November was a pretty good reading month for me. I ended up reading 10 books! Four of which were audiobooks and one was a Christmas novella. Let’s talk all about them in this long-ass blogpost!
Een Steekje los by iris ter haar
Een Steekje Los is a dutch non-fiction/memoir book part of a bigger series called Hoofdzaken. In this book Iris recounts her life with her anxiety disorder. Iris is an influencer, webshop owner and used to be a blogger, I wanted to read this book because I’ve followed her for years and always really enjoyed her writing. I ended up LOVING it. Her stories about therapy, living with anxiety and ADHD as well as getting back on track were extremely relatable for me.
Medium: Audiobook
Final rating: ★★★★★
Get a life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
All three books in the Brown Sister series by Talia Hibbert have been on my TBR for a while. And after I saw that my preferred audiobook provider had them, I decided to give them a go, starting with Chloe. And boy, did I fall in love with this one! I’ll say that comparing all three of the books, Chloe was my least favorite heroine, which might have something to do with the high pitched voice the audiobook narrator chose to do for her. But the hero of the story, Red, was my favorite in the whole series. What can I say, I love the starving artist types. The hero of the story was portrayed to have previously been in an abusive relationship, a dynamic we don’t often see in books when it comes to men, which I really appreciated. He even goes to therapy!
Medium: audiobook
Final rating: ★★★★☆
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
Moving on to Dani, the middle sister in the trio. This one probably had my favorite plot out of all of them, but then my least favorite characters because I felt I couldn’t really connect to them for some reason. However, this has a reverse grumpy/sunshine trope as well as fake dating and forced proximity, which I all love reading about! There is a whole lot of internet involved in this one, which I think made it more interesting. I also loved that the heroine was bisexual but there was no reason she had to ‘prove’ her sexuality in any way. The fact that she started dating a man didn’t make her less bisexual, her sexuality just was. I really appreciated that.
Medium: Audiobook
Final rating: ★★★★☆
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
I actually did not at all expect to love Eve Brown as much as I did, let alone that it would become my favorite in the series. Maybe it’s because I relate so much to her feeling of being a little lost in life, not fitting in and not knowing what to choose for her career, maybe it’s because she’s closest to me in age, I don’t know. But I ended up feeling like I was reading about myself at times. This book also has a very positive portrayal of sex toys! So often I feel like sex toys aren’t portrayed at all in romance books or at least not in a positive light – the idea that you don’t ‘need’ sex toys if you have a ‘good’ partner, instead of an enhancement in the bedroom for both parties. This book also has wonderful (!) autism representation.
Medium: Ebook
Final rating: ★★★★★
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
So, I’m in the minority here, because I didn’t really like The Hating Game. I mean, it was okay, and there were some aspects of it that I enjoyed. I liked that none of the scenes were fade to black, not even the sitting on the couch and watching ER type of scenes. But I wasn’t a fan of a lot of the behavior exhibited by both Josh and Lucy: Lucy constantly sexualizing josh even though he asks her not to, Josh’s Tally’s in his planner, the blue bedroom.. It just felt like the type of thing that’s only cute because the characters are good looking, otherwise it would be stalkerish. It was giving me Love Quinn from the show You.
Medium: Ebook
Final rating: ★★☆☆☆
Wrapped Up in You by Talia Hibbert
This cute little Christmas themed novella written by Talia Hibbert (yes, I read four of her books this month alone) sounded right up my alley. It features a divorced heroine and a hero who’s been in love with her for as long as he can remember. This Christmas season he wants to really let her know how he’s feeling, and oh boy he does! I especially loved that the characters in this novel just communicated their feelings to each other without constantly not talking for the sake of not talking. I honestly would have loved to see this story fleshed out in a whole novel, because there were some heavy topics these characters were dealing with that we couldn’t really explore for the sake of time.
Medium: Ebook (Kobo exclusive)
Final rating: ★★★☆☆
The Cases That Haunt us by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
This was the only true crime book I read this month, and it was actually my fourth book by John Douglas overall. I think this maybe one of his best. Instead of focusing too much on himself or one specific case, this book dives into a bunch of different cases. A lot of people have thoughts about John Douglas as a person and his theories regarding cases (especially the JonBenet Ramsey case) and I personally disagree with him often, but just because I disagree does not mean I didn’t enjoy reading about the case. Douglas knows how to tell the story in an engaging manner if anything.
Medium: Ebook
Final rating: ★★★★☆
The Switch by Beth O’leary
After loving The Flatshare earlier this year, I also really wanted to love The Switch. However, although I enjoyed reading it, it didn’t leave that impression on me. I was somehow never that excited to pick it back up, nor did the stakes in this story feel high at all. What I did love: all the elderly characters! Reading about a grandmother that starts to online date, the neighborhood watch and the elderly lady leaving her husband was all lovely. I would have been perfectly fine if the story had been only about the elderly characters, and I probably would have rated it at least four stars. The younger characters weren’t that interesting to me and I found myself wanting to rush through their chapters to get back to the elderly.
Medium: Ebook
Final rating: ★★★☆☆
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
In a Holidaze was my second Holiday read this year and first book by Christina Lauren. I unfortunately did not love it. This book deals with a timeloop, but I just felt like it wasn’t taken advantage of at all. In the end, it barely had any bearing on the outcome of the story. I kept *waiting* for the story to go a certain way, and it ended up going into the safe direction all along, which felt really unsatisfying. If you’re curious about my in depth thoughts, you can read my review here.
Medium: Ebook
Final rating: ★★☆☆☆
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Just like the previous one, I have already reviewed The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood in a separate post. I ended up really loving this one and my review is mostly to gush about it! The romance, the setting, the conflict, I enjoyed all of it and I don’t think I would change anything. If I would have any notes, I’d say that the best friend Anh should have gotten a little more time to shine, especially at the end of the book. Her character development could have been a little more on the forefront. But that’s only if I’m really nitpicking. This is definitely one of my favorite reads all year and I’m here to recommend it to everyone.
Medium: Ebook
Final rating: ★★★★★
Looking back, this is definitely one of the best reading months I’ve had this year. Not only did I read three five star books (which is unheard of for me) I also finished my reading goal of 52 books. This is gonna take some of the ‘pressure’ of in December, no scrambling to get a certain amount of books. Let’s hope December is going to be just as lovely for reading.
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