7 Books Coming Out in December You Need to Read
🎵🎵 Ohhhhh the weather outside is frightful.
But this book is so delightful.
And I hate the outside anyways.
So read away, read away, read away. 🎵🎵
Despite the fact that I, like literally every other mommy I know, am UP TO MY FUCKING FESTIVE ELBOWS in elf-on-the-shelfing, holiday shopping, and the occasional round of Christmas cookie baking, I’m committed to taking some time for myself this holiday season.
And you should to.
When you do find time to sneak away...and if you can fight off the ho-ho-horrible exhaustion that comes with this busy season…
Grab a glass of whatever makes you feel jolly and check out one of the 7 books we are raving about this December.
The Expedition
by Chris Babu
Release Date - December 4, 2018
Genre - Dystopian
If you, like me, think that 2018 has been a bit of a dumpster fire, I’ve got just what you need to… errr… realign your expectations — some dystopian fiction.
I mean, come on, nothing quite makes you appreciate the society in which we live like a cautionary tale illustrating, in all its literary charm, just how bad we could have it.
After surviving the brutal Initiation — in the first book of this series — Drayden and his fellow pledges assumed the worst was over.
Well, think again, guys.
Having proven their value, the group is tasked with venturing outside of New America in an attempt to make contact with another civilization.
To make matters worse, not only is this mission difficult and dangerous, it’s also tremendously important. The health of New America — similar to the health of real America, some would argue — isn’t wonderful. It’s so precarious, in fact, that it might crumble under its own weight if the mission fails.
But with new hazards at every turn — including a superbug the likes of which no amount of Nyquil can tame — and infighting threatening to tear the team apart, the group can’t focus on success — they’re too busy focusing on survival.
What You Hide
by Natalie D. Richards
Release Date - December 4, 2018
Genre - Young Adult
Spencer and Mallory are both teenagers — but that’s where the similarity ends.
Spencer is a member of an affluent family. So affluent, in fact, that he casually ascends local buildings while practicing rock climbing — one of the bougiest hobbies, second only to water polo. When, during one such outing, he breaks a pretty-fucking-pricey window at the local library, he doesn’t have to worry too much as Daddy will pay for the replacement.
Mallory, on the other hand, is the daughter of an until-recently single mother who has always just scraped by. Now her mother is in a new relationship with a controlling asshole who doesn’t even really like Mallory’s mother — and likes Mallory even less. When her mother becomes pregnant, Mallory tries to urge her to leave this guy behind, but she refuses. Knowing she can’t live under his thumb, Mallory heads out on her own, living with friends, when a couch is available, and on the street, when one isn’t.
When Spencer and Mallory meet at the local library — while he is doing some climbing-incident- related community service and she is trying to keep up with classes in the online school she recently transferred to — they have an immediate connection.
But before their young, West Side Story-esque, love can blossom, tragedy strikes.
Suddenly, the library in which they met is no longer a safe haven. In fact, it increasingly seems like someone is trying to impart a serious and important message. A message so critical that failure to receive it could spell disaster for Mallory and Spencer.
The Mansion
by Ezekiel Boone
Release Date - December 4, 2018
Genre - Thriller
Much in life is mysterious.
I, for example, still don’t understand the purpose of the decorative guest towel that residents of a home can’t use.
But there is one thing I know for absolute certain — as cool as having a fully computerized house seems, it’s a recipe for disaster.
How do I know this?
Well, because literally any fucking time a protagonist has a computerized house it starts out all:
“Wow. This is cool. This house is equipped to infuse body into my hair with the perfect blow-out and can even make poached eggs so they are hot on the table literally the minute I wake up.”
And quickly because:
“Holy fuck. There is some depraved reason why this house is computerized and I am now fighting for my life.”
And no number of great hair days or plates of Eggs Benedict are worth all that noise.
You could take my word on this, or you could read The Mansion, a story about two best-friends-turned rivals, which literally fucking proves my point.
But, you know what, don’t take my word for it. Read The Mansion, because it’s as nightmare-inducing as it is well-written.
My Favorite Half-Night Stand
by Christina Lauren
Release Date - December 4, 2018
Genre - Women’s Fiction
I’m not a one-night-stand kinda girl. With the exception of one hazy night on OSU campus when I ended up going back to the apartment of some rando and engaging in an ill-advised encounter after he wooed me with Russian poetry, I’ve been all relationship, all the time.
This infatuation with having a definitive-enough-for-Facebook relationship status left me married at 23 and a mom by 26.
So, probably needless to say, I watch rom-coms and read romance novels featuring these casual flings with the an almost anthropological interest in how people do it. How do these women manage to so casually flit from guy to guy while keeping their heart closed to the possibility of anything beyond a sweaty, slippery, physical connection?
It was in a search for an answer to this question — and because of the minimalistic cover of the newest in an increasingly prolific collection of works from Christina Lauren — that I picked up this novel.
And, let me tell you, I wasn’t disappointed.
With catfish-esque fake profile creation, mistaken identify and, of course, a hot and steamy half-night stand, this rom-com will keep you warm between the sheets this chilly December.
For Better and Worse
by Margo Hunt
Release Date - December 11, 2018
Genre - Thriller
When Will and Natalie first met, they, emboldened by liquid courage and intrigued by their mutual statuses as law students, spent most of this first encounter discussing how to commit the perfect murder — This does, I must admit, seem like an odd first-date topic (Not that I’m one to judge because I routinely ask people what their favorite dinosaur is. Mine’s an ankylosaurus, in case you were wondering).
Anyways, a lot has happened since this first evening together.
They’ve graduated.
They’ve gotten married.
And they’ve had a child.
The purely hypothetical discussion that monopolized their first date would seem but a distant memory — a meet-cute story shared at cocktail parties.
But, for Natalie, it’s much more. She’s never forgotten the plan they so passively prepared.
So, when their son is threatened and the legal system doesn’t work fast enough to protect him, she puts this casually made scheme into action, eliminating the danger.
As the only two who know the truth, Will and Natalie become even more irrevocably tied together. But will the vows they made so long ago be strong enough to withstand the mounting police pressure, or will one of them crumble under duress, destroying the life they’ve built together.
Dear Heartbreak: YA Authors and Teens on the Dark Side of Love
by Heather Demetrios (editor)
Release Date - December 18, 2018
Genre - YA non-fiction anthology
When I was in high school, my best friend — who would later become my college roommate — convinced our math teacher to let her skip 8th period class and go to the band room and cry over the boy who had just dumped her. Because, clearly, catharsis was more important than the coordinate plane
As a forever-single high-schooler, this was my first up-close experience with heartbreak.
At the time, the process of breaking up seemed messy and lingering, confusing and embarrassing.
Looking back on it, I can see how little I knew about love in general, or heartbreak in particular. And I think this ignorance is an unavoidably universal part of adolescence, which is what makes this anthology particularly impactful.
A break from the fiction which fills the YA genre, this work consists of honest answers to letters from actual heartbroken teens, penned by popular, contemporary YA authors.
Sensitive, insightful and even — at times — funny, this book is perfect to keep on hand for the next time your BFF skips out of Algebra II and hides in a sousaphone locker.
Contributors to this anthology include: Becky Albertalli, Adi Alsaid, Libba Bray, Mike Curato, Heather Demetrios, Amy Ewing, Zach Fehst, Gayle Forman, Corey Ann Haydu, Varian Johnson, A.S. King, Nina LaCour, Kim Liggett, Kekla Magoon, Sarah McCarry, Sandhya Menon, Cristina Moracho, Jasmine Warga, and Ibi Zoboi.
Half of What You Hear
by Krystyn Kusek Lewis
Release Date - December 31, 2018
Genre - Women’s Fiction
When Bess Warner moves to her husband’s hometown of Greyhill, Virginia, she hopes — if not expects — that she’ll manage to fit right in. This bedroom community surely can’t, she assumes, be as hostile as the fast-paced and scandal-rich Washington she’s leaving behind.
But — as anyone who has ever moved into a silver-spoon-heavy suburb can probably already guess — things don’t go as smoothly as Bess had hoped.
Eager to get out from under the scrutiny of the long-time locals — and to no-longer be the subject of gossip — Bess jumps at the opportunity to write an article about Greyhill resident Susannah “Cricket” Lane.
What she had hoped would make fitting in easier quickly has quite the opposite effect. As Bess digs for information to fatten up her piece, she finds more than she bargained for, leaving her questioning Cricket and wondering what other truths rest beyond the immaculately manicured lawns and behind the ornate front doors of Greyhill.
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