December 2022 Reads & Reviews

This month's books are a mix of mystery, thriller, romance, and coming of age books. I was able to try out new authors that I will definitely be reading more from.

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan

This story is told through the lens of Olivia McAfee, a mother starting over from her previous picture-perfect life married to a cardiothoracic surgeon in Boston, to a single mother to her son, Asher, back in her small hometown in New Hampshire. It also switches to the lens of Asher's girlfriend, Lily Campanello who also knows what it's like to start over as she just moved to this town with her mother hoping for a fresh start her senior year of high school. This new beginning for each starts wonderfully, until Olivia receives news that Lily is dead and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia stands by her son's side but at the same time sees signs of his fathers aggression and as the case goes on, realizes she doesn't know her son as well as she thought. This book was a powerful story addressing relevant social issues and providing an insightful perspective to those issues (I can't say the issue specifically without spoiling!). I really recommend this book, it has twists throughout and explores complicated relationships. I give this book a 5/5!

Verity by Colleen Hoover

After months of seeing this book all over Tik Tok, I decided to finally read it. I will say I had been putting it off because of how good everyone said it was, I didn't want to read it and that end up not being true. Well I finished it in two days and can see the hype. This book focuses on Lowen, a young writer in NYC struggling for money. She gets an offer that will completely changer her life in more ways than one. She has the opportunity to complete the last three novels of a bestselling series from the author Verity Crawford. Verity is unable to complete her series after being in an accident leaving her unresponsive and needed constant care. To do this, Lowen moves into Verity's house where her husband and son also live in order to go through all of Verity's notes and books to really do the series justice. Lowen comes across a manuscript written by Verity that is a deeply disturbing recounting of her life up until her own accident. Once the manuscript made an appearance, I could not put this book down, I had to know what happened next. I was so shocked at what was written and even more shocked at the ending. I still don't know what I believe to be true. I really did enjoy this book but I am giving it a 4.5/5 simply because I was expecting this book to be life changing and while it was a good thriller, it wasn't a groundbreaking story as it was hyped up to be.

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

I was so excited to watch the film on Netflix but had to read the book first of course. Ani Fanelli went through a horrifying tragedy during her teenage years and since then has been trying to reinvent herself and move past it. Ani is now a successful magazine writer living in New York hoping to finally get her happy ending with an upcoming wedding. But as there is going to be an anniversary film documentary about the events that occurred so many years ago, this is her chance to clear her name once and for all. This book flashes from present day to her teenage years before the event that would change so many people's lives. Ani has to confront the past in hopes that she can finally move on and return to the life she has worked so hard to create. I give this book a 4/5 because it did a good job at allowing the reader to understand her perspective and what she went through as best it could.

Regretting You by Colleen Hoover

This book is about the complicated relationship between young mother Morgan Grant and her teenage daughter, Clara. Morgan want to make sure her daughter doesn't make the same mistakes she once did when she got pregnant and married very young forcing her to put her dreams on hold and change all her plans to care for her child. The two are very different and don't always get along. Clara's father and Morgan's husband has always been the glue to their family and able to ground both of them. But after a tragic accident, Morgan and Clara are left alone to both deal with their new lives and their new relationship without the one person who knew how to navigate hard times. Clara is able to find someone to help her through the hard times, only problem is that it is the last person her mother wants her to confide in. With conflicting personalities and rebellious acts, Clara and Morgan are able to see the other for who they are and it is up to them to accept each other and move on or to continue butting heads and destroying their bond. This book was both sad and heartwarming, complicated and obvious. It was a quick and easy read, I give it 3/5 stars as it was just an okay story in my opinion.

December was a pretty good month of books. I got some off my TBR and always love to read books that have film adaptations to compare the story to. I recommend you try these all out and let me know what you think!