Hello!

There’s something that feels so significant about heading into the last month of the year – this year has gone so quickly and I feel like I haven’t really got started, but maybe my brain was just taking time to prepare for 2026!

This TBR feels so much fun because I’ve already finished my reading goal for the year, so I don’t need to read a certain number of books. I’ve finished reading my 25 in 2025 so I don’t have anything to finish there. I don’t have any pre-orders to prioritise and my reading mojo is sky high right now so I’m so excited for the books I’m going to be reading this month!

I still have a book from my wedding library to read, I’ve got some festive books that I’m going to read and I’ve got a couple of other goals I’m working on and I’m so excited!

I’ve picked the six (ish) books that will be my ‘official’ monthly TBR, but I’ll let you know a few of the books that are on my Book Queue as well! Let’s start with the categories.

The Wedding Library

This month the spinner chose Hawl by James Peacock, which appears to be a mish mash of a crime mystery thriller!

This is one of those books that doesn’t exist in audiobook format and doesn’t seem to exist at all on Fable (even Storygraph only has one user submitted entry with no picture!) so I’m going to be very gently reading this paperback which I believe is at least 40 years old!

It’s not exactly the book I was expecting to be reading to round off the year but it’s one book closer to having read every book in the wedding library, so I’m going in with an open mind!

A Non-Fiction Book

The Autists – Clara Tornvall

Branching out from my usual categories this month – one of my goals for this year was to read five non-fiction books… so far I’ve read two.

There’s no way I’m reading three non-fiction books this month but I thought I could get myself over the 50% line on this goal by prioritising reading at least one – this book was a spontaneous purchase at the Waterstones in Liverpool I believe, Boxing Day 2023 if I remember correctly! My husband was working on the football match and I had a lovely mooch around the sales and in my leisurely browse I allowed myself to look at the vaguely medical section for any books on autism that weren’t aimed at neurotypical parents, as I was still in the depths of the waiting list for my own diagnosis at that time.

Now having been diagnosed earlier this year, I think this might be the perfect time to start reading material written by autistic people about being an autistic person – this book is for ‘high functioning’ autistic women who masked their way into not being diagnosed when they should have been and I’m eager to read more from someone who is much smarter than me!

Note to self: if setting a goal to read a genre out of my comfort zone, start with a more achievable number!

Continue a Series

Maximum Ride: Fang – James Patterson

The series I’ve been diligently plodding through in 2025 is a reread of one of my childhood favourites – Maximum Ride. My friendship group when I was 14 bonded over writing fanfiction of this series, idolising Fang as the OG book boyfriend and fantasising about being a bird kid. Rereading it has brought back all the nostalgia of being so obsessed with something without the stress of maintaining friendships as a teenager!

This is book six in the series and the last of the books I own physically is book seven in the series, Angel, so I’m hoping to be able to squeeze that in too. There are a further four books in the series that have come out since that I don’t own, but how I feel after reading Angel will determine whether or not I find copies on Vinted, read them on my Kindle or let the series end with the physical books I own.

Festive Romances

Holiday Ever After – Hannah Grace

The first release from Hannah Grace since my Absolute Favourite 6 Star Book of 2024, Daydream? And it’s festive? Gimme gimme gimme

Hence why I pre-ordered the special edition hardback that came out in October.

I’ve been really good this year about reading my pre-orders in the month they were released, but I deliberately waited with this one to read it in the peak festive season. I’m so excited to read more from Hannah Grace, now just to decide whether I want to read it with my eyeballs or listen to the audiobook!

Good Spirits – B. K. Borison

This is a book that I feel like I’ve been hearing about since before the Summer and the concept has intrigued me ever since. I was hesitant about getting excited about a book from this author because I read Lovelight Farms at the end of last year (and inadvertently didn’t finish it in time so it was the first book I finished in 2025!) and I didn’t love it.

However, the concept still sounds so fun to me, the reviews I’ve seen for this book so far have been nothing but glowing, and I’m trying to be optimistic and remind myself that the author has released a further three books in the Lovelight Farms series and had a smash hit with First Time Caller this year so I would hope her writing has only gotten better since publishing Lovelight Farms.

If her writing style isn’t for me, that’s absolutely fine, but I definitely want to give Good Spirits a go and find out!

Just A Taste – Anise Starre

The only good thing to come out of the absolutely mess of an event that was Waterstones BookFest this summer (other than a day out with my lovely friend), was this ARC I got from one of the Simon and Schuster UK publisher table! I was just excited to have a copy of an as-yet-unreleased book, but then to find out it was a festive contemporary romance I was genuinely so excited!

Has the book now come out? Yes but I wasn’t going to force myself to read a Christmas book in September just to be ahead – I’m someone who only gives myself the month of December (and even then, only the 24 days before Christmas really!) to read festive books and I eagerly anticipate it!

I have actually started reading this one (let’s not acknowledge that I’m posting this a little late lol) and so far it’s as easy and cheesy as Christmas romances should be – forced proximity, grumpy sunshine, dual perspective, a little emphatic on the ‘don’t forget she’s a prestigious chef’ aspect but I’ve managed to read nearly 50% in less than 24 hours so it’s very bingeable!

We’ll see where my final rating lands 😂

And that’s my ‘core’ monthly TBR! Plus Angel in the Maximum Ride series and also the Ali Hazelwood Christmas novella that was released as part of the ‘Under The Mistletoe’ Amazon Originals Collection (I’ve already squeezed it in this month and I read it one sitting, oops!).

Then on my Book Queue (i.e. the list of sequels I have to continue working my way through if/when I finish my monthly TBR, to try and tackle the never ending number of series in my collection!), coming up next I have:

• Sunbringer – Hannah Kaner (Godkiller / Fallen Gods #2)
• The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords – Akira Himekawa (graphic novel) (from the TBR challenge I’m doing with my husband – not one I’d pick myself!)
• Five Nights At Freddy’s: The Twisted Ones – Scott Cawthon and Kira Breed-Wrisley (was originally part of the TBR challenge but I am reading this sequel voluntarily)
• Ignite Me – Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me #3)
• Skulduggery Pleasant – Derek Landy (part of the TBR challenge, but another reread of a childhood favourite series… except this one is still going and has upwards of 20 books in it haha… ha… ha)

There’s plenty of other books I could be choosing between finishing alphabet challenges, finishing more series and reading new purchases but I’m working on accepting not ‘achieving’ every single challenge or surpassing my previous reading numbers – I’m just enjoying reading without a goals focus at this end of the year!

I’ve rambled on again so I shall wrap it up here. Please let me know if you’ve read any of the books mentioned and what books you’d like to read by the end of the year! It’s coming up so fast now!!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx