Welcome to my November 2023 Favorite Books post! This monthly post is where I share the 5 star books I’ve read so far each month. I had a few 5 star reads this month which I am excited to share. You can see the first half of my November reading here and I will share the rest next week. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.
Title: Guy’s Girl
Author: Emma Noyes
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Berkley, 10/24/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
This was an emotional story about Ginny’s struggle with disordered eating and anxiety along with Adrian’s grief and fear that he can’t love.
“Ginny Murphy is a total guy’s girl. She’s always found friendships with boys easier to form and keep drama-free – as long as they don’t fall for her, and she doesn’t fall for them. She and her best guy friends have stuck to that. But then she meets Adrian Silvas, the only one who’s ever made her crave more, and Ginny begins to question her own rules. Piece by piece, Ginny and Adrian begin to fall into something intoxicating, something dangerous. Ginny threatens to destroy the belief Adrian’s held ever since witnessing his own mother’s heartbreak: that love isn’t worth the risk. For Ginny, the stakes could be even higher. Letting Adrian get close could mean exposing a secret she’s long protected: her disordered eating. Ginny isn’t looking to be saved by someone. But maybe she and Adrian can help each other – if they don’t destroy each other first. Heartfelt and evocative, Guy’s Girl is a powerful story about true love, self-love, and growing up.”
The story involves a love triangle with another one of the guys in the group. I would say the romance story takes a back seat to the story around Ginny and her mental health. It was not easy to read about her habits and pain. Even with all of this I did love this book and the way it was written.
Title: When You Read This
Author: Mary Adkins
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Harper Audio, 2/5/19
Source: Library Audio and print from publisher
Why I Read It: Waiting on my shelf
My Rating: 5 Stars
I received this book from the publisher back in 2020 and listened to the audio this month. This book is a story told in emails, blog posts, etc, about Iris, who has passed away and left behind those that cared about her including her boss and friend Smith and her sister Jade.
“For four years, Iris Massey worked side by side with PR maven Smith Simonyi, helping clients perfect their brands. But Iris has died, taken by terminal illness at only thirty-three. Adrift without his friend and colleague, Smith is surprised to discover that in her last six months, Iris created a blog filled with sharp and often funny musings on the end of a life not quite fulfilled. She also made one final request: for Smith to get her posts published as a book. With the help of his charmingly eager, if overbearingly forthright, new intern Carl, Smith tackles the task of fulfilling Iris’s last wish. Before he can do so, though, he must get the approval of Iris’ big sister Jade, an haute cuisine chef who’s been knocked sideways by her loss. Each carrying their own baggage, Smith and Jade end up on a collision course with their own unresolved pasts and with each other.”
There are funny parts and sad parts. I thought the narrator did a good job with the reading of this uniquely told story.
Title: The Survivor’s Guide To Family Happiness
Author: Maddie Dawson
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Lake Union, 10/25/16
Source: Purchased in 2019
Why I Read It: Waiting on my shelf
My Rating: 5 Stars
The Survivor’s Guide to Family Happiness by Maddie Dawson was my next book to read from my oldest shelf. I loved this book about Nina, who was adopted and when her adoptive mother dies, she wants to find her biological family. She discovers that she has a sister, Lindy. With some persuasion, Lindy agrees to help Nina find their biological mother, Phoebe. Meanwhile, Nina is dating Carter, the father of two teens.
“Newly orphaned, recently divorced, and semi adrift, Nina Popkin is on a search for her birth mother. She’s spent her life looking into strangers’ faces, fantasizing they’re related to her, and now, at thirty-five, she’s ready for answers. Meanwhile, the last thing Lindy McIntyre wants is someone like Nina bursting into her life, announcing that they’re sisters and campaigning to track down their mother. She’s too busy with her successful salon, three children, beautiful home, and…oh yes, some pesky little anxiety attacks. But Nina is determined to reassemble her birth family. Her search turns up Phoebe Mullen, a guarded, hard-talking woman convinced she has nothing to offer. Gradually sharing stories and secrets, the three women make for a messy, unpredictable family that looks nothing like Nina pictured…but may be exactly what she needs. Nina’s moving, ridiculous, tragic, and transcendent journey becomes a love story proving that real family has nothing to do with DNA.”
The found family that develops and the stories around parenting and relationships reminded me of some of Katherine Center’s earlier books. I felt like I knew the characters and wanted to get to know them even more.
Title: Gone Wolf
Author: Amber McBride
Genre: Middle Grade Dystopian / Contemporary
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends, 10/3/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
Gone Wolf is a middle grade book which is part dystopian and part contemporary. The first part of the book is about a girl known as Inmate Eleven. She is kept in a room with her wolf until she is determined to be a match for another person. Inmate Eleven is blue from her sadness. In the present time, Imogen is dealing with grief, anxiety, and phobias. This section is told along with essays on Black history and poetry.
“In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined — to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue — the color of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often – he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too―she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room. In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington DC. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers used to help her, but now she’s on her own, until a college student helps her see the difference between being Blue and sad, and Black and empowered.”
This is a powerful book that I think it may be hard for some younger readers to understand. I thought it was very well done.
Title: Didn’t See That Coming
Author: Jesse Q Sutanto
Genre: YA Rom Com
Publisher: Delacorte, 11/28/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
I have read almost all of Jesse Q Sutanto’s books and Didn’t See That Coming is my favorite so far! This one is about Kiki, who is Sharlot’s cousin from Well That Was Unexpected. When Kiki found that gaming as a girl led to harassment, she began playing using a name that labeled her as a boy. Her best online friend is a boy who thinks Kiki is a boy – but then she transfers schools and discovers he goes there too. The school doesn’t have a great culture surrounding the treatment of girls.
“Seventeen-year-old Kiki Siregar is a fabulous gamer girl with confidence to boot. She can’t help but be totally herself… except when she’s online. Her secret? She plays anonymously as a guy to avoid harassment from other male players. Even her online best friend—a cinnamon roll of a teen boy who plays under the username Sourdawg—doesn’t know her true identity. Which is fine, because Kiki doesn’t know his real name either, and it’s not like they’re ever going to cross paths IRL. Until she transfers to an elite private school for her senior year and discovers that Sourdawg goes there, too. But who is he? How will he react when he finds out Kiki’s secret? And what happens when Kiki realizes she’s falling for her online BFF?”
Is Kiki’s online bff her bully? Is he the cute boy who sits next to her? This was such a cute story and I loved seeing Kiki being able to stand up for herself and find both friendship and love!
Title: The Lost Girls of Paris
Author: Pam Jenoff
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Park Row Books, 1/29/19
Source: Swap
Why I Read It: Waiting on my shelf
My Rating: 5 Stars
The last book that I acquired in 2019 that I still needed to read was The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff. I loved this well written historical fiction with a mystery. It is about the women who were sent from England to send communication back to Allied forces during World War II and the attempted cover up of their fate.
“1946. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Inside is a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.”
Told from the viewpoints of Grace, who finds a suitcase belonging to Eleanor, Eleanor herself, and Marie, the story is riveting and full of strong women, which I love to see in the books I read!
Title: Check & Mate
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Genre: YA Rom Com
Publisher: GP Putnam’s Sons Books For Young Readers, 11/7/23
Source: Purchased
Why I Read It: Love her books
My Rating: 5 Stars
Ali Hazelwood’s YA debut is just as well written and fun as her adult books, minus the steam. This one is set in the world of chess and features Mallory, who has given up the game after her father left, and Nolan, who makes chess seem sexy.
“Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious ‘Kingkiller’ Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess. Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren’t only on the board, the spotlight is brighter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce (-ly attractive. And intelligent…and infuriating…)”
While Mallory and Nolan aren’t really together for most of the book, the tension between them is solidly built and believable. Nolan may have fell fast but they get to know each other after that initial attraction! I also liked the focus on Mallory being female in a male dominated arena – one which I had not thought about previously!
Come back next week for the rest of my November reads!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read this month?