Welcome to my January 2025 Favorite Books post! This monthly post is where I share the 5 star books I’ve read so far each month. You can see the first half of my January reading here and I will share the rest of my January reads next week. 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: Pictures of You
Author: Emma Grey
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Zibby Books, 11/12/24
Source: Book of the Month
Why I Read It: Loved her previous book.
My Rating: 5 Stars
I loved Emma Grey’s previous book and I loved this one that I got from Book of the Month. Evie is in an accident and can’t remember her life after the age of 16. She reunites with Drew, a high school friend, who knows her story but lets her discover it herself.
“Evie Hudson should be grieving her dead husband, but since the car crash that claimed his life and landed her in the hospital, she can’t remember him at all. The only person who can help her piece her past together is her high-school best friend Drew Kennedy. When snippets of her memory start falling into place, Evie wonders exactly how she ended up in a life that couldn’t be further from the one she dreamed of. This time around, she’s seeing all the things she missed―and the life she gets to choose . . . again.”
This book made me think about nature vs nurture and it made me cry. I would classify it as romance rather than a rom com since it’s more serious than a typical rom com. I really love Emma Grey’s writing as well.
Title: Is She Really Going Out With Him?
Author: Sophie Cousens
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: GP Putnam’s Sons, 11/19/24
Source: Book of the Month
Why I Read It: Enjoy her books.
My Rating: 5 Stars
This was another Book of the Month pick for me in December. Anna is a divorced mom of two who has her kids set her up on a series of dates for articles she writes. Her workplace rival Will writes a related column and an enemies to lovers relationship ensues.
“Columnist Anna Appleby has left her love life behind after a painful divorce. Who needs a man when she has two kids, a cat, and uncontested control of the TV remote? Besides, she’d rather be single than subject herself to the hell of online dating. But her office rival is vying for her column, and no column means no stable source of income. In a desperate attempt to keep her job, Anna finds herself pitching a unique angle: seven dates, all found offline, chosen by her children. From awkward encounters to unexpected connections, Anna gamely begins to put herself out there, asking out waiters, the mailman, and even her celebrity crush. But when a romantic connection appears where she least expected it, will she be brave enough to take another chance on love?”
I loved this book and found it cute and funny! I really enjoyed the single mom trope and the kids were a lot of fun too. I need to catch up on Sophie Cousens’s previous books now too – spoiler alert for another book I read this month!
Title: The Spectacular
Author: Fiona Davis
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Dutton, 6/13/23
Source: Gift
Why I Read It: Enjoy her books.
My Rating: 5 Stars
Fiona Davis is recently one of my favorite historical fiction writers and while I plan to read her newest soon, I received The Spectacular for my birthday and wanted to read it as well! This one is about Marion, who becomes a Radio City Rockette in the 1950s. At the same time, someone has been planting bombs in various locations around the city and Marion meets Peter, who is a doctor beginning in the field of psychological profiling.
“New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they’d have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes—the glamorous precision-dancing troupe—she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer. Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the ‘Big Apple Bomber,’ who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling. As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in—performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes—if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.”
I loved the NYC setting, the look at women’s roles in the time period, and the behind the scenes of Radio City. This made me want to see the Rockettes – something I’ve never gotten to experience. I’m so excited to read Davis’s newest soon!
Title: A Fall of Marigolds
Author: Susan Meissner
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 2/4/14
Source: Gift
Why I Read It: Enjoy her books.
My Rating: 5 Stars
Like Fiona Davis, Susan Meissner is another favorite historical fiction writer with a new book coming out soon. A Fall of Marigolds has been on my TBR for years! I received it for my birthday and read it this month. It is about two New York City tragedies – the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and 9/11 – and a scarf that tied two women’s stories together. In 1911, Clara is a nurse on Ellis Island where she meets a man who lost his wife, but carries her scarf. In 2011, Taryn sees a photo of herself on 9/11 and remembers how she survived that day due to the same scarf.
“September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries…and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. What she learns could devastate her—or free her.
September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers…the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. But a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf may open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life.”
I loved this story about fate, NYC history, and overcoming grief. I look forward to Susan Meissner’s new book!
Title: Pick-Up
Author: Nora Dahlia
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Gallery Books, 12/3/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review.
My Rating: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed this sweet and funny rom com about two single parents with kids at the same school who end up working together. Sasha’s ex husband is not around and she is taking care of her two kids. She runs into Ethan at the school and does not like him at all at first. We also get a third point of view from Kaitlyn, a sad and jealous former friend of Sasha who also has a child at the school. While some people will surely be annoyed by the third viewpoint, I found myself relating to Kaitlyn!
“Sasha Rubinstein is not on her game. Parenting with an absent (and objectively douchey) ex has never been easy, but, lately, the judgmental side-eye from people at school pick-up feels extra. It doesn’t help that some entitled dad—with his perfect t-shirts and perfectly punchable (yet adorable) face—keeps stealing the last after-school spots and school hoodies out from under her. Ethan Jones is not trying to trip Sasha up… at school or otherwise. In fact, ever since they met (which she promptly forgot), he’s been hoping for the exact opposite…or at least to stop thinking about her. When a game-changing job lands them trapped together on an exclusive private island, they resolve to stop sniping at each other and keep things professional. But with tension building between them and the permeating intoxication of island time, temptation blows in on every tropical breeze.”
While the book takes place in New York City, Sasha and Ethan travel to Turks and Caicos for their work project, which I loved. The banter was well done and I appreciated the look at women’s roles and mom drama that added to the story for me. Sasha is Jewish and she experiences antisemitism, which is a sad reality in our world. This book was a debut and I really enjoyed it!
Title: The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Author: Marianne Cronin
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Harper Perennial, 6/1/21
Source: Bought
Why I Read It: Plan to read her newest soon.
My Rating: 5 Stars
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot is a book a purchased at a used bookstore and finally picked up because I am planning to read the author’s newest book soon. It is about Lenni, who is 17 and terminally ill with an unnamed illness. She is alone at a hospital where she meets a variety of other people whose lives she touches. Her closest friend becomes Margot, who is 83 and has been through quite a past. Margot’s story makes up a large chunk of the book as between them, Margot and Lenni share their one hundred years of life.
“Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson lives on the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. Though the teenager has been told she’s dying, she still has plenty of living to do. Joining the hospital’s arts and crafts class, she meets the magnificent Margot, an 83-year-old, purple-pajama-wearing, fruitcake-eating rebel, who transforms Lenni in ways she never imagined. As their friendship blooms, a world of stories opens for these unlikely companions who, between them, have been alive for one hundred years. Though their days are dwindling, both are determined to leave their mark on the world. With the help of Lenni’s doting palliative care nurse and Father Arthur, the hospital’s patient chaplain, Lenni and Margot devise a plan to create one hundred paintings showcasing the stories of the century they have lived—stories of love and loss, of courage and kindness, of unexpected tenderness and pure joy. Though the end is near, life isn’t quite done with these unforgettable women just yet.”
There are a lot of sad parts to this book and Margot dealt with a lot of losses in her life. Still, I loved reading about the things she experienced and I loved how Lenni touched her life in the present. Again, I am looking forward to the next book by this writer.
Title: Before I Do
Author: Sophie Cousens
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: GP Putnam’s Sons, 10/11/22
Source: Gift
Why I Read It: Enjoy her books.
My Rating: 5 Stars
Yes I do have two books by Sophie Cousens on this list! Since I’m reading both older and newer books by some of the same favorite authors, there will probably be more repeat authors on my upcoming favorites lists too! Anyway, Before I Do is about Audrey, who is about to marry Josh, when Fred, someone who she has never forgotten, reappears in her life. The story is told on the day of her wedding, leading up to all the things that go wrong that day, and in flashbacks to her life with her mom and her mom’s past relationships as well as to the one day she spent with Fred.
“Head-in-the-stars Audrey is about to marry down-to-earth Josh. Though they are polar opposites, they have a healthy, stable relationship; Josh is just what Audrey needs. But romance should be unpredictable and full of fireworks, and as the big day approaches, Audrey’s found herself wondering if Josh really is ‘The One.’ So, when Josh’s sister shows up to the rehearsal dinner with Fred, Audrey’s ‘What If? guy’—the man she met six years ago and had one amazing day with—Audrey finds herself torn. Surely Fred’s appearance the night before she is due to get married can’t be a coincidence. And when everything that could go wrong with the wedding starts to go wrong, Audrey has to ask herself: Is fate trying to stop her from making a huge mistake? Or does destiny just have a really twisty sense of humor?”
While I generally dislike a love triangle, I thought this one was cleverly written. It didn’t feel predictable and I enjoyed reading about both of the men in Audrey’s life. Audrey’s childhood was difficult and I appreciated the evolution of her relationship with her mother. I really like Sophie Cousens’s writing!
Come back next week for the rest of my January reads!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read this month?
