Hello!

Every month I talk about how quickly the year is passing and how I need to work on being more present to make time feel like it’s going slower, but here we are on the penultimate wrap up of the year and I have my usual 8-book tbr, as well as a bunch of Christmas books and my 10 before the end to read…

I’m definitely not reading 26 books but doesn’t mean I’m not going to try!

I thought I’d combine the wrap up and the tbr this month in an attempt to be a bit more efficient and attempt to be more eloquent but that seems optimistic.

I managed to read 4 books in November (on top of writing 50,000 words of creative writing for NaNoWriMo!) and I had a 3 star and three 4 star reads, so it was a really good month! So let’s jump right in.

Legendborn – Tracey Deonn ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I finally read it! And honestly, I was mildly underwhelmed. I thought it was really slowly paced, the world building was solid but it was incredibly intricate and I found it was too much to remember – there was lots of terminology that I really struggled to get my head around, remembering which characters were associated with each knight of the round table and who was who’s squire and then there was the awful English accent in the audiobook that I really tried to tune out but it was horrendous. I thought the fantasy element was quite interesting, though the further I get from reading it the less I remember about it. But I do love Arthurian Legend so the fact that it’s a modern fantasy story based on that is a selling point. Plus I found the ending intriguing enough that I’ve bought the sequel and I’ll be reading it this month, so I’ll have plenty of time to figure out whether I want to continue with the series when book 3 comes out at the beginning of 2025!

Iron Flame – Rebecca Yarros ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The sequel to the book that took booktok by storm, Fourth Wing, and I really enjoyed it. It’s so easy to focus on the negatives and why I gave it four stars instead of five, but I honestly love the world building and it felt so real as I was reading it, the supporting characters were absolutely bloody brilliant (Ridoc is my favourite) and the dragons are still so cool. But I found Violet and Xaden a bit bland, some of the writing isn’t great (there’s some really cringy dialogue) and the first half was so slow I actually kept getting bored and falling asleep. One of the reasons I enjoy this series so much is because my husband actually adores it so experiencing his excitement, sharing that experience with him and having that joint anticipation ahead of Iron Flame’s release just made it all the more enjoyable to me so we will be eagerly anticipating book 3 when that’s rushed out in another six months!

Cleat Cute – Meryl Wilsner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The September Afterlight subscription book I tried to finish before Iron Flame but didn’t quite get there in time. I’m not normally a sports romance girlie, particularly not a soccer (football) girl, but I ate this up. I found the protagonists of Grace and Phoebe absolutely immersive and feel like I didn’t need to go through the whole ‘getting to know you’ character phase because they felt like complete people almost immediately. The dual perspective perfectly highlighted each of their anxieties and flaws and then at the end there was disability rep! Two different neurodiversities! I thought it was brilliantly done, I could really empathise with Grace as a character and I loved her arc. It was such a lovely, easy read and the more I think about it I might have to bump it up to a 5 star rating because I really loved it.

The Cruel Prince – Holly Black ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Another one that I’ve finally got round to reading! And another slightly underwhelming experience – don’t get me wrong, it was still 4 stars and I had a nice time, but I think I need to take a step back from reading YA because I just find the characters so much more difficult to empathise with. Jude was absolutely unhinged as a main character and I’ve heard that book 1 is just set up for Carden but he barely felt like a relevant character because a lot of what we ‘know’ about him are things that Jude has perceived or presumed and there’s not actually a ton of direct interaction with him. But the world building was relatively immersive, the plot centred on political manipulation of power was interesting and the ending was completely predictable, but I’m not sure what it means in terms of the rest of the series so obviously I had to go out and buy them… So maybe I’ll read them soon!

So I didn’t read as much this month as other months, but I did read just short of 1000 pages and listened to over 30 hours of audiobooks so it’s not too bad when you look at it that way! Sometimes counting the number of books we read can be a bit disheartening, but if you’re reading massive fantasy series that are the length of three contemporary romance novels (and are much more complicated to follow), then the numbers don’t reflect how much you’re actually reading!

I didn’t do that but the point still stands.

And with November concluded, it’s on to the December TBR!

I make, what I call, a functional tbr (not to imply anyone else’s tbr isn’t functional, I just can’t think of another word) where my intention is essentially to make the most of all of the services and subscriptions I pay for, so I have my book club pick (1), two kindle unlimited books (2+3), two Audible books (4+5), my Illumicrate subscription (6), my Afterlight subscription (7) and any books I’ve preordered that release that month (8).

Is an 8 book tbr when I’ve never read that much in a month without being on holiday overly ambitious? Probably, but making lists brings me joy so I will continue to do it!

This month’s book club pick is My Policeman by Bethan Roberts. TL;DR on the book club: my husband and I asked for books as wedding gifts and now I pick one a month to read in an endeavour to read them all. I picked this one because it completes the books that a circle of friends gave us and it’s got Harry Styles on the cover and I’m not going to pretend I’m above being that shallow because I’m absolutely not.

The Kindle Unlimited books I want to read this month are the same as the last two months: A Game of Retribution and A Game of Gods by Scarlett St Clair, books 2 and 3 in the Hades perspective companion trilogy to the Persephone’s perspective books in the Hades x Persephone series (it’s so overly complicated to explain). I absolutely don’t want to go into 2024 with this hanging over me so it’s definitely a priority read.

My Audible picks for this month are Wings of Ebony by J. Elle because it’s the oldest book I had downloaded in my library (I’m hoping to finish it this week!) and Bloodmarked by Tracey Deonn which is the sequel to Legendborn, which I only rated 3 stars but the ending was interesting enough to make me want to read on; I’m dubiously excited and will report back!

The November Illumicrate book (which only gets delivered in the last week of the month so I put it on my December tbr) is Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. This is one I’ve seen floating about loads on booktok and booktube and it’s not a book I’ve felt inclined to pick up of my own accord, but I am going in open minded and I’m intrigued to see how I feel about a book that I wouldn’t choose for myself.

The November Afterlight book is Second Chances in New Port Stephen by T.J. Alexander and it’s an LGBTQ+ book set at Christmas with a trans-male protagonist and I’m so excited to read it. I’ve never read a book with a trans main character before and I love Christmas romance books so I’m really looking forward to this one.

And last, but by no means least, the new release that I’m so excited about that I actually pre-ordered, is Heartstopper Vol 5 by Alice Oseman – it comes out on December 7th and I’m so excited to binge read this in a day and immediately fall into a Nick and Charlie withdrawal. I adore the Heartstopper series and I think I’ve read the previous four volumes at least twice each and as someone who really doesn’t reread a lot, that’s saying something! I will absolutely be the person who spends all day waiting by the door for their parcel and I have no shame.

So this is my 8 book tbr alongside the 8 Christmas books I bought the other day (I lost my mind in The Works, okay?) and the 10 before the end of 2023 list I made… I better get reading!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx