Photo credits: www453017508 (pixabay), JL G (pixabay) Edited by Vaishali Combined November & December READING WRAP UP! Hello reading friends. We're at that darker, deeper and quieter time of year again, that very ambient season that rolls into the reflective, replenishing solstice of winter. It's also that very busy time of year for most, where the bustle reaches a new height. The merry-making is in full swing for most, the frenzy of the wind up before the wind down of the final month to the year nears and yet the somber tug of release, renewal and reflection solicits us to take our sojourns inward. Just like the conflicted lives of the characters we're compelled to read about, I'm sure we're all challenged by what to move forward with, what to leave behind, and discover newer pastures for rewilding as the dark beckons the inner light. Or, like our beloved heroines of the romance genre, hoping to get their merry ever after with a dashing love interest, finally coming home for Christmas and reuniting with the one that got away or swaddled in the warmth of the love they've always been waiting for. This is what Idealistic fiction does to us, but let's leave that to the endless stream of merry hallmark romance movies that frequent our screens this time of year. Let's keep that in the realm of creative romanticist literature. While most of us feel dominated by the festive commercialism that sells a merry visage of bargain hunting, frenetic gatherings, overconsumption, material merriments and the column of an ever growing list of gift-giving prospects, ancient millena encourages a deeper perspective during this time of year. To feel into your inner landscape, feeling out and through all that you carry and asks you to be the light - inward and outward - and gently embrace all that has come and all that will go. I hope the most impressionable of what you receive and are capable of giving is what you need to give yourself the most. Whether you celebrate the season, the solstice, the final month or not, tis indeed the season. Do you have a December ritual? Tradition? Spiritual practice? Beverages and food of choice?Festive film favourites? Growing up, the Santa Clause film starring Tim Allen was a favourite in our household, and still holds much nostalgic resonance whenever I watch it. Elf is another favourite; it's so fun, hilarious, light, has a great sense of humour, makes for great family viewing and Will Ferrel just brings out the best of an effervescent, exuberant Buddy the Elf. Jingle All the Way is another watch that stretches back to my childhood but I've seen it far too many times by now. Of course, several Christmas romances have made their way into my life as well, and while romance watches aren't my trusty movie preferences, I definitely can create a feverish mood for them at the right time. It's a bizarre reality that I love romance novels but can forgo romance films. As I must have mentioned before, I'm really not the quintessential seasonal reader. With the slowness of my reading pace I tend towards selecting what I'm in the mood for or what I'm drawn to. But this year? Something happened and I decided to include some season-themed picks to populate my December reading list. Among making my way through Sarah J. Maas's House of Sky and Breath, here were my (very few) seasonal selections: Her Nemesis Until 5pm by Eve Pendle and Jingle Bell Beard by Julie Kriss. I would have liked to get a few more in there but fated it was not. I also finally got to read Alexis Daria's What the Hex, a very fun paranormal rom-com, more befitting to the spooky season, but I read to the best of my own moment-to-moment preference. I should have reviews coming for each soon! In other news, the Seekers series. In recent years I graciously received arc copies for the first two books in Josie Jaffrey's Seeker's series, and quite quickly became a tad fixated with the vampiric urban fantasy; in part due to the creative world building, in part to the edgy milieu and in part to the twisty love triangle. It seems to be my weakness. Its plot surrounds an investigative mystery with gory murders, murder mystery, twisted romance(s), a chaotic bisexual vampire detective for a heroine and complex world building. It's a contemporary urban fantasy/mystery, definitely different from your usual vampire-inspired fantasy, and I'd suggest reading it just for that reason. And for the thorny, twisted love triangle of course. But back to my point, I've since been on tenterhooks for the release of Winta's Day, (the third in series) and since the author had already expressed concerns and apologies over delay in the forthcoming instalment's publication, after an unexpectedly protracted wait, we finally have another release! And I managed to get my hands on an ebook arc copy, which I'm very excited about. Hopefully, I'll get to give it a read in the coming year. Any reads that have made your 2023 reading year? Any unforgettables? Any 2024 anticipated releases? Admittedly, I haven't read very much but I did meet some reading aspirations by reading books I had postponed, and by authors I've been excited to read from. To add on, I also received a very exciting package as of late. A free newsletter giveaway via leftover stock Josie Jaffrey had and very generously optioned it for willing volunteers. I was more than happy to take something off of her hands. It was a lovely little gift, and I was stunned by the added bookish extras that I really wasn't expecting. Pictured below: Before I get to the bookish extravaganza of recent 2023 releases that I've compiled to share a vast collection of all the creative literature that found life through thoughts, ideas and clever, creative minds this year alone, just a small end-of-year missive from me. The new year can be challenging like most seasons are; we all go through so much, experience so much, carry so much, feel the wounds of all we've accumulated, newer ones, and then some. For your season of growing pains, personal to you, which seem to shackle you in ways you don't have the words to voice, or do but feel sidelined by the sheer immensity of what you're going through, I hope you find ways to not find but awaken to the courage, compassion and absoluteness already within you. I especially enunciate that for my fellow complex chronic illness friends, I know how hard it is to lose yourself, your balance and your sense of you within the endless list of symptoms bamboozling your body. I know the utter long-lived depletion, pain, disorientation, derealization and dysfunction a constantly overstimulated nervous system and a poor immune function can do to a person. The burden is mighty. It's not an easy life in any way. I hope you have a support system to ease the struggle, I hope you have even one person to heal and help you through it, I hope you give yourself the gentleness and patience to care for yourself in the ways you need to, to take comfort in the knowledge that whatever you're doing for yourself is enough. Always enough. Even if it feels like it isn't, it's still enough. That those especially tormenting periods are yours to experience, never feel shameful or self-critical for feeling what you feel and coping the way you cope. Finding some semblance of balance within you when you feel fundamentally unhealthy is hard without sinking into that familiar abyss (though, there's never any shame in relenting to that to). I hope you know that just because you may feel hopeless, exhausted, burnt out on such a cellular capacity, I hope you feel the strength and courage to see what isn't always easy to see and release what may be challenging to release. I hope you seek out the best for you as opposed to seeing or believing the worst you believe yourself to be. You've made it this far, not without deep hardship and unbelievable perseverance. There's such success in what you've done for yourself already, don't forget what a success it is to experience this kind of an existence and say that you're still here and still breathing. There's a lot of light in each of us, endless, boundless and so all-embracing we only need to restore to stillness and quietness to feel it. And the gentle reminder that irrespective of what your body is feeling, what your symptoms are 'symptoming' and what your brain is telling you, you and your life matter more than anything. You're a part of a great and grand symphony that only beams bigger when you find and lend your voice. When you combine the struggle with compassion. If you're like me, it's tough to see and celebrate how far you've come, with anything. But if you can, try to take meaningful moments to digest and appreciate all the wonder and goodness you've invited in your life. The shifts that seem so small to you but aren't at all. It usually becomes the norm that that which we associate the 'smaller' triumphs to be are actually the biggest ones we have made. You get to rejoice in that in whatever way your energy permits, even if it doesn't. Notice them, feel them and believe that the universe has your back. And that you have it too. To every writer and creative, congratulations on every release, on every word written, on every effort to move your craft a little bit forward! And of most import, for believing in yourself enough to publish all your offerings in the yonder of creative literature. Your creative accomplishments are cherished by all of us who get to sit down with one of your books. To fellow readers, I hope you've been at the receiving end of some wonderful bookish discoveries, had the opportunities to spend time with the fictional friends, heroes, heroines, anti-heroes and antagonists. And been in the good (or troublesome) graces of fresh, fun or plain wicked authors, and can call it a great reading year even with one brilliant book you get to call 'read'. An encouraging, nourishing, healing new year to all of you. Here's to books, more books, always books, health, healing, wellbeing, joy and tremendous openness, clarity and courage to hold your hand for what's to come. And for the rest of this wrap up, a long, supersized haul of 2023 releases that I'm still shocked to have found the reserve to put together but did anyway (there may be some accidental repeats). Though the genre choices vary from Romance, Paranormal and Fantasy, the romance selections are the superseeding force of what you'll likely find below, as they probably should be. Some recent purchases and my end of year reads below! Truly wishing you a new year to thrive, revive and surprise yourselves in the best ways imaginable. Safe and joyful sojourns my friends... Purchase Links attached! Purchase Links attached! 2023 RELEASES: Part #3 of my 2023 newsletter author RELEASES for the year: Admittedly the heading does suggest a line-up of romance reads, but there's an eclectic variety of interbreeds; Fantasy, Paranormal and Contemporary, among a mix of various romance subgenres. You might also stumble upon some special (and unexpected) selections. Unfortunately, purchase links aren't attached due to this compilation not being the manageably short list I had anticipated it to be, so should you encounter any books that catch both your eye and your interest, feel free to search up via your favourite retailer, online or otherwise! I hope you enjoy what I've put together... 1) House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J, Maas - Rating ★ ★ ★ ★
I don't know how Sarah J. Maas manages to minimise me to a stunned, gaping, wordless feeling-too-much form of human mystification but she has indeed managed to do just that yet again. Such is the work of a finished Maas novel. A phenomena ostensibly still in great effect. Some say she's redefined the fantasy genre, some disfavour her stylistic energy, but I'm entirely engaged to the passionate, thrill-writing creative who inks her own script and skewers her storyteller's staff in the ground by her own charge. Content Warning/Listing: Profanity galore, mentions death, torture, blood. General warnings for violence and harm of different kinds. Also mentions the rape of a long-ago figure of history. Mentions the slaughtering of minors (children/infants/babies). Slavery/ownership of other creatures/lifeforms. Murders/killings/death/torture. Harbouring and possession of slaves. Detailed Sex scene. Slavery (willing and unwilling). Mentions the objectification demise of children and child abuse/torture. Mass deaths and mentions of it. - 4 S T A R S to House of Sky and Breath 2) What the Hex by Alexis Daria - Rating ★ ★ ★
Alexis Daria conquers a fun paranormal rom com novella with What the Hex, fragrant with flavour, finery and a dash of some wicked witchery. With tastes and textures of the spiritedly paranormal, it embraced the theme of the disincarnate with an adequate seed of dramatic conflict. An invisible Latinx island, glamorous witches, flamboyant elders, a disastrous nuptials, generational family systems, witchery, wars and the wandering hands of two high school adversaries turned paranormal mages and there's a touch, a trace and a tidbit of everything. Content Warning/Listing: Some profanity. Bedroom scenes. Mentions drinking. - 3/3.5 S T A R S to What the Hex 3) Her Nemesis Until 5pm by Eve Pendle - Rating ★ ★
This book was a pointed pick for December, and a reason to sample some Eve Pendle romance for the Christmas season (and as a Pendle first timer). I did eventually begin to feel disconnected from the story soon enough I have to admit, though there were places where I found some mild interest. Her Nemesis Until 5pm was an ok read which I'd recommend for something quick and light to pass some reading time. This was a Christmas pick for me. Not marvellous but it's set in the UK and does include the snowed in and one bed trope! Content Warning/Listing: some profanity. Recent death of a grandparent via heart attack. Infidelity within a marriage (not between the main love interests) and divorce. Dirty talk, long sex scene. - 2/2.5 S T A R S to Her Nemesis Until 5 PM 4) Jingle Bell Beard by Julie Kriss - Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ I hope you've enjoyed my final reads of 2023, but more than that, I truly hope you've enjoyed your own. Stay safe and well reader friends. Happy New Year! I love interacting with fellow readers and hearing about reader opinion, so if you'd like to talk books or about your own recent reads, get in touch and comment below! H A P P Y R E A D I N G ___________________________ M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read ___________________________ _______________________________________________ R E L A T E D P O S T S: ● 4 Month Bundle Reading Wrap Up #2 ● 4 Month Bundle Reading Wrap Up #1 ● January/February Reading Wrap Up 2023 ● November/December Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● September/October Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● July/August Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● May/June Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● March/April Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● January/February Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● November/December Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● September/October Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● July/August Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● May/June Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● March/April Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● January/February Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● November/December Reading Wrap Up 2020 ● September Reading Wrap Up 2020 ________________________________________________ SHARE ON FACEBOOK Leave a comment and let's talk...
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