Happy New Year!

I read so many wonderful books in December (27 to be exact!). Pulling out my favorite isn’t easy, but here are four I absolutely loved. For a list of everything I read this month, see below. 

A Merry Little Murder Plot (Library Lover’s Mystery #15) by Jenn McKinlay

I love everything there is about this series. It’s my favorite book-themed cozy mystery series. I listened to this as I went about my pre-Christmas tasks and it made the to-do list sail along. It’s perfectly festive and includes some funny moments (the ugly sweater contest being a favorite). I loved that the mystery centered around authors. I had a teeny tiny guess at the culprit but loved putting all the details together with Lindsey and Sully.

A Better Tomorrow for the East End Library Girls (Library Girls, #4) by Patricia McBride

One of my very favorite historical fiction series. My only complaint is that I love these books so much so I read them very quickly and then I have to wait for the next one. This entry, like the others in the series, does an excellent job of focusing not just on the individual stories and lives of each of the main characters, but also including a main story line that involves everyone. Here Cordelia, Mavis, and Jane are determined to do something about the awful living conditions residents of the East End face due to the unscrupulous behavior of greedy landlords. Fans of character driven, page-turning historical fiction shouldn’t wait to read this series. They are also excellent as audiobooks.

Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb

This was an absolutely charming work of historical fiction that I couldn’t stop listening to. The book begins in England 1952 and wraps up in 1957. We have three characters and the story alternates between their points of view: Olive Carter, single mother, typist at the BBC, and aspiring reporter, Jack, a grief-stricken widowed chef originally from New Orleans, who accepts a last-minute chance to cook in the royal kitchens at Sandringham and young Queen Elizabeth II who finds her feet as the new monarch.The vivid details of the setting and the second chance romance made my heart happy, and it was just the Chiristmas read I needed.

Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs by Benjamin Herold 

Through the stories of five American families, an exploration of how hope, history, and racial denial collide in the suburbs and their schools. This was a fascinating, page-turning read. A lot of the historical information I knew from prior reading, but hearing the information told alongside the story of five families was incredibly powerful. Herold’s journalistic research and storytelling were masterful. 

Here are all the books I read in December 2204:
The Christmas Fix by Lucy Score

A Coastal Corpse by Rebecca Douglass

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

I”ll Be Home for Mischief by Jacqueline Frost

The Murder Before Christmas by Michele Pariza Wacek

Murder at the Painted Wings Cafe by Ruth Hartmann

I Thee Dead by Christine Lawerence

A Basket Case by Lesley Diehl

Crafty Cat by Mollie Hunt

Mystery in Marseille by Nupur Tustin

Sugar and Sliced by CA Phipps

Bridal Bedlam by Hazel Smith

Murder at the Dressmaker’s Salon by CJ Archer

Now or Never by Janet Evanovich

Last Christmas by Clare Swatmann

Easter at the 3 Coins Inn by Kimberly Sullivan

A Merry Little Murder Plot by Jenn McKinlay

Mistletoe, Mutts & Murder by SA Kazlo

Hot Chocolate and A Festive Fatality by Victoria Tait

I Pittie the Yule by Kathryn Mykel

Snowcaps, Skiing and Sabotage by Tonya Kappes

Seams Like the Perfect Crime by Lois Winston

A Better Tomorrow for the East End Library Girls by Patricia McBride

Christmas With the Queen by Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb

So This is Christmas by Kay BRatt

Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs by Benjamin Harold

The Fireman’s Christmas Wish by Nan Reinhardt