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?

 

I found this fabulous tag made by the You Tuber, Girl Reading and thought it would be perfect for my Blogmas posts!

1. A fictional family you would like to spend Christmas dinner with?

Without a doubt, hands down….The Weasly’s! I want a knitted, matching jumper with my initial on it!

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2. A bookish item you would like to receive as a gift?

Some bookish cooking oils. Omg I need them! Maybe spicy ones for the romancey type books and more adventurous flavours for fantasy!

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3. A fictional character you think would make a perfect Christmas elf?

Other than Dobby? Dobby is THE perfect choice for me….he would look perfect in here….

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4. Match a book to it’s perfect Christmas song.

This is hard. And my answer is probably a cop out!

Baby It’s Cold Outside and Game of Thrones……winter is coming after all!!

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5. Bah Humbug. A book or fictional character you’ve been disappointed in and should be put on the naughty list?

Cardan most defs! He belongs at the top of the naughty list and deserves only coal in his stocking!

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6. A book or a fictional character you think deserves more love and appreciation and deserve to be put on the nice list?

Manon Blackbeak. She is my Queen and can do nothing wrong in my eyes!

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7. Red, Gold and Green. A book cover that has a wonderfully Christmas-y feel to it.

Broken Dove by KA reminds me of Xmas trees!

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8. A book or series you love so much, you want everyone to find under their Christmas tree this year so they can read it and love it too?

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

(And I’m hoping I’ll have Starsight under my tree this year!)

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Hope you enjoyed my answers!

What would yours be?

 

Christmas is my favourite time of year. For me I start planning and buying gifts in September. Sue me! If I could put my tree up then and not look like a nutter then I would!

Anyway, here are my families Christmas traditions:

Seeing Father Christmas

I think this will be our last year as my son is growing out of it. It makes me so sad 😭

After we see Father Christmas we come home and put our tree up.

At school and work we have Christmas jumper day and it would be rude not to get a new one each year!

Works Christmas do (hello hangover!)

It always alcohol fuelled and it’s always messy. Say no more!

Christmas Eve – the making of the mince pies. This year it will be with gluten free pastry so cross fingers they dont crumble like all the other things we have made do! And of course one gets left out for Father Christmas!

Christmas Day we spend with my parents. Good food, good wine, good company! And also the small nap after lunch!!!!

Boxing day with all my family – every Boxing Day my family gets together, my parents, my aunties and uncles, my cousins and we just spend quality time together eating, drinking, swapping presents and playing board games!

What are your traditions over Christmas?