Welcome to my December 2024 Favorite Books post! This monthly post is where I share the 5 star books I’ve read so far each month. Since I’m writing this a few days early, if I have any further 5 star reads they will be included in my 2nd half of December post next week. You can see the first half of my December reading here. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.
Title: Love You A Latke
Author: Amanda Elliot
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Berkley, 10/8/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review.
My Rating: 5 Stars
Love You A Latke by Amanda Elliot lived up to all of my expectations as an adorable and representative Hanukkah rom com! This is about Abby, who runs a coffee shop in Vermont. When the town decides to hold a Hanukkah festival, Abby is told that as the town’s token Jew, she is in charge. Looking for help, she realizes that her most annoying (and sunshine to her grump) customer Seth is Jewish as well. He agrees to help her in exchange for her going home to NYC with him for Hanukkah.
“Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is pissed. For one thing, her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning with his sunshiny attitude, determined to break down her carefully constructed emotional walls. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby’s been charged with planning their fledgling Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, the local vendors don’t understand that the story of Hanukkah cannot be told with light-up plastic figures from the Nativity scene, even if the Three Wise Men wear yarmulkes. Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help online and discovers she was wrong about being the only Jew within a hundred miles. There’s one other: Seth. As it turns out, Seth’s parents have been badgering him to bring a Nice Jewish Girlfriend home to New York City for Hanukkah, and if Abby can survive his incessant, irritatingly handsome smiles, he’ll introduce her to all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success. But over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan, Abby begins to realize that her fake boyfriend and his family might just be igniting a flame in her own guarded heart.”
I loved how Abby stood up for herself and her holiday by explaining that Hanukkah isn’t just Christmas turned blue and that it has its own unique story and traditions. It made me feel very seen as she describes how things called “holiday” are really just Christmas, and how even if Christmas is celebrated secularly, it’s still not part of her religion. Besides the Jewish representation, I also really loved the rom com of this book. It was both funny and romantic. Abby was raised by toxic parents and they cause the drama in the story – and Seth did a great job standing up for her as well as for himself. I also loved the shout outs to the author’s previous characters as well as to other Hanukkah books including The Matzah Ball and Eight Nights of Flirting!
Title: PS I Hate You
Author: Lauren Connolly
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Berkley, 12/3/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review.
My Rating: 5 Stars
Maddie’s brother dies and grief is a large portion of this book. She was raised by a toxic mother and grandmother and her brother Josh was her person. He leaves behind instructions for Maddie to spread his ashes in specific locations, and to do so with his best friend Dom. Maddie has had a crush on Dom and they had a moment in the past and he broke her heart – but they aren’t exes as the book cover suggests. Instead, this is an enemies to lovers, slow burn, spicy story of their shared grief and rebuilt relationship.
“Maddie Sanderson would be proud to honor her older brother’s dying wish, that she scatters his ashes over eight destinations that the adventurous 29-year-old never got to visit before he died from cancer. But in his will, Josh assigned her an impossible partner to help complete the mission—Dominic Perry. Seriously, if Maddie weren’t already at her brother’s funeral, she would have killed him for this. Sure, Dom was Josh’s life-long best friend. He’s also the infuriating man who broke Maddie’s heart back when she was naïve enough to give it to him. But since Dom insists on following the rules and Josh didn’t leave much room for Maddie to argue the matter, they embark together on a series of farewell trips that span thousands of miles, exploring new places and revisiting their complicated history along the way. After a snowstorm leads to a shared bed, Maddie starts to wonder if her brother might be matchmaking from the grave. But when grief also reopens old wounds between them, Maddie will need more than Josh’s ghostly guidance to trust Dom again.”
Dom wants to take care of people while Maddie is fiercely independent, even though she deals with asthma. I loved her sarcasm and her love for cheese! I also loved the side characters in this book that formed a found family. And I loved that there wasn’t a magic recovery from Maddie’s issues. It took time and therapy!
Title: Let It Glow
Author: Marissa Meyer & Joanne Levy
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends, 10/29/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review.
My Rating: 5 Stars
Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy is a middle grade book about twins separated at birth and adopted into families who live near each other, but never ran into each other until now – when Holly’s grandpa is looking at the senior center where Aviva’s bubbe lives. Aviva is very outgoing and loves to perform, plus she is becoming interested in her family’s Judaism – even though they never celebrated Hanukkah before, Aviva decides she will perform an original Hanukkah song in the center’s Christmas pageant. That’s where she meets Holly, who is quiet and has stage fright – but is a writer so she offers to help write Aviva’s song, even though her family is not Jewish and she knows less than Aviva does about Hanukkah!
“When Aviva Davis and Holly Martin meet at the holiday pageant tryouts for their local senior’s center, they think they must be seeing double. While they both knew they were adopted, they had no idea they had a biological sibling, let alone an identical twin! The similarities are only skin deep, though, because while Aviva has a big personality and even bigger Broadway plans, Holly is more the quiet dreamer type who longs to become a famous author like her grandfather. One thing the girls do have in common is their curiosity about how the other celebrates the holidays. What better way to discover the magic of the holidays than to experience them firsthand? The girls secretly trade lives, planning to stage a dramatic reveal to their families. Two virtual strangers swapping homes, holidays, and age-old traditions–what could possibly go wrong?”
Because the girls want to learn more about each other, they decide to switch homes for a few days. Everything that follows was so sweet and funny, I could definitely see this as a holiday movie! I loved that they both learned each other’s traditions and their collaboration on the song let them see how much they have in common even while raised separately. I also loved that there is room for a sequel to come with Aviva to start preparing for her bat mitzvah!
Title: Past Present Future
Author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
Genre: New Adult Rom Com
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 6/4/24
Source: Purchased
Why I Read It: Sequel to a favorite.
My Rating: 5 Stars
This was the year of sequels for me – several of my favorite books got sequels and Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon is one that I preordered because of how I loved Today Tonight Tomorrow. In the sequel, we reunited with Neil and Rowan now in college. They are both on the east coast, but basically still long distance. Plus, adjusting to being in college is difficult. These things add pressure to their relationship.
“When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different places. In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice. In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves. Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?”
This book asks what happens to a romance after the happily ever after or happy for now ending of a rom com. I think it also asks whether sequels are necessary. I really enjoyed continuing Rowan and Neil’s stories, but I would have been ok not knowing about the difficulties they faced, including depression, parental issues, and perfectionism. While darker than Today Tonight Tomorrow, I did still love this one and I’m happy I read it.
Title: Surviving Savannah
Author: Patty Callahan (Henry)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 3/9/21
Source: PR for Author / Waiting on my shelf
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 5 Stars
Waiting on my shelf was Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan (Henry). I loved the last book I read by her and really wanted to check this one off of my list. It is about the steamship Pulaski, which sank on it’s journey from Savannah in the past, and it is about Everly’s research about the ship and its possible survivors in the present. The story was quite meta, as the reader learns the story along with Everly as she does her research.
“When Savannah history professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest-curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the steamship Pulaski, she’s shocked. The ship sank after a boiler explosion in 1838, and the wreckage was just discovered, 180 years later. Everly can’t resist the opportunity to try to solve some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the devastating night of its sinking. Everly’s research leads her to the astounding history of a family of eleven who boarded the Pulaski together, and the extraordinary stories of two women from this family: a known survivor, Augusta Longstreet, and her niece, Lilly Forsyth, who was never found, along with her child. These aristocratic women were part of Savannah’s society, but when the ship exploded, each was faced with difficult and heartbreaking decisions. This is a moving and powerful exploration of what women will do to endure in the face of tragedy, the role fate plays, and the myriad ways we survive the surviving.”
It was very interesting to learn the story of the people who were on this ship. We get the viewpoints of two of the women on the ship, Augusta and Lilly. Part of the book looks at what it is like to be a survivor, with survivor’s guilt as well as trauma. Everly herself faced a loss due to an accident that she feels guilty about. This book contains difficult subjects including slavery, abuse, and death.
Come back next week for the rest of my December reads!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read this month?
