Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire -
To be honest, I had very little intention of ever picking this up until I did. I was looking on Scribd for short audiobooks that I could listen to in an attempt to get me out of a slump and to get me that bit closer to my Goodreads goal. I had heard a lot about this first book in the series, which follows children who have visited portal worlds, think Narnia, and attend a school designed to help them adjust to the struggles of returning to this world. It was such a unique concept that I was immediately intrigued, and the murder mystery plot really drew me in and kept me hooked. While this isn't a book I would typically reach for, I found myself really enjoying the world and wanting to discover more about the characters. It is amazing what Seanan McGuire managed to do in such a short book, I can't wait to see what the rest of the series holds.
Rating: 4/5
Your Life In My Hands by Rachel Clarke -
As I had only read one other medical non-fiction book earlier in the year, I decided to fit another in before the year was over. This is a memoir of a junior doctor in the NHS, primarily focusing on the situation surrounding the junior doctor strikes of 2016. As can be expected from the time period this book covers, it is far more politically focused than many other similar memoirs. This is not the book to read if you are looking for some fun stories of life as a doctor, this is the hard-hitting truth of the struggles facing the NHS. As an NHS employee, I found this book to be very interesting and full of really important information - in particular, it looks at the junior doctor contract dispute and subsequent strikes from the true perspective of the doctors, rather than that portrayed by the media at the time. However, I feel this could be a pretty boring, dry read for those not overly interested in the politics of it all or the struggles facing the NHS and it's staff.
Rating: 3.5/5
What Light by Jay Asher -
This one was a reread. I first read this back in 2016 and thought it was an adorable Christmas read, but since then have read a lot of negative reviews. I decided to give it another go to see if my opinions would be different a few years later. This follows a girl whose family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon, where she lives for the majority of the year, but every Christmas they run a Christmas tree lot in California, where she lives a second 'Christmas' life. One Christmas she meets a boy with a bit of a bad reputation and, of course, starts to fall for him. I was happy to discover my feelings on this book did not change the second time around. I still really enjoyed this story, it really got me into the Christmas mood, and thought the romance was cute. It's nothing special, nothing that hasn't been done many times before, but it was a really sweet Christmas romance with added friendship and family elements that I enjoyed.
Rating: 4/5
Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay -
Adam Kay's previous book 'This Is Going To Hurt' was one of my favourite books of 2019, so when I saw that he had written this Christmas book I was desperate to pick it up. This is another memoir of Adam Kay's time as a junior doctor in the NHS, but this features many a funny story from working over the Christmas period. This was a super short, quick read, but still filled with laugh out loud stories. I didn't enjoy this quite as much as This Is Going To Hurt, probably because it was so short and simply a collection of funny stories, but it was a lot of fun.
Rating: 4/5
Verity by Colleen Hoover -
At the very end of the last month of the year, I discovered Amazon's prime reading feature. It was like a Christmas present in itself to discover that I have the option to borrow Kindle books from the somewhat limited selection at no extra cost. Though, like I said, the selection is limited, this was one of the books available, which just happened to be a book I was interested in. I had not read any Colleen Hoover previously, though I do own some and have been wanting to for a while, but I was really interested in her mystery/thriller novel having heard such great reviews. This follows a woman who accepts a job finish a successful book series after the author is in a car accident and unable to finish it herself. She moves in to the family home in order to sort through the authors' notes and begins to think not everything is quite what it seems. I went in to this totally blind and was completely surprised. I was hooked from the start and it constantly kept my attention. It was just the right amount of creepy and though the mystery was quite easy to predict, it kept reading as I always needed to know what happened next. I thought it was written well and the characters were so well done; mostly unlikable but with the little hint of some redeeming quality. As I said, I found the mystery a little easy to predict and the ending fell a little flat, but overall I really enjoyed it.
Rating: 4/5
This one was a reread. I first read this back in 2016 and thought it was an adorable Christmas read, but since then have read a lot of negative reviews. I decided to give it another go to see if my opinions would be different a few years later. This follows a girl whose family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon, where she lives for the majority of the year, but every Christmas they run a Christmas tree lot in California, where she lives a second 'Christmas' life. One Christmas she meets a boy with a bit of a bad reputation and, of course, starts to fall for him. I was happy to discover my feelings on this book did not change the second time around. I still really enjoyed this story, it really got me into the Christmas mood, and thought the romance was cute. It's nothing special, nothing that hasn't been done many times before, but it was a really sweet Christmas romance with added friendship and family elements that I enjoyed.
Rating: 4/5
Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay -
Adam Kay's previous book 'This Is Going To Hurt' was one of my favourite books of 2019, so when I saw that he had written this Christmas book I was desperate to pick it up. This is another memoir of Adam Kay's time as a junior doctor in the NHS, but this features many a funny story from working over the Christmas period. This was a super short, quick read, but still filled with laugh out loud stories. I didn't enjoy this quite as much as This Is Going To Hurt, probably because it was so short and simply a collection of funny stories, but it was a lot of fun.
Rating: 4/5
Verity by Colleen Hoover -
At the very end of the last month of the year, I discovered Amazon's prime reading feature. It was like a Christmas present in itself to discover that I have the option to borrow Kindle books from the somewhat limited selection at no extra cost. Though, like I said, the selection is limited, this was one of the books available, which just happened to be a book I was interested in. I had not read any Colleen Hoover previously, though I do own some and have been wanting to for a while, but I was really interested in her mystery/thriller novel having heard such great reviews. This follows a woman who accepts a job finish a successful book series after the author is in a car accident and unable to finish it herself. She moves in to the family home in order to sort through the authors' notes and begins to think not everything is quite what it seems. I went in to this totally blind and was completely surprised. I was hooked from the start and it constantly kept my attention. It was just the right amount of creepy and though the mystery was quite easy to predict, it kept reading as I always needed to know what happened next. I thought it was written well and the characters were so well done; mostly unlikable but with the little hint of some redeeming quality. As I said, I found the mystery a little easy to predict and the ending fell a little flat, but overall I really enjoyed it.
Rating: 4/5
I had a pretty good end to my reading year. I read more in December than in most other months of the year, and they were almost all 4 star reads. I don't think I have anything to complain about there.
What was the best book you read in December?
Sophie :)
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