December was a bit of a clean up month, getting to the odds and ends that I hadn't managed to read earlier in the year. (There's never enough time, people.) I managed to finish up a few of the reads that escaped me and tidied up my ARC pile a little bit, even if I didn't get to everything I had on my TBR at the beginning of the month.
I finished 11 books in the month of December, with an average rating of 3.68. I had a couple that nearly inched their way into some favorites and a few that are more easily forgotten. Isn't that always the case? Let's see if you can find a read or two that pique your own interest.
Books I Finished in December
The Invisibles by Rachel Dacus was an ARC I received that was blurbed as magical realism. Honestly, that's not quite what it was. More realistically, I would peg it as women's fiction or contemporary romance with a touch of magical realism. This isn't a bad thing, it just wasn't what I expected. In fact, the magical realism pieces felt a bit more like a way to draw in additional readers by having a bit of a hook rather than something critical to the propulsion of the narrative.
The story follows sisters Saffron and Elinor in their efforts to wrap up their estranged father's estate following his death. They have traveled to the Italian countryside and are deciding what to do with their father's seaside home, one which may or may not have housed the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley at one point in time.
The book has fantastic writing when it comes to setting a scene. Dacus has a way with visual imagery. There is good writing as a whole and there was a LOT of good potential in the story. It wasn't all realized, but it did have enough quality to it for me to enjoy my time. I never felt bored and I did have some investment in the characters. The overall story is admittedly fun and enjoyable and the book makes what I would consider a great beach read.
The story follows sisters Saffron and Elinor in their efforts to wrap up their estranged father's estate following his death. They have traveled to the Italian countryside and are deciding what to do with their father's seaside home, one which may or may not have housed the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley at one point in time.
The book has fantastic writing when it comes to setting a scene. Dacus has a way with visual imagery. There is good writing as a whole and there was a LOT of good potential in the story. It wasn't all realized, but it did have enough quality to it for me to enjoy my time. I never felt bored and I did have some investment in the characters. The overall story is admittedly fun and enjoyable and the book makes what I would consider a great beach read.
The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White was one of the rollover books from my November focus on middle grade reads. This one was a reread for me. I remembered quite enjoying it in my elementary years, but I didn't remember much of the actual story itself. I listened to this one on audiobook and, like my experience with Charlotte's Web, having E.B. White read his own book to me was a great way to go. The story is cute and entertaining and definitely a good choice for an early chapter book reader. It's not as wonderful as Charlotte's Web, but let's be honest...that's a hard bar to reach.
My second and third physical reads of the month were the first two books in the Emi Watson series by Kelly Zimmer. These were both provided to me as ARCs and I had a surprisingly fantastic time with them. They would again be great travel or beach reads as they are quick and easy, fun and fast-paced.
Zimmer's writing was a great fit for the style of these books. They are a new adult magical realism series with a bit of mystery. The writing is witty and fun and just super comfortable to read. The second novel didn't feel quite as fleshed out for me and I found myself with issues in it's ending, but overall they were both just quite enjoyable. I'm planning on continuing to read the series if more books are released and I will definitely keep an eye out for Kelly Zimmer in the future.
Zimmer's writing was a great fit for the style of these books. They are a new adult magical realism series with a bit of mystery. The writing is witty and fun and just super comfortable to read. The second novel didn't feel quite as fleshed out for me and I found myself with issues in it's ending, but overall they were both just quite enjoyable. I'm planning on continuing to read the series if more books are released and I will definitely keep an eye out for Kelly Zimmer in the future.
I continued my audio reading of the Percy Jackson series with The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan. This is the third book in the series and I am still very much enjoying my journey with this one. The pacing with this particular installment was great and I found myself constantly glued to the pages. There was a lot of excitement along the way. I am also really loving the mythology so much. I was a total mythology nerd in my junior high years, and that excitement and obsession is definitely returning. Oh...and it doesn't hurt that Riordan's writing is flippant and funny.
Athena's Choice by Adam Boostrom was an ARC that had been sitting patiently on my list for a few months. The cover is freaking gorgeous and I'm always a sucker for a dystopian, so it was time to take this one on in December.
In Boostrom's futuristic society, there are no longer men amongst the humans. They have been wiped out by a virus. At the point where the story begins, there is a discussion beginning over whether or not the redevelopment of the male genome should take place to reestablish men in the community.
The writing in this one was well done, but the plot elements are admittedly a little complex. It's still a rather smooth read, but I imagine that a reread would lend me to find quite a bit of things I didn't quite piece together my first time around. The world-building was intriguing and I definitely wouldn't mind a prequel or a sequel. Admittedly, the main character annoyed and frustrated me some, but she was fairly well fleshed out. Her immaturity did bring the overall feeling of the book down a little bit, so I would actually categorize this as a new adult read rather than a full blown adult sci-fi.
I was let down by the ending, which is where a sequel would be appreciated. The author has talked about the divisiveness of his ending choices in a few interviews, but I didn't really like his reasoning and found it to be something that merely left me unfulfilled. Overall though, Athena's Choice was a fun read and something new and imaginative in the dystopian community.
In Boostrom's futuristic society, there are no longer men amongst the humans. They have been wiped out by a virus. At the point where the story begins, there is a discussion beginning over whether or not the redevelopment of the male genome should take place to reestablish men in the community.
The writing in this one was well done, but the plot elements are admittedly a little complex. It's still a rather smooth read, but I imagine that a reread would lend me to find quite a bit of things I didn't quite piece together my first time around. The world-building was intriguing and I definitely wouldn't mind a prequel or a sequel. Admittedly, the main character annoyed and frustrated me some, but she was fairly well fleshed out. Her immaturity did bring the overall feeling of the book down a little bit, so I would actually categorize this as a new adult read rather than a full blown adult sci-fi.
I was let down by the ending, which is where a sequel would be appreciated. The author has talked about the divisiveness of his ending choices in a few interviews, but I didn't really like his reasoning and found it to be something that merely left me unfulfilled. Overall though, Athena's Choice was a fun read and something new and imaginative in the dystopian community.
The Giver by Lois Lowry was one of my favorite reads of the month. The last of my middle grade hold overs, this is a fantastic dystopian that I really wish I had read sooner. It's so well written and clever. I'm reluctant to say much about the plot as I hate to give anything away, but suffice it to say that I was impressed by the world created here and I NEED more. I'm finding that I really enjoy Lois Lowry's writing style. I also discovered that this is the first in a series, so I'll be tracking down the additional books in the upcoming year or two.
I had put off reading Nevernight by Jay Kristoff for most of the year. Why? I have no idea. I think I was afraid that the hype was all for nothing and I wouldn't end up liking it. Well...I was wrong. Another of my favorites for the month, this ADULT fantasy was awesome. It's dark and mysterious and set in a something like a wicked Hogwarts. It was great. The beginning was a little bit slow, but once the story started moving, I didn't want to put it down.
There is a lot to this one and I probably wouldn't hurt to reread it in the future, but I'm going to move on and read the rest of the trilogy first. I love the morally gray characters and the twisted nature of everything. The sequel is high up on the priority list for 2020 reads.
In college and my post-graduate years (which were admittedly way too long ago), I really enjoyed reading books by Meg Cabot. She has historically written a good and breezy chick lit that felt fun and light. So when I saw No Judgments in my library's audiobook selections, I decided to give it a go. Well...either my tastes have changed or Meg Cabot's writing has. After looking at some of the other reviews for this book, I have to assume that it's a bit of both.
Just like my previous experiences with her books, this novel was fluffy and fun and easy to read. I liked that. But there was too much of a sway toward the romance genre for my liking. I'm not a fan of that type of reading as a general rule, so this was moving dangerously into NOPE territory for me. For those who like a little dip into that end of the reading pool, this would be seriously enjoyable. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Cabot still writes a good book, makes fun characters, and tends to generate a pretty good storyline, so I still enjoyed it...just not as much as I was hoping. As with a handful of my other December reads, this would be a good travel or beach book.
Just like my previous experiences with her books, this novel was fluffy and fun and easy to read. I liked that. But there was too much of a sway toward the romance genre for my liking. I'm not a fan of that type of reading as a general rule, so this was moving dangerously into NOPE territory for me. For those who like a little dip into that end of the reading pool, this would be seriously enjoyable. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Cabot still writes a good book, makes fun characters, and tends to generate a pretty good storyline, so I still enjoyed it...just not as much as I was hoping. As with a handful of my other December reads, this would be a good travel or beach book.
Finding Henry Applebee by Celia Reynolds was about a solid of a 3-star rating as there ever could be for me. The characters were cute, but nothing crazy special and the plot was endearing and well-written, but didn't blow me away. It's a little of a historical fiction/contemporary mix with a love story based out of a WWII experience. The plot moved more or less where I expected it to go and the reading was fairly easy, so I enjoyed this read just fine.
And I ended the month with the most confusing and frustrating book rating of them all. Dorothy in the Land of Monsters by Garten Gevedon is a new adult fantasy retelling of The Wizard of Oz. I loved the plot and found the characters intriguing, but the writing style gave me some serious frustration and occasionally irritated the crap out of me. I considered DNFing the whole thing, but the plot projection was too interesting to just give up. I needed to know where this story went.
So...I gave the book an overall rating of 2.5 stars, but there were some ways in which this book was head and shoulders above my 3 and 3.5 star rated books this month. In fact, there were pieces of me that really wanted to rate it as a 4. But...I had to take in to account the things that seriously bothered me if I wanted to be honest about where this story ranked.
The premise, as mentioned, was phenomenal. I seriously loved the darkness of the story and the messiness of the narrative. It was creepy fun. I also loved how it followed the bones of the original Oz. It stuck to the things that I expected, but then took the story to places that I didn't have on my radar and that thrilled me to pieces.
Fair warning though, some of this writing just rubbed me the wrong way. There is clear talent present, with good construction of imagery and characters, but the dialogue was just cringy in places. I also didn't like the immaturity of Dorothy and the sheer soaking of the book with toilet humor. In addition, there were times where it felt like the author worked too hard to make the words sound overly intelligent, resulting in the feel of a narrative where a thesaurus had been overly consulted. Had these things been removed, along with some of the repetitive nature present in the novel, I would have been SOOO much happier.
So, major conflict. I wanted to love this more than I did as a whole. I had to ignore some of the things that irritated me because I wanted to read the story. And do I want more? Yes. Yes, I do. I want to know where the story goes. I'm just really hoping that there will be some more aggressive editing and less potty humor in any sequels.
So...I gave the book an overall rating of 2.5 stars, but there were some ways in which this book was head and shoulders above my 3 and 3.5 star rated books this month. In fact, there were pieces of me that really wanted to rate it as a 4. But...I had to take in to account the things that seriously bothered me if I wanted to be honest about where this story ranked.
The premise, as mentioned, was phenomenal. I seriously loved the darkness of the story and the messiness of the narrative. It was creepy fun. I also loved how it followed the bones of the original Oz. It stuck to the things that I expected, but then took the story to places that I didn't have on my radar and that thrilled me to pieces.
Fair warning though, some of this writing just rubbed me the wrong way. There is clear talent present, with good construction of imagery and characters, but the dialogue was just cringy in places. I also didn't like the immaturity of Dorothy and the sheer soaking of the book with toilet humor. In addition, there were times where it felt like the author worked too hard to make the words sound overly intelligent, resulting in the feel of a narrative where a thesaurus had been overly consulted. Had these things been removed, along with some of the repetitive nature present in the novel, I would have been SOOO much happier.
So, major conflict. I wanted to love this more than I did as a whole. I had to ignore some of the things that irritated me because I wanted to read the story. And do I want more? Yes. Yes, I do. I want to know where the story goes. I'm just really hoping that there will be some more aggressive editing and less potty humor in any sequels.
So, there you go...the last of my 2019 reads. It was a decent mix with some really frustrating moments and some series that I can't wait to continue.
Have you read any of the ones I've listed here? Did your opinions match my own or do you have different feelings about your experience(s)? Did I give you any books to add to your own TBR?
Happy 2020 reading everyone!
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