Hi everybody, happy 2025! I wish you all an amazing new year and hope that all your wishes may come true this year, that all your highly anticipated reads are amazing and that you’ll always be able to pick the perfect book to read next 🙂

There will be plenty of looking ahead in the next few weeks, but for today I still wanted to wrap up everything I read, listened to and watched in December 2024. Let’s go!

Daughter of No Worlds (The War of Lost Hearts #1) by Carissa Broadbent

I’ve been wanting to read Carissa Broadbent’s older fantasy trilogy for a while and when I saw the audiobooks are actually included in my audiobook subscription, it was meant to be and I dove right in. And I’m happy I did, because this turned out to be one of my favorite reads of the year! This was a great fantasy with an intriguing new world and magic system to discover, a heroine with an amazing character journey and a hero that immediately went up on my favorite book boyfriend list (hello grumpy but sweet Max who lives in a cabin in the woods and prefers to spend his days gardening and reading and staying away from drama)

Rating: 4,5 stars

With Love, From Cold World by Alicia Thompson (RE-READ)

I fell in love with this one last December and already felt the need to re-read so I did! I highly recommend With Love, From Cold World if you love: workplace romance – dual POV – opposites attract – reverse grumpy x sunshine – Christmas vibes – personal healing journeys – workplace competitions – getting locked in together – medium spice – mistletoe shenanigans – drunk karaoke – bisexual MMC rep – great friendships – banter – HEA.

Rating: 5 stars | Read full review

Lovelight #1, #2 and #3 by B.K. Borison (RE-READ)

I had intended to only re-read book one in this series, Lovelight Farms. But then I fell in love with this fictional Christmas tree farm and all the characters all over again and didn’t want to leave just yet, so I just had to re-read books 2 and 3 as well. And yes, this is still one of my favorite contemporary romance series of all time. Book one is still my fave (gotta love the friends to lovers and fake dating tropes), but the others are quite close behind!

Overall rating: 4,5 stars | Read combi review

Top Ten Tuesday

Great Reads For Dark and Stormy Nights (Whether You Want To Get Atmospheric or Cozy)
Books On My Winter 2024-2025 To-Read List
Books I Hope Santa Brings
Best Books I Read In 2024

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday: 11 December 2024

Can’t Wait Wednesday

Good Spirits by B.K. Borison {Can’t Wait Wednesday}

Something Different Sunday

My 12 Favorite 2024 Songs

Honestly, I’ve been obsessed with the Wicked soundtrack this month (both the movie one and the Broadway one). Not much else has been on my playlist…

Wicked – Defying Gravity

As I mentioned above, I’ve been quite obsessed with Wicked this month. But I also watched some other things:

Wicked

I AM OBSESSED. I haven’t read the book, nor have I seen the original musical, but I have had a few songs from the original soundtrack on my playlist for a few years now. However, this is the first time I “saw” the entire story (or the first half anyway). And I adored it! I thought both Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande did an amazing job and their vocals are outstanding and wow was I surprised by Jonathan Bailey too! (I can’t wait to hear him and Cynthia sing As Long As You’re Mine next year <3) I cried like three times. Definitely one of my 2024 (and all-time) favorites.

Love Next Door

I’ve been watching this kdrama for a few months already, but I (almost) finished it this month so I’m counting it here. This is a story about a young woman who returns to her home in Korea after a few years of living and working in the US. She arrives back without her high-profile job and without her beloved fiancé so of course everyone is wondering what happened. While she tries to find her footing again, she reconnects with the boy next door aka her former best friend. Maybe it had to with the fact that I stretched this drama out so much, but it wasn’t my favorite. It wasn’t bad, I liked the characters, but I just wasn’t that invested in the romance and I felt that the plot dragged on for a bit too long.

Squid Game (Season 2)

I was obsessed with the first season, so I binged the second season in like 4 days to avoid spoilers. So I won’t say anything that could spoil it either, all I’m going to say is that I quite enjoyed this season, I like the new characters, I was shocked by a few of the twists and I am eagerly anticipating season 3.

Other

I also used this time to embrace the holiday vibes and watch some Christmas movies/shows: I watched Hot Frosty (cheesy but fun), The Merry Gentlemen (also cheesy but fun and with dancing) and A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter (ehh, I love Sabrina but this was not for me).

December started off with the typical end-of-year rush and ended pretty chill as I had a week and a half off for Christmas and New Year. My time off has been a balance of productive and chill as I got a few appointments done (like my yearly car check-up) and also chilled quite a bit. My eyesight issues are ongoing but haven’t been as bad as in November (maybe because I had less screentime) so that’s good. I have an appointment in January so hopefully it’ll get better.

THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY THIS MONTH:

• I had a BFF date where we had lunch together and watched Wicked!
• I got to chill out and watch a lot of TV and re-read some favorites.
• My husband got me the best Christmas gifts: Lore Olympus volumes 2 to 7 AND a Kindle remote control (so I can completely burrow under my blanket and don’t need to have one arm out to flip the page 😉 )
• We had our first archery lessons (about 4 so far) and I’m LOVING IT!

THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:

• The start of a new year and being able to look forward again.
• Onyx Storm!

How was your December? What did you read? What did you listen to and what did you watch? What are you looking forward to in January?