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

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?

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?

 

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!

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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!

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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.

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Read tbr

Here we go again, same old, same old….but I had to put it in!

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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!

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So that’s it.

Too ambitious?

What are your reading goals for 2021?

I realised that I’ve taken part in #BestReadsof2020 on Instagram but not shared it here – what is happening?!!!!

Anyway….Best Reads of 2020 was introduced to me by Sophie at Beware of the Reader, she is running with some IG buddies. There is a list of prompts and basically you just post a Best Book of 2020 that fits!

You can follow me on Instagram by either @CJRTB_BB or here.

Here are my Best books so far….

Best Ugly Cry – King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

Best Swoonworthy Hero – Wrath from KotW by Kerri Maniscalco

Best Beautiful Cover– Fable by Adrienne Young

Best LGBTQ – Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Best New to me Author -The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Best Fantasy – Crescent City by Sarah J Maas

Best Couple of the Year – Lou and Reid from Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Best Series – The Illuminae Files by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

If you liked these, come on over to IG and see what else I have going on!

You can follow me by either finding me: @CJRTB_BB or click here.

I wanted to look back at the books I said I wanted to read in 2020 and see if I actually read them!

Lets have a look and see how I got on………

The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller

READ!

See my review here.

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Crescent City by Sarah J Maas

READ!

See my review here

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Aurora Burning by Jay Kristoff

READ!

See my review here.

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Dream Maker by Kristen Ashley

READ!

See my review here.

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Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

READ!

See my review here.

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Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

Unforts these were put back to March and September 2021 so it was impossible for me to read them in 2020 (I was tempted to stalk the authors houses but not sure if stalking fits in with social distancing so didn’t bother!)

Did you read all the reads you wanted to in 2020?

Title: Truelife

Series: Lifelike #3

Author: Jay Kristoff

Best friends have become enemies. Lovers have become strangers. And deciding whose side you’re on could be the difference between life and death. For Eve and Lemon, discovering the truth about themselves–and each other–was too much for their friendship to take. But with the country on the brink of a new world war–this time between the BioMaas swarm at CityHive and Daedalus’s army at Megopolis, loyalties will be pushed to the brink, unlikely alliances will form and with them, betrayals. But the threat doesn’t stop there, because the lifelikes are determined to access the program that will set every robot free, a task requiring both Eve and Ana, the girl she was created to replace. In the end, violent clashes and heartbreaking choices reveal the true heroes . . . and they may not be who you think they are.

Yes, another dose of my fave Lemon Fresh, I love her! Im sad that it’s all ending though.
My fears before I started were that one of my faves was going to perish and also that Lemon and Grimm wouldn’t be partners in life. And those fears were real….you know that’s a mark of a great series when you have actual fears!
Fast paced and action packed, it was like a wave of emotions listening to this! Wars, characters we love and hate, mad people, things that shouldn’t exist all coming to a head.
Lemon and Grimm make my day, my month, my year, my life! They were so….omg let me find the word. Pure. Young love. Omg so utterly adorable.
Wow, what a conclusion to a absolutely brilliant series.

Me and my son pose ‘would you rather’ questions to each other all the time so thought I’d add a post into my Blogmas offerings!

Let me know what your answers are (mine are below each question!!!)

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Would you rather have to eat a whole turkey in one sitting or never be able to eat turkey again?

(This was an easy one for me as I’m not really a fan of turkey so….never eat turkey again!)

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Would you rather get the best book you ever received again and again as a present or get a new book (but have no idea if it will be good or bad)?

(I’d rather get a new book as there will undoubtedly be some gems in there!)

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Would you rather read The Nutcracker or dance in the Nutcracker

(For me, read most defs. No one wants to see me dance that 😂)

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Would you rather read a book in a gingerbread house or read a book on the Polar Express

(Me = Polar Express, plus you get to see Santa at the end!)

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Would you rather spend a day watching Christmas films or spend a day reading Christmas books?

(Me = I love books, I really do, but watching Christmas films all day is my idea of heaven!)

Hope you enjoyed this!!

Happy Blogmas!

So here we are again and today is anticipated 2021 reads…..

There are many.

So many!

But I’ve picked out a few that I cannot wait for! In no particular order…….

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas

A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer

A Queen of Gilded Horns by Amanda Joy

Bridge of Souls by VE Schwab

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

What are your most anticipated books for 2021?