Hi everybody, happy December! Can you believe it’s already the last month of the year? I feel like 2024 just started… But I am looking forward to wrapping up 2024 and starting a new year.
But first, let’s wrap up November!
Phantasma by Kaylie Smith
THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO ROUND UP MY HALLOWEEN SEASON. But also, wow, I LOVED this book. This dark fantasy romance is described as Caraval meets Throne of the Fallen, and is about a necromancer working together with a phantom to survive a deadly competition that is based on the nine circles of hell and is set in a cursed manor. It is both eerie and spicy and the romance is just all sorts of goodness. Highly recommend!!
Rating: 4,5 stars | Read full review
The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch
This was adorable and fun and cute and sweet, a fun way to transition from Halloween to Christmas vibes, and just the perfect palate cleanser for me in between some darker fantasy romances. It was light and fluffy and sometimes that’s all you need.
Rating: 4 stars
Reckless (The Powerless Trilogy #1) by Lauren Roberts
Okay, I had mixed feelings about book 1 in this trilogy (namely, I felt the worldbuilding/plot was lacking, but the romance was sublime) so I was a bit hesitant to start book 2. But, in my opinion, Reckless was perfect. Namely, it focused on what I loved most about Powerless, the romance, and didn’t bother to expand too much on the world or plot. It was character-driven and romance-driven AND I WAS HERE FOR IT.
Rating: 4,5 stars | Read full review
The Wraith King by Juliette Cross
I’m a little disappointed in this one. I had really high hopes (maybe too high?) and it didn’t live up to my expectations. Was it a fun read? Yes. But I wanted more. The pacing of the romance was not my cup of tea (I wanted ‘enemies-to-lovers’ and slow burn, but I got instalust that turned into ‘love-of-my-life’ the first time they had sex) which had me not invested in the romance at all. There was way too much talk of breeding that just gave me the ick. And the secondary characters felt a bit flat.
Rating: 3 stars
Under Locke by Mariana Zapata
I love Mariana Zapata books. But this may be my least favorite of hers I’ve read so far. I liked the premise and wanted to try a biker romance. I mean, hot and grumpy tattoo-artist/biker sounds great in theory. But the problem was, the main character Dex was not just grumpy, he was a real dick to our heroine Iris at first. And while Iris warmed up to him throughout the book, that unfortunately did not translate to me. I disliked his temper and overprotectiveness and the way Iris was apologizing for things all the time, yet he hardly did. I ended up skipping ahead in the audiobook a lot, so unfortunately not a hit for me.
Rating: 2,5 stars
Top Ten Tuesday
Books with Skulls on the Cover
Destination Titles
Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR That I Actually Still Want To Read
Ten Books & Other Things I’m Thankful For In 2024
WWW Wednesday
WWW Wednesday: 6 November 2024
WWW Wednesday: 20 November 2024
Can’t Wait Wednesday
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros {Can’t Wait Wednesday}
Well, my favorite band released a new album, so there’s that!
Linkin Park – Two Faced
The nostalgia in this song!! It makes me feel like I’m 16 years old again, listening to One Step Closer for the first time.
Chrissy Costanza – Perfect Crime
I did not watch a lot of TV this month. I watched a few episodes of the kdrama Love Next Door, but that’s it. My husband and I still have a ‘The Boys’ induced hangover and are looking for a new show to get invested in.
November flew by (I feel like I always say that though). I’ve been having some trouble with my eyes though, they’ve been super red and irritated every evening and my vision has felt a bit more blurry than normal. I think it’s to do with the amount of screentime I had that day, because it’s a lot less on days when I don’t turn on my computer or scroll less though my phone. So I’m trying to cut down on my screentime, but since I work on a screen 5 days a week and my reading and blogging is mostly done in the evenings, that’s exactly what has been suffering the most. That’s why my reading this past month mostly consists of audiobooks (yay for audiobooks) and my blogging has been a bit inconsistent (hence me skipping a TTT post and doing this wrap up instead). I only have an appointment with the ophthalmologist in January, so please bear with me while I blog as much as I can 🙂
THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY THIS MONTH:
- Linkin Park releasing their new full album!
- Family and friend dates
- We put up our Christmas tree already and I am soaking up all of the cozy holiday vibes!
THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:
- My husband and I are starting our archery lessons!
- Spotify Wrapped (I always look forward to that one)
- 3 more weeks until Christmas break! I have a week and a half off and I’m looking forward to cozying up next to our Christmas tree and (hopefully) reading a lot!
How was your November? What did you read? What did you listen to and what did you watch? What are you looking forward to in December?
Sounds like you need computer glasses. And I totally agree on the new LINKIN PARK album, it’s so good!
Indeed, I’ll probably need computer glasses and hopefully that’ll help! Yes, I’m so glad to hear you’re also enjoying the new Linkin Park album!
Archery lessons?! You guys are too cool!
Haha, I wish 😉 But I am definitely imagining myself in a fantasy world during those archery lessons 😀
I love archery! I hope you enjoy it! It’s been years since I have done it. I also hope your eyes clear up!
Thanks! I’ve only had one archery lesson yet, but I’m loving it so far 🙂
There’s blue light blocking glasses that you can get and those help me sometimes! They are cheap on amazon. It’s a cheap thing to try. I just bought Phantasma and I cannot wait to read it!! I hope you have a lovely December!
Thanks, that’s a good tip about the blue light blocking glasses, especially since I still have to wait a while until my appointment with the ophthalmologist. I hope you’ll love Phantasma as much as I did and have a great December too!
I hope you’ll find a solution for your eyes! And The Wraith King was indeed disappointing! Under Locke was also only the second book released by Marian sooo…
Thanks Sophie! Yes, such a pity about The Wraith King… Hmm if Under Locke was only Mariana Zapata’s second book I can forgive a bit more indeed – still love almost all of her other books I’ve read so far!
I wish I could say I did not watch much TV in November but a lot of my favorite shows started.
A lot of screen time can cause dry eye. Have you tried eye drops?
Archery lessons sound like fun!