November 2024 Wrap-Up
Hi bookworms!
It’s officially the start to the holiday season! I’m super excited for all the events happening this month, and for my Christmas cookie baking. I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t had the chance to bake as much as I usually would, so I’m looking forward to that. Do you have any fun holiday traditions? Clearly, I was also working too much to get much reading in, since I only finished one book and 2 audiobooks 😂 This was also more of a meh reading month for me with all the books being rated around 3 stars. Here’s hoping that December will hold more 5-star reads instead!
Editing Update: I’ve had a wonderful month with all the fun copyedits and proofreads that I’ve been working on. I never thought I’d enjoy lit-RPG as much as I have, ever since I started working on these types of edits. In terms of availability, I’m fully booked until mid-January, but I’d still love to hear about all the manuscripts y’all have been working on during NaNoWriMo! Everyone has such creative ideas, and I love seeing all the story mood boards on social media. You can share your story’s synopsis here 😄
My Library
When Haru Was Here by Dustin Thao
Review:
I read the first book by this author and enjoyed it, and thought it was a tiny bit of an emotional hard-hitter. I decided to give the author another try with this book in the hopes that it would be just as emotional or more so. I was totally prepared to cry while reading this, but it ended up being a bit meh until the plot twist at the end. The plot twist definitely redeemed the story, in my opinion and it was the only time I got mildly teary-eyed while reading this. I also didn’t ship Eric with Daniel at all, especially after his magical initial encounter with Haru, so it was hard for me to feel for Eric’s loss. I really liked how the author wrote scenes that seemed real, but then we learned it was all in Eric’s imagination. It was hard for us to know what was real or not. It’s like the story leads you one way, and you have some different expectations for what will happen, but then the ending hits and it’s like “surprise.” It’s a nice story overall, but some parts seemed a bit random with some of the characters we meet along the way—I’m looking at you, rich boys 😂 Either way, I would say this is a quaint read, but keep your expectations low if you’re looking for a book to trigger the waterworks.
3/5⭐
Netgalley eARCs
I recently started Home Office Romance by Kintetsu Yamada. I’m really enjoying it so far, and it’s such a chill yet cute read. I’ll definitely finish it the next chance I get to sit down and read it, so keep an eye out for my review in December.
Other (e)ARCs
I’ve started sooooo many ARCs and haven’t gotten to finish a single one. This is mainly because I’ve been enjoying them so much that I don’t want to finish them and have the story be over 😅 I think one of my December reading goals will be to finish most of my partially read books so I can go into 2025 with a fresh TBR.
Audiobooks
Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell
Review:
I initially chose this because I was influenced by a person on Tiktok who reviewed this. I think they mentioned it was one of the scariest books they have ever read, and it kept them up at night, so I really wanted to see if it was as scary as it seemed. The prologue with the parrot scared the crap out of me, especially because I listened to that part at 2am where I was the only person awake. The rest of the book wasn’t too creepy, but I have to say the narrator did a spectacular job with the voices. The voices were creepy as hell. I was listening to it at work at one point and scared myself because something fell behind me and I jumped because I was so on edge from the story. I enjoyed all the Indigenous lore and culture portrayed in the story as well, and appreciated the end note with the explanation of the author’s choices. Otherwise, the rest of the story was really slow-paced, and I feel like it could’ve been a bit shorter. I’d recommend this if you like scary stories that are only around a medium-scary level.
3/5⭐
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Review:
This sounded like such a fun story, but my focus and engagement with the story definitely ebbed and flowed a bit. The story started strong with the murder and really hooked me, but I kind of lost my interest when they were running away from the Spring Green Man. I enjoyed the magic system with the baked goods, and it was neat to see how Mona discovers new ways to use her magic. I honestly thought the book ended after they got help from an important person, but when everything was “back to normal,” more action happened in the form of a battle, which felt more action-packed than the earlier bits in the story. I liked Spindle’s character, and overall, Bob was 100% my fav character. One thing I really liked about this story was Mona’s feelings about how the adults should have been the ones to handle all that conflict in the first place; a child shouldn’t have been put in a position where she had to save the world in the first place. Overall, this was an imaginative read, and I would recommend it for middle-graders.
3.5/5⭐
Do you have any fun plans or fun reads for the holiday season? Do you tend to read more holiday-themed books, or do you stick to your preferred genre, or just go where your mood takes you? Let me know in the comments below!
Happy reading ☃️
