Between The Pages | November Reading Roundup

Hello, and Happy December friends! 📚 I hope you’re all cozy and getting ready for the holidays. 🍵🎄📖

Today, I’m happy to be sharing my November reading roundup. It was quite an adventurous month for my bookshelf! I dove headfirst into the festive season by reading five more Christmas reads—perfect for warming up with a mug of hot cocoa. But the journeys didn’t stop there! My reading passport took me across the globe with novels set in Kathmandu, India, and Italy, as well as one incredible journey taking readers all the way from Tel Aviv to Paris & Germany.

It truly was a month that reminded me that every new book is a new world, and every turned page is a chance to explore it.

A Jewish Christmas Miracle: from Auschwitz to Albany by Andrea Guadalupe Gonzales  (via Kindle Unlimited)

A Jewish Christmas Miracle: from Auschwitz to Albany by Andrea Guadalupe Gonzales is about an elderly woman named Sigrid who lives in Albany.

When snow in Albany falls, it triggers memories for Sigrid, taking her back to her childhood in Berlin, where she had a unique upbringing: her family celebrated both Christmas (with her Christian mother and her sister) and Hanukkah (with her Jewish father). They also shared a happy tradition of baking gingerbread cookies.

However, these happy memories were tragically cut short by the rise of the Nazis and the presence of SS officers. Sigrid recounts her terrifying experiences, including her time in a concentration camp, where she was separated from her sister.

Decades later, her great-granddaughter, Carmen, helps keep Sigrid’s sister’s memory alive by baking gingerbread cookies with her. Deeply moved by her great-grandmother’s story of survival and loss, Carmen makes a heartfelt Christmas wish. The book centers on the question of how Carmen’s Christmas wish will come true.

Christmas With a Crank by  Courtney Walsh  (via Kindle Unlimited)

Christmas With a Crank by Courtney Walsh is a second-chance, grumpy/sunshine Christmas romance set on a family-owned Christmas tree farm.

The story centers on two main characters:

• Liam Fisher, the “Crank,” returns home after twenty years away, having left to escape the expectations of inheriting his family’s business, Pine Creek Christmas Tree Farm. He is shocked to discover his parents are retiring and putting the farm up for sale, and he is extremely reluctant to embrace his family’s legacy or the holiday spirit.
• Olive Witherby is Liam’s former next-door neighbor and childhood crush. After a business failure and accumulating debt, she’s back in town and has been hired by Liam’s parents. Her mission is to rekindle the magic of the farm one final time before it’s sold and, incidentally, to try and give the very cranky Liam back his Christmas cheer.

The novel follows Liam and Olive as they are forced to work together, resurrecting their connection that began with a memorable first kiss 20 years earlier. It explores themes of second chances, found family, small-town life, and the process of rediscovering joy during the holiday season. The central tension lies in whether Olive can get Liam to fall in love with Christmas again, and whether she can avoid falling head over heels for him in the process.

The Joy of Christmas: A 3-in-1 Collection by Melody Carlson (via Kindle Unlimited)

The Joy of Christmas: A 3-in-1 Collection by Melody Carlson is a value-priced compilation of three separate, heartwarming Christmas novels by the popular Christian fiction author.

The collection highlights themes that are central to the holiday season in her work, such as family, love, commitment, forgiveness, and gratitude.

The three novels included in The Joy of Christmas are:

1. An Irish Christmas is a story about a recently widowed mother and her adult son who take a life-changing Christmas trip to Ireland to confront family secrets and mend their relationship.

2. The Christmas Dog: The Christmas Dog is a moving story about how a stray animal can unexpectedly bring people together and heal deep emotional wounds during the holiday season.

3. All I Have to Give: (subtitled: A Christmas Love Story) by Melody Carlson is a contemporary retelling of O. Henry’s classic short story, The Gift of the Magi, centered on a husband and wife struggling with heartache during the Christmas season.

The Christmas Blessing by Melody Carlson (via Kindle Unlimited)

The Christmas Blessing by Melody Carlson is a historical Christmas novella set during the tumultuous time of World War II in late 1944.

The story centers on Amelia Richards, a young woman whose life has been turned upside down.

• The Loss: Amelia is devastated when she receives news that the father of her baby, her fiancé, was shot down in the South Pacific while serving in the war.
• The Struggle: Now an unwed mother in a difficult time, Amelia is jobless, broke, and losing hope for herself and her infant son, Jimmy.
• The Journey: Desperate to give her son a better life, Amelia makes the long train journey from California to Montana to find the baby’s paternal grandparents.
• The Dilemma: The major conflict is that Jimmy’s wealthy and influential grandparents do not know that Amelia—or their grandson—exists. Amelia must decide whether to disclose the truth of her relationship with their deceased son, risking their rejection, or to keep the secret and figure out another way to care for her child.

It is a story of love, hardship, grief, and reconciliation, with the hope of a Christmas miracle woven throughout as Amelia searches for a safe, loving future for her son.

The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews (via Kindle Unlimited)

This was such a sweet read. The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews is a heartwarming novella that combines a fresh start, a cozy Christmas setting, and a historical mystery.

The story follows Ivy Perkins, a newly-divorced woman from Atlanta who buys an old, fixer-upper farmhouse called “The Four Roses” in a small town in North Carolina, sight unseen, seeking a complete change of life.

Here’s the main plot:

The Discovery: While sifting through the previous owner’s belongings, Ivy finds a beautifully made, decades-old Santa suit tucked away in a closet.

The Mystery: In the pocket of the suit, she discovers a handwritten note from a little girl with a single, poignant Christmas wish: for Santa to bring her father home from the war.

The Mission: Struck by the simple, powerful wish, Ivy becomes determined to solve the mystery. She sets out on a mission to find out who wrote the note, whether the father ever came home, and what the family’s ultimate fate was.

The Outcome: Her quest to unravel the past forces her out of her shell and into the welcoming community. In doing so, she finds much more than she was looking for: she helps reunite a family, solves the long-ago mystery, and opens herself up to new friendships and a second chance at love with the attractive, helpful local real estate agent, Ezra.

It’s an uplifting tale about finding a new home, healing old wounds, and the enduring magic of the Christmas spirit.

The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani (via Kindle Unlimited)

The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani is a novel that spans generations and continents, linking a modern-day American woman’s quest for healing with the hidden, dramatic past of her Indian grandmother.

The story is told in two alternating timelines:

1. The Present (Jaya’s Story)

Jaya, a journalist in New York, is dealing with the devastation of a third miscarriage and the subsequent breakdown of her marriage. Deeply anguished and searching for an escape, she travels to India to see her estranged, dying grandfather. Though she arrives too late, she decides to stay and seek answers about her family’s past—a past her immigrant mother has always kept secret.

2. The Past (Amisha’s Story)

In India, Jaya meets Ravi, her grandmother’s trusted former servant and confidant. Ravi begins to tell Jaya the story of her grandmother, Amisha, set in India during the 1930s and 1940s under British occupation.

Amisha was an independent-minded woman who, trapped in a constricted life and an arranged marriage, was determined to pursue her passion for writing. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she forms an unexpected and forbidden connection with a British officer who helps her learn English. Ravi’s account reveals Amisha’s struggles, secret love, resilience in the face of rigid social customs, and a tragic choice she made that has impacted her family for generations.

By unraveling the secrets of her grandmother’s courageous and heart-wrenching life, Jaya finds a way to confront her own grief and discovers a source of strength she never knew she possessed, ultimately leading to a path of healing and reconciliation. This is the novel that takes your readers on the journey to India.

The Bookseller of Kathmandu by Ann Bennett (via Kindle Unlimited)

The Bookseller of Kathmandu by Ann Bennett is a dual-timeline historical novel that links a modern-day bookseller in Nepal to a dramatic story of love and conflict during the Malayan Emergency in the 1940s.

The book is structured around two intertwined storylines:

The Present: Kathmandu

The contemporary story centers on Chloe Rai, who owns a charming bookshop in the heart of bustling Kathmandu. Her life is complicated when she makes a remarkable discovery: a collection of old letters hidden within the walls of a forgotten Rana palace. This discovery sets her on a path to uncover a long-buried secret.

The Past: 1940s Malaya

The letters were penned by a woman named Alice Lacey in the 1940s. Alice’s story is set against the turmoil and conflict of the Malayan Emergency (the war against Chinese communist insurgents in British Malaya).

• Alice is unhappily married to a cruel British planter.
• Her life becomes connected with Anil, a Gurkha officer fighting in the conflict.
• Their relationship and bond are tested by the violence, racial prejudice, and social constraints of the time.

Chloe’s journey to piece together Alice’s narrative reveals not only family secrets (as the letters connect to her husband’s family) but also begins to mirror her own struggles in the present. By delving into the past, Chloe gains the strength and understanding needed to navigate the complexities of her own life and relationship.

The novel is a sweeping tale that explores themes of secrets, survival, friendship, and resilience, set against the evocative backdrops of Nepal and tropical Malaya.

An Italian Secret by Ella Carey (via Kindle Unlimited)

An Italian Secret by Ella Carey is a dual-timeline historical fiction novel set primarily in Tuscany, Italy, which delves into a hidden family mystery connected to World War II.

The story unfolds across two time periods:

Annie Reynolds, an American chef, is reeling from the death of her beloved father, who revealed a life-altering secret on his deathbed: Annie was adopted, and she has inherited a stunning, neglected property in Tuscany called Villa Rosa.

Arriving at the magnificent, peach-colored villa, Annie is instantly faced with the town’s rumors: that the original owner, the Contessa, had a child with a Nazi officer. Devastated and ready to turn away from a potentially dark past, Annie finds a musty diary from 1944. She quickly realizes that crucial, handwritten pages have been meticulously cut out, and she is convinced these missing entries hold the key to her true origins and the Villa’s secret.

The historical timeline takes the reader back to Tuscany in 1944, during the brutal Nazi occupation of Northern Italy.

• The beautiful Contessa Evelina Messina, the owner of the Villa Rosa, outwardly welcomes the German soldiers, entertaining them in her rose-silk dress and offering priceless wine.
• The locals whisper that she is a collaborator. However, it’s impossible to tell whether this glamorous facade is a disguise to protect her people or if her heart truly belongs to the enemy.
• The diary is later revealed to be from Cara Cartazzo, the Contessa’s wartime secretary and a resistance staffetta (messenger) for the Italian partisans.

Annie’s present-day search for the missing pages and the truth about the missing child born at the end of the war slowly uncovers the Contessa’s heroic sacrifices and the heartbreaking choices made by a courageous woman to survive and save others.

The novel is an emotionally gripping tale about uncovering a deep family secret and discovering the power of love and courage against the backdrop of war-torn Italy.

The Girl That Was Left Behind by Tamar Ohrenstein (via Kindle Unlimited)

Thank you for the updated information! Using the Amazon description, here is what The Girl That Was Left Behind by Tamar Ohrenstein is about:

The Girl That Was Left Behind is a journey of self-discovery and family secrets that begins in Tel Aviv and spans across Europe.

The Mystery Begins in Tel Aviv

The story opens in Tel Aviv in 1970 with Mati Netaim, whose life is shattered after the tragic loss of her parents in a car crash. While packing up their belongings at their home, she discovers a shocking secret in her late mother’s cabinet:

A faded, yellowed photograph of an unfamiliar man holding a baby girl with Mati’s own blue eyes.

On the back of the photo is a heartbreaking, anonymous inscription: “I entrust into your care my most precious, my baby girl. I’ve seen how you cared for her when I couldn’t, and I’m confident she will lead a good life with you, a life I cannot promise her. Look after her and, most importantly, Do not tell her anything.”

The Search for Origins

With the realization that she was left behind and raised by adoptive parents, Mati is driven to uncover the truth. Using only an unfamiliar last name as a clue, she embarks on a desperate search for her origins. This quest takes her across Europe, specifically to Paris and Germany.

As Mati pursues the missing pieces of her birth, her journey shakes the very foundations of her past and her future, forcing her to confront the one secret she was never meant to find out.

And that’s a wrap

I loved diving into these stories of hope, hidden secrets, and holiday magic. Whether you’re looking for a heartwarming Christmas romance to get you in the spirit or a rich historical mystery to immerse yourself in, I truly hope these November reads gave you some great ideas for your December TBR pile.

Remember to take a moment this season to light a candle, cozy up, and let a beautiful book transport you—you deserve it!

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