Oh the ever growing TBR pile… As I counted my Goodreads challenge I was amazed I made my goal. I didn’t even have a huge goal. I tried to read a minimum of 2 books a month which is laughable to huge book influencers, but this isn’t my FT gig. Although I wish it was!
I still managed to read 24 books and I only DNF’d 1. Here’s a recap of what I read and you can find most of these reviews here on my blog or on goodreads.
- Eight Perfect Hours- Lia Louis
- I Like You Like That- Kayla Grosse
- Book Lovers- Emily Henry
- Kiss & Don’t Tell- Meghan Quinn
- Confessions of a Smutty Romance Author- Kelsie Hoss
- The One Night (novella)- Meghan Quinn
- Asher- Samantha Whiskey
- Faking Ms. Right- Claire Kingsley
- The Right/Wrong Man- Aurora Rose Reynolds
- Without A Hitch- Avery Maxwell
- Wrong For You- Harloe Rae
- Fluke- Adriana Locke
- The Wrong Bridesmaid- Lauren Landish
- Blindsided- Amy Daws
- The Stopover- TL Swan
- Falling Hard For The Royal Guard- Megan Clawson
- Eva Mallory’s Husband Hunt- Katherine Dyson
- Parentmoon- LB Dunbar
- Co-Wrecker- Meghan Quinn
- The Pumpkin Spice Cafe- Laurie Gilmore
- Hex & The City – Kate Johnson (DNF’d)
- Puck Yes- Lauren Blakely
- How the Grump Saved Christmas- Claire Kingsley
- The Christmas Wager- Holly Cassidy
I have several physical books that have been moved to this years reading challenge, plus the ones I end up adding throughout the year.
December Reviews
Speaking of books that I read here are the holiday books I read in December. These 2 reads were the same tropes, but in reverse. See below.
How the Grump Saved Christmas by Claire Kingsley
Tropes: grumpy x sunshine, small-town, christmas, second chance romance.
This is like reading a hallmark movie. Elias Stoneheart is your Scrooge type character who only cares about moving up in his company and money.
Isabelle is our sweet, Christmas loving small town girl with a back bone of steel.
When Elias over hears that his competition, Damien, can’t close a deal on buying farm property for the new company HQ in his hometown of Tilikum he thinks he has an edge up, until he finds out the farm is owned by his ex, Isabelle and her family.
Since his past is firmly behind him, he tells his boss he’ll take over the acquisition and guarantees his boss that he can close the deal. Quick, except Isabelle has no plans to sell and when she finds out Elias is the interested party she digs her heels in further, forcing him to stick around town to find his Christmas spirit if he ever hopes to buy the farm.
I loved the Christmas vibes, the side characters are fantastic and so is the banter. It is a low spice read.
The Christmas Wager- Holly Cassidy
Tropes: small town, holiday, enemies to lovers.
Bella Ross is looking for a promotion within her LA real estate development office so when her boss implies she can have it as long as she closes a deal to buy a failing Christmas shop in Maple Falls, she jumps on the chance.
Things are looking fantastic for Bella. Her deal was easier than she thought, the owner Clarence was more than willing to listen to her pitch and seemed happy to hear her offer now all he has to do is sign on the dotted line, until his grandson Jesse comes in and shuts down the deal.
Bella is so determined to get that promotion that she renegotiates the terms, and agrees to compete in the towns extremely competitive Holiday Games. The winner gets the better terms. When Bella’s demanding boss gets wind of what she’s done and the amount on the table, she tells Bella she better win or her promotion won’t be the only thing on the line.
This book was great. I loved the games throughout the competition, & the storyline was fantastic. My favourite was the Merryatrics, these ladies were ruthless. A slow-burn, light spice read.
Madyn Rose 
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