Happy Friday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 31! It is the final day of 2021 and so that means it is finally time to share with you all my book stats for 2021.
Amount of books read in 2021: 115
This is 15 over my attempted target so I am very happy with this number.
Total Amount of Pages read: 34, 200
This is an amazing amount of pages to have read this year!
According to Goodreads the average book length I’ve read this year is 306 pages and my average star rating is 3.7 so my reading has been on the better side for this year.
The book I read with the least pages was the Crime Archives with 64 pages and the book I read with the most pages is Moonflower Murders with 608 pages.
That’s it for my stats for 2021, I hope you enjoyed looking at them!
Happy Thursday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 30. We are so close to the end of December and the end of 2021, what a year it has been. I am hopeful that 2022 will be much better.
Today I am revealing which book I have chosen as my book of the year 2021! This was a difficult decision because I read a lot of great books this year. So, without further ado my book of the year 2021 is….
SERPENT AND DOVE by Shelby Mahurin!
It almost wasn’t this book but then I remembered just how much I loved the characters, the story and the whole atmosphere of the world and I had to choose it as my book of the year.
Happy Wednesday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 29! I honestly can’t believe I have made it this far and actually posted for 29 days (hopefully! as long as all these posts schedule properly).
End of the Year Book Tag!
Are there an books you started this year that you need to finish?
The Guest List by Lucy Foley and The City of Brass by S A Chakraborty
Do You Have An Autumnal Book To Transition Into The End Of The Year?
I’m going to say any contemporary book for this, I’m not sure why but I just feel that the genre of contemporary has a very Autumnal feel to it.
A New release You Are Still Waiting For?
A Three Dog Problem by S J Bennett
Three Books You Want To Read Before The End Of The Year?
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict and Murder And Mistletoe by Robin Stevens
A Book That Could Still Become Your Favourite of The Year?
Well, I am writing this at the end of November so technically any book on my December TBR but I will say Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco.
Have You Started Making Reading Plans for 2022 Yet?
Not really, I have my list of releases that I want to buy but that doesn’t mean I will read them quickly after and I always make a monthly TBR based on my TBR game so I have no idea what I may end up reading yet.
That’s it for this book tag, my final book tag of the year! I hope you all enjoyed it. What would your answers have been?
Happy Tuesday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 28! I’m giving you another book tag, I’m doing it. I have so much fun making them, I hope you all enjoy seeing what answers I put.
Jingle Bell Book Tag!
All I Want For Christmas Is You – which book do you want to see under the tree?
Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time – what book read this year did you enjoy the most?
It’s beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – which book has the most festive look to it?
Elf – what book released your inner child?
The Grinch – Your Favourite Villain
The Darkling from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.
The Holiday – name your favourite two couples
Scarlett and Julian from Caraval by Stephanie Garber and Audrey rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell from Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
Finally, what book would you gift your followers?
That’s it for this book tag, what answers would you give?
Happy Monday bookish people! Today I want to show you the books being published in 2022 that I am very highly anticipating. This is a really fun post to make, I also love looking at other people’s version of this so I hope you all enjoy looking at mine just as much as I like looking at other people’s lists.
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas
Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell
The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
This Woven Kingdom by Taherah Mafi
Glorious Poison by Kat Dunn
Gallant by V E Schwab
An Impossible Imposter by Deanna raybourn
Bloodmarket by Tracey Deonn
Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
All the Queens men by S J Bennett
Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare
The Blood Traitor by Lynette Noni
The mapmakers by Tamzin Merchant
I was going to add pictures of the books, even though not all the covers have been released yet, but for some reason my laptop did not want to do that today so instead you’ve got just a list of the books, I hope that’s okay!
Are any of these on your list of anticipated 2022 books?
Happy Sunday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 26! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day and that you will have a great Boxing day too. Of course I couldn’t help myself but to bring you another book tag, today’s being the Winter Book Tag.
Falling Snow: The colours of Winter are muted, choose a book that has whites, light blues and greys
Crackling Fire: colder weather makes for the perfect time to sit by a crackling fire, which book is best to curl up next to the fire with?
Ice Storm: winter storms can be brutal, what book do you love that takes the characters through a brutal season?
Winter Wishes: spending more time indoors allows more time to dream and wish, which character is living a life that you dream about?
Hot Cocoa: there is nothing like a hot cup of cocoa during winter, what book do you think should be the next big thing?
Lip Balm and Lotion: soothing dry skin is part of winter for many, what book is full of soothing and comforting words?
Peppermint Mocha: what is your winter go to food or drink?
Tea! I am always drinking tea!
That’s it for this book tag! I hope you all enjoyed seeing my answers, what would you give as your answers to this tag?
Happy Saturday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 25, It is Christmas Day! I hope wherever you are and whatever you are doing today that you are having a wonderful time. I thought as something a little short and fun for today’s post I would share some of the book characters I would choose to spend Christmas with. What characters would you choose to spend Christmas with if you could?
Julian and Scarlet
Julian de Santos and Scarlet Dragna from the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber and I absolutely love these characters. Scarlet is probably in my top three of female characters and I think they would bring some fun to Christmas.
Thomas Cresswell and Audrey Rose Wadsworth
From the Stalking Jack the ripper series by Keri Maniscalco. Their relationship with each other is one of the things I love about these characters and to a Christmas celebration I think they would bring some Victorian traditions which would be interesting.
Rhysand and Feyre
From the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas. Rhysand would definitely cause some mischief and it would be great fun I think.
Kellen, Nephania, Ferrius and Reichus
From the Spellslinger series by Sebastien de Castell. Reichus would be creating an absolute mess eating all the party food. Nephania would be trying to keep everyone calm. Ferrius would be doing card tricks and maybe some card reading and Kellen would be trying to do a little of everything.
So, that’s the book characters I would love to have over at Christmas and a bit about why!
Happy Thursday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 24. Oh my goodness, it’s Christmas eve. I literally feel like a little girl again, all buzzing with excitement. I really love Christmas, it’s such a magical time of year in my opinion. And I have some very specific family traditions. Do you have any family traditions for Christmas? I’d love to read about them in the comments.
First off, my Sister’s birthday is on the 23rd December. She hates it because it’s so close to Christmas and everyone around her is getting excited and prepared for that instead of her birthday. We always have a meal on her birthday with just her, me, our Mum and Dad and Grandma. This year is a little different because her partner and his daughter and his parents will also be there so lots of people.
On Christmas Eve we go to the Pantomime. It started years ago because I could never get to sleep on Christmas eve so we started going to the Pantomime in the evening so that it would tire me out. Which it did. Now we still go because we love it, I do especially and it has become an important family tradition.
Then Christmas Day. Get up in the morning and once everyone is awake we can open the presents. We eat biscuits for breakfast and have a nice time. Then for lunch we usually head to Grandma’s house for a roast dinner and pulling crackers. My Grandad would gather up all the terrible jokes and read them out at random points throughout the day. Then we would start the game.
A few days before Christmas we would use a bingo machine to put all 14 of us into pairs and work out which pair would be playing against which pair for the yearly Uckers tournament. If you don’t know what uckers is, it’s like Ludo but in pairs, It’s quite a complicated game really. We are a very competitive family and this game takes all afternoon and late into the evening. My Grandad even made us a trophy and medal for the finalists. It is always a busy but great day. In 2019 my grandad died and for the past few years we haven’t done the tournament because it’s strange without him but maybe in the next few years we will get back to playing it.
So, that’s my family traditions for Christmas day and the few days before it, I hope you enjoyed reading about it!
Happy Thursday everyone! Merry Bookmas day 23! Today is going to be very busy for me because it is my sister’s birthday so I will be spending most of the day with her and making her birthday cake.
But for all of you I am bringing you a book review of The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict.
In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.
The Christmas Murder Game Plot:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
The plot of this book is basically that the Grandmother of the main character, Lily, dies and some of the family are invited to take part in a game to find twelve keys and the winner gets the deeds for the house but then there is a murder. There were so many elements to this plot that I usually like, such as locked room mysteries, isolated settings for murder mysteries, so I thought that I would love this book. It gave me the feeling of a modern take on an Agatha Christie but for me it felt almost too similar to her book – And Then There Were None, it also felt quite similar to The Inheritance Game. The other thing that wasn’t the best about this book was that I had guessed the ending within the first 100 pages. This book was okay but I don’t think I would reread it – except to use it for my PhD.
The Christmas Murder Game Characters:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
So Lily is the main character in this book, I won’t give my thoughts on any of the other characters because it could give away the story, and for most of the book I enjoyed her character. She is exceptionally good at riddles and I liked seeing her thought process behind each one. However, I was hoping for a better character arc for her. I was hoping her character would grow in confidence but this only happened a little.
The Christmas Murder Game Writing and Dialogue:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
The writing was one of the best parts about this book. It was clear and flowed really well and the dialogue brought out the personalities of the characters.
The Christmas Murder Game Overall:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
I gave this book three stars overall because it wasn’t a bad book it just felt like I was reading something I had already read before.
Blurb/Synopsis:
Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But who will survive until Twelfth Night?
Lily Armitage never intended to return to Endgame House – the grand family home where her mother died twenty-one Christmases ago. Until she receives a letter from her aunt, asking her to return to take part in an annual tradition: the Christmas Game. The challenge? Solve twelve clues, to find twelve keys. The prize? The deeds to the manor house.
Lily has no desire to win the house. But her aunt makes one more promise: The clues will also reveal who really killed Lily’s mother all those years ago.
So, for the twelve days of Christmas, Lily must stay at Endgame House with her estranged cousins and unravel the riddles that hold the key not just to the family home, but to its darkest secrets. However, it soon becomes clear that her cousins all have their own reasons for wanting to win the house – and not all of them are playing fair.
As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, the game turns deadly. Soon Lily realises that she is no longer fighting for an inheritance, but for her life.
This Christmas is to die for . . . Let the game begin
That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!
Happy Wednesday bookish people! Merry Bookmas day 22! Today I wanted to share some of my favourite films to watch during the Festive period. Some of them are films I have loved for years and some are new favourites…
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
This is probably my favourite Christmas film ever, and definitely one of my favourite films all together. I pretty much know this film off by heart and I find it so heartwarming and filled with Christmas spirit. It makes me feel happy and excited for Christmas when I watch it.
Love Actually
I’ve loved this film since the first time I watched it, quite a few years ago now. There are some parts which I think were not necessary and some creepy moments but for the most part I love it. The overall message of the film is about love, that it is everywhere and it comes from so many different places and people and I love that this is the message.
The Christmas Chronicles
This is a Netflix film and I watched it with my Mum. I enjoyed how it focused on a brother and sister coming together to save Christmas and they fix their relationship while doing so. It was cute and wholesome and there were some funny moments which I loved.
Home Alone
This is a new love. My partner was so shocked that I had never seen Home Alone that about three weeks ago he finally got me to watch it and now I know why so many people talk about this film because I thought it was great.
That’s it for this post, I hope you all enjoyed it! What are some of your favourite Christmas films.
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