December 2024 Reading Round Up
Posted 13th January 2025
Category: Round-Ups Genres: N/A
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Happy New Year!
I didn’t read much in December but I did read somewhat. I suppose more to the point, I enjoyed what I read and ended up with one book unfinished but nearly finished so it meant January’s blank slate filled quite quickly. I’m still working on getting some stability back to my days since my fluffy one died but I’m getting there. And on a semi-related note, I got back into TikTok.
Amy Engel: I Did It For You – Greer comes back to ludlow, Kansas, when there is a copycat murder of a couple just like the murder of her sister and her boyfriend Travis years before. Greer felt called to return and this new murder is bringing back all the feelings she had that while the killer was caught there was someone else involved. The killer was executed and he definitely did it, but surely now the town must realise there was someone else? A brilliant thriller. Slow-paced in a nod to the slower pace of life in a small midwestern town, with a literary focus, and a great use of the red herring as a device.
Noelle Adams: Married For Christmas – Jessica proposes a marriage of convenience between her and her friend so that she can have a family and he can become pastor to their childhood church. I’ve actually read this three times now; it could’ve done with another draft but it’s a nice predictable read .
Nydia Hetherington: Sycorax – Sycorax’s parents met in what we’d call a magical or spiritual manner and the family lives away from their homeland. When Sycorax is an adult and on her own she tries to strike the right balance between being alone and being part of the community but it never gets easier – she is the daughter of a witch, after all. This is a prequel/reimagining/adaptation of the life of Sycorax, the witch Shakespeare’s Prospero hates and does a great job at being physically contained in one location whilst being incredibly interesting. The themes of women and chronic condition are done very well.
So the book I carried over into January, and have finished, is Gill Paul’s Another Woman’s Husband, and that’s book 8 or 10 from my non-podcast reading list. The other ‘main’ book carried over is Diana Gabaldon’s Drums Of Autumn which I’m only a couple of chapters into. I had quite a few unfinished books on my 2024 list from earlier in the year; I’m still to decide what to do with them!
Author’s Afterword Episode 113: Chloe C Peñaranda (The Stars Are Dying)
Charlie and Chloe C Peñaranda discuss the incident wherein her heroine stabs the hero, getting around her hero’s ability to run amok via deus ex machina, and becoming a hybrid author after success as a self-published writer.
If you’re unable to use the media player above, this page has various other options for listening as well as the transcript.
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