After November was a literary drought, December started with a reading sprint! And now I’m back in a lull. Ha! Sometimes this hobby is feast or famine. I’m going to publish my reviews early this month – as the end of the year is busy, and I want to create a year end review! So here’s the lovely gathering of December books.

Physical: 8
Audio: 4
Mix: 1
DNF: 4

Format: Audio (but checked out the book for illustrations)
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Rating: 4.25/5

As the fourth installment in the “One and Only” series, the final book tied everything together and got back to its beautiful roots. The second and third book really jumped the shark and lost the charm of the original, so I was thrilled when this book returned to Ivan’s point of view. It gave a beautiful take on family and parenting, while bringing back the issues of Ivan’s past filled with loss. I almost gave up on the series, but I’m thankful I gave this one a chance. If you loved the first Ivan book, just skip directly to this one.

Format: Physical
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 2.5/5

This wasn’t so much a writer’s “guide” as it was a “series of random pep talks from different people (based on a hashtag) with contradicting advice”. Summary: writing is hard, everyone does it differently, don’t-stop-don’t-give-up. Sooooooo, it was fine but not super helpful.

Format: Audio
Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 4.25/5

I love when books surprise me. I went into this one with zero expectations and found it available on Libby while in a sci-fi mood. You know it’s a great narrator and decent pacing when I wanted to find an excuse to turn on the audio book. Plus, I did not see the very obvious twist coming, which was a delight in itself. Do you have to overlook some YA cringe and some nonsense time travel logic? Sure. But if you were looking for a solid book containing Six of Crows or Scythe YA vibes sprinkled with time travel, this is a good one. Also, I’m a sucker for an “assemble the heroes” plot line.

Format: Physical
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Rating: 4.25/5

My eldest picked this out to read aloud with me. I wasn’t too excited, which made it even more delightful when we got some actual laugh-out-loud moments and a delightful fairy tale compilation woven into the book. The mix of modern language and fairy tale characters can sometimes be jarring – and watch out for all the plentiful potty humor – but the illustrations and characters were charming. Both boys were ready to cuddle with this one, which made it a winner in my book.

Format: Physical
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
Rating: 3.25/5

This is a fun walk down memory lane if you are a fan of Parks and Recreation. However, the overall execution of the book is pretty weak. It’s a hodge-podge of television history (the best and most interesting parts), memories of the show (cute, but often like looking at someone else’s vacation photos – interesting, but you mostly had to be there), and a memoir of Jim O’Heir’s life (also interesting, but the long tangents and stories seem off topic based on the cover). I wish this was just branded as a Jim O’Heir memoir and completely reorganized. That’s me being a very picky reader.

Format: Audio
Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 3/5

I went straight to this sequel after a twist ending left me intrigued. However, this follow-up lacked the same charm of the original and got so much more complicated (and not in a good way). It’s bound to happen in time travel plots, but this was….a bit much. Another twist/cliffhanger was dropped at the end of this book, but it was more frustrating than anything. I want to finish the trilogy, but it’s pretty much because I’m invested now and the narrator is great.

Format: Physical
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: 4/5

(Movie Trailer Voice) IN A WORLD…..where people come back to life if they are intentionally killed…..
This was a big premise that reads like a Law & Order episode. Sometimes briefly graphic, murders are used as “reboots” and a missing persons case is solved in a quick 120ish pages or so. I love the way Scalzi rights dialogue and would have great interest in the next installment of this series.

Format: Audio
Genre: YA Sci-fi/Fantasy
Rating: 2.75/5

(Michael Scott Voice) SNIP SNAP SNIP SNAP SNIP SNAP! Do you have ANY IDEA what it does to a person when you go back in time 500000 times?!?!? I finished the series. I needed a bulletin board connecting timelines and characters, but I did not have the energy or determination to think that hard about this. For being super in love, I think the main characters spent about 5 total hours together. This was an engaging series (thanks to the narrator), but I wouldn’t recommend it beyond the first book.

Format: Physical
Genre: Contemporary Romance (of the raunchy variety)
Rating: 4.5/5

Yarros!!! There is something about her writing that makes me devour her books. I’m sure you can pick them apart (definitely not for everybody), but they are quick reads where you can just go along for the ride. This is a second-chance-fake-dating-OOPS-ONE-BED-soap-opera that is over-the-top and more complicated than it needs to be, as 200 pages could easily be chopped out. However, I was stressed enough to peek ahead and it kept me reaching for the book instead of my phone, so that’s a WIN. Ballet dancers and a hot Coast Guard rescue swimmer. What more could you ask for?

Format: Physical
Genre: Comedy/Cartoon
Rating: 4/5

I’m going to count this, because I have read so many pages in the books that I quit that haven’t “counted” – it all balances out, ya know? Anyway, this collection of very short stories and cartoons is completely absurd and random humor. It’s worth reading if you like to laugh at ridiculous things like bears cursing and birds wearing pants.

Format: Physical
Genre: Children’s
Rating: 1/5

Once every decade, I try to like this book. It never works. This might be my least favorite book of all time. I know, I know! I’m an elementary teacher! There’s imagery and a vague ending for discussion! But, alas, I do not enjoy a single second of it. I only read it this year to follow along with my kid’s book club.
“This was a terrible book.” – My sixth grader.
Apparently, it runs in the family! We are with the 50,000 people on Goodreads that missed the point, while 1.1 million people gave it 5 stars. I mean, what’s not to love about a pill to stop sex dreams, graphic baby euthanasia, 1:1 tutoring sessions with a creepy old man, vivid descriptions of the cries of men dying on a battlefield, and a very poorly explained dystopian society? Did I mention the vague ending? What a party!!

Format: Mix of Physical/Audio
Genre: Regency Romance (of the clutching-your-pearls variety)
Rating: 3/5

Sometimes you walk by a book in the library and think WHY NOT?! I knew nothing about this book – other than it was a regency romance (a genre I’ve never tried) and it was turned into a raunchy Netflix show (that I’ve never seen). To my delight, there was a lot of humor and the plot was more interesting than I expected. I adored the first half, but then it really took a turn (big “I can change him!” energy with some problematic/manipulative events). Overall, it was a fun introduction to the genre, and a boost from the audio book made me narrate my own life in the voice of Mrs. Potts for a while.

Format: Physical
Genre: Children’s
Rating: 4/5

Drew Daywalt has some fantastic picture book humor, and it was fun to see it translate into a chapter book. A dog’s POV of misinterpreting everything in the human world is always going to be funny, and the pictures add to the story and charm. It gets a little more complicated than it needs to be, but he does a great job pulling it together. This book was my youngest son’s read-aloud pick, and it was a fun one with many LOL moments.

The December Quit List:

DNF @ 8%: When you know, you know. This character was absolutely miserable, and I did not have hope for it to be “funny and heartwarming” as the blurb promised me. A skim of Goodreads comments confirmed that it was unlikely to improve.

DNF @ 5%: While fascinating, I could tell it was going to bounce around history and locations and give me 1000 names in an audio book. I was not in the mood. It’s not you, it’s me.

DNF @ 6%: Once again, I was just not in the mood for breaking the 4th wall that hard. When books try to be super relatable – YOU DON’T KNOW ME, BOOK. I’m weird.

DNF @ 7% Oh, how I want to love this series. This is – once again – a me problem. I read the series out of order, and then the author gave me this book of short stories that bounced around the timeline. I might come back to it sometime, but I just wasn’t excited to pick it up. Sometimes that’s all you need to know.

Get ready for my end of year awards! The name is still in the works, but it will obviously be the most coveted award that no one knows about. Except for you, dear reader that made it to the end of the blog. You are a champion.