What I Read in November & December: Dinah

My reading slowed down a bit over the holiday season, but I managed to read a few books that I really enjoyed. I had one very long fantasy read, and otherwise zipped through a bunch of lighter picks that kept me entertained.

Ninth House

Leigh Bardugo has written previous best-selling fantasy series like Shadow & Bone series, which I loved, and I was very excited to read her newest. This one is set in the “real world” (not a fictional place) and is based on the idea that the secret societies at Yale practice magic, and another group called Lethe exists to monitor their magic use. The university setting grounds it along with the very relatable main characters including freshman girl, Alex, who can see ghosts. When a mysterious murder takes place and her mentor disappears, Alex is forced to go against Lethe and find the truth on her own.

I really enjoyed this book, partially because I have always been fascinated by secret societies, and because it was fun to imagine this magic being the basis of such “old school” power. Warning - this book is LONG!

My Sister, the Serial Killer

Written by Oyinkan Braithwaite, and set in Lagos, Nigeria, we see Korede, a straight-laced nurse struggling with the fact that her beautiful younger sister Ayoola, has seemingly killed multiple boyfriends and implicated Korede into covering them up. When the sister sets her sights on the handsome Doctor that Korede has feelings for, everything gets much more complicated.

It was a very quick and fun read, written in a sardonic and humorous way. While the book does have some very dark elements, overall it ends up being about the complicated relationship between the two sisters and the family ties that bind them together, but also threaten to rip apart in the face of Ayoola’s thirst for violence.

Behind Closed Doors

This is the best “read in two days” thriller that I have come across in the last few months - I couldn’t put this down and had to know how it ended! The narrator, Grace thinks she has found the perfect man when she marries Jack, but discovers that he has very different intentions for her and her younger sister. As she plots how to protect them both and manages her day to day life with him, a friend becomes suspicious and Grace has to get very creative.

While it didn’t have the most shocking of twists in the scheme of thrillers, it was very compelling and there were a few things that I didn’t expect or see coming. The relationship between Grace and her sister made me want to protect them both!

Small Admissions

Eloise and I both loved Amy Poeppel’s Musical Chairs (which I read in November, and review above!), so I searched out her other books and found Small Admissions. The plot centers around Kate, who is recovering from a very bad breakup and has a pushy older sister that helps her find a job doing admissions for an elite Upper East Side private school. Between navigating the drama of wealthy helicopter parents, privileged children and the drama of how friendships change post-college, the book is a hilarious take on your 20’s in New York.

I recognized so many of the characters in this book from my real life and related to almost all of them! Anyone who has gone through an admissions process or lived in NYC will understand how close to reality many of the plot twists are .

Reverie

When Kane wakes up after a mysterious accident where the police found him half dead in the river, his memories are gone, his relationships are fraught and he isn’t sure if he is the hero or the villain. While he tries to piece together his life, he gets drawn into other worlds, where his role is always clear, but the stakes are very high. Kane struggles to figure out who to trust and if he can even trust himself after the accident, or if it’s all better being left in the past.

Setting this book in a small New England town drew me in, followed by the wildly imaginative premise and world building that followed. Even when magic was taking place, the story always came back to the relationships between the characters, which kept it grounded. I had fun being immersed in each world they visited and imagining them come to life.

In a Holidaze

Christmas Vacation meets Groundhog Day in this rom-com style book. After everything goes very wrong one Christmas, Maelyn Jones gets stuck repeating her much-loved annual vacation to a Utah cabin with her parents, their best friends from college and all of their kids. While she tries to figure out exactly where things went wrong and prevent minor disasters (like her dad breaking his tooth on a baked good) she has to try to save the cabin from being sold. Does the secret lie in her best friend that she had an awkward make out with? Or maybe his dreamy older brother she has always had a crush on?

I loved this (thank you to my SIL Jessica who loaned it to me!) book and it’s rom-com time travel premise. The characters felt very human, and the holiday setting made the cheesier settings feel more normal - while still keeping it romantic and fun!