December Wrap-Up

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Hello Hello! How are you?

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely celebratory evening, hopefully, 2021 is going to be a much better year for all of us! What did you spend the last hours of 2020 doing?

I managed to squeeze in two final books in the last day of December, so I’m really glad about that and I’m excited to write my 2020 wrap up and get it up on my blog in the next days!

I already have so many reads planned for January, and hopefully, once I get all my assignments finished, I will be able to FINALLY read more books for my thesis, finish setting up my 2021 bullet journal (I’m late, oops!) and read my own books. I’m ridiculously excited for my weeklong break before my second semester starts! I’m looking forward to each book on my January TBR, so don’t forget to check that post out!

Surprisingly, even though December was one of my busiest months so far this year with all my assignments (that I’m still doing, by the way, I can’t wait for it to be over!) I had a really good reading month. So, in December, I was able to read a total of 14 books, which is double what I accomplished in November!

BOOKS READ

My Favourite Books of the Month

I read a lot of great books in December, and I just couldn’t pick only one, so I had to go with my top three for the month!

Amari and the Night Brothers (#1 Supernatural Investigations) by B.B. Alston – 5 stars

This was such an AMAZING book and even weeks after having finished it, I just can’t forget it or stop talking about it. it’s actually my favourite book of the year! This story was filled with beauty, imagination, important messages about racism, bullying and many others. It is going to be the best book for the young generation to start discovering in 2021, and you can head over to my review to read me gushing about it even more if you would like!

Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay – 4.5 stars

This was also a really great book and one that I knew, going in, I would love. This is one of the books that I read for BBNYA 2020 and I’m so happy to finally talk about it. this is a retelling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and I have to say, although it’s the “same thing”, it really wasn’t, it was so original and I was hooked right from the start. I can’t wait to finally get my review written and posted during the tour that is going to be held for it soon!

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (#1 Tristan Strong) by Kwame Mbalia – 5 stars

I finished this one in the last week of December as one of the monthly picks for the Middle Grade Marvels book club that I co-host. This was also a very original story, based on African-American myths and stories, weaving in present-day issues and a plot that just kept giving. This one surprised me a lot, I knew I would love it, but it was so good, I laughed a lot and I’m very excited to read the second book sometime this year hopefully!

December Books

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss – 5 stars

This was such a tiny little book and Noly and I managed to read it on the first day of December for the Hype-A-Thon Readathon. It’s only 64-pages long and took us just 6 minutes to read, but those minutes were spent happy because although this is a really old book, the message it conveys is so important: Christmas isn’t about presents, food or any other material thing, it’s about the love we share and receive, and I think it’s a very important one for us to remember! I should be getting a review for this and my other Christmassy reads in the next few days!

The Devil’s Apprentice (#1 The Great Devil War) by Kenneth B. Andersen – 4 stars

This was the first book I read for BBNYA. When I joined the TWR gang, I had only just missed the sign-ups for this tour, and I’m actually glad I did because I was able to read it for this competition and it was great! It wasn’t my favourite of the three books, but it was original, very dark, very funny and a great reading experience, I’m definitely going to be continuing this series. My review should be up soon since this is the only book not going on tour!

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – 4.5 stars

I buddy-read this book with Candyce. We had started reading it in November and we managed to finish it right at the start of December. Let’s just say, I was not surprised for the mindboggling ending. I could never have seen that coming. It was cunning, witty, genius, brilliant, beautifully-written, enchanting (which I kind of weird given the plot but it is) and I just absolutely adored it. I still can’t believe it was the author’s debut and after having read his second book, I’ll definitely be picking up all his books as they come out!

The Gilded King (#1 Sovereign) by Josie Jaffrey – 4.5 stars

This was the third and final book that I read for BBNYA and I LOVED IT. I love vampires, so maybe I’m a little biased but it was great. Josie Jaffrey is an indie author that I have come to love and I’m really looking forward to continuing on with this series, and also reading many more books she has written and will write, starting with her short stories! I’m really excited for this tour because a lot of people seemed to love it too!

One of Us is Next (#2 One of Us is Lying) by Karen M. McManus – 4 stars

I buddy read this book with Stephen and we both came to the same conclusion that book 1 was better than book 2, unfortunately. It was a very good and fun read, but we definitely found some faults in it and although I was shocked by the ending and overall loved the whole book, I just keep thinking if what is revealed in the final pages really is plausible, and if there are going to be more books about these characters. I need to write my review soon because I’m slacking, yikes!

Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien – 4.5 stars

Noly and I were also able to finish this second Christmassy read and it was just pure joy. When Noly picked this book, I actually had no idea what it was until it arrived and I saw that it was actually letters and pictures. I mean, you’d think the title would be a give-away, but for some reason, I thought it would be a novel. In this book, we find every letter than J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his children making out he was Father Christmas. I smiled from start to finish and I laughed a lot too, this was a great book and one I’m sure to revisit in the coming years!

A Sparrow Alone by Mim Eichmann – 3.5 stars

I read this book for the blog tour organised by Dave from @TheWriteReads. I was expecting to adore it because I love everything and anything historical fiction, but I think my expectations were too high because it just fell short for me. It was very well written and intriguing though, just not what I envisioned, but I definitely recommend to historical fiction fans, and here is my full review if you would like to find out more about it!

Winterling (#1 Winterling) by Sarah Prineas – 4.5 stars

This was the second book I read for the Middle Grade Marvels book club in December. It was a shorter one than usual, but it was much darker, and quite frankly, exactly my kind of fae book, but in Middle Grade. Suffice it to say, I loved it! I was again surprised by this story because I wasn’t expecting this, but what it has given me is a great fae story for middle grade readers that is more on the dark side, a great cast of characters that I want to revisit soon, an enchanting setting and plot, and most of all, a series I know I’m going to adore!

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton – 4 stars

The second book written by Stuart Turton was the TWR Gang book club pick for December and I was insanely happy when this was picked, I even purchased it the second after the vote was decided on. I had high hopes for this book, and this one was again, different to what I was excepting, mindboggling and absolutely genius. It’s fair to say that Turton writes the most head-spinning plots that I’ve read in a long time and it’s really a pleasure to read his works because his writing style is marvellous and the thought that goes on behind it is, wow! The ending let me down a little and I’ll rant about it in my review soon, but this was a solid 4 stars from me. I loved it and highly recommend to people who don’t mind a genre hybrid!

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – 3.5 stars

Noly and I did so well in December because we managed to finish ONE last book and complete our December TBR for the Hype-A-Thon Readathon! This wasn’t my favourite book I have to admit, but I know that this really is a case of me not being used to classics, struggling a little with the language and finding quite a few differences between the book and the film. For some reason, I really struggled with the third chapter and it took me an age to read, but now that I’ve finally read it, I know that I will love it next time I read it! my review for all three Christmas books will be up soon! I’m not a fan of my edition, but might treat myself to a pretty one for my reread!

The Lost Child’s Quest (#1) by James Haddell – 4.5 stars

And I managed to finish up the year with this lovely middle grade contemporary/fantasy (I’m not sure as it’s not said on Goodreads). This was an authors request and one I had on my January TBR, but I’m so glad that I actually managed to finish it on the last day of December because it was so good. I enjoyed every minute of this book and the ending was great, I can’t wait for more books in this series. My review will be up tomorrow!

December Reading Stats

Number of books: 14

Number of pages: 4,277

Star ratings:

3.5 stars: 2 books

4 stars: 3 books

4.5 stars: 6 books

5 stars: 3 books

Average rating: 4.35⭐

Genres: 1 Children’s picture book, 2 YA fantasies, 4 Middle Grade fantasies, 1 mystery, 1 mystery historical fiction, 2 Christmas Classics, 1 fantasy retelling, 1 YA mystery and 1 historical fiction.  

Well, I’m really proud of my reading for December. I was able to read a lot more books than I was expecting, and most of them were amazing! I can’t wait for my first 2021 reads as they are sure to be great too!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this post, see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx