November Wrap-Up

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Hello Hello! How are you all?

Happy December everyone! Let’s hope this last month of 2020 is going to be better than the 11 previous ones cause we all really need a break I think, it’s long overdue. This week is going to be full of me just running around trying to stay on track with university deadlines, but thankfully, I have books to amuse me and distract me once I stop working every evening!

November wasn’t the best reading month for me number wise. I think it’s one of the months I’ve read the least books in, but, I think it made up for it with the fact that I loved nearly every single one. There is just something about the final weekend of every month that has me finishing multiple books ahah, whoever invented that final Sunday, thank you, I really appreciate it.

December is going to be a bit of a busy month all around. My fiancé absolutely loves Christmas and he has been hounding me to get the decorations up, so I hope we can do them this week or he will be unbearable aha. I have a LOT of university work, but I’ve also got a load of amazing books on my December TBR that I am really looking forward to.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed something special in my name. Yesterday morning I put in a reading streak and I WON NANOWRIMO 2020🎉🥂. I was so happy I could have cried and it’s still a bit crazy to think I achieved it with all my university work and blogging, but I’m super proud of myself and determined to continued writing a bit every week. Now, I am going to stop waffling and get to the post – sorry everyone!

So, in November, I was able to finish 7 books and I can’t wait to talk to you about them all.

BOOKS READ

My Favourite Books of the Month

One of Us Is Lying (#1) by Karen M. McManus – 4.5 stars

I buddy read this book with Stephen from Stephen Writes and I had so so so much fun. This book really took me by surprise, it was very much like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson but also very different and I really loved it. I’m hoping to pick up the second one in the series soon and I’ll get the review up in the coming weeks.

The Dire King (#4) by William Ritter – 4.5 stars

This was the final book in the Jackaby series I have been reading with Candyce from The Book Dutchesses. I loved this series, like really LOVED IT. It was so fun and has a little bit of everything that I love in books, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction. It was just one of those *chef’s kiss* books and I’ll be rereading this series a lot I think. I also really want more books from this author so PLEASE. My review will be up soon.

November Books

Legends Rise (#3) by Devri Walls – 4.5 stars

I read this book for the blog tour organised by @The_WriteReads. I was super busy and a bit late posting my review but it was a really long book. I really enjoyed it though. I have adored this world, these characters and there is just so much going on. I need more and I hope we get to read the next book in the series soon. You can read my full gushing review here.

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus – 4 stars

Another tour organised by @The_WriteReads, I think this was the biggest tour to date, our next one might beat it though aha! I had read One of Us Is Lying right at the start of the month so I already knew that I loved this author’s writing style. This book was different though, more centred on family secrets and money, but still very enjoyable and you can find my review here!

Five Feet Apart by Mikki Daughtry, Rachael Lippincott and Tobias Iaconis – 3.5 stars

I read this book for my thesis as I’m studying disability and illness in books. I had had this book on my TBR for ages so I was really glad I got to it. it wasn’t the best-written book and it didn’t hit me in the feels like I was expecting it to, but I did enjoy it and I read it insanely fast. I’ll have a mini-review for it up soon!

Shadows of Winterspell by Amy Wilson – 4 stars

This weekend I managed to finish this book we were reading for the Middle Grade Marvels book club and I really loved it. Definitely wintery, and definitely very whimsical and magical. I’m so glad that I was introduced to this author, I’m going to pick up all her other books because her writing style is beautiful and I loved my time reading her words. The ending was a bit of a disappointment or it just ended with still too many questions maybe, but I had a great time reading it and I’ll try to get a review up as soon as I can sit down and write it.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier – 1 star

And the final book I finished reading in November was, unfortunately, a flop for me. I read this book with some awesome bloggers from The Write Reads gang over on Twitter and it’s kind of sad but the best bit about this book was actually discussing it with everyone. I think it comes down to the fact that this was definitely not a book for me. We had many weird and wild speculations and theories and they were so fun to talk about, but the book just kind of bored me and the narrator irritated me so much I could have screamed many times. I would have had to DNF it without the chat but it was still a good experience, just not my cup of tea. I’m not going to review this book.

November Reading Stats

Number of books: 7

Number of pages: 2,628 pages

Star ratings:

1 star: 1 book

3.5 stars: 1 book

4 stars: 2 books

4.5 stars: 3 books

Average rating: 3.71⭐

Genres: 1 MG fantasy, 1 YA romance, 1 classic, 1 YA fantasy, 1 YA fantasy historical fiction mystery and 2 YA mysteries.

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

Ellie xx