Reading Update: December

Still mentally in 2025

Hallo, it's me, Laura King. It's now 2026, but I'm still stuck in 2025, reading wise, as I'm still reading my Christmas book, The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman. I had a busy month, finally getting the keys to our first house - which might explain my turn to nice fluffy books in recent stressful months - and one of my best friends got married. I was also sick for a good bit of the month which is also why I still think it's December so let me tell you all about what I've been reading!

Run Out and Read

First Time Caller by B.K. Borrison is a Sleepless in Seattle inspired rom com that was just what the doctor ordered (literally, I read most of it during a hospital visit). Aiden is the jaded host of local radio programme Heartstrings, woken from his usual sleepwalking through his shift by twelve year old Maya, who calls into the station, worried that her mother Lucie is lonely. Lucie is at first outraged but agrees to chat to Aiden live on air, and while they thought no one was bothered enough to listen, something in their rapport and Lucie's vulnerability honestly captivates listeners who cause the podcast playback of the show to go viral. Lucie joins Heartstrings with Aiden with the hopes she might find love through it, but as is obvious to everyone in Baltimore but not at all apparent to Lucie and Aiden, love might be right under their noses. I loved these characters, particularly because they had more life experience before the book began. I loved the combination of Lucie's earnestness, despite realistic and grounded outlook, and how Aiden's funk is clearly temporary and something he is willing and able to work through. They each have faced their share of problems in life and have fleshed out backstories, but it isn't some grim trauma for the sake of it.

Highly reccomend

And Now Back to You by B.K Borrison (coming out in February) is the standalone sequel to First Time Caller. This novel is about Aiden's best friend Jackson, the eccentric weather man who in the background of the first book was raging at his TV counterpart, Delilah Stewart. His one sided rivalry comes to a head when their bosses decide on a collaboration: Jackson and Delilah will travel to a remote location to report from the centre of a once in a lifetime snowstorm. It's a great opportunity for both of their careers, as well as getting to stay in a very picturesque cosy lodge - and you won't believe how many beds there are! Together, they don't work, obviously, or at least not until they learn to step outside the roles they've been given to play. They aren't opposites attract in the really obvious way you might find in books but really feel like two people you know who you probably never would have set up, but make complete perfect sense once they're together, and I love that!

Under Your Spell by Laura Wood was such a warm, cute rom com, and so fun on audiobook. It's about a woman named Clemmie who grew up in a very cool, alternative family, with her mum, two half sisters and their mothers, in the shadow of Clemmie's famous rockstar dad. While her sisters grew up to go into the entertainment industry, middle child Clemmie got her taste of the limelight and swore off fame, musicians, and even music forever. She meets Theo after a breakup and thinks they will have a one night stand, until fate brings them together again - Theo is a musician himself, suffering from writers block, and needs a place to stay and someone to keep him on the straight and narrow just as Clemmie finds herself in need of a job and somewhere to live. In isolation, they are drawn to each other as Theo becomes inspired to write again, but Clemmie knows there's a deadline where this will all come to an end, and the spell may break... I loved Clemmie and Theo and their natural, easy banter, and the narration was so warm and funny. I would have loved more chapters or a prequel about Clemmie’s family and upbringing, as the family bonds and childhood nostalgia are really gorgeous and made the novel more special than I expected.

Let's Make a Scene by Laura Wood is another standalone sequel, about Cynthie, best friend of Theo from Under Your Spell. Told over two timelines, when Cynthie was shooting her first starring role with co star and rival Jack, and years later when they reunite for a sequel. Once the nobody, untrained actress who shot to fame after their film together - and helped along by an orchestrated showmance, Cynthie’s career went from strength to strength, until she was caught up in an affair that ruined her reputation. A sequel to her most beloved film, and reopening her fake relationship with Jack offers her a new start - but she's not sure what Jack is going to get out of it, and what he thinks of her all those years later. This is so exciting and glamorous, and I loved that the characters seem so different across the two timelines, there is a real distinction between past and present and you can see all the ways each of the characters have grown, which I only realised in reading this that can be really lacking in other novels.

The aptly named Always Home, Always Homesick, began when author Hannah Kent found herself isolated at home in Australia with her wife and young children in the pandemic, missing somewhere else entirely. Iceland had been the unlikely destination for a year-long exchange Kent went on as a teenager, knowing nothing about the country or what she wanted from it, only knowing that she craved something completely different. Once there she was immediately lost, adrift in a strange community and stranger landscape, missing home terribly, and years later reflected on being settled in familiar surroundings, yet while trapped there missing this other world immeasurably. I think she's a fantastic writer and so this book might appeal to anyone, but particularly if you have been to or are interested in Iceland, or if you loved Burial Rites and want to know more.

Recommended

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood is less of a rom com than her others, and more a romantic drama. Rue is a very self sufficient, reserved engineer who meets men now and then through an app, but has no interest in connecting with anyone or falling in love - until one such prospective meeting, with the handsome Eli is interrupted and cut short. The next day she meets Eli again, and finds he is part of the firm trying to take down her beloved mentor's company. Her sense of loyalty as well as her firm boundaries are tested as she can't seem to keep away from Eli, who like her doesn't seem as cold once you make it past first impressions, and she begins to question everything she thought was right, or safe, before. I think this is a book for people who like more serious issues and angst in their romantic fiction than I do. Hazelwood's author's note which prefaces the novel was useful and interesting, explaining that this isn't a comedy, and it's about two people wanting to make a connection, but only really knowing how to do that in a physical way, due to the difficult relationships in their lives so far.

I went into Problematic Summer Romance somewhat skeptically - I had found Not in Love a little cold, and was uneasy about the (fairly) problematic romance being set up in this one, but I'm so glad I stuck with this very warm, funny standalone sequel. Maya, the younger sister of Eli from Not in Love is nervous to go to his destination wedding and spend a week with her long time crush, Eli's best friend Conor, who has made it clear that he thinks of her only as Eli's much younger sister. I did feel a bit icky with some of the romantic plotline, but for me this book was more interesting because I enjoyed Maya so much, and loved reading about her journey and her friendship. She and her friend are so cheeky and enjoyable to read, and so different from the usual main female characters I'm used to reading in rom coms. With some of the Hazelwood books I've felt the plot outside the romance could be a bit weak, but this was kind of the opposite for me where the romance was a vehicle for a story and character development I was really interested in.

Experts in a Dying Field is the debut novel from Patrick Freyne, coming June 2026. The novel is about a group of now estranged friends who used to be in the (self proclaimed) 1000th best band of all time, until the car accident that killed their fourth member many years before. They meet again, older and so different from their hopeful younger selves, ready to drift apart until something unexpected brings them together. I expected more of a straightforward mystery novel so it's weird to say that I didn't mind too much about the plot or what would end up happening, but I really enjoyed the odd and fragmented narrative, which flits between characters central and peripheral, back and forth in time, who once knew Joss, the singer who brought The Heathens together with his vision for music and the future. There are parts that are very funny, or parts where I was interested to see Freyne playing with particular ideas about creativity and authenticity (particularly with references to AI and writing), but the most memorable part for me is how people keep finding each other again and again, and how they meet themselves and different points in their lives - with impatience or denial or shame or self compassion.

Did Not Finish

Christmas Fling by Lynsey Kelk - I think I'll enjoy this another time, but I decided to get into Christmas rom coms way too late this year.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you join me soon for another installment of LauraEatsBooks.