Month in Review: December 2023

 

I can't believe we're already in the new year, but somehow we are and I'd like to wish you all another Happy New Year! All of my end of year posts (most disappointing books, best books, reading stats, etc.) should be up in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned for those!

December was a crazy month for me, as I'm sure it was for many of you as well. There's always so much going on and so much to do, but with so little time to do it all in. That being said, it was also a nice month and I was able to see some family, read some good books, and do my best to enjoy life as it comes. It's been an extremely rough year and although I'm not someone who really tends to make resolutions or see the new year as a huge "fresh start," I'm trying to treat it that way a bit this year, haha. So here's hoping!

In book news, I read some great books in December! I also read some books I didn't love, but you can't win them all. I caved and read a March ARC (Empire of the Damned, I just had to check it out!), as well as made my way through a couple January ARCs to prepare, all of which were pretty solid. I tried to have a mix of books for review and just some more casual books to help get me through the stress of the month–and apparently it worked pretty well since I managed 14 books! I fell behind on blogging with everything else going on, but I'm hoping to get back on track in January.

How was your December? Were you ready for the year to end?? Let me know how your month was below and what you've been reading!

# books read: 14
   

Empire of the Damned (Empire of the Vampire #2) by Jay Kristoff ★★★★
Source: Publisher | Format: Physical ARC

Thoughts: This was a hefty ARC with the thinnest Bible-thin pages that took me a little while ot get through, but all in all a pretty solid sequel to Empire of the Vampire. I can't say this is my favorite Jay Kristoff book and it certainly has his trademark dramatic flair that can be hit or miss for people, but I've been generally curious to see where this story is going and look forward to the third book! My review for this will be up sometime in February closer to its publication.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde #2) by Hearther Fawcett ★★★★★
Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC

Thoughts: This was a perfect sequel that I loved so much! This has easily become one of my favorite series and it is one of the most enjoyable reading experiences lately. 

The Longest Autumn by Amy Avery ★★★
Source: NetGalley| Format: Audiobook

Thoughts: I was so excited about this one and thought the premise was really promising, but unfortunately the execution fell a bit flat. The prose was beautiful, but the world and the characters didn't really grab me as much as I'd hoped. I still found the general world-building setup intriguing, but unfortunately it wasn't for me. 

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers ★★★.75
Source: Publisher | Format: Physical ARC

Thoughts: The writing in this one is gorgeous, and I'd recommend it to fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Starless Sea, and books of that nature. The story was a little thin and felt a bit disjointed at times, but overall an interesting story. 

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir ★★.5
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook

Thoughts: This has been so hyped up over the years since its release and I've always been curious, so I finally got around to it and, sadly, I did not end up loving it as much as I'd hoped to. I get why some people love it, but I really struggled with caring about the characters and the story itself felt like something I'd read before (which I know sounds crazy since everyone says how weird this book is, but I didn't find it that weird??). 

The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente ★★★★★
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook

Thoughts: This was very Valente in style and I had a really great time with it. I have a review up for it as well, which I'll have linked below. 

The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen ★★★★
Source: NetGalley| Format: eARC

Thoughts: This was a very dark Nutcracker-inspired retelling that I found really unexpected and I ended up liking it quite a bit. 

Lady Macbethad by Isabelle Schuler ★★★★
Source: Owned | Format: Hardcover

Thoughts: I haven't read all that many Lady Macbeth-focused stories, so this was a fun surprise at how much I enjoyed it. (There's another Lady Macbeth story coming out this year and I'm really excited for it now!)

The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting by Evanna Lynch (re-read) ★★★★★
Source: Owned | Format: Paperback

Thoughts: I decided to give this a re-read because I loved it so much when I read it in 2022. I really love her insightfulness and musings on life, fulfillment, creativity, and so much more. Definitely a worthwhile read!

Palace of Shadows by Ray Celestin ★★★★
Source: | Format:

Thoughts: This was a Winchester house-inspired Gothic story that I really enjoyed. I have a review up for it already that you can find here!

The Fae Princes (#4) by Nikki St. Crowe
Source: Gift | Format: Paperback

Thoughts: I finally got around to reading this final (? I think) book in the series and it was so good! I've had so much fun with this series. 

Riot Act (Crooked Sinners #3) by Callie Hart
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook

Thoughts: Finally got around to finishing up this trilogy and all in all, I have to say it's pretty solid! I had fun with these ones. 

Vicious Queen (Bonyard Kings #2) by Becca Steele
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook

Thoughts: I'm not sure how I feel about this series, but it was one of those that I'd been recommended so much I just keep going, haha.

The Risk by S.T. Abby
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook

Thoughts: I've seen this one raved about so often and with such intensity that I finally decided to check ti out, and unfortunately I don't think it's for me. I found it a little on the boring side for me and I'm not interested enough to continue the series. 

DNF/To-Be-Finished:

None! (That I can recall...)

 

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Palace of Shadows by Ray Celestin
The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen
The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente

 Posts:

Month in Review: December 2023

Blog Memes:

Can't-Wait Wednesday:
12/6: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan & The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
12/13: Here in Avalon by Tara Isabella Burton & Exordia by Seth Dickinson
12/20: Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett & Divine Might by Natalie Haynes
12/27: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire & My Friends by Hisham Matar

The Friday Face-Off:

Current Read #19
Current Read #20
Current Read #21

Anticipated December 2023 Releases

 

December is always one of the slowest months in publishing with all of the holidays and general winding down of the year, but it's not to be ignored because there are still a number of amazing books coming out. I'm possibly most excited for Foz Meadows' All the Hidden Paths, as it's a sequel that I've been very eagerly anticipating. What December releases have you been looking forward to? Let me know if it's any of these or if I missed any of your most anticipated!

Into Siberia: George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of by Gregory J. Wallance || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder by K.J. Parker || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Grievar's Blood (The Combat Codes Saga #2) by Alexander Darwin || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Lost Tomb by Douglas Preston || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

A River of Golden Bones by A.K. Mulford || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong || December 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

What Waits in the Woods by Terri Parlato || December 26th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Her Dark Wings by Melinda Salisbury || December 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

What are your anticipated December releases?

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Into Siberia by Gregory J. Wallance & The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong

       

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are:

Into Siberia: George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia by Gregory J. Wallance
Publication: December 5th, 2023
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"In the late nineteenth century, close diplomatic relations existed between the United States and Russia. All that changed when George Kennan went to Siberia in 1885 to investigate the exile system and his eyes were opened to the brutality Russia was wielding to suppress dissent.

Over ten months Kennan traveled eight thousand miles, mostly in horse-drawn carriages, sleighs or on horseback. He endured suffocating sandstorms in the summer and blizzards in the winter. His interviews with convicts and political exiles revealed how Russia ran on the fuel of inflicted pain and fear. Prisoners in the mines were chained day and night to their wheelbarrows as punishment. Babies in exile parties froze to death in their mothers’ arms. Kennan came to call the exiles’ experience in Siberia a “perfect hell of misery.”

After returning to the United States, Kennan set out to generate public outrage over the plight of the exiles, writing the renowned Siberia and the Exile System . He then went on a nine-year lecture tour to describe the suffering of the Siberian exiles, intensifying the newly emerging diplomatic conflicts between the two countries which last to this day. In a book that ranks with the greatest adventure stories, Gregory Wallance’s Into Siberia is a thrilling work of history about one man’s harrowing journey and the light it shone on some of history’s most heinous human rights abuses."

As we know, I love any type of survival/adventure nonfiction story, and I think the fact that this touches on some bigger historical impacts as well should make for a potentially difficult but fascinating read. 

The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong
Publication: December 5th, 2023
Minotaur Books
Hardcover. 336 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.

After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.

A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses―or Pellars―but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next Tamsyn.

To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night."

I'm a sucker for anything gothic, historical, and that takes place in a creepy location. I think this sounds like the perfect gothic read for the current season.

Can't-Wait Wednesday: All the Hidden Paths (The Tithenai Chronicles #2) by Foz Meadows & The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy

      

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are:

All the Hidden Paths (The Tithenai Chronicles #2) by Foz Meadows
Publication: December 5th, 2023
Tor Books
Hardcover. 528 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"The follow-up to Foz Meadows's A Strange and Stubborn Endurance , a sultry political & romantic fantasy exploring gender, sexuality, identity, and self-worth.

With the plot against them foiled and the city of Qi-Katai in safe hands, Velasin and Caethari have begun to test the waters of their relationship. But the wider political ramifications of their marriage are still playing out across two nations, and all too soon, they’re summoned north to Tithena’s capital city, Qi-Xihan, to present themselves to its monarch.

With Caethari newly invested as his grandmother’s heir and Velasin’s old ghosts gnawing at his heels, what little peace they’ve managed to find is swiftly put to the test. Cae’s recent losses have left him racked with grief and guilt, while Vel struggles with the disconnect between instincts that have kept him safe in secrecy and what an open life requires of him now.

Pursued by unknown assailants and with Qi-Xihan’s court factions jockeying for power, Vel and Cae must use all the skills at their disposal to not only survive, but thrive – because there’s more than one way to end an alliance, and more than one person who wants to see them fail."

I absolutely adored the first book in the Tithenai Chronicles, A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, and I genuinely cannot wait to finally get a chance to read the sequel!

The End of the World is a Cul de Sac: Stories by Louise Kennedy
Publication: December 5th, 2023
Riverhead Books
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"In The End of the World is a Cul de Sac the political is intertwined with the personal, as Louise Kennedy reveals how ordinary lives can get caught up in a wider, national drama.

Sarah, abandoned by her partner, sits alone in their brand new house.

Orla, facing the strange revenge of her husband, is forced to judge a contest in the local fête.

Peter raises his daughter in rural seclusion, at what might as well be the end of the world.

Louise Kennedy started writing at the age of forty-seven, and her prose is instilled with a clarity and wisdom born of her own experience. This collection announces a major new voice in literary fiction for the twenty-first century."

I've found I really enjoy checking out collections of short stories from new authors, and I'm intrigued by the theming of this one.