My November 2024 Reading Roundup – A Book Review

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How the hell did November come and go so quick? And now we’re deep in the hustle and bustle of Christmas? It’s been a whirlwind!

This past month has been pretty chill. I went to a mother-son ball at my son’s school. We didn’t get dressed up or anything. It was just a nice night out, me and H3. I also caught up with some old friends and some new ones.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I went to my in-laws’ home to celebrate. My parents and my sister and her family joined us. It was a full house with lots of laughs, and of course lots of food. I cooked a mean pound cake that suspiciously disappeared the next day. Hmm…

And of course, I wrote like crazy. I’m currently working on Chapter 4 of my vampire coming of age book. I pitched it to Wattpad, so I’m just waiting to see what they say before I post anything. Fingers crossed.

As always, if you’re interested in reading my novel, The Secrets We Keep, it’s available to read here.

What else did I do? Oh yeah! I read 9 books in November, one of which I DNF’d (did not finish). I’ll explain later. Without further adieu, here are my reviews.

Hoops Holiday (which included novella Full Court Press, Long Shot: Stocking Stuffer & Block Shot: Stocking Stuffer) by Kennedy Ryan

I read the hard copy from my library. I’ll start with Full Court Press. It was short and sweet. Too short maybe? Enjoyable yes, but because it was so quick, it lost some feels for me. The two leads clicked too easily and I couldn’t quite understand why. We couldn’t dive deep into their relationship. It was still a breezy way to spend a few hours.

I liked that Deck was all in and didn’t let anything go unsaid. This was an interracial couple, but race wasn’t an issue in this story. Race issues of interracial couples was more fully explored in this author’s Grip series. You can read my review for the Grip series here.

Back to this book. If it were longer, I think we could’ve gotten deeper into any would-be race issues. And I would’ve liked to see it. Still enjoyable though.

3.75/5 stars

Next up is Long Shot – Stocking Stuffer. Not a true novella. Just 25 pages of bonus material really. Now I loved Long Shot and you can check out my review for that book here.

Regarding this one – it was nice to check in with August and Iris, healing after the run in with Caleb, happily expecting a baby and being horny for each other. A little bit of Kenan and Lotus (from Hook Shot) was sprinkled in too and a ring for Iris’s daughter. I’d forgotten about that protective ring. Overall, a nice little update and some spice to boot.

4/5 stars

Lastly here’s my review for Block Shot – Stocking Stuffer. I missed these two so much. I’m probably gonna re-read Block Shot at some point. It was so good. You can read my review for it here.

I just love Banner and Jared. Checking in with them in this short little snippet was quite nice. Two living, breathing characters. Block Shot was spent on the chase and the forbidden love aspect of it all. In this one, they get to be happy together, married and just there for each other. I just loved it. 25 pages of yes!

5/5 stars

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

I listened to this through my library’s audiobook system. I’m not gonna lie. It sure was slow. At times I wanted to stop reading, rolling my eyes at the Oh my God, when are they gonna get together pace of it. They communicated a lot, but sometimes things got lost in translation when assumptions were made.

The FMC (female main character), Shiloh, kept wanting to give him an out because she knew he wanted to go into the Navy and needed to be available to go at the drop of a dime. She was frustrating. She needed to thank her lucky stars that Carey, the MMC (male main character), loved her, because she was difficult to love. She was awkward. She thought too much. They both kept saying sorry. That got old.

She kept pushing him away because she didn’t want to be a burden or she thought he deserved better because she was a mess and had two kids.

Their bodies weren’t perfect. The sex was sloppy and real. It was a lot of this happened and then this happened. It wasn’t particularly well written. The bouncing around between then and now gave me whiplash. We’d get somewhere and then go back to college or high school, with no rhyme or reason to it.

Some chapters were literally just a paragraph. Like the author was like ‘oh I wanted you to see them brush their teeth.’ That was important. And ‘oh they had tuna on Tuesday‘.

This story was just about two ordinary people who grew up together and decided they belonged together. And loved each other.

3.75/5 stars

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

I listened to this through my library’s audiobook system and I did not enjoy this particular audiobook. The narrator loudly whispered throughout the whole thing. I found it hard to follow. Too many characters to keep track of. It’s like the author wasn’t focused. She just kept jumping around different timelines.

I couldn’t differentiate Louise from Tracy. I liked the lady cop Judy. It was interesting going back to the 70s and revisiting the sexism of the time. Women can be investigators? This story was just way too long for the little bit that happened. And why the lesbian non-thing between TJ and I can’t even remember who? (Looking it up, I found out it was Louise, the one who worked there and discovered Barbara missing).

I was never excited to read it. It was tedious and took a long time to get through. I just didn’t care and almost DNF’d it many times. Boring. I guess I finished it because it was so popular, and I was just trying to figure out why. I’m still looking for that answer.

2/5 stars

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

I read the hard copy from my library and this was my favorite read of the month. It was an interesting story. The main character wasn’t really all that likable because she was so sarcastic. She also had hallucinations, picturing her dead, best friend and envisioning killing people. So that was a very interesting character to be in the head of, and she really did not care about what anybody thought of her. Mostly because she didn’t have a choice, because people were going to believe what they wanted to believe about her.

Even though she was kind of the antihero, I still rooted for her, which was an interesting thing to do because you don’t really know whether or not she killed her best friend. I kept wondering if she really did have a psychotic break, and I was left questioning this the entire time.

Toxic masculinity, men protecting men, whether they were in the wrong or not was a theme in this book. Yeah, most of the men were pretty despicable. The only decent one was Ben. Also, everybody seemed to be bed hopping.

This was another book commenting on what it means to be human. It’s true. The truth doesn’t matter. People will believe what they wanna believe. We pick a side and we stick to it, no matter what anyone says. And we will die on that hill.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I didn’t guess who did it. There were clues there, but I missed them. The ending was satisfying. Very satisfying. Well done.

5/5 stars

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

I listened to this through my library’s audiobook system. My favorite character was Saint because she was a strong woman. It was interesting that Saint and Misty were fighting over Patch. It reminded me a little of Forrest Gump, but nowhere near as good.

It spanned too many decades. I don’t care that much about a character’s whole life. It’s better if you take a big event in a character’s life and dive deep.

It featured short chapters. It was tedious to get through. Like every scene was short and had its own chapter. Maybe I should’ve read it instead of listening, but I missed some things. I had to read the summary and I was like what? That happened? Also I just didn’t care. You can skip this one.

2/5 stars

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

I listened to this book, but for some reason I cannot remember if it was through the library or through audible. Weird. Anyway, this one kept me guessing ’til the end. Creepy and atmospheric throughout. It was fast paced. I didn’t guess who did it. Like we don’t find out ’til the very end and even before the big reveal, I still guessed wrong. This author always gets me. Misdirection queen! ‘Twas a good read.

4/5 stars

No Tomorrow by Carian Cole

And we’ve arrive at my DNF for the month. I listened to this one on audible and I stopped at ch 19. The main character, Piper, was so stupid and blindly in love with someone who didn’t deserve it. The MMC abandoned her with no way of contacting him. She had to walk on eggshells around him whenever she tried to discuss their future together. He’s homeless. There were just so many red flags. I just couldn’t. Dumb decision after dumb decision was made by this woman. It got repetitive and annoying. And the sex even got boring. And not hot. Done. Didn’t even want them to rekindle. Wanted her to move on. Ugh!

1/5 stars

Things I Wanted to Say by Monica Murphy

I listened to this on audible. I liked it up until about halfway. I wanted to watch Whit fall in love with her and change, but when he slut-shamed her and said ‘what did you expect would happen when you dress like that?‘ And he was never called out for that, and he never apologized for saying that, I started to not like him. They deserved each other.

After a while, the sex got to be too much. All the time. Like what else did they have? They were both messed up and I ended up not liking either one. I didn’t care that her only friend turned on her. I felt she deserved it. I had absolutely no sympathy for her at all. I almost DNF’d it.

There was basically no story. Just sex. No real stakes. It was disappointing. Revelations that came out at the end which involved her mother were like a shrug for me. It was also weird that a lot of the sex happened when they were 17. And I mean full on adult type sex at 17. Weird.

It started out similar to Bully by Penny D, and I, for a moment, thought it was better than Bully, but nope. As it dragged on, I was sorely mistaken.

2.5/5 stars

Reel by Kennedy Ryan

I read this on my kindle. It took several months for me to get through. I generally enjoyed the story. Was it my favorite of this author’s? No. But of course I liked Neevah and Cannon together.

I thought it was stupid for her to get with her director, especially on her very first starring role. Adding illness (lupus) to this love story was whatever. I don’t think I like that trope. He had a mom who died too young and fell for someone who might die too. The backstory drama between her and her sister taking her man, was also whatever.

Their love was strong and all that. Mushy. A little boring.

3.5 stars

Thanks for reading!