A Princess for Christmas by Jenny Holiday – 3 Stars This is the story of Marie who is the Princess of the country Eldovia. While she is in NY she hires local cab driver Leo to drive her around while she is there. The two form a friendship that ends up with Leo and his little sister Gabby spending the holidays with Marie in her country. I felt like the book was almost two different books. You had the first part where they were in NY and having fun then they go to Eldovia and it got aggressive. I really did not like Leo in this part of the book. I did really enjoy Marie’s friends from her home an dI would be interested in reading their story if there ever is one. Overall this was a cute Holiday story but I don’t think it will be one I re-read again.
Then She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner – 5 Stars Lisa Gardner is one of my auto buy authors. I love her writing and her characters are always so realistic. This is the first stand alone by her in some time and all I can say is I really wish it was going to be series! I loved the main character Frankie so much. Frankie is an alcoholic who travels the country searching for missing persons that the public has stopped looking for. Even though she has been sober for 9 years she struggles everyday and I loved seeing that in the book. Frankie has just moved to a suburb of Boston that is mostly non-white so she is already sticks out being a white middle aged woman and when she starts asking about a missing 15 year old girl she really gets noticed. I loved Frankie’s determination to find her missing person and that she knows she is nothing special just someone who wants to bring closure to families. I really hope this is not the last time we see Frankie because she was such a great character and the writing and story was fantastic. Thank you Dutton and Penguin for my advanced copy in exchange for my review!
The Forever Girl by Jill Shalvis – 4 Stars The Wildstone series by Jill Shalvis is one of my favorite contemporary series. I especially love that you can read them in any order as they characters do not overlap just the town. In this one we are following Cat, Heather, Maze and Walker who all reunite for Cat’s upcoming wedding. When they were younger Cat’s parents fostered Heather, Maze and Walker and they four formed a bond that has lasted since they were teens. We are following three points of view and I love getting multiple perspectives of what is going on. The bond these four share is so sweet and complicated and at times heartbreaking. Seeing them work through everything was so satisfying. If you love good stories about family and love with excellent writing then I would highly recommend picking this one up. Thank you Netgalley and William Marrow for my advanced copy to review.
Like Lovers Do by Tracey Livesay – 5 Stars I picked this one up because @stephsromancebooktalk talked it up so much in her videos and I am so glad I read it. I love books about strong females in male dominated work environments. Our main character Dr. Nicole Allen is sure that she will never be in a relationship because she refuses to put her career second but a trip with her beat friend Ben may just change her mind. I also really enjoyed the friend groups that both characters had and I am excited to go back and read the first book in The Girl’s Trip series. This one was steamy and so good!
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins – 4 Stars I ended up squeezing in one more book for 2020 and that was The Wife Upstairs. This was a fun take on one of my favorite books, Jane Eyre. This book follows our main character “Jane” as she starts a new life in Alabama and is currently working as a dog walker in a very prestigious neighborhood. Here she meets Eddy and quickly the two start a relationship and Jane moves in but she soon learns things are not what they seem. Eddy had a wife who is presumed dead along with another woman who was her best friend. Jane starts to wonder what actually happened to both those women and the truth is not what she was expecting. I really enjoyed the story but wished it was a little more gothic feeling. Thank you @librofm for my ALC of this one!!
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