Share Your Shelf #21: What I Read In December

It's time for Share Your Shelf. This post and link up are dedicated solely to books and book reviews and it's one I look so forward to each and every month. I am always looking for new and more book ideas. My co-hosts all decided to drop out/bow out gracefully but I love this link up far too much to discontinue it.

I had a great month of reading in December and spent many cold days snuggled up with a good book. I only read a couple of Christmas themed books and mostly stuck to my usual reading materials instead. 

1. The King's Rancom by Janet Evanovich (book 2 in the Recovery Agent series)-- Janet Evanovich writes some of the best characters! In this second book in the series Gabriela is a recovery agent and is roped into helping her ex-husband Rafer and Rafer's cousin Harley track down missing pieces of art and artifacts; otherwise Harley might end up in prison or worse. Their hunt takes them across the globe and across the paths of many quirky side characters-- some rather dark and dangerous and others fun and delightful. It was another fun book by Evanovich. 

 2. Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee-- Mercy Wong is determined to get out of Chinatown (in San Fransisco in 1906) and believes her way out is through education. That's why she hatches a plan to get into St. Claire's school for girls. But once in, she finds that getting in was actually the easy part. Then disaster strikes when an earthquake strikes and leaves many in the city living in encampments in a park. Mercy rallies her classmates to help all those around them and to step up in times of adversity. I really enjoyed listening to this historical fiction novel a lot. 

 

 3. A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham -- This was another fun but suspenseful listen... and I couldn't flip ahead to read the ending like I would have if I had read this in book form! Chloe's life changed forever when she was 12 and teenage girls started going missing from her hometown. By summer's end her father was in prison for life. Now 20 years later Chloe is about to get married when suddenly girls start disappearing again... thrown back into past memories and having them blur with the present it looks like a copycat might be in their midst and Chloe is once again thrust into the middle of a police investigation. I pretty much suspected every single male in the book at one point or another!  

4. Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey (Book #4 Big Shots)--  I still hadn't read books 1 & 2 from this series when I picked up this book, though I had read book 3 and this book had a slight overlap in the timeline with it- which is why I picked up this one and not book 1 (something I rectified rather quickly). In this book Skylar is recruited to help her brother win a baseball game against a bunch of hockey players. She meets Robbie and is so not impressed by him... but she is a bit intrigued and gets him to agree to go with her to her family's annual competition as her fake boyfriend trying to make her brother's best friend jealous. As the week goes by neither Robbie nor Skylar can deny that their fake relationship is starting to feel anything but fake. It was delightful! Though Tessa's books are never PG just so you know.  

5. Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter-- Oh I just loved this one! Flirty banter and a fun plot line made this one hard to put down. Olivia has always had the worst luck so when her apartment burns down and she finds herself living on an air mattress in her brother's apartment she feels like the screw up her family seems to believe she is. Then one night a random "what are you wearing text?" from a wrong number becomes a playful flirty back and forth banter. Colin is a bit annoyed when his best friend's sister moves into his spare room but as he begins to see that she's different and sexier and a distraction he finds out that she's the Miss Misdial he's been sexting with and isn't sure how to handle that at al. 

 

6. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld-- I listened to this one on audio and it was good enough for me to want to finish but I can't say I loved it. It was just OK for me. Sally is a sketch writer for a show that sounds much like Saturday Night Live and pretty much lives for her job, having given up on love and being rather jaded that average looking men can be with beautiful accomplished women but it pretty much never happens the other way around. Noah is the host and pop star musical showcase one week and Sally is questioning if they actually have chemistry when she retreats before getting hurt. The story picks up much later during the pandemic when the two start emailing back and forth.  

7. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne-- I love a spicy enemies to lovers romance and this one definitely fit the bill. It took a bit for me to get into it though. Lucy and Joshua have had a rivalry to end all rivalries going ever since their two publishing houses merged. When they go up for the same promotion, things between them are coming to a head. Lucy starts to realize that perhaps she doesn't actually hate Josh at all. It was really cute! 

8. Maid for Each Other Lynn Painter-- Abi spends the night in her boss's penthouse assuming no one will be the wiser but she wakes up to find his parents there and they are acting like they already know her. When Declan hears his parents raving about meeting Abby (his completely made up girlfriend) he is puzzled until he tracks down Abi and realizes what happened. At first he is livid but then he comes up with a scheme to hire Abi to pretend to date him to appease both his parents and his boss. They both assume it will be pretty easy to do with no romantic entanglements but of course spending time together they can't help but get to know one another and both seem to like what they discover. It was really cute!

9. Sofie Metropolis by Tori Carrington (book 1)-- When Sofie found her groom-to-be having sex with her maid of honor at the church on the day of her wedding she decided to change her whole life. She went to work for her uncle's detective agency. But when her latest cheating spouse case turns deadly she finds that she might have stumbled onto something she can't handle this time around. With her grandfather getting arrested, her neighbor's dog going missing, and a handsome Australian following her around there is a whole cast of fun characters and a whole lot of equally fun side plots going on. It was a pretty entertaining listen. 

 10. The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose--  Sarah is a phenomenal defense attorney in Washington DC who is always putting her job first. Adam, her husband, is failing in his writing career and often spends more time at their lake house "writing" rather than being at home just waiting around for Sarah. Both claim to be madly in love with one another but when Adam's mistress of nearly 2 years is found stabbed to death in the bed of the lake house, Adam is accused of murder and Sarah immediately jumps into defense attorney mode. Sarah grapples with separating her feelings from the case but knows this is one case she can't lose.  This was such a fun listen on my Libby app as the story is told from both Sarah and Adam's point of views with different voice actors for them both.... until the big plot twist at the end made everything completely fall apart. I mean there were parts I was scoffing at along the way but I thought Okay fine, I guess that COULD happen but the ending? Oh man it just sucked so much! 

11. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter-- When Ethan and Maggie are both invited to a Christmas weekend at a fan's house on an English estate in the countryside they have no idea that the fan is none other than the famous Eleanor Ashley, mystery crime author extraordinaire. Ethan and Maggie are rivals at the same publishing house and Maggie swears they are sworn enemies, but by the next morning Elanor is missing and as Ethan and Maggie must team up to figure out where Elanor is and what other mysterious going-ons and attempted murder plots there are. It was a really fun mystery with a good side helping of romance as this enemies to lovers plot heated up. I enjoyed it so much! 

 12. Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey--  You would think with an adorable cover like this and Christmas light illustrations introducing each chapter that this would be a really adorable Christmas story... but I just found it rather odd. I mean it was a good story and it does technically take place at Christmas but the 2 main characters rarely do anything holiday-like. In fact I'd say this book could have been set at any time of the year and very little would have had to change. Add in the R rated content and I was a bit thrown. I did like the story well enough to finish it but I would not call it a Christmas story. Beat and Melody were born just after their mothers had a falling out and their band broke up. Beat and Melody grew up in the spotlight but never real knew one another aside from a chance meeting in their teens. Now in their 30's they are approached by a network offering them 6 figures each if they'll agree to a live show and get their moms' band back together for one final reunion concert on Christmas Eve. All the while Beat and Melody are fighting their attraction for one another and Beat is keeping a few secrets that could destroy everything.  

 13. Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey-- Stella stands in front of a window display on 5th avenue dismayed by what she sees. She had always dreamed of a job doing something very similar but having just got out of prison she knows she has no hope of landing such a great job. When the handsome stranger encourages her to apply for the open position at the store, Stella figures she'll apply and never hear anything about it again. But Aiden is more than just another store worker having taken over his family's struggling business and he has a gut feeling that Stella would be perfect for the job. It is a fun Christmas love story about opposites attracting but be warned; like all of Tessa Bailey's books it is VERY steamy.  

 14. Christmas With the Queen by Hazel Gaynor & Heathr Webb--  This was a really fun historical fiction novel set at Christmas time when Queen Elizabeth II has taken over the throne. Olive is a reporter sent to cover preparations at Sandringham House when the usual reporter falls ill. While in Sandringham she runs across an old acquaintance Jack working in the queen's kitchens. Jack is trying to find his way after the sudden and tragic loss of his wife. Over the next 5 Christmases Jack, Olive, and the Queen continue to cross paths and grow in their respective positions.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking Up With: Thinking Out Loud,