Category: Books

After what felt like 32 months, 2020 finally came to a close. Before we fully move on to 2021, I wanted to take one last look back at the books I read in 2020.

I’ve never bothered to keep track of my reading before, but for some reason I decided to do a quick little running tally on my Instagram account. After I received a few suggestions to add the list to my blog, I made the 2020 Book List page and kept it updated through the entire year.

I borrowed a bunch of the books from the library – both in-person and the online through the Maryland’s Digital eLibrary Consortium (Overdrive). I also used my Kindle Unlimited subscription a ton and downloaded many books from Amazon. I only ended up buying a few books, because I was too impatient for them to come available for free.

All-in-all, I ended up reading 113 books this year.

And here is an easy-peasy list of all my book-related blogs from 2020 recommending some of my favorite reads of the year:

• Books I’m Loving (published 3/19/20)
• Book Love: The Bachelors of Buttermilk Falls series (published 5/21/20)
• Book Recommendations: 2 Epic Female-Centered Book Series (published 8/4/20)
• What I’ve been Reading: The Simple Wild Series (published 9/22/20)
• Loving Right Now: Revenge Books (published 11/17/20)
• Loving Right Now: The Leveling Up series by K.F. Breene (published 12/22/20)

I enjoyed keeping track of my books so much this year, that I decided to keep it going for 2021. However, I’m planning to improve on my list by also including my mini book reviews on the page to keep all the information in one place.

I’ve had Kindle Unlimited for years and I’m still loving the $9.99 monthly subscription that allows me to borrow a ton of books from Amazon’s book section.

Whenever I’m running low on books, I’ll scan through the Kindle Unlimited section and download a bunch of options. I recently downloaded the first in the Leveling Up series and by chapter 3, I went ahead and downloaded the rest of the series!

Magical Midlife Madness: https://amzn.to/38jp2mS

Magical Midlife Dating: https://amzn.to/3rc15GI

Magical Midlife Invasion: https://amzn.to/3nBsC2b

Magical Midlife Love: Coming in February 2021 https://amzn.to/3aoXLCn

It’s super hard for me to describe this book series without giving anything away. So here is the description for the first book:

“Happily Ever After” wasn’t supposed to come with a do-over option. But when my husband of twenty years packs up and heads for greener pastures and my son leaves for college, that’s exactly what my life becomes. Do-over. This time, though, I plan to do things differently. Age is just a number, after all, and at forty I’m ready to carve my own path. Eager for a fresh start, I make a somewhat unorthodox decision and move to a tiny town in the Sierra foothills. I’ll be taking care of a centuries old house that called to me when I was a kid. It’s just temporary, I tell myself. It’ll just be for a while. That is, until I learn what the house really is, something I never could’ve imagined.

Thankfully forty isn’t too old to start an adventure, because that’s exactly what I do. A very dangerous adventure that will change my life forever. I have a chance to start again, and this time, I make the rules.

I love the kookiness of the characters and the fact that the star of the books is a 40-something woman who takes no shit and owns her age and experience. While I’m still not quite sure how 40 is middle-aged… because I still feel pretty darn young, I LOVE the sassiness in the books and the relationships she has with the rest of her ridiculous team.

I basically inhaled the first three books and now I have to patiently wait until the last book comes out in February. If you’re looking to take a break from real life with a super fun series, I highly recommend this one!

Fun Bonus: Amazon now has Kindle Unlimited plans for 6, 12, and 24-month memberships that can even be given as gifts. So if you have a reader in your life, you might want to check it out:

Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.

I’m trucking away at my 2020 reading and found that book #96 and book #97 had a bit of a theme… revenge. Or, more specifically women who decide that they’re not going to take it anymore and do something about it!

I love a good comeuppance story and both of these books were great for different reasons, so I wanted to share them with you.

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams (find it here on Amazon)

This book is the second in the Bromance Book Club series and just as fun as the first one. The premise is that Braden Mack is a man who thinks he knows it all about women, since he was one of the founders of the Bromance Book Club and spends his free time reading romance novels. Liv Papandreas is a sous chef at Nashville’s hottest restaurant, until she walks in on the celebrity chef owner harassing a young waitress and ends up fired. The book is a lighthearted romance, but also deals with #metoo and getting revenge on people who deserve it. I thought it was great and loved the strong friendship, love story… and of course, some revenge.

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo (find it here on Amazon)

Holy crap, this one was a page turner that had me totally holding my breath! Scarlett Clark is an English professor, but she’s also a serial killer who searches out deserving men and plots their murders. The book follows Scarlett’s latest plans for her next kill, while also focusing on Carly Schiller. Carly is just trying to survive her freshman year when her roommate is sexually assaulted and Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay. The writing in this book truly has you rooting for the serial killer and I’m not kidding when I say I COULD NOT put it down until the very end. Just a little warning: this IS about a serial killer, so it’s not for the squeamish.

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.