowy cabin in Utah. This bucolic setting is what Maelyn looks forward to every year and never wants things to change - until the status quo was challenged and Maelyn's world went to hell.
Maelyn is petrified to face her families but when she opens her eyes, she realizes that she is back on the plane heading to Utah. She gets to redo the Christmas holiday over again and relive the same routines over and over. She needs to figure out how to get out of the time loop and figure out what will make her happy.
I really enjoyed this book! I thought I would hate it based solely on the description but, in the traditional Christina Lauren style, it wins you over with a very relatable main character facing (mostly realistic) predicaments of life.
Title: Nothing To See Here
Author: Kevin Wilson
Pages: 277
Rating: 5
Published: October 29, 2019
Lillian had a stressful childhood where she felt like a burden to her mother and didn't think she was going to amount to much in or after school. She proved them wrong by getting accepted, on scholarship, to the private high school during her freshman year. She meets her unusual roommate, Madison, and Lillian feels like her life is going somewhere. That all crumbles when Madison gets caught with cocaine in her desk and her father pays Lillians's mom to have Lillian take the wrap for the drugs. She gets expelled from the school and gets into a pen pal situation with Madison for the next ten-plus years.
Lillian is contemplating what to do with her life after many failed attempts at going to college and working multiple dead-end jobs when she gets a call from Madison asking her to come over to her mansion in the Tennessee countryside to help raise her husband's two kids from his previous marriage. But there's a catch - these kids catch on fire when they are stressed or upset.
The kids and Lillian have to circumnavigate around how to keep them from catching fire, and how to assimilate them into their senator father's picture-perfect world.
I've seen this book on a lot of lists and I didn't think I was going to like it. I think if I read it in book form I would have quit, but I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was perfect. I really enjoyed the characters and I could relate to the kids (not the catching on fire part - the feeling like they're a burden part). This book caught me by surprise and I truly enjoyed listening to it.
Title: The Final Girl Support Group
Author: Grady Hendrix
Pages: 352
Rating: 4
Published: July 1, 2021
https://basilscheuring.wixsite.com/basilreads/post/the-final-girl-support-group-by-grady-hendrix
Title: Practical Magic
Author: Alice Hoffman
Pages: 286
Rating: DID NOT FINISH
Published: July 1, 1999
I had such a hard time with this book - I ended up not finishing it. I couldn't get into the characters or their problems! I was over halfway through and absolutely nothing had happened. I've heard such amazing things about this book and I wanted to like it so badly, but it is overhyped on every social media platform and I just couldn't get into it. I heard it's a movie and this might be another case where the movie is better...
Title: Rebel Heir
Author: Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward
Pages: 295
Rating: 5
Published: April 7, 2018
Gia got the book deal of her dreams and was able to rent a beach house in the Hamptons for the summer. Everything seems to be going great until she gets stuck in her writing and can't continue with her book. She's blown through her advance for the book and now needs to find a way to make some extra cash. Her roommate worked at the popular bar/restaurant in the Hamptons and asked Gia to come take over a shift for her. Gia is messing up every drink order and gets the attention of the boss, Rush. These two form a very tight bond and things blossom and end on a dealbreaker they're not sure they can overcome.
I actually really enjoyed this book and it was a great palette cleanser to the book I'm reading now; it was a quick read and it kept me interested and invested in the characters.
I actually stayed up from 12 am to 2:30 pm to finish it! It's definitely not the book for everyone but it was what I needed to get out of my reading slump.
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