Happy Tuesday! I am linking up with Shooting Stars to show you the books I read this month. It’s a great link up to find new books and see what other readers have been up to. I didn’t read as much this month as I thought I would, but I still managed to finish 7 books and get a good start on my January reading goals.

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss ☀️☀️☀️☀️

This book took me quite a while to read. I am not sure if it is because I didn’t love it or I got busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I thought the story was lovely and the setting sounded so dreamy. This is the story of a group of friends coming together for a wedding. They are going back to the town where they attended a posh boarding school. One of the friends, Nory, is also going back to her hometown. There is some family drama, romance, reconnecting with childhood friends, and Christmas spirit. Even though it was a 4 sunshine read for me, I will definitely read Jenny Bayliss’ holiday book next year.

Something From Tiffany’s by Melissa Hill ☀️☀️☀️☀️

I wanted to read this book since we’d been to New York at Christmas this year. It was a lovely read. There was some love, some drama, and beautiful settings. I did not see the twist coming at the end, though. I am looking forward to watching the movie on Amazon.

Let it Snow by Beth Moran ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

This is the first book I’ve read by Beth Moran but it won’t be the last! I loved this book! I loved how the main character Bea stayed true to herself through the whole story. She had a challenging relationship with her family, her ex-boyfriend, an old friend, and her job, but she continued to do exactly what she thought was right. It wasn’t always the right thing to do according to her family, but like most books like this everything turned out just the way it should in the end.

Love Always, Christmas by Karen Schaler ☀️☀️☀️☀️

Karen Schaler has written Hallmark movies and this book reads just like a Hallmark movie. I loved it. There is a great element of family drama. There are two fabulous towns and a neighborhood that I would love to visit if they were real. The Christmas spirit is huge in all three places! In this book Libby, is trying to get through the holidays as fast as possible after losing her parents, her job, and maybe her home. She ends up running into Adam over and over again, much to his chagrin. When a car accident turns things around, Adam and Libby end up working together to save both of their careers. This was a fun book to read.

Bad Kitty Gets a Bath by Nick Bruel

I like to pick a book off the shelf when I have a few minutes at work to read. I’ve read a lot of the books in my library but with close to 10,000 I haven’t read them all. This was a fun choice!

One Last Gift by Emily Stone ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

I originally shared this as a Christmas book, and it is a Christmas book at it’s heart. But it takes place over the course of a year and is really a love story between a brother and sister. Cassie and her brother Tom lost their parents when they were very young. They stuck together and included a small group of friends and people from the community in their homemade family. Every Christmas, Tom made a scavenger hunt for Cassie. He’s continued it into their adulthood. Unexpectedly, Tom passed away and left one last Christmas scavenger hunt for Cassie. Cassie has to make big decisions and Tom is with her the whole way through the scavenger hunt. I absolutely loved it! You can read it anytime in the year, but it was a great book to read right after Christmas.

Shark Summer by Ira Marcks

I read this book to write practice questions for the Battle of the Books teams at our school. It was a fun graphic novel modeled after the story of filming Jaws. It was a fun read and the kids at my school are loving it! I cannot keep it on the shelves.

I set a January goal to read 5 books – 1 nonfiction adult book, 3 adult novels, 1 children’s novel, and 1 children’s graphic novel. Here’s the graphic I am using to keep track of it:

Currently Reading:
The Key to My Heart by Lia Louis
Atomic Habits by James Clear (audio and book)
The 47 People You Meet In Middle School by Kristen Mahoney (still…)

You can always checkout what I’ve been reading on my Books 2023 and Books 2022 pages. If you scroll to the bottom of that Books 2023 page, I have all of my yearly reading pages linked. In addition to my books pages, I keep track of my books on Goodreads. I am Sarah Parsons and have a yellow striped top on in my pictures.

I can’t wait to see what everyone is reading in the linkup. If you did not blog about what you’re reading today, please share what you are reading int the comments. It’s so fun to see new books and find friends who are reading some of my favorites! Have a great day full of sunshine and books!

**This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Thank you for reading and supporting Sunshine & Books.**