Title: Ruin and Rising (Grishaverse 3)

Author: Leigh Bardugo

The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

All in all this was a great conclusion to the series but…..lets just get my irk out the way before we get to the good stuff!

Wasn’t the never ending saga of Mal and Alina trying not to be together just absolutely exhausting?!!!

One person that still has my heart in this book is The Darkling aka Aleksander, no matter what he did, I didnt care….still loved him! I miss him already!

And the other who has my heart, Nikolai. My poor heart! I cannot wait to dive into King of Scars….but Six of Crows calls!

Hi! Hope you had a good reading month and a great Christmas?

We had a lovely Christmas spent with family along with loads of food and great company! And now soon we have to tackle January, what feels like the longest, most boring month of the year!

December was actually a great reading month for me, I read (and listened to) 14 books!!! That’s a record for me, think these winter nights make me want to read!

Please excuse all the ‘see my review soon’ comments. I didn’t want to bombard everyone with posts from me so whilst Blogmas was on, I saved up my reviews!

Christmas in the City – Various

See my review here.

All Wrapped Up for the Holidays – Various

See my review here.

Wicked Hexes by Amelia Hutchins

This was a ‘me’ quick read (4 stars) and my review was a one-liner so wont post here!!!

Twisted Hearts by Cora Reilly

Beta read – review to come on release day (7th January)

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy

Look out for my review soon!

Baiting Him by Aurora Rose Reynolds

Look out for my review on release day (14 January)

The Night Country by Melissa Albert

Look out for my review on release day (9 January)

 

And an impromptu series reread! I love the Fantastical series by Kristen Ashley and if I’m ever feeling a bit slumpy, then this helps!

Wildest Dreams

The Golden Dynasty

Fantastical

Broken Dove

 

🎧 Audible Listens 🎧

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Look for my review tomorrow!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Look out for my review soon!

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Look out for my review soon!

 

Tell me…how was your Christmas?

I question why I get so excited by these each year, but I really do! 😂

111 books read

I set my goal at 95 books and I bested that, so I was content!

In 2018 I read more books but I wanted to savour all the words this year so am ok with this.

32, 498 pages read

Even though this is 20k less than 2018, this is a great number. I cannot comprehend that I read so many pages!

Average rating 4.5 ⭐

It seems I am easy to please as this was the same average rating of 2018 too!

In 2020 I plan to have the year off my normal schedule (you can see my post here).

I think I still will set a Goodreads Challenge goal but at the moment I’m not sure what that number will be.

What about you, what’s your goal for 2020?

What were your stats?

If I’m honest, I couldn’t wait for December for more than Christmas. It’s a slow release month and I really, really needed it (so did my bank account!)

I’m really getting into audible now, am finding I really enjoy it. For Christmas I had some money so got myself 3 extra audible credits and I also got some airpods from my family! Now the careful choosing as to what books to get!!

Here are the books I got in December:

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

 

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy

(Fairyloot – I got this box late!)

Eight Will Fall by Sarah Harian

(Fairyloot)

 

Did you get any good books for Christmas?

Tell me what you got!

My last Blogmas post…….

Sending warm wishes to you and your family during this Christmas Season. May your home be blessed with love and happiness.

Happy Christmas!

Welcome to Blogmas!

I did 4 year long challenges this year:

• New Release challenge
• Ultimate Reading challenge
• Goodreads challenge
• Beat the Blacklist

 

New Release Challenge

I said I’d read 30 new releases in 2019. I actually read 58!

I have some update posts here and here.

As a last update I read 2 new releases in September, 5 in October, 1 in November and 1 in December.

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Ultimate Reading Challenge

My final update of the year……and I’m happy to say I COMPLETED THE CHALLENGE!!!!

You can see my other update posts:

May July October

November – On your TBR for a long time

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo – See my review here.

December – a book with favorite trope

One of my favourite tropes is mafia romance so…….

Twisted Hearts by Cora Reilly (this was a beta so review will be published on release day)

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Goodreads Challenge

Taaadaaaaa!

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Beat the Backlist

Complete fail. This all stems from my horrific continual slumps and trying to stick to a reading list. I did read 21 out of 31 so it isn’t all bad!

3 out of 4 ain’t bad!

 

Wow, what a great time it has been for me to get that Christmas feeling firmly in place!

Christmas shopping (and sneaky coffee’s!), seeing Father Christmas, visiting a winter wonderland and of course, the dreaded wrapping of presents (I hate that bit!)

My tree is up and house decorated. We did this on the 1st December as we just could not wait! We also have presents under the tree to make it look even better!

Any here are a few snaps of my Christmas so far:

 

Wow this year seems to have shot by doesn’t it! But so many good books!

In order to celebrate great books, I thought I would do an end of year ‘best books’ post!

I did do a half year post and you can read that here.

Without further ado, here are my best books of the 2nd half of 2019 (not necessarily released then, I read then!)

Broken Knight by LJ Shen

 

 

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

 

 

 

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

 

 

Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin

 

 

 

What books were on your ‘best of’ this year?

 

Top 5 Tuesday is brought to you by Shanah at the Bionic Bookworm, see her original post here.

Theme = Dear Santa,, I would like these books!

If I can’t afford to buy a book I want (or the guilt is strong about how much I’ve already spent!), I add to my Amazon wishlist.

Unforts now my wishlist is long, at one point it was 12 pages long (!) but I had to get a grip and get rid of some!

Anyway, if I’m on the nice list this year (my son would say I’m not!) then I hope I get these beauties:

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

 

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd Jones

 

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

 

Fairytale Come Alive by Kristen Ashley

 

What books do you want Santa to bring you?