Sophie Reads YA: December 2020

2020 Beat the Backlist challenge

December Summary

11:00

What I've read this month:

A Duke by Any Other Name
Series: Rogues to Riches #4
Author: Grace Burrowes
April 28th 2020 by Piatkus Books
Read: November 29-December 2 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

It's Getting Scot in Here
Series: Wild Wicked Highlanders #1
Author: Suzanne Enoch
February 26th 2019 by St. Martin's Paperbacks
Read: December 3-5 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

The Truth About Dukes
Series: Rogues to Riches #5
Author: Grace Burrowes
November 10th 2020 by Piatkus (eARC)
Read: December 4-6 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

Scot Under the Covers
Series: Wild Wicked Highlanders #2
Author: Suzanne Enoch
January 28th 2020 by St. Martin's Press
Read: December 6-8 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

When a Rogue Meets His Match
Series: Greycourt #2
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
December 1st 2020 by Piatkus/Forever (eARC)
Read: December 8-10 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

Heart of Thorns
Series: Heart of Thorns #1
Author: Bree Barton
July 31st 2018 by Katherine Tegen Books
Read: December 9-11 2020
My Rating: 5 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

A Rogue by Any Other Name
Series: The Rules of Scoundrels #1
Author: Sarah MacLean
February 1st 2012 by Piatkus Books
Read: December 12 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

Tears of Frost
Series: Heart of Thorns #2
Author: Bree Barton
November 5th 2019 by Katherine Tegen Books
Read: December 12-15 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover
Series: The Rules of Scoundrels #2
Author: Sarah MacLean
January 29th 2013 by Piatkus
Read: December 16-17 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

The Most Eligible Viscount in London
Series: The Lords of London #2
Author: Ella Quinn
March 30th 2021 by Zebra (eARC)
Read: December 16-18 2020
My Rating: 3 Stars

No Good Duke Goes Unpunished
Series: The Rules of Scoundrels #3
Author: Sarah MacLean
November 26th 2013 by Piatkus
Read: December 17-19 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

Courting Trouble
Series: Goode Girls #2
Author: Kerrigan Byrne
December 8th 2020 by Gnarly Wool Publishing (eARC)
Read: December 19-20 2020
My Rating: 3 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

Queen of My Hart
Series: Headstrong Harts #2
Author: Emily Royal
November 24th 2020 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc. (eARC)
Read: December 20 2020
My Rating: 3 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover
Series: The Rules of Scoundrels #4
Author: Sarah MacLean
November 25th 2014 by Piatkus Books
Read: December 19-21 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

Always the Widow
Series: Never the Bride #9
Author: Emily E.K. Murdoch
December 31st 2020 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc. (eARC)
Read: December 21-22 2020
My Rating: 3 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

Mismatched Under the Mistletoe
Series: None
Author: Jess Michaels
November 10th 2020 by The Passionate Pen LLC (eARC)
Read: December 23 2020
My Rating: 3 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

We Hunt the Flame
Series: Sands of Arawiya #1
Author: Hafsah Faizal
August 27th 2019 by Macmillan Children's Books (ARC)
Read: December 22-24 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

The Duke and I
Series: Bridgertons #1
Author: Julia Quinn
April 27th 2006 by Piatkus
Read: December 25 2020
My Rating: 5 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

The Viscount Who Loved Me
Series: Bridgertons #2
Author: Julia Quinn
June 8th 2006 by Piatkus Books
Read: December 25-26 2020
My Rating: 5 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

An Offer From a Gentleman
Series: Bridgertons #3
Author: Julia Quinn
September 1st 2006 by Piatkus Books
Read: December 26 2020
My Rating: 5 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

Romancing Mr Bridgerton
Series: Bridgertons #4
Author: Julia Quinn
September 1st 2006 by Piatkus Books
Read: December 26-27 2020
My Rating: 5 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

To Sir Phillip, With Love
Series: Bridgertons #5
Author: Julia Quinn
November 2nd 2006 by Piatkus Books
Read: December 27-28 2020
My Rating: 5 Stars
Challenge: 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge

The Spinster and the Rake
Series: Never a Wallflower #1
Author: Eva Devon
February 9th 2021 by Entangled: Amara (eARC)
Read: December 29 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars

The Court of Miracles
Series: A Court of Miracles #1
Author: Kester Grant
June 4th 2020 by Harper Voyager
Read: December 29-30 2020
My Rating: 5 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

A Marquis In Want Of A Wife
Series: Liberated Ladies #3
Author: Louise Allen
November 26th 2020 by Mills & Boon Historical (eARC)
Read: December 30-31 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
Challenge: 2020 New Release Challenge

Challenges Update:
2020 Contemporary Romance Challenge: (30 total)
2020 New Release Challenge: 10 (110 total)
2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge: 13 (111 total)

Summary:

It's finally the end of this strange and weird year, and I've had the best reading year ever. December has been decent too, and I'm definitely ready for a little break over the Christmas period before starting term again in January, whatever that looks like!

How have you done this month? Let me know below.

#RockMyTBR 2017 Challenge

Review: I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

10:00

I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Series: None
Author: Maurene Goo
Published May 30th 2017 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Goodreads Synopsis
A funny young adult novel about a Korean-American girl who uses K-Drama techniques to snag the boyfriend of her dreams.

Desi Lee knows how carburetors work. She learned CPR at the age of five. As a high school senior, she has never missed a day of school and has never had a B in her entire life. She's for sure going to Stanford. But-- she's a disaster in romance, and her botched attempts at flirting have become legendary with her friends. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she's applied to everything else in her life.
Goodreads

Review
In I Believe in a Thing Called Love, our heroine Desi is super smart, but lacks social skills, especially when it comes to flirting and romance. She is notoriously bad at romance, something that's a running joke with her friends, Wes and Fiona, and it's never been a big deal until the new guy, Luca, walks into school, and she can't find herself thinking about anything other than him. Now, she needs to work out how to fix her flirting mojo, and she uses her love of k-dramas as a blueprint of how to act. Will everything work out like a movie, or is real life too complicated?

I liked Desi and her relationship with her family, especially her dad, and with her best friends. She was super clever, but at times I wanted to shake her as I found her actions too unbelievable for her presumed intelligence. She gets with Luca, but by lying and acting differently, which ultimately causes issue and heartbreak for them both. I did think it was important that this happened, because it started to bring the book back on tract. Desi thinking she could throw away everything for Luca was stupid, but at least she came to her senses.

This book definitely read like a movie, and I could see it adapted as one - perhaps by Netflix, but it was a bit ridiculous at times, and predictable. Enjoyable, but not amazing.

Dates Read:

July 2, 2017

Rating
3 Stars

2020

Disappointing 2020 Reads

11:00

2020 New Release challenge

ARC Review: Mismatched Under the Mistletoe by Jess Michaels

10:00

Mismatched Under the Mistletoe
Series: None
Author: Jess Michaels
Published November 10th 2020 by The Passionate Pen LLC

Goodreads Synopsis
John Cavendish has carried a secret for most of his adult life: he has been in love with the wife of his best friend, Lady Emily Rutledge, since the first time he laid eyes on her. Years have passed, she’s been widowed and they have become the closest of friends, but that deep feeling has remained. However now the holidays have arrived and she has invited him to a country party with a Twelve Days of Christmas theme. A party where she intends to matchmake all her guests.

Emily has leaned on Cavendish during the lonely years since her husband’s death and she will lean on him once more at her party. Only nothing is going to plan. The couples don’t like each other, the birds are going wild and who knew drummers drumming would get so repetitive and LOUD? Plus, there is the fact that she and Cav are getting closer by the moment, igniting a desire in her that she never saw coming.

Will twelve days of revelry and seduction be enough to lure these two toward a future that could change their lives? Or will fear and angry geese keep love from blooming?
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Best friends Emily and Cav have had to rely on each other since the death of Emily's husband, and Cav's oldest friend, Andrew, five years ago. They are always there for each other, and though Emily has never seen Cav as anything other than her dearest friend, Cav has been in love with Emily since the first moment they met. Now that the Christmas period is upon them, Emily wants to spend her last winter in her late husband's home having a house party, and spending love by matchmaking others in the ton who may have been left on the shelf. Her plan is to have a Twelve Days of Christmas theme, but nearly as soon as the guests start arriving, everything starts to crumble. The birds aren't cooperating, the pairings don't match, and all Emily can do is rely on Cav to help her. The longer they are thrown together over this week, the more Emily sees Cav as something more than just her friend, and perhaps someone she has been falling for all along.

I recently read all of this author's The Duke's By-Blows series, and loved them, so when a Christmassy story was made available to review on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it. I enjoyed Mismatched Under the Mistletoe, but found there wasn't much to it. It was a really quick read, perfect for the days before Christmas, but I'm writing this review only a week later, and have already forgotten a lot of what happened. I liked Emily, and Cav, and their relationship was so sweet. The prologue showed us their first meeting, which was love at first sight for Cav, and I really appreciated how he never acted on his feelings while Andrew was alive, and didn't push Emily while she was grieving. He was a true friend, and they were perfect for one another. Emily's plans for her house party were ill advised and it was all bound to go wrong as soon as she announced what was happening, so her naivete here was a little bit annoying. All in all, a cute Christmas read.

Dates Read:
December 23, 2020

Rating
3 Stars