Monthly Round-Up: December 2025

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And we come to the end of another month, another year. It’s a good thing I don’t make goals; I don’t want to feel like I didn’t do them. I did have a favorite this month, coming in as the last book I read this year:

The River Has Roots

Such an excellent book.

As for the rest:

Non-Fiction:

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (audiobook)
Bread of Angels (audiobook)

Adult Fiction:

We Burned So Bright
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter
This Book Made Me Think of You
Christmas Fling (audiobook)
American Fantasy
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 6 (unreviewed)
On a Night Like This (audiobook)

Middle Grade:

Queso, Just in Time

YA:

All the Crooked Saints (audiobook)

Stay tuned tomorrow for my year in review!

Audiobook: The River Has Roots

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by Amal El-Mohtar
Read by Gem Carmella
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a murder, and some suggested abuse. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Esther and Isabella are sisters, and as Hawthornes, their job is to sing to the willows, to enhance their magic. They are happy, except Esther is more interested in Faeire, and has picked up a lover – Ren – from there. That is all fine and good, except a local man has his sights on Esther, and when she chooses Ren over him, there is consequences.

One of my co-workers mentioned in passing, when this one came out, that it was a delightful experience on audio, and I remember picking it up after she mentioned that. I needed something short to read on our way home from Wisconsin, and downloaded this just to see.

Oh, it was delightful. Not just the story – I love a feminist fairy tale with queer undertones! – but the performance of it was stellar. The use of sound and music enhances the story and makes the story that much better. And the short story that follows was just as engaging. I’m definitely a fan of El-Mohtar’s work now, and I know I need to pick up This is How You Lose the Time War now.

Highly recommended.

Audiobook: Bread of Angels

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By Patti Smith
Read by the author:
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is talk of drugs and death. It’s in both the Biography and Music sections of the bookstore.

I have no connection to Patti Smith at all – never listened to her music, and only knew who she was because my previous boss adored her. But when we were looking at road trip audiobooks, Russell decided that this sounded interesting, so I was game.

It’s basically her life story – from a childhood in poverty to being in the right places and meeting the right people in New York in the 1970s, to a marriage and early widowhood in the 1980s, through until today. There were some interesting parts, and she’s not a bad writer, though she is a poet and tends to take Meaning in things where others might not.

She’s not a great audiobook narrator, though. She pauses at odd times, and she has weird inflections. I suppose that could give it character, but in the end, it was just mildly annoying.

I suppose if I had a connection to her somehow, I might have liked this one more, but as it is, it was just kind of meh.

Audiobook: On a Night Like This

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by Lindsey Kelk
Read by Carrie Hope Fletcher
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There isn’t any on-page sex, and there’s only kissing. There is talk of an affair, and swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Fran has been down on her luck the past few years, after moving back with her fiance to his hometown. However, on a whim, she decides to call her old temp agent, who just happens to have a job for her as an assistant to a celebrity. For a short five days. Except those five days changes the direction of Fran’s life.

It’s a sweet little Cinderella story – circumstances line up that Fran can actually attend the Crystal Ball – an exclusive party for the wealthiest of the wealthy – where she meets Evan, and is swept away. Is she going to have the guts to change the trajectory of her life, or will she go back to the same-old-same-old.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was silly, it was sweet, and Fran’s journey to an empowered woman was one to cheer. And Fletcher did a fabulous job with all the accents!

Recommneded, especially on audio.

American Fantasy

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by Emma Straub
First sentence: “The pool deck of the American Fantasy never smelled worse than it did first thing in the morning on turnaround days.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: April 7, 2026
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, an almost on-screen sex scene, and talk of sex. It will be in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

This follows three people on the cruise ship American Fantasy during the BoyTalk (think NSYNC or Boys to Men) weekend. Sarah, who is the band handler, is coming off a bad breakup with her girlfriend, and trying to manage the huge egos of the band and the insanity of the fans without losing her mind. Annie, who is on the cruise after a bad divorce only because her sister is a huge fan, but her sister couldn’t come due to an injury. She’s navigating her first BoyTalk cruise on her own, dealing with the excesses as well as an abrupt change at work – her boss promoted the intern over her. And Keith, one of the BoyTalk band members, unhappy in his marriage, only showing up to do these sorts of things because his older brother, Shawn, demands it. He hates the weekend, he hates being in the band, he hates everything and is just trying to make it through the weekend.

This is a very internal book; everyone is dealing with something and everyone is trying their utmost to manage it without it getting messy. And it wasn’t bad. Straub is a good writer, and I always appreciate an older main character who is dealing with changes. And yet. I think genre fiction has warped my expectations because I was disappointed in the ending. I was disappointed that nothing was really resolved, that nothing really changed, that the story just stopped. It very much was a portrait of a middle, and I wanted something… more.

That said, I’m not sorry I read it.

Audiobook: Christmas Fling

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by Lindsey Kelk
Read by Heather Long
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and some fade to black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Laura is in her medical residency to be a neurosurgeon and she has one rule: no relationships. But when she accidentally sees her new landlord, Callum, naked (she didn’t know he was home, let alone getting out of the shower) and then is ambushed by his parents who assume she’s his (nonexistent) girlfriend, she’s pulled into a fake dating scheme: go to Scotland, pretend to be Callum’s girlfriend for Christmas, don’t catch feelings, and get a free month’s rent. Of course, things don’t go smoothly – there is an ex-fiance, and an angry sister to deal with after all – but maybe it was all for the best in the end.

On the one hand, this was so chock-full of secondhand embarrassment, it was hard to listen to. Laura kept getting into some terrible embarrassing situations, and it was just super awkward. And Callum’s family was just the Worst! I wanted to throttle his sister and his dad for being stubborn and not listening, and completely understood why Callum acted the way he did. The third-act breakup was a bit sudden, but resolved quickly (which was nice) and I appreciated the way the ending was a compromise between Laura and Callum and not one sacrificing their dreams for the other.

In short, I enjoyed this enough to hunt down another Kelk book and put it immediately on hold at the library. A fun Christmas romp.

Audiobook: One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

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by Omar El Akkad
Read with the author.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is talk of the genocide in Gaza and abuse by immigration officers. It’s in the Current Events section of the bookstore.

In this short memoir/accounting of the genocide in Gaz, El Akkad talks about how it is to be Muslim in the west, and how the ideas of justice and freedom are so far from what Americans, at least, believe them to be, that it’s laughable. There is heartbreak, despair, and pain and a lack of hope that anything will ever change. Except, in the writing of this, El Akkad bears a witness to the pain and maybe by reading this, there is a small amount of hope that things will become more just and truly free.

I don’t usually say books are important; I don’t really believe that there are books that everyone should read. And yet, as I was listening to this, feeling El Akkad’s pain – feeling the pain of the Palestinians who have been obliterated, feeling the pain of the people who have been unjustly detained – I realized that this is a book that, in order to change, everyone must read. If you read this and come out unchanged, you have a heart of stone.

There is pain out there; pain that must be stopped. And, the very least we can do is be a witness for the people who can’t speak.

This Book Made Me Think of You

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by Libby Page
First sentence: “The right book in the hands of the right person at exactly the right moment can change their life forever.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: February 3, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, including a few f-bombs, and talk of death and dying. It will be in the Romance section (though it could go in general fiction) of the bookstore.

Tilly Nightingale has been going through the motions of life in the six months since her husband passed. Then, out of the blue, she gets a call from a local bookshop: her dead husband left her a present. One book per month for the next year. Thus begins a year of grief and healing, of learning to live again, and of figuring out how to hold space for grief and joy at the same time. And the catalyst? Books, of course. All the books you need to learn and grow and heal and experience life.

Of course, there is a charming bookseller – Alfie – and a best friend and a sister who are part of Tilly’s life. There are misunderstandings and fights, and joyful and silly moments. It’s a sweeping book, covering Tilly’s life over the year.

And while I adore bookish books about books and book people, this one felt, well, surface. I wanted something deeper. I wanted more emotion. I wanted to want to cry when Tilly finally spread her husband’s ashes. I wanted to rejoice when she and Alfie got together. I wanted to feel, and I just never did. Maybe it was because I was exhausted, reading this on the plane, but I’m thinking that Page just told more than showed the emotions of the characters. So, I never really connected. I liked this book on an intellectual level, but emotionally, it just wasn’t there.

Which is too bad, because it’s a charming idea for a book.

Queso, Just in Time

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by Ernesto Cisneros
First sentence: “I’m at the crosswalk leading to school.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: March 10, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is bullying, and talk of a dead parent. It will be in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Quetzalcoatl Castillo – Queso for short – wishes more than anything he could have his dad – who died in an armed robbery – back in his life. He feels alone, he feels unmoored, and he just wants to spend time with his father when he was happy – before he had PTSD, before he was shot and killed. And then, one night, a set of magical circumstances happens, and Queso is sent back to 1985 to see his father when he was 13. Once there, he realizes that his father has ADHD, and isn’t being given what he needs. So, he endeavors to help his dad – and enjoys being his friend – to better his life, and maybe live out his dreams.

On the one hand, this was a silly time travel book where everything is made better and no timelines are irrevocably changed. There was a part of me that expected Queso’s dad to be alive when he went back to the present. (Spoiler: he isn’t.) There are some fun 1980s moments, and I didn’t mind all the references to games and pop culture from that time period. It also was a good reminder how much education has changed in the past 40 years.

On the other hand, I got stuck in the math. I was 13 in 1985. I would have had to have a kid at 40 for my kid to be 13 now. Not implausible, but still. I got mired down in the math of it all. I don’t like it when I can’t figure out the timeline, or it doesn’t work to my satisfaction; I’m unable to let it go to fully get behind the story.

That said, I did end up enjoying the story (even if the ending is a bit… problematic).

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter

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by Heather Fawcett
First sentence: “I paused on the threshold of the shop to stamp the frost from my boots.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: February 17. 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Content: There are some dangerous situations, including murders. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Agnes is a widow who has had one dream: to run a cat shelter for the feral cats of Montreal, Quebec. She and her husband operated the struggling shelter until his death, and she’s been attempting to keep it going. But after a magical disaster (two magicians were dueling in the street and her shop was in the crossfire), she’s been forced to find a new home for her store (and cats). It proves difficult until she stumbles on a really cheap place for rent. It’s perfect, until she realizes that it’s a front for possibly the most notorious magician in Montreal, and his dealings in magical artifacts. Things get even more complicated when his nemesis finds him, breaks through the wards, and attacks Agnes (and the cats!). How is she supposed to deal with this? Even better: how is she supposed to deal with his clutter?

This has the same tone and whimsy as the Emily Wilde books, and I did like it, just not as much as I adored Emily Wilde. Maybe it was the cats (so many cats!), or maybe it was that Agnes was a widow mourning the loss of her husband. I do like the human and magical being pull, and Agnes was feisty enough to keep me entertained. I guess it just wasn’t everything I was hoping it would be.

Still worth reading, though.