Happy Christmas to you all!
“I hope the magic of Christmas fills every corner of your heart and home with joy — now and always.”
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Blogmas: My Best Books of 2020…..
Well here we are, nearly the end of the year.
But what a year it’s been. Probably the most worrying, surreal year of my (and countless others) life!
I began plotting Blogmas posts very early on in the year because Christmas brings me so much joy and I really needed that at some points!
Another thing that brings me joy is reading…and these are my ‘best books’ of 2020 (not necessarily released then, I read then!)
You can see my half year update here.
Here are the books from the 2nd half of the year (and there are a few!!!):
Mirage by Somaiya Daud
See my review here.
Viper by Bex Hogan
See my review here.
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
See my review here.
Shielded by Kaylynn Flanders
See my review here.
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
See my review here.
Fable by Adrienne Young
See my review here.
The Illuminae Files
See my reviews here, here and here.
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
See my review here.
Well that’s it. Loads of absolute gems in 2020 to make up for the cruddy year in real life!!!!
Fairyloot Unboxing: December 20 – Thick as Thieves *SPOILERS*
Fairyloot – December 2020
Theme = THICK AS THIEVES!
‘No expression can describe real close friendships better than ‘thick as thieves’ and this theme is all about stories with groups of friends or found families that go on adventures, share secrets and get up to all sorts of shenanigans − which might sometimes even involve saving the world from imminent doom.’
Items inspired by The Hobbit, Throne of Glass, Children of Blood and Bone and The Raven Boys.
Included was:
🖤 Beanie inspired by The Hobbit featuring artwork by @jezhawk
🖤 Secret book designed by @noverantale (this is the 4th and last)
🖤 Letter Opener inspired by Throne of Glass and has all of the Wyrd Marks!
🖤 Notepad inspired by Children of Blood and Bone with artwork by @eunicify.art
🖤 2021 Calendar featuring artwork by @dominiquewesson Inspired by Throne of Glass, A Darker Shade of Magic, The Gilded Wolves, Scythe, Percy Jackson and Dance of Thieves.
🖤 Tarot Cards designed by @arz28 and continuing the House of Earth and Blood theme.
🖤 The Raven Cycle artwork illustrated by @_saintdri
📚 BOOK OF THE MONTH 📚
Master of One by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
- SIGNED BY BOTH AUTHORS ✔
- EXCLUSIVE EDITION ✔
- FOIL DESIGN ON HARDCOVER ✔
- SHIMMERY SPRAYED EDGES ✔
- ARTWORK ON REVERSE OF JACKET ✔
(by @bloodydamnit)
Blogmas: My Challenges – a close!
Merry Blogmas!!!
Here we are at nearly the end of the year and a time of reflection! Now, those challenges – did I make it? Did I get the badge of Socially Awkward in the Audiobook Challenge? Did I hit my Goodreads goal? Lets find out!
Audiobook Challenge
Firstly, you can see my original post here. and my update post here.
I went for the Socially Awkward level which means you have listened to 15 to 20 books in the year. By June I had listened to 11 and now I can reveal that now I have listened to a total of 17 so I did it = woohooo!
The books I listened to for the last half of the year were:
Elementals: Ice Wolves by Amie Kaufman – see my review here.
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow – see my review here.
Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – see my review here.
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow – see my review here.
Obsidio by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman – see my review here.
Truelife by Jay Kristoff – look out for my review soon!
Goodreads Challenge
For 2020 I went for a lower goal this year. I set at 55 as I wanted to savour every word but by August I needed to up that so went for an ambitious 92….and I hit that in November so I left it as that and thought anything more is a bonus!
My Year In Books….according to Goodreads!
2020 is nearly over and the stats that Goodreads send around is something I really look forward to (yes, I am easily pleased!)
I think I did better than I thought I would this year so without further ado, here are my stats!
Not My Christmas so far…..but Christmas in books!
A bit of a swerve to what I said I was going to post for Blogmas!
I was going to post ‘my Christmas so far’ but apart from putting up our tree, we haven’t done anything that we normally do as we are in a Tier 3 area, basically akin to lockdown. So I decided to change to……
🎄CHRISTMAS🎄in books!
And not just books but some of my fave series to feed the Christmas joy feeling!
C – Cinder by Marissa Meyer
H – Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas
R – Ride Steady by Kristen Ashley
I – Illuminae by Jay Kristoff
S – Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
T – Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab
M – Midnight Soul by Kristen Ashley
A – Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff
S – Supernova by Marissa Meyer
Some help with a reading order please!
I’m embarking on a huge journey in 2021.
I plan to read the Shadowhunter books by Cassandra Clare!
I went and got the first 5 books in The Mortal Instruments:
- City of Bones
- City of Ashes
- City of Glass
- City of Fallen Angels
- City of Lost Souls
Brill I thought, I can read those and get City of Heavenly Fire and then start on The Infernal Devices.
But then.…..
I saw someone said that you should read by publication date:
- City of Bones
- City of Ashes
- City of Glass
- Clockwork Angel
- City of Fallen Angels
- Clockwork Prince
- City of Lost Souls
- Clockwork Princess
- City of Heavenly Fire
Then I saw conflicting statements so now not I am only scared about starting such a huge series but now confused in what order to read!
Give me your experiences!
What do I do?
Read in series or follow the order above?
Blogmas: Books I Didn’t Get To……
Merry Blogmas!
Here we are again with a post that really should put me to shame and get me to up my reading game!
Books I didn’t get to.
The answer = quite a few!
I won’t bore you with my whole tbr list (or we will be here all night!) but these are a few highlights!
These are books I wanted to read in 2020 but didn’t because there just isn’t enough time in the day and so many pretty books are released all the time!
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White
Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer
Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young
Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa
What books did you want to read this year but didn’t get to?
Blogmas: 2021 book plans
In 2019 I made some ambitious book plans for 2020 which I stuck to…..for about 2 months!
Then the world turned to crap starting with COVID, anxiety was high and it all went out the window! (and then I deleted my draft catch up post in disgust at myself!!!!)
I looked back at this year and examined! I’m still feeling a bit pressured and I think it’s because I read both YA fantasy and romance and that I need to change my reading habits as I just can’t read it all, even though I want to!!!
The genre I’m suffering more with is romance. Maybe suffering is the wrong word, but I’ve found I have dropped a lot of these reads in favour of YA because it just holds my attention and I actually look forward to read. So….
MAIN GOAL
For 2021 I’m going to read what I want!
Only buy romance books from my unicorn authors
I might be shooting myself in the foot here, I mean what if I miss a gem from a new author? <—– and this is why I end up with a huge tbr!
Fairyloot books
Read within a month of receiving. I had 11 books to catch up on by August and, whilst I loved the month I did to catch up, I don’t want them to pile up again.
Read tbr
Here we go again, same old, same old….but I had to put it in!
Reading Challenges
I’m not going to say no challenges as I completely failed that this year but going to amend to if I do a challenge, don’t pick out books beforehand!
So that’s it.
Too ambitious?
What are your reading goals for 2021?
CJRTB Books 