The end of the year is fast approaching, and there are so many books I would love to get to before the start of a new decade! Let’s be honest, I will put this whole list together and will not get to any of them. Oh well, it is still fun to pretend I will read them anyway!
Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris
In this follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the author tells the story, based on a true one, of a woman who survives Auschwitz, only to find herself locked away again. Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers. But Cilka is one of the many women who is sentenced to a labor camp on charges of having helped the Nazis–with no consideration of the circumstances Cilka and women like her found themselves in as they struggled to survive. Once at the Vorkuta gulag in Sibera, where she is to serve her 15-year sentence, Cilka uses her wits, charm, and beauty to survive.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz was one of my favourite books of last year, so I was thrilled to see that Heather Morris had written another novel. I have been told that Cilka’s Journey is even better. If it is anything like The Tattooist of Auschwitz it will be a difficult read. I will have to emotionally prepare myself for it! That may be why I have been putting it off, even though I have owned it since the day it released.
10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston
Sophie wants one thing for Christmas-a little freedom from her overprotective parents. So when they decide to spend Christmas in South Louisiana with her very pregnant older sister, Sophie is looking forward to some much needed private (read: make-out) time with her long-term boyfriend, Griffin. Except it turns out that Griffin wants a little freedom from their relationship. Cue devastation.
Heartbroken, Sophie flees to her grandparents’ house, where the rest of her boisterous extended family is gathered for the holiday. That’s when her nonna devises a (not so) brilliant plan: Over the next ten days, Sophie will be set up on ten different blind dates by different family members. Like her sweet cousin Sara, who sets her up with a hot guy at an exclusive underground party. Or her crazy aunt Patrice, who signs Sophie up for a lead role in a living nativity. With a boy who barely reaches her shoulder. And a screaming baby.
When Griffin turns up unexpectedly and begs for a second chance, Sophie feels more confused than ever. Because maybe, just maybe, she’s started to have feelings for someone else . . . Someone who is definitely not available.
This is going to be the worst Christmas break ever… or is it?
I am actually reading this for a buddy read in December, so I know I will be reading it before the end of the year! I am feeling very festive this year and for some reason I am craving all of the Christmas movies and books I can get my hands on. 10 Blind Dates sounds adorable and I love that it seems to have a large focus on family.
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
How far will you go to protect your family? Will you keep their secrets? Ignore their lies?
In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they’re part of a special treatment center, a hyperbaric chamber that may cure a range of conditions from infertility to autism. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident.
A powerful showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. Chapter by chapter, we shift alliances and gather evidence: Was it the careless mother of a patient? Was it the owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protester, trying to prove the treatment isn’t safe?
The reviews for Miracle Creek have been fantastic and it sounds exactly like the kind of book I will love. It seems like a story with a lot of twists and turns and that the mystery is slowly revealed. Every once in awhile I am in the mood for a good courtroom drama, and I could see that mood striking before the end of the year. This will be the one that I will pick up!
After the End by Clare Mackintosh
Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They’re best friends, lovers—unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can’t agree. They each want a different future for their son.
What if they could have both?
A gripping and propulsive exploration of love, marriage, parenthood, and the road not taken, After the End brings one unforgettable family from unimaginable loss to a surprising, satisfying, and redemptive ending and the life they are fated to find. With the emotional power of Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper, Mackintosh helps us to see that sometimes the end is just another beginning.
I actually starting After the End a few months ago, and even though I was enjoying it, I had to put it down. It was not at all what I was expecting and was a lot sadder than what I was in the mood for. Now that I know what to expect I am more motivating to pick it up again. I love Clare Mackintosh’s writing style and I just know that this is a book that will move me to tears.
Even though there are so many more books I could have included in this list, I decided to keep it short so there might actually be a chance I will read them!
Have you read any of these books? What is the one book you would love to read before the end of the year?
I’m curious to see what you think of Miracle Creek! I loved it but have seen other people find it just meh. I think it’s a bit of a polarizing book – more mystery than whodunit. Great post 🙂
That is good to know! I love a good mystery. I will definitely post a review when I’m finished but I get the feeling I will love it!
10 Blind Dates sounds like the perfect mix of Holidays and fun. Hope you make it through your TBR!
It really does! Thank you- here is hoping!
10 Blind Dates just made it on my TBR!
Yay!! Doesn’t it sound so good?!
Miracle creek is so good!
(www.evelynreads.com)
Happy to hear that! I think I will love it!
Good luck!
Thanks!
Ah I also want to read Cilka’s Journey. Her story during The Tattoist of Auschwitz was heartbreaking. After The End is another emotional read which takes some very interesting directions. Happy reading!
I hope we both get to Cilka’s Journey soon! That is good to hear about After the End- I am looking forward to giving it another try.
I’m currently reading Miracle Creek and I’m really enjoying it. Hopefully you’ll get to it soon 🙂
So happy to hear that!
Much agreed on Miracle Creek! Best of luck in finishing these three before the end of the year, seems very doable.
I think so too! I just get so distracted by other things!
I hope you’re able to read each one. Good luck!
I hope so too! Thank you!
You’re welcome.
Great selection! Cilka’s Journey is unputdownable and memorable! I also found it better written than Tattooist. Happy reading! 😍👍
That is what I’ve heard. So looking forward to it!
I’m really grateful for stumbling over this blog because it’s really good! Great TBR. I still haven’t read The Tattooist Of Aushwitz though there is a copy in the house. Too busy reading YA to pick up anything heavier! What I’ve heard of Cikka’s Journey is only good so I really hope you enjoy it!
Erin x
Aw thank you!! I have been loving YA myself. There have been a lot of great YA fantasy novels coming out recently!
You’re welcome! YA fantasy is a genre even my parents like to pick up from time to time 🙈
I love that!!
I really want to read the first two of these as well. I’d also love to get The Beautiful & The Deathless Girls read by the end of the year although I need to focus on reading all of the library books that I have out first.
I would love to read The Beautiful soon as well. I have a feeling I will love it. I’m ready for vampires to come back!
I really want to read the first two of these as well. Im also really hoping to get The Beautiful & The Deathless Girls read by the end of the year but I need to get my current library books read first. I hope you enjoy all of these. And sorry if this has sent twice, it didn’t seem to the first time I sent it.
Miracle Creek is great – I hope you like it! The end of the year is coming way too fast.
That is so good to hear! It truly is. I can’t believe it is the start of a new decade!
I haven’t read any of these, but I did just pick up a copy of Cilka’s Journey via our work book swap shelf. 🙂 I haven’t read The Tattooist yet, but my book group just picked it as one of our books for next year, and I’m looking forward to finally reading it. Enjoy your reading! These all look great.
That is awesome! I can not wait to see what you think of The Tattooist. I think it is a great book for a book group- lots of discussion potential!
I’ve heard so many good things about it! Really looking forward to finally reading it.
10 Blind Dates seems like a good one!
It really does!
So many great books! I don’t really read contemporaries, especially those centered around some kind of romance, but 10 Blind Dates sounds super cute and I really want to read it. Miracle Creek and the Clare Mackintosh’s book are also on my radar, though I definitely won’t get to them before the end of the year.
It really does sound cute and the perfect book to put you in the holiday spirit! Clare Mackintosh wrote one of my favourite thrillers–I Let You Go. I highly recommend it!
I read it last month and really enjoyed it, so I’m eager to pick her other books.
Miracle Creek is on my list to read before the end of the year too! Let me know if you fancy a buddy read, I’m more likely to get round to it that way hehe 😉 <3