Well, guys – here we are! The last day of 2021 and my final reading recap of the year. This month I only read three books. December was an insanely busy month for my family and we spent the last two weeks of it pretty sick (all of us, in turns) and reading just wasn’t something that was high on the priority list for me this month.

That said, I still had so much fun recapping what I DID read and this is definitely a blog series that I want to carry over into 2022!

the paper palace

The first book I read this month was The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller. I feel like I checked this book out because it had the seal of endorsement from Reese’s Book Club … that said, I hated this book. I hated it so much. I won’t say that it’s the worst book I’ve ever read but … it’s… down … there. The entire premise of this book centers around a woman named Elle who finally (finally) sleeps with her childhood best friend, Jonah. They are both married and Elle has three kids (one of whom is a teenager so these are middle aged characters, mmK?). She loves her husband and the life she’s built with him so when passions collide on one fateful night, she has a decision to make. That’s the premise of the story – sounds interesting enough, right? Perhaps a little Desperate Housewives-ish? IT WAS THE STUPIDEST BOOK EVER. First of all, there were SO many casual references to child sexual abuse and I was NOT prepared for it and it was the most TRIGGERING thing to have to read. I read before bed every night as a way to unwind and relax and I was NOT UNWOUND OR RELAXED by some of the details this book chose to include. The second dumb thing about this book is how much it hops around with timelines. Hear me out – I LOVE a book that cleverly hops around timelines and tells a story told from multiple perspectives and points in history. This book, though? The book hopped around and gave the history of not only Elle’s mother but her GRANDMOTHER too and NEITHER of those character arcs really did anything to Elle’s personal character development IMO. At least not in a significant enough of a way to warrant ALL THE TIME AND CHAPTERS spent on it. Not only that, but the time-hopping didn’t happen every other chapter or so, it happened, literally, every few paragraphs. EACH CHAPTER had multiple timelines and histories/perspectives within it. It was super confusing as a reader and I was so annoyed. The last reason why this book was not worth MY time and shouldn’t be worth yours is that the end conclusion/resolution was so … meh? Like, I got the feeling the author was trying to go for poetic but, maybe because I just felt like it was so boring & long-winded getting to the point, when the end finally came it fell way flat for me. ⭐️⭐️ for me POOP.

the hawthorne legacy

After the terribleness of The Paper Palace, I felt obligated (TO MYSELF) to read a guaranteed fun book next, so The Hawthorne Legacy it was! This was book 2 and the sequel to The Inheritance Games that I read last month and YES, it was so much more satisfying to read than The Paper Palace. This book focuses on the clue/game that was teased at the end of book 1 – which is namely that “the lost heir” Tobias Hawthorne II is still alive and should be found. I loved that the action never slowed down and there were some really big reveals given in this story. That said, as it’s meant to be a bridge between book 1 and the finale book 3, I did sense that this story wasn’t quite finished … and y’all know how I feel about that. Still, it was an enjoyable read and made me even more excited to read book 3 which comes out next year. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half.

One Day In December

My last read this month was One Day in December by Josie Silver. This one was our December PPG Book Club pick so you’ll have to listen to our latest podcast episode to get my thoughts and ratings for it!