Happy New Year!! I hope you had a lovely time welcoming the new year! If you spent it in bed reading, I truly couldn’t be more jealous 😂 Thanks for joining me in this new year and welcome to another monthly overview, 2019 or 2020, the FromBelgiumWithBookLove-show will go on!
December… Always a month of mixed feelings… I always try to get into the Christmas spirit but more often than not I end up feeling like a total Grinch 😂 This December, for the very first time, I had a fellow Grinch and it made me super happy (cheers and Bah Humbug!). I did read / listen to a few Christmassy books, and I even came across some reads that were unexpectedly Christmassy. I read / listened to a few blog tour books, I read a few NetGalley eARCs and I read / listened to a few books I really wanted to get to by the end of the year, so all in all not a bad reading month. I received a book package from Orenda Books with 5 of their books coming out in the coming months and I threw my read-only-non-reviewable-books-during-the-holidays-resolve out the window in favour of some Orenda goodies 😍 I enjoyed my reading in December but I’d thought I’d be able to read a bit more. But between being too sick to read for a couple of days (the hubby was knocked out by a stomach bug and graciously passed it on to me when he was done with it 🙄) and pesky social obligations, I got through fewer books than I’d hoped.
Anyhoo, here’s what I did last month, and some of what I’ll be posting this month:
What I read (full novels):
The God Game, Danny Tobey (review to follow)
Three Hours, Rosamund Lupton (review to follow on the tour)
Mistletoe, Alison Littlewood
Serpent & Dove, Shelby Mahurin
Six Wicked Reasons, Jo Spain (review to follow)
Lock Every Door, Riley Sager
In Bloom (Sweetpea 2), C.J. Skuse
A User’s Guide to Make-Believe, Jane Alexander (review to follow)
The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air 2), Holly Black
I Am Dust, Louise Beech (review to follow)
Other Words for Smoke, Sarah Maria Griffin
Beast (Six Stories 4), Matt Wesolowski (review to follow)
The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air 3), Holly Black
What I read (novellas / short stories):
Stealing Christmas, Paul Heatley
Everything Happens, Jo Perry
Smalltown Boy, T.S. Hunter
A Little Night Murder (Mydworth Mysteries 2), Matthew Costello & Neil Richards
A Christmas Crime: a festive mystery short story, Tara Lyons
What I listened to:
The Phantom Tree, Nicola Cornick
Duplicity, Sibel Hodge
The 19th Christmas, James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
From the Cradle, Louise Voss & Mark Edwards
Mistletoe Murder (Dewberry Farm 4), Karen MacInerney
Perfect Remains, Helen Fields (review to follow on the tour)
The Murder of Harriet Monckton, Elizabeth Haynes
What I read earlier but reviewed in December:
Snakes and Ladders by Victoria Selman
Foxfire, Wolfskin and Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women, Sharon Blackie
Killer Women Crime Club Anthology
A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer
The Merciful Crow, Margaret Owen
Sorcery of Thorns, Margaret Rogerson
Last month I also talked about non-festive festive reads in my bloody Christmas post and I talked about what I’ve learned from books. I also had a few Music Mondays (Wonderful Life, Smalltown Boy and This Ain’t New Jersey) and I shared a FairyLoot unboxing.
One thing left to show you: my book of the month…
Well of course it is, what did you expect?! More than honourable mention for these two though:
I hope you had a fab month! Thanks for joining me today and happy reading xxx
Happy New Year darling! I actually did spend it in bed reading (nothing on tv anyway and I don’t have Netflix). Waw you definitely had a busy month! Now I’m torn between wanting to read your reviews of Beast and I Am Dust and not wanting to read them before I read the book, because god knows I’ll want to dive right in. I definitely want to read Snakes and Ladders too. Happy reading in January lovely!
Thank you! Beast will be up soon, but I Am Dust will only go live in February so you’ll have enough time to read it first 😉 Happy reading 😘
Bah Humbug all the way! 🥂
I finished Beast about an hour ago. I have to squeeze in a blog tour book first and then Louise will be up next. Without tissues. Feels like a challenge 🤣
I’m a total Grinch too! And now I have to celebrate Christmas in the middle of the summer (and have the big thing on Christmas Eve instead on the 25th), I’m even less inclined to want to celebrate haha. I definitely can’t wait to read your book of the month as well as Beast! Here’s to a wonderful 2020. xx
I can’t even imagine having to celebrate Christmas in summer, it’s just wrong! Hope you have a fabulous 2020, Yvo, bookish and otherwise, and thanks so much for your support 😘
I know right? I’ve been doing it for the last ten years and I still can’t get used to it… Summer and Christmas just don’t go together for me and people down here just don’t seem to understand why it bothers me that much. xD *Grinch mode on*