November 2020 Reading List

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I really thought that this past month was going to be a heavy reading month (maybe even as much as August). Especially with all of the road trips and rainy days, I thought all I would be doing was reading. But uh…that’s not what happened. Instead it was a month of stress or migraines, so my free time went more to naps or getting things done. I also just couldn’t concentrate on a lot of books, so I kept switching between books. Which meant that I didn’t finish a lot of books, I just kept starting them.

But the ones that I did read and finish were excellent. So let’s get started.

November 2020 Reading List

To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters

Note: I received this book as an advanced copy in exchanged for an honest review.

It’s rare when you receive a romance novel that it’s focused on a couple that already been married for a significant amount of time. After all, don’t you want to hear about how they first met and went from enemies to lovers? But Waters takes a new approach in To Have and To Hoax and it pays off in tenfold.

Lady Violet Gray and Lord James Audley fell in love the moment they met and got married quickly after. They had a whirlwind first year of marriage, the worst fight (the world war three of fights), and they have barely spoken in the last four years. But Lady Violet is ready to end this fight and teach her husband a lesson.

The result? A novel filled with ridiculous antics, hilarious pranks, ongoing manipulations, and ongoing flirtations. Waters did an excellent job with creating fun characters in this novel that you want to continue hanging out with. I can only imagine who her next novel will be about and I’m already counting down until it’s arrival.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

I saw this movie when I was a little kid and it scared the bejeezus out of me. (I saw it when my mom and sister were watching, so I may have been too young for it? Who knows?) But I really wanted the newest book in the series, Magic Lessons, and since I can’t just jump into a series without reading the other ones, I knew I had to read this one. Luckily, I really enjoyed it! It was actually pretty different from the movie and didn’t actually have the scene from the movie that I hated (kind of spoiler?). Now, I just have to decide if I want to jump to Magic Lessons or if I want to read The Rules of Magic first. (This is a really oddly time-lined series.)

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

Five alarm snot bomb warning. I’ve said it now, so you’ve been warned. But it’s Elin Hilderbrand, so you’re also going to get all of the summer feels and hang out on Nantucket. It wasn’t my favorite of Hilderbrand’s books, but I really enjoyed it and I definitely recommend it.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

If there’s anything Jennifer Lynn Barnes is good at, it’s mysteries and angry teenagers. Reading this, I honestly felt like I was reading what would have happened if Knives out and The Westing Game had a baby. It was fun, creepy, and just enjoyable YA all the way around.

The Roommate by Rosie Danan

At the end of September, Eastern Market in DC was having a small business weekend and I went over there to visit a few of my favorite shops that I hadn’t been to in forever. One of the shops that I visited was East City Books, one of my favorite bookshops in DC. While I was there, I started chatting with one of the booksellers there and I mentioned I was debating buying this book. As soon as I held it up, she started gushing over it. She told me it was her favorite book of 2020 and she had already read it three times. I could tell she wasn’t lying and she completely sold me on it.

Well, I completely understand why she loved it so much. I can totally see rereading it and I’m already so excited for the sequel coming out in the spring. I’m not going to talk about the plot because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s a great contemporary romance read.

An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

Another Bridgerton series, but let me promise you now, this series doesn’t get boring or old. Each novel finds a new way to be exciting and interesting. This one 100% uses the Cinderella story for it’s inspiration and start, but it’s still a story all it’s own. It’s so good and I loved getting to meet Sophie.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I’m not really a horror person, but I was very intrigued by this book. I suggested to my book club that we make it our October read, that way I would actually read it and I could hear others’ opinions on it.

Overall, I enjoyed it. There were definitely some parts that grossed me out (because horror), but it was definitely a manageable horror novel. What really helped was that I loved the main character and I wanted to see her succeed. If I hadn’t liked her, then it would have been really tough to get through this.

But one thing I will add is that this book totally justified my dislike of mushrooms.

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

The second Bridgerton book and it found the perfect way to pull me in. How? A Taming of the Shrew type storyline. I’m not going to say much more than that, but I completely enjoyed it and kept on going.

Loathe at First Sight by Suzanne Park

I zoomed my way through this book. It was such a fun ready and I couldn’t put it down. I loved that it wasn’t afraid to broach the topic of women in programming and talked about how sexist the industry was head-on. But within all of that, you still managed to get a fun novel with excellent characters.