Mariah Carey is back on ice// December Wrap Up

Hi hello.

I’m getting straight to the point with things today because the last time I took my time writing a blogpost my computer froze and, despite saving every now and then, I lost the entire thing. I was fuming and cannot handle a repeat of that.

There’s four more days left in the year but I’m drawing a line under things. If by some miracle I squeeze in another book I’m going to include it towards my 2023 reading goal. I’m doing this because in December I read exclusively Christmas books!!

With me being in the States for the majority of December, I really wanted to get myself in the mood for Christmas by reading festive books. Sadly that didn’t happen. I just did not manage to get in the holiday spirit. I’ll try harder next year. Despite that though, I did have a lot of fun with the hoilday books I read!

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My True Love Gave to Me Anthology edited by Stephanie Perking

End of December/early January this anthology was on sale on Kindle so I was very prepared when it came to my Christmas TBR. I was actually looking forward to picking this one up for weeks before it was conventionally acceptable to do so.

I class an anthology as a win when I enjoy about half of the stories. Anthologies are usually composed of such a mixed bag that I like to give them this bit of lee way compared to other books. I’m happy to report that I enjoyed 3/4 of the stories in this book. It got off to a really great start with Rainbow Rowells opening stories, there was a cute one set at a Christmas tree nursery. Besides from one or two that I didn’t really connect with, I had a really great time with every single one of these.

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December Wrap Up!

Hellooooo, welcome to my blog 🙂

There’s a bunch of stuff I should be doing right now: reading, sleeping, writing my personal statement for university. Instead I’m watching old episodes of Graham Norton and I’m going to talk about all the books I read last month.

December was a great reading month for me, unexpectedly. For me December means two things: Christmas (yay) and also end of term exams (boo) so for both of those reasons I definitely was not expecting to read 10 books, and decent books too!

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In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren ⭐⭐⭐.75 – This book was a book of firsts: first book I read in December, first book by Christina Lauren and the first Christmas book I ever read and I had a great time. Previous to the week I picked this up I had heard next to nothing about this book until suddenly it was everywhere and I decided to give it a try.

I read this entire thing in just a couple of hours which is even more impressive when I point out I spent most of the night studying for a big history exam I had the next day. This book ended up being just what I needed to de-stress and chill out. It was cute, funny and sexy and the time travel/groundhog day elements were a lot of fun to read about. I will 100% read more from this author duo.

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Turtle Under Ice by Juleah del Rosario ⭐⭐⭐ – I really love this over but that’s besides the point. This book is novel in verse all about grief and the different way two sisters deal with their grief over the loss of their mother. I enjoyed this and read it one day but it’s not something that’s going to stick with me although I gotta give it props because the more novels in verse I read, the less intimidated I am by them.

Together, Apart by Various Authors ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 – This made the honourable mentions of my 2020 favourites and for a good reason. It’s insane and hilarious to me that this is a thing that exists but it was actually the best anthology collection I’ve ever read. Yes I’ve only read 3, including this one, but it’s still top of the list. This is essentially a bunch of impossibly cute romances and meet cutes set during the pandemic. I read this whole thing while feeling very anxious one night and it really cheered me up.

10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Another Christmas book! One I’ve wanted to read since it’s release. This book is all about a girl who is dumped over Christmas so her very large extended family take it upon themselves to set her up on various blind dates. I loved the family dynamics in this book and how crazy but entertaining each of the blind dates were. I think this will end up being one I try and read every Christmas season.

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December Wrap Up

Hello 🙂 Welcome to my blog.

It’s December wrap up time and I’m going to be honest with you. I barely remember what I read last month off the top of my head. It was a total blare of final exams and projects and then Christmas happened so I really hope I read a decent amount of books to talk about today.

According to Goodreads, my lord and saviour, my first few reads of December 2019 were:

 

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Tweet Cute  was the first book I managed to finish this month and it was amazing. I could happily talk about this book all day however, sadly, this book isn’t out yet and I don’t want to spoil anything.

All I’m going to say is that this book follows Pepper and Jack who run twitter accounts for their family restaurant and end up in a twitter war over grilled cheeses. This book is filled with laughs and the blossoming romance is the sweetest. I loved how mature both characters were and the lack of unnecessary, eye rolling, drama or angst made for such an enjoyable read. My full review is coming closer to the release.

Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

Oh my god it’s amazing! I was scared I was going to be hung up on The Raven Cycle and wouldn’t enjoy this new series but I was wrong. This book is crazy and unique and I came to love the characters, the new and the old. It’s got Maggie’s signature whimsical writing style and bonkers plot and I couldn’t put it down.

I actually read both of these round about the same time and had to but them both down for like 2 weeks before picking them up and finishing them because of exams and let me tell you that was hell. These books are so good. 

Then I started “cheating” …

It got to past Christmas and I was looking and realised I’d only read two book so far that month and so I got motivated and I read:

• Hood Academy by Shelley Wilson: This is an ARC and it’s about werewolves and a school for girls who are trained to kill them. It’s not the best of books but it was enjoyable enough to skim read late into the night.
• Check Please: Year Two by Ngozi Ukazu: I’m reading the online version and it remains to be the sweetest thing ever.
• She’s With Me by Ava Violet: Another ARC I whizzed through at the end of the month. I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did and I admit when I saw it was being published by Wattpad Books I expected even less but, wierdly, I enjoyed this. It’s not the best written, it has tropes and clichés but my rating is based off my enjoyment and I was invested and rooting for these characters and it was fun to read while I couldn’t sleep.

And then, finally, I started reading Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. I’m going to talk more about this in my January wrap up but just know it was amazing and I never wanted to put it down.

So those are the five-ish books I managed to read in December, a bit of skim reading might have helped me along at the end there but oh well. Overall I really liked everything I read in the last month of the year and I’m hoping January proves to be just as good, if not better.

Has anyone read any of these? I’d love to know what you think. Thanks for reading 🙂

Elli xx

 

 

December Wrap Up

 

I was just here, minding my own business, writing my favourite books of 2018 post, talking to Buddy the bearded dragon my brother got for Christmas and minding my own business when I realised it was the 30th of December!

When did this happen! How has the month gone by so fast!

I kid you not this wrap up is going to be a surprise for me too because this month was crazy with exams and I do not now what I did or did not read so … lets go!