Your Next Read | January 2023 Picks
Here are my thoughts on the books I read in January 2023. Enjoy!
The Twelve Dates of Christmas – I started reading this in December but didn’t finish until into the new year, once we got back from vacation. I loved this book, a really cute Christmas themed read. Kate Turner’s a 34 year old woman living in small town Blexley, England, seemingly stuck in a terrible dating pool. Her best friend signs her up for the Twelve Dates of Christmas, what could go wrong? With every date seemingly worse than the last, will Kate ever find love? Or will it be right under her nose all along?
A Forever Kind of Love (Waiting for Nick & Considering Kate) – Two Classic Nora Roberts books, bundled up into one. I knew I was heading into a heavy book, so I picked these up to buffer some of that heaviness. The characters are related, but you can read each book independently. In Waiting for Nick, Freddie has had a crush on Nick since they were kids. Now that she has grown up and is successful in her own right, she sets her sights on Nick. But will he let himself fall for her, or will his past keep him from her? Considering Kate follows retired dancer Kate, who has moved back to her hometown and begun to renovate her own dance studio. Her contractor, Brody, knocks her off her feet the first time she meets him. Will he return his affections?
From Scratch – This limited series just came out on Netflix a couple months ago. I watched it and sobbed through it. Naturally, I had to read the book next. Actually, my book club decided to go with it for our first read of the year, and while it was very different from the show, it was equally beautiful and moving.
Tembi and Saro met while she was studying abroad in Florence, and their love was one for the ages. They started their married life with hardships – his traditional Sicilian family did not accept her, a black American woman. The couple forged on, and eventually reconciled with his family. Eventually, they face Saro’s cancer together. In the wake of Saro’s death, Tembi finds herself in Sicily with their daughter, trying to piece together the life she now has to live without him. From Scratch chronicles the three summers she spends in Sicily after his death, and how an unlikely relationship with his mother helps to heal them all in their grief. The writing in this book is poignant and leaps off the page. It’s heartbreaking, but it is the most beautifully written depiction of grief.
Every Summer After – I thought this would be a sweet romance, and while it was a little bit of that, it was also a little emotional. I really enjoyed this one. Percy and Sam spent six summers together. They met at Barry’s Bay, a lakeside community. Percy’s family bought a cabin there and spent summers and long breaks there, and Sam lived in the house next door with his mom and brother. Ten years ago something happened that drove them apart, but now Sam’s mother has died, and Percy has come back to Barry’s Bay for the funeral. Their connection is as undeniable as ever, but can Percy confront some of the decisions she made? And will they be able to move past them?
The story unravels over six summers and the present. It’s a book filled with nostalgia, the innocence of first loves, and happy moments.
xoxo
