Reading Wrap-Up | November 2014

November was a pretty decent reading month for me. I managed to get through five books, and while the majority of them disappointed me (I've been very critical lately) this month has been the first month in a while where I've constantly been reading something. I finished a book and then immediately picked up another, and I feel as though I haven't done that in a while without giving myself a headache!

Also, unusually for me, I've been on something of a contemporary kick this month! I don't usually read a lot of contemporary, but this month, apart from one book, everything I read was contemporary.

So, on with the wrap-up!

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams

by Jenny Colgan

My Rating: 

Rosie Hopkins thinks leaving her busy London life, and her boyfriend Gerard, to sort out her elderly Aunt Lilian s sweetshop in a small country village is going to be dull. Boy, is she wrong.

Lilian Hopkins has spent her life running Lipton s sweetshop, through wartime and family feuds. As she struggles with the idea that it might finally be time to settle up, she also wrestles with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully coloured sweets.

This was my very first dip into Jenny Colgan, and I really liked it! I've owned this book for a while after my sister recommended it to me, and I decided to pick it up this month purely so I could read Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop as the festive season approaches - in fact I'm reading it now! 

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would - in fact there were some parts of it that broke my heart a little bit - and I definitely want to check out more Colgan in future. I keep eying up Little Beach Street Bakery, but I think it'll be a read for the warmer weather, and after I finish Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop I'm hoping to borrow The Christmas Surprise from my local library.

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

My Rating: 

It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders.

Twelve-year old Jonas has never thought there was anything wrong with his world. But from the moment he is selected as the Receiver of Memory, Jonas discovers that their community is not as perfect as it seems.

It is only with the help of the Giver, that Jonas can find what has been lost. And it is only through his personal courage that Jonas finds the strength to do what is right…

I've been meaning to read The Giver for years, so in November I finally decided to cross it off my TBR and I'm sorry to say that I was very disappointed with it. If you want to know more about my thoughts on it, you can find my review here!

If I Stay

by Gayle Forman

My Rating: 

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

After I finished The Giver I was in the mood for something short, and preferably something short that wasn't going to disappoint me like The Giver did. I read If I Stay in a day and enjoyed it way more than I thought I was going to. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it yet, and I'm eager to watch the film adaptation now!

The Little Women Letters

by Gabrielle Donnelly

My Rating: 

With her older sister, Emma, planning a wedding and her younger sister, Sophie, preparing to launch a career on the London stage, Lulu can't help but feel like the failure of the Atwater family. Lulu loves her sisters dearly and wants nothing but the best for them, but she finds herself stuck in a rut, working dead-end jobs with no romantic prospects in sight. When her mother asks her to find a cache of old family recipes in the attic of her childhood home, Lulu stumbles across a collection of letters written by her great-great-grandmother Josephine March. In her letters, Jo writes in detail about every aspect of her life: her older sister, Meg's, new home and family; her younger sister Amy's many admirers; Beth's illness and the family's shared grief over losing her too soon; and the butterflies she feels when she meets a handsome young German. As Lulu delves deeper into the lives and secrets of the March sisters, she finds solace and guidance, but can the words of her great-great-grandmother help Lulu find a place for herself in a world so different from the one Jo knew?

I'm a big fan of the Little Women story and The Little Women Letters has been on my TBR for a while. I borrowed it from my local library while I was on my contemporary kick and, sadly, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. Again, if you want to know more about my thoughts on it you can find my Goodreads review here!

A Winter Flame

by Milly Johnson

My Rating: 

Eve has never liked Christmas, not since her beloved fiancé was killed in action in Afghanistan on Christmas Day. So when her adored elderly aunt dies, the last thing she is expecting is to be left a theme park in her will. A theme park with a Christmas theme…

And that's not the only catch. Her aunt's will stipulates that Eve must run the park with a mysterious partner, the exotically named Jacques Glace. Who is this Jacques, and why did Aunt Evelyn name him in her will?

But Eve isn't going to back down from a challenge. She's determined to make a success of Winterworld, no matter what. Can she overcome her dislike of Christmas, and can Jacques melt her frozen heart at last…?

For my final book of November I decided to continue on my contemporary kick and tick one of the books off my Winter TBR. I didn't dislike this book exactly, but it did disappoint me. I'm not going to say much because I'll be reviewing it during my Twelve Days of Christmas!

What did you read last month?