Hello and happy Tuesday.
I’m already starting to panic…this week needs to slow down.
That being said, today, I’m sharing one of my favorite posts that I write every year…
I had a pretty good year of reading and my love for audiobooks grew, giving me a few more opportunities to complete books.
December Books:
December reading is always festive and fun..
This month I read:
{As always, book summaries are from Goodreads…}
Blue Christmas:
Summary:
The popular Mary Kay Andrews delivers a tasty holiday treat as she brings back the winning characters from Savannah Blues and Savannah Breeze for a little Southern cheer.
It’s the week before Christmas, and antiques dealer Weezie Foley is in a frenzy to do up her shop for the Savannah historical district window decorating contest–which she intends to win. She throws herself into putting up a Graceland/Blue Christmas motif, with lots of tinsel, an aluminum tree, and all kinds of tacky retro stuff. The project takes up so much time that Weezie is ready to shoot herself with her glue gun by the time she’s done, but the results are stunning. She’s sure she’s one–upped the owners of the trendy shop around the corner. But suddenly, things go missing from Weezie’s display, and there seems to be a mysterious midnight visitor to her shop. Still, Weezie has high hopes for the holiday–maybe in the form of an engagement ring from her chef boyfriend. But Daniel, always moody at the holidays, seems more distant than usual. Throw in Weezie’s decidedly odd family, a 1950s Christmas tree pin, and even a little help from the King himself, and maybe there will be a pocketful of miracles for Weezie this Christmas Eve.
Quick Thoughts:
I listened to this one, and I really liked the narrator. I didn’t realize this was a series until after I finished listening. Anyway, this was a quick read with lots of festivity and a bit of mystery. Now, I want to read the other books in the series.
Rating:
Christmas with the Queen:
Summary:
December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue in the tradition of her late father and grandfather’s beloved Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must move with the times, and the Queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change.
As preparations begin for the royal Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk, two old friends—Jack Devereux and Olive Carter—find themselves reunited for the festivities. A single mother, typist at the BBC, and aspiring reporter, Olive leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, despite self-doubts. When a chance encounter with the Queen presents an exciting opportunity, Olive begins to believe her luck might change.
Jack, a grief-stricken widowed chef originally from New Orleans, accepts a last-minute chance to cook in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. When he bumps into a long-lost friend, an old spark is reignited.
Despite personal and professional heartache, Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmas seasons and they find themselves growing ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret.
Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, Olive decides to reveal the shocking truth of her secret, which threatens to tear her and Jack apart forever. Unless Christmas has one last gift to deliver…
Quick Thoughts:
As you know, I love reading historical fiction, and that genre including the Queen and Christmastime, well, I’m hooked!
I loved every page of this book. Goodreads says, “Tis the season! The Crown meets When Harry Met Sally and Bridget Jones’s Diary, in the latest heartwarming historical novel from Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb…”
…and that’s a perfect little description. While, I love the royalty piece, the Queen actually wasn’t a main character at all, but she was still a key element to the story.
Rating:
A Seagrove Christmas:
Summary:
It’s time for Christmas in Seagrove!
Are you ready to catch up with your favorite characters on the tiny lowcountry island of Seagrove, SC?
When we last left off, there was a big wedding and an addition to the family. But, what happens when a new resident moves to town and shakes things up?
And what will everyone do when a familiar face shows up and creates chaos during the holidays?
Quick Thoughts:
This book was just ok…I found it because I was searching for audiobooks in the Libby app. I didn’t love the narrator, but since it was a quick read, I stuck with it.
There was a little twist at the end and that was about the only saving grace!
Rating:
Secret Christmas Library:
Summary:
Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt’s attic. Now, as Christmas approaches, she’s been hired by Jamie McPherson, the surprisingly young and handsome laird of a Highland clan whose ancestral holdings include a vast crumbling castle. Family lore suggests that the McPherson family’s collection includes a rare book so valuable that it could save the entire estate—if they only knew where it was. Jamie needs Mirren to help him track down this treasure, which he believes is hidden in his own home.
But on the train to the Highlands, Mirren runs into rival book hunter Theo Palliser, and instantly knows that it’s not a chance meeting. She’s all too familiar with Theo’s good looks and smooth talk, and his uncanny ability to appear whenever there’s a treasure that needs locating.
Almost as soon as Mirren and Theo arrive at the castle, a deep snow blankets the Highlands, cutting off the outside world. Stuck inside, the three of them plot their search as the wind whistles outside. Mirren knows that Jamie’s grandfather, the castle’s most recent laird, had been a book collector, a hoarder, and a great lover of treasure hunts. Now they must unpuzzle his clues, discovering the secrets of the house—forming and breaking alliances in a race against time.
Quick Thoughts:
I enjoyed this book! It was not very Christmasy, but I liked all the characters, and thought they were a fun crew. There was mystery and romance. At times, I felt like I was reading the Scottish version of The Goonies. That being said, I don’t really think the title applies to the plot…and even at the end, I went back and re-read the first few chapters thinking I missed something.
If you’ve read this book, let me know your thoughts! I must have been reading too quickly.
Rating:
Recap of 2025 books:
As with past years, I had a goal of reading 40 books, and I guess I fell one short of that goal…although Goodreads thinks otherwise.
Goodreads has me all kinds of confused. After I read my 40th book, I got the congratulations message…
But then some stats on the app, said I read 38 books. Maybe everything wasn’t synced up after I read my last books…that being said, when I counted my books on this post, there are 39… and the photos in the app, it appears I read 38 books. I do think I read one in January that I started last December. This is making my “type A” self crazy…haha …but no matter what, I was able to read more books than last year (35), and it was a better year of reading, for sure.
I did check the app and it seems a couple of books were counted twice, which I’m just now realizing. Anyway…
Here are the 39 that I books I read in 2025…
When looking at this list, there were a few books I didn’t even remember that I read this year! Also, as you probably know, historical fiction is my fave, so I have quite a few books in that genre. I also really like suspense/mystery, but apparently I didn’t read as many of those this year. I’d love some book recommendations for that genre…maybe I can branch out in 2026.
I love seeing the Goodreads stats on the app…
- 39 books read
- 12,837 pages read
- The shortest book I read was Blue Christmas with 194 pages
- The longest book I read was Lilac Girls with 497 pages
- Average book length in 2025 was 337 pages.
…then I also received an email with a few more facts…including this graphic which isn’t really accurate because, for example, I read four books in January and December…not three!
- Over 12,000 pages read — which means I read enough pages to go up, down, and all around the Eiffel Tower, with pages to spare.
- My top genres for 2025 were: romance, memoir & biography, and historical fiction
- I finished five of the most read books on Goodreads this year: The Academy, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, One Golden Summer, From Here to the Great Unknown, and The Night We Lost Him.
- I (supposedly) completed my 40 book reading goal.
I read in lots of places this year:
Book trackers:
I also continued making book trackers this year which were fun to share on Instagram. (They are saved in monthly highlights on my Insta)
The books I read this year:
- Lilac Girls
- The Stories We Tell
- One Big Happy Family
- The Match
- Far Beyond Gold
- The House Party
- From Here to the Great Unknown
- Hooked
- Brooke Shields is not Allowed to Get Old
- The Underground Library
- The Night We Lost Him
- A Happier Life
- The Sicilian Inheritance
- A Good Girl’s Guide
- Let’s Call Her Barbie
- I’ll Have What She’s Having
- Greenwich Park
- Bad Summer People
- All the Summers in Between
- One Golden Summer
- Maine Characters
- The Comeback Summer
- Beach House Rules
- Seven Summers
- Dolly Parton: Behind the Seams
- Parents Weekend
- Big Dumb Eyes
- The Stranger in the Life Boat
- Paris is Always a Good Idea
- Confessions of a Grammar Queen
- The Academy
- My Life with the Walter Boys
- Mean Moms
- Horse
- The Christmas Cookie Wars
December
- Blue Christmas
- Christmas with the Queen
- A Seagrove Christmas
- The Secret Christmas Library
Honorable Mention:
Before I share my five fave books from 2025, these deserve honorable mention:
In the order that I read them:
- Lilac Girls
- From here to the Great Unknown
- A Happier Life
- All the Summers in Between
Top Five Books in 2025:
Here are my top 5 reads in 2025:
The Underground Library:
I loved that the story was told from the perspective of three different women…and I had some fave quotes that stuck with me too.
Confessions of a Grammar Queen:
I read this book thanks to Sarah’s recommendation…and it was great!
Let’s Call Her Barbie:
I can thank Sarah for this one as well…and it was another audiobook that I listened to this year. I think I would have loved it anyway, but I really enjoyed the narrator as well as the mix of historical fiction, romance, and girl power.
Christmas with the Queen:
Typically when I read holiday books in December, I’m not expecting one of the books to be a top contender, but this one was such a favorite of mine.
Horse:
Why did I wait so long to read this book? My Gma recommended it a couple of years ago, and I finally got to reading it in November. It has a little bit of everything, and I loved it so much. Gma knows best!
Previous Top 5 Books:
Happy reading, y’all!
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