I always enjoy reading holiday romance novels as those are the equivalent of Hallmark movies for me. I really enjoyed several of the books I read and I finished 5 books short of my goal of reading 60 books in 2023. Keep reading to see the ratings of my books throughout November and December and stay tuned for my favorite books of 2023 coming soon!
See my favorite reads from 2022 here and check out all I’ve read here.
Books I Read in November & December 2023
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
Synopsis
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands–the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.
The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.
Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. . . and another of them did it.
Keep your friends close, the old adage says. But how close is too close?
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I read The Guest List first and loved it, so was hoping for some of the same twists in this one. I still like The Guest List the best. I did find this to be a fast read, though somewhat predictable at times. Overall, a good, quick thriller.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
When I’m Dead by Hannah Morrissey
Synopsis
SynopsisOn a bone-chilling October night, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthorp investigates the death of her daughter’s best friend. Hours later, the tragedy hits even closer to home when she makes a devastating discovery–her daughter, Chloe, is gone. But, not without a trace.
A morbid mosaic of clues forces Rowan and her husband to question how deeply they really knew their daughter. As they work closely to peel back the layers of this case, they begin to unearth disturbing details about Chloe and her secret transgressions…details that threaten to tear them apart.
Amidst the noise of navigating her newfound grief and reconciling the sins of her past, an undeniable fact rings true for Rowan: Karma has finally come to collect.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I found this to be a likable read. I wasn’t completely blown away by it but I did enjoy it. The various perspectives were good & while I figured out whodunit pretty early, I didn’t expect why.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Synopsis
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- This book was an absolute delight–truly one of my favorite books from this year. This is the first book I have ever read by Ann Patchett, and I really enjoyed her writing style so much. She took a very simple plot and wrote a beautiful story. A friend wrote a response saying to savor it and honestly, it’s that. I didn’t want it to end!
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
Synopsis
It’s 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him — until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated – and deadly.
1973. The counter-culture has created a new generation, and the old ways are being overthrown, but there is one constant, Pepper, Carney’s endearingly violent partner in crime. It’s getting harder to put together a reliable crew for hijackings, heists, and assorted felonies, so Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, and celebrity drug dealers, in addition to the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters, and hitmen. These adversaries underestimate the seasoned crook – to their regret.
1976. Harlem is burning, block by block, while the whole country is gearing up for Bicentennial celebrations. Carney is trying to come up with a July 4th ad he can live with. (“Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!”), while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney’s tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it. Our crooked duo has to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent, and the utterly corrupted.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I enjoy Whitehead’s dark humor and the storyline; however, there were times when I had to re-read sections because I was getting a little distracted/having a hard time following. I think it’s clear it’s the middle novel and I suspect the last one will bring this all together for me! I likely will re-read right before I read the third. I did listen to this on an audiobook so it made it easy to re-listen to sections as I needed a refresher.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Shop the Books I Read in November 2023
The Christmas Orphans Club by Becca Freeman
Synopsis
Hannah and Finn have spent every Christmas together since college. Neither has anywhere else to go–Hannah’s parents died, and Finn’s disowned him when he came out. Their tradition of offbeat holiday adventures only grows more outrageous with time. When the pair starts their adult lives in New York City, they add stylish Priya and mysterious Theo to the group, solidifying a found family and sense of belonging they’ve always craved.
But now, when Finn announces a move to L.A., this Christmas may be their last. Hannah is terrified of losing the family she’s built for herself, even as her boyfriend nudges her toward commitment. Meanwhile, Finn struggles with the things he’s about to leave behind–namely, his unexpressed feelings for Theo. Does growing up mean growing apart? This Christmas the changes these friends fear may be exactly what they need. . . .
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I loved this tale of modern love, friendship, and traditions! It is such a feel-good read!
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Winter in New York by Josie Silver
Synopsis
When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is–all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice.
But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hideaway. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye–could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?
Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, the sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?
Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life–and new love–she’s been building all winter long.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I really enjoyed the family dynamics of the Belottis and wished there was more Sophia in the story! I also really loved Bobby’s character and the ending was quite lovely. I did find the main character frustrating at times for dragging the whole situation out — but then we wouldn’t have had a novel I guess. Either way, was a cute little love letter to NYC.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Mother Country by Etaf Rum
Synopsis
A young Palestinian American woman comes to terms with the lessons imparted by her mother in an evocative story about sacrifice, resilience, and reinvention by the New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man.
A daughter and mother: two women miles, years, and dreams apart. One defies traditions and expectations. The other conforms to them, even in a new land. Their emotional distance grows while the daughter, now a wife and mother herself, comes to better understand the woman she’s become and why, as she ruminates on inherited trauma, the need to forgive, and the lengths she’ll go to free herself from the past.
Etaf Rum’s Mother Country is part of Good Intentions, a riveting collection of stories about the instincts, fears, and fierce love inherent in motherhood from award-winning, bestselling authors. Read or listen to each in a single sitting.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- Beautiful and heartbreaking, as all Etaf’s books are. It’s a quick read, I listened while doing some to-dos.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey
Synopsis
Melody Gallard may be the daughter of music royalty, but her world is far from glamorous. She spends her days restoring old books and avoiding the limelight (one awkward tabloid photo was enough, thanks). But when a producer offers her a lot of money to reunite her mother’s band on live tv, Mel begins to wonder if it’s time to rattle the cage, shake up her quiet life… and see him again. The only other person who could wrangle the rock and roll divas.
Beat Dawkins, the lead singer’s son, is Melody’s opposite–the camera loves him, he could charm the pants off anyone, and his mom is not a potential cult leader. Still, they might have been best friends if not for the legendary feud that broke up the band. When they met as teenagers, Mel felt an instant spark, but it’s nothing compared to the wild, intense attraction that builds as they embark on a madcap mission to convince their mothers to perform one last show.
While dealing with rock star shenanigans, a 24-hour film crew, brawling Santas, and mobs of adoring fans, Mel starts to step out of her comfort zone. With Beat by her side, cheering her on, she’s never felt so understood. But Christmas Eve is fast approaching, and a decades-old scandal is poised to wreck everything–the Steel Birds reunion, their relationships with their mothers, and their newfound love.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- It was spicy at times and was a cute little rom-com with a happy ending. However, I didn’t find it to be super holiday-romancey other than snow and the Christmas Eve concert. I liked some of the conflict between mother & daughter + her gaining confidence and the quick ending with the problem (trying to talk in generality here to not give anything away)
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
Synopsis
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice–her truth–was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey–and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.
Meghan’s Thoughts & Rating
- I decided to listen to this book after hearing a few friends chatting about it. Michelle Williams does a great job with the narration and I’m glad to hear Britney’s side. It was a quick & easy listen.
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
