Our last book post for 2024! Before I get into what I’ve been reading since we last caught up, I want to thank everyone who has linked up and commented on these bookish posts this year. I know I speak for my co-hosts when I say we appreciate you all.
Agony in Amethyst by A.M. Stuart
Harriet Gordon, newly settled in her new role as a teacher at a girls’ school in Singapore, faces uncertainty in her budding relationship with Robert Curran, who has just returned from months in Kuala Lumpur. Curran’s expected promotion turns sour when the position is given to an old adversary from his Scotland Yard days.
The arrival of the Colonial foreign secretary, Sir Henry Cunningham, revives memories of one of Curran’s unresolved cases. The death of a schoolgirl at a lavish ball, hosted by the Governor in honor of the visitor, brings Curran into direct conflict with his new superior officer. When he confides his suspicions to Harriet, she inadvertently betrays his trust, threatening his already shaky career.
With their relationship on the brink of irreparable damage, a second death changes the course of the investigation. Can Harriet and Curran bring justice to a grieving family and emerge from this ordeal with their connection intact?
I have been eagerly awaiting (what is apparently) the final instalment in Alison Stuart’s Harriet Gordon series and this certainly didn’t disappoint – and was my read of the month.
Festive reads
Christmas With The Queen, by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue in the tradition of her late father and grandfather’s beloved Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must move with the times, and the Queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change.
As preparations begin for the royal Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk, two old friends–Jack Devereux and Olive Carter–find themselves reunited for the festivities. A single mother, typist at the BBC, and aspiring reporter, Olive leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, despite self-doubts. When a chance encounter with the Queen presents an exciting opportunity, Olive begins to believe her luck might change.
Jack, a grief-stricken widowed chef originally from New Orleans, accepts a last-minute chance to cook in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. When he bumps into a long-lost friend, an old spark is reignited.
Despite personal and professional heartache, Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmas seasons and they find themselves growing ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret.
Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, Olive decides to reveal the shocking truth of her secret, which threatens to tear her and Jack apart forever. Unless Christmas has one last gift to deliver…
If you’re a fan of The Crown, you’ll love this. I certainly did.
‘Tis the (Damn) Season, by Fiona Gibson
Old friends Shelley, Lena and Pearl have reached their limit with the festive preparation that has always fallen to them, and five days before Christmas, they’ve booked a mini break… without their families. Up until Christmas Eve, they’ll be sipping prosecco in the Highlands while their kids wrap bacon around 100 chipolatas and their partners brave the supermarkets.
It’s exactly what they need… until they’re snowed in. Facing the prospect of Christmas 500 miles from home, each woman is forced to confront her real reasons for needing to escape: the fiance with the obnoxious family; the son’s new girlfriend who is taking over their home; the family who take their mother for granted all year round…
Will the friends make it home before Christmas day? And if they do, can they really go back to their old lives?
I began reading this one standing up and shuffling extremely slowly through the immigration queue at Auckland airport – and finished it standing around waiting at Brisbane airport for our bags to come out after something went wrong with the baggage carousel (the joys of flying when Mercury is retrograde).
A Very Irish Christmas, by Debbie Johnson
When New York-born Cassie O’Hara decides to use the money her sassy Irish nana Nora left in her will to book a month-long stay in a quaint country village, she’s expecting a cozy cottage, steak-and-ale pie and plenty of Christmas cheer. Instead, she gets a draughty disaster covered in dust, a temperamental stray dog and two devastatingly handsome men vying for her attention…
There’s Charles, the dashing English aristocrat with an enormous manor house and a heart of gold. And Ryan, a curly-haired Irish handyman with a past he won’t talk about and an accent that makes her weak at the knees.
When Charles enlists Cassie’s event-planning expertise to save his family estate, she finds herself working shoulder to shoulder with Ryan, breathing new life into Bancroft Manor. As village life weaves its spell, Cassie uncovers some intriguing secrets about Nana Nora’s past. With her return ticket looming and her heart pulling her in unexpected directions, can Cassie find the love and belonging Nana Nora always wanted for her?
Debbie Johnson writes the books I wish I wrote. I loved this and if Harriet Gordon hadn’t already got the monthly gong for read of the month, this one would have won it. Maybe I can say Harriet Gordon was the best book I read in November and this was the best one in December (so far).
Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes, by Jessica Redland
It’s December on Castle Street; the fairy lights are twinkling, snow has settled and the festive season is in full swing.
For Carly, the owner of Carly’s Cupcakes, it’s the busiest time of year getting everyone’s Christmas treats ready on time. However with her clumsy sister, Bethany, as a co-worker, it’s proving a difficult task. They say you shouldn’t mix work with family. Maybe they have a point…
As Christmas approaches, Carly is also eagerly awaiting the return of her best friend to Whitborough Bay. Liam has no idea he’s been the object of her affection since their schooldays. After years of pining after him, can Carly pluck up the courage to finally tell him how she really feels by 25th December?
Sweet, heartwarming and all those sorts of words apply to this one. Gotta love a good best friends to lovers trope.
Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop, by Jessica Redland
When master chocolatier, Charlee, takes the leap to move to the picturesque seaside town of Whitsborough Bay, she is determined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps and set up a chocolate shop.
Luckily, she finds the perfect location for Charlee’s Chocolates on beautiful Castle Street… Now she just has to refurbish it in time for Christmas!
With a useless boyfriend and countless DIY disasters, Charlee doesn’t know if she’ll make it in time. With no ‘traditional’ family to support her, she feels lost in her new surroundings and the secrets of the past are weighing her down.
But the warmth and festive spirit of the Whitsborough Bay community will surprise her, and when plumber, Matt, comes to the rescue, it might be that all of Charlee’s dreams could come true this Christmas, and she could learn what family really means…
Can we just pause for a second and admire this cover? I love Jessica Redland’s covers, and included them in my brief to my cover designer for Fountains Hall.
Anyways, this one disappointed me just a tad – it felt like it went on too long and, at times, felt like two books in one. Perhaps I’m being picky and still enjoyed the read.
In Book Club
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley’s profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. …
Brave New World is still one of the most shocking, unnerving and prophetic novels ever written. Mass-consumerism, individualism, total reliance on technology – it is a future that appears to be here already.
Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here.
Our perfect society achieves peace and stability by dispensing with monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs. You can be happy too. All you need to do is take your Soma pills. This is the brave new world of Aldous Huxley’s deeply sinister and prophetic novel, a society based on maximum pleasure and complete surveillance – no matter the cost.
Alrighty, what can I say to this? It’s the perfect book club book in that we had plenty of discussion. Did I enjoy it? In a word, no. It scared me. It made me feel claustrophobic and icky and lots more. Does it deserve its place on those books you have to read lists? Yes.
Your turn…
Deb, Donna, Sue, and I would love you to share what you’ve been reading…the linky is below.
And so to 2025…
Our dates for next year are below. For clarity, our first book post for 2025 will go live on January 17 in Australia, which is still January 16 in Canada. We hope to see you there!
- January 16/17
- February 20/21
- March 20/21
- April 17/18
- May 15/16
- June 19/20
- July 17/18
- August 14/15
- September 18/19
- October 16/17
- November 20/21
- December 18/19
And Anyways... 
This is an awesome booklist, and once again you have managed to make me hungry.
I felt the same way about Brave New World. It is an excellent choice for bookclub discussion!
Lots of Christmas reading!
There have been some great cosy Christmas books around this year Jo. I have to read Agony in Amethyst. It sounds like a book I’d love, but I just checked it out and see it’s No 5 in a series, so will start at Book 1. Sounds like a great series. Thank you Jo for all you do to facilitate the linkup. I look forward to it every month. Sending you all my best wishes for the season to you and your family. See you in 2025.
Yes, start at no. 1. It’s a great series.
My best wishes for wonderful Christmas!
I’m not usually one to read Christmas books but have just added at least three of your suggestions! I must be relaxing on holidays or something!!! Thanks for the recommendations Jo, I always find some good books from your lists. It’s been a great year of reading and book club, you’re a fabulous co-host and I’m so glad we all get to read and talk books with each other on a regular basis. Never a dull moment that’s for sure. Have a great Christmas and New Year.