November: What I’ve Been Reading

Hey, y’all! Before I take a little break for the holiday, I wanted to share the books I read in November. I know we still have a few days left in November, but I wanted to go ahead and share the three books I’ve read so far this month because….I loved them all!

Here are the books I read this month:

The Jetsetters:

I was a on the library wait list for quite some time waiting on this book, and it was certainly worth the wait.

The matriarch of the family, Charlotte Perkins, submits an essay to the “Become a Jetsetter” contest. She hopes to reunite her family for the trip of a lifetime if she wins…which, of course, she does! Charlotte cruises to Athens, Rome and other fantastic places with her two daughters and one son. The family is somewhat estranged until the trip, and Charlotte is hoping to reunite her family.

The family has lots of baggage to unpack (haha) while sharing family secrets, milestones, and heartache.

I truly loved this book so much. It was a quick read with endearing characters on a journey of a lifetime and reconciliation.

Louisiana Lucky:

Louisiana Lucky was such a charming read. Three sisters, Lexi, Hanna, and Callie, grew up in small town Louisiana. They buy lottery tickets every Saturday night in hopes of winning, of course. Well, one night they do!

They split their $204 million fortune three ways. Lexi starts planning her dream wedding, Callie continues to chase her dream career, and Hanna buys a new house and focuses on family needs.

They find, that with money comes responsibility, and the need to reflect on life choices while chasing dreams.

This was a sweet little read with relatable and endearing characters. It was nice to read a light-hearted book and dream of winning the lottery! 😉

Winter in Paradise:

So…I’m kind of late the the Elin Hilderbrand game! Only in the past couple of years have I started reading her books. I’d say The Identicals is the first book of hers that I read followed by The Matchmaker, The Perfect Couple, and the entire Winter Street series. That being said, I didn’t know anything about the Paradise series until I saw others talking about the third, and final book in the series: Trouble in Paradise.

So, I had to start at the beginning with Winter in Paradise. I loved every page of this book!

Irene Steele travels to St. John after learning of her husband’s death while on the island. She’s shocked to discover that he was even on that island because she thought he was just out of town for work. When she arrives, with her two sons, she discovers that her husband has a whole life that she didn’t know about in St. John as well as a huge home with stunning views.

Irene and her sons meet some of the locals, learn more about the people Russ knew during his visits to the island while trying to piece together the parts of his life that existed while he was there.

This book was written from the various points of views of the characters which I always love. The pace of the plot moved quickly and there was plenty of suspense as the characters work to find answers while enjoying the picturesque setting of St. John.

The ending most certainly left you wanting to read more!

I definitely plan on reading What Happens in Paradise and Trouble in Paradise in January.

Also…

If you don’t follow Elin on Instagram, I highly recommend you do so. She often shares Instagram stories and photos showing her followers around Nantucket and also her apartment in Beacon Hill. I just think it’s fun to see her point of view of Nantucket since so many of her books are set there, and she also talks about her writing process. For example, she’s currently at her Beacon Hill apartment to make edits to her (final?) book Golden Girl that will be out in the summer. And…I believe she spends a few weeks in St. John (or some other glorious island) each spring making edits to whatever she’s writing. She seems to fun, smart, and focused!

Currently Reading:

I’m currently reading Seven Days of Us.

I have a few notes on my phone with book titles: books I want to read, books I’ve read, and a Christmas book list. I added Seven Days of Us to that Christmas list last year based off a recommendation of Shay. It’s really not that Christmas-y of a book, but it’s set at Christmas time.

I will share about it in my December book recap…but, you guys! ….it’s such weird timing because the reason they are together at Christmas time…and for seven days…is because they are having to quarantine.

Excerpt from Goodreads summary:

It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter—who is usually off saving the world—will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she’s been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family.

Seeing words and phrases like “quarantine,” “no vaccine,” “epidemic,” “asymptomatic,” “number of cases,” “PPE,” and “health officials,” is hitting a little too close to home.

It’s crazy to me that I wrote this book title down over a year ago, and now I’m reading this book and living through a time that seems to parallel our current real life.

To be honest, I almost quit reading, but those references aren’t in every aspect of the plot, and I want to see how it all ends up, of course!

Christmas books:

Like last year, I’m going to read Christmas books in December. I’ve already picked up these books from the library:

• A California Christmas
• 25 Days ’til Christmas
• Mr. Dickens and his carol

Here are the books I read last December:

and my blog post about them…

Lastly, Sarah shared an awesome Christmas book reading list recently. I’ve already read some of the books, and I also added so many titles to my ongoing Christmas book list.

I’m going to take the rest of the week off from blogging to enjoy Turkey Day, rest, and hopefully decorate for Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Here are my other posts from this week:

Happy Reading!