A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.

— George R.R. Martin

The quote above from George R.R. Martin is truly one of the most famous and one of my favorites about reading. I really feel this way about reading. Each time I get a glimpse into another world, I learn something about that world and usually learn something about myself as well.

Christmas has now passed, and in the wake of the joyous hubbub, I am looking towards the next year. As I think about what I want from the next year, though, I’m also reviewing the past year. This year saw a definite uptick in the books I read, especially those not as audiobooks. And it’s been great.

I have loved reviewing the books I read specifically for the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2019. I’m seeing the worlds I lived in for a brief while through the year and am still amazed and grateful for the variety this book challenge brought to my life this year.

I’m looking forward to the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2020, but before that here are some more mini-reviews from this past challenge. I hope you enjoy and I’d love to hear your thoughts! Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram at booktreasures.15.

A book you see someone reading on TV or a movie: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

3.5 / 5 stars. This was an interesting book for me. I am sure many people are familiar with the book from the TV show that has followed on to it (I haven’t actually seen it, but that’s how I heard of the book). I got into a mood and started cleaning my kitchen with fury – I took out everything from the cabinets, I was throwing things away like crazy. It was deeply satisfying, so I started this book. There are many pieces of advice I really like. In particular, I like the perspective Marie Kondo brings to letting things go. It can be hard to let our material things go, and a lot of what she says makes a lot of sense and was helpful to donating and throwing away things.

On the other hand, my two biggest issues with the book are that it is clear this was written for Japanese houses or people without kids. A lot of the methodology just doesn’t work for me with two active boys in the house and a fairly large house. I also can’t quite see myself thanking the inanimate objects in my house every time I turn around.

Overall, though, it definitely kept me motivated to tidy some more rooms and helped me to let go of some things in a healthy way.

A retelling of a classic: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

3/5 stars. Ok, so I love a good retelling, and I absolutely love anything Jane Austen. Unfortunately, as excited as I was about this book, I was kind of meh on it. The book is set in Cincinnati. Liz and Jane are home from NYC to take care of their father after a health scare, Mary is a truly unlikeable character with a habit of collecting degrees and being rude, and Kitty and Lydia are CrossFit junkies. The set up is there, but I just didn’t buy the characters. But I think my biggest let down was that I didn’t like Darcy at all! It wasn’t a terrible book, but even though it tried to modernize Pride & Prejudice, it just didn’t do it or the original characters justice.

A book with a question in the title: Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers

3/5 stars. The premise for this book is really quite interesting. There is a murdered, naked corpse in a bathtub. It’s not his bathtub. Into this walks Lord Peter Wimsey. Wimsey is an interesting character, and this is the first book that features him. There is definitely some inspiration from Sherlock Homes here. Wimsey is flighty but brilliant. A bit aggravating to those around him, but he sees things others just don’t see.

I think it shows that this is the initial novel. Despite a good setup for the mystery and an interesting main character, there’s a bit too much jumping around. A bit more cohesiveness to the story would have quickly moved the story to more stars. I also found the ending a bit too quick and anticlimactic. But I’d bet the series gets better and that Lord Peter Wimsey is an interesting hero amateur detective.

A book set on a college campus: Supernatural Acaddemy: Year One by Jaymin Even

5/5 stars. I just loved this book. The supernatural YA romances are my secret love, and this one hit all the marks. Maddison James is introduced to the world of the supernatural, and is pretty much forced to go back to school to learn the new world and how to use her powers. She meets Asher Lock, the kind of the school, and sparks and intrigue follow.

The world is vividly described. Jaymin Eve always does a good job of drawing strong women characters. It is, of course, completely unrealistic that the two most powerful beings are going to meet, be so perfect, and fall in love. But it really doesn’t matter, the book is exactly as it advertises and for anyone who enjoys these types of books like I do, it’s a winner.

A book told from multiple points of view: The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

5/5 stars. The Flatshare is designed around a meet cute. Tiffy is escaping a bad relationship with a bad boyfriend. Leon needs some additional funds. Tiffy works days, Leon works nights and stays with his girlfriend on the weekends. So, Leon rents out his flat to Tiffy for the times that he isn’t there. They are never supposed to meet.

They couldn’t be more different – Leon is a classic introvert, Tiffy a classic extrovert. But they start leaving each other Post-It notes, and it turns out that despite being so different – or perhaps because they’re so different – they click. What follows is a love story.

This book, based on its setup, shouldn’t have had as much depth as it does. The love story is touching, but so is the stories interwoven about friendships and family. I fell head over heels for this book.

A book that includes a wedding: Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare

3.75/5 stars. I truly loved reading the first in the Castles Ever After series. Again, the historical romances are a particular guilty pleasure of mine. I don’t read a ton of them, but in a certain mood it’s all I really want to read. Say Yes to the Marquess was certainly a guilty pleasure, but not as good as the first in the series.

Clio Whitmore has been waiting for her fiancé Piers Brandon for 8 years. But no more. She has inherited a castle, and she is determined to user the knowledge she has gained to be suitable for Piers to make a success of running the estate. Unfortunately (or, rather, fortunately), his brother Rafe is determined not to let that happen. Rafe is the ultimate bad boy – a boxer with a bad reputation.

The story follows pretty much as you would expect it to. Rafe and Clio fight to stay apart, and then fight to stay together. The main characters were quite good, it was the supporting cast that was lacking in this particular book in the series. Also, the ending was abrupt and a bit unsatisfying. But the romance was there, and it’s always great to see a strong woman in a historical romance.

A book whose author’s first and last name start with he same letter: Whispers by Shayne Silvers

5/5 stars. This is the third book in the Feathers and Fire series. I really enjoyed the first two books (thus, I read the third). This was definitely the best book in the series. Shayne Silvers has done a wonderful job of building worlds off of his fantastic Nate Temple series. In this one, Callie and Roland are connected to a secret society that works for the Vatican and protects the supernatural world.

In this third book, Callie is hearing Whispers in her mind while she and Roland must travel to the Vatican to defend friends who are accused of killing one of the Vatican’s most infamous Shepherds. With Nate Temple and the Antipope mixed into the mystery, Callie and Roland have their hands full protecting themselves from dangerous supernaturals and, perhaps more dangerously, playing a deadly political game.

Callie seems much more grown up and herself in this book than in the previous books. Her sass is still fully present, but her decisions – though inventive – seem better. The overall flow of the book was just better, and I truly enjoyed the journey through this world.

A ghost story: The Ghost and Mrs. McClure by Alice Kimberly

4/5 stars. This book was really a very enjoyable murder mystery. Penelope Thornton-McClure moves to a small town in Rhode Island with her son to run a bookstore after the death of her husband. In her very first book signing, the author drops dead.

The store has always been rumored to be haunted. It turns out it is, by a quintessential hard-boiled PI from fifty years ago. And, Penelope can hear him. Between the two of them and a hilarious group of small town Rhode Islanders, they hunt down the killers – despite the fact that Mrs. McClure is pretty sure she’s going crazy. Hearing a dead PI’s voice in your head flirting with you can do that.

The book was just light-hearted fun to read. The characters made me smile. The lead characters make you want to cheer for them, the supporting cast makes you laugh, and the villains make you want them in jail. It is a delightful way to modernize the 50’s hard-boiled private investigator genre.

A book with a two word title: Red Lily by Nora Roberts

4/5 stars. I’ve reviewed the first two books of the In the Garden trilogy earlier in my PopSugar Reading Challenge 2019 reviews. This was a very solid ending to the series. Hayley Phillips knows that she shouldn’t be falling in love with Harper. Harper is the son of the woman that took her in and gave her a job, a place to live, and ultimately family when she was an unwed mother looking for a new start. But she can’t help herself.

Neither can Harper, though he knows that Hayley should be off limits. Hayley and Harper are just about the only ones who think they shouldn’t be together, except the resident ghost. The Harper Bride has been part of the household for as long as people can remember, but as romantic matches are made in the house, she has gotten more and more aggressive. This becomes untenable in this final book in the series as the Harper Bride seems to be actually taking over Hayley.

As with the other books, it is a beautifully described novel. The characters are a bit unrealistic, and sometimes their choices seem very strange for normal people. But they seem like good people that you want to root for. It’s a satisfying finish to the series.

That’s the part 4 of the list! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. If you missed any of it, start with part 1, check it out here. Stay tuned for the next part of the list, and don’t forget to follow the blog and drop me a line if you’ve read any of these books, want to read them, and what you think of them!

Some of the treasures I found in this set of books are below.

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Nuggets of gold from some of the PopSugar Challenge 2019
1. The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life. – Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

2. The space we live in should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past. – Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

3. Liz felt the loneliness of confiding something true in a person who didn’t care. – Curtis Sittenfeld, Eligible

4. I’d think, One of the times she leaves will be the least time I see her. It destroyed me. I didn’t want us to have a last time, and that was how I realized I’d fallen in love with you. – Curtis Sittenfeld, Eligible

5. I always think the franker you are with people, the more you’re likely to deceive ‘em; so unused is the modern world to the open hand and the guileless heart. – Dorothy L Sayers, Whose Body?

6. Being nice is a good thing. You can be strong and nice. You don’t have to be one or the other. – Beth O’Leary, The Flatshare

7. I had entered that critical stage in a woman’s life – that place when emotion starved to death and the only two options left to fill that void was to become a serial killer or to take a long, hot shower. – Shayne Silvers, Whispers