Category: Elämäni series – memories

Elämäni series

Book wrap-up 2025

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I have to say, with a total of 163 books (60 137 pages), I’m too overwhelmed to make any top picks, but I’ll try to compile some top lists. First, though, let’s look at the stats a bit:

It’s all StoryGraph this time since it’s more accurate than Goodreads, but feel free to look at my Goodreads Year in Books 2025, if you like.

Now, for some top picks then. I did do a “book of the month” pick for my general Year 2025 review (post in Finnish), so that’s a good place to start, I guess. Though it IS a bit random, picking one of many excellent reads per month, but here you go, my Book of the Month picks:

Perhaps next up could be another round of picks throughout the year, 20 books along the way that I feel I want to highlight here. Some of them (well, quite many, actually) are part of a series, but since I they were separate reads instead of entire series in a binge (you know, starting a new series, latest published book in one, that kind of thing), they’re mentioned here, not in the favorite series list.

So, on to the top series then, ie. series with more than one book published, and that I read in their (current) entirety during last year (or as far as I had time to). So many series! I picked 11 favorites – no number in mind, just took the ones that stood out, even if only a little bit – which left at least a few good series unmentioned, but, you know.

I’m generally quite good at choosing my books and love or at least enjoy almost everything I read quite a bit, but there’s always bound to be some I thought and wanted to love but just didn’t, some I just didn’t like as well as I imagined I would, that simply aren’t my cuppa, and the sequels that simply do not live up to the expectations set by the preceding books in the series. I mean, I didn’t even DNF one single book, so even these 13 least liked books were by no means bad, just the ones I liked least or was disappointed with.

Well, that wraps it up rather neatly – though it DOES pain me not to be able to list all those other awesome books I read that didn’t make it on any of the top pick lists. So I’ll just add here the full set as a pic collage from the Goodreads Year in Books – and don’t forget my monthly reading wrap-ups! They include a bit of an intro to every book I read, too.

On to a new reading year! Starting with Whispers Most Deadly (Dunhollow 2) by Emma MacDonald (print), and The Burning Witch book 3 by Delemhach (Kindle), which, as mentioned, I’ve already read halfway.

December reads, 2025

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December is a tricky month in the way that there’s a lot of holidays that sort of offer more time to read, but then at the same time those holidays are full of baking and cooking and celebrating with the family. Also, some work events and my son’s graduation (though the party will be right after New Year). Still, I obviously found plenty of time to read too, finishing 13 books (5005pages), bringing the total of the year to a dazzling 163 books, 60 137 pages (year wrap-up to come). So, my last month of 2025:

  • The Austen Intrigue (Regency Secrets 4), by Julia Golding – another regency mystery solved by Dora and Jacob, this time with Jane Austen as the main supporting character. Charming and witty with a touch of danger, as always.
  • The Forget-Me-Not Library, by Heather Webber – a touch of magic and a lot of love and goodwill is the recipe for personal healing and finding a home in this lovely story. Webber at her best.
  • The Last Wish of Bristol Keats (The Courting of Bristol Keats 2), by Mary E. Pearson – while maybe I wasn’t entirely happy with the ending, it was still a rather excellent ending to this enchanting fae tale.
  • The House Witch trilogy, by Delemhach (Emilie Nikota) – a lowly cook, a peasant, a supposedly weak witch, who turns out to be a lot more than he seems. Not to mention his familiar, who all but ends up running the entire nation! Charming, hilarious, sweet and romantic, with mysteries to solve and the day to save; everything I love in a book!
  • The Princess of Potential (The House Witch 4), by Delemhach (Emilie Nikota) – the stand-alone book 4 is the story of princess Alina finding her potential, her love, and her place in the world, setting the scene for The Burning Witch trilogy. As excellent as the preceeding trilogy.
  • The Bookshop Below, by Georgia Summers – a bit of a disappointment as I so wanted to love this book, but ended up only liking it. It was it all, but the pace was too slow for me, it sort of slugs along in an ethereal way that is enchanting but not entirely engaging.
  • Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore, by Emily Krempholtz – now this one I simply devoured! Charming, quirky, warm and good at heart. A story of deception and new beginnings. Of victory over the evil, both without and within.
  • The House Saphir, by Marissa Mayer – magical mystery that reads like a fairytale. Absolutely loved the story and the unraveling of the history of the mystery at hand. Learning to trust, learning to ask for help, learning to love. Great read!
  • Books 1 & 2 of The Burning Witch trilogy, by Delemhach (Emilie Nikota) – Kat, the daughter of the House Witch, is charming though maybe a bit annoying (well, she does proudly hold the title of the most annoying person in the world). This book starts her story, how she finds her place, purpose and love. If she wasn’t a witch, I’d just call her ADHD.
  • Cackle, by Rachel Harrison – Start anew, get adopted by a witch, discover you’re a witch, find your own strength while being manipulated. I dunno. There was a lot to love in this story, but still I couldn’t, not entirely. Just rubbed me the wrong way, if only subtly.

Dec 14, I seem to have found a new series (of series) to obsess over: The House Witch series by Delemhach. I finished the first book last night and enjoyed it immensely! It’s humorous with lots of action, quirky lovable characters, loyalty and love. It radiates good will and warmth, that makes you believe that everythig will always turn our alright (and it does!) – even when there’s some evil plans threatening the totally adorable kingdom.

As noted, it seems to be an entire series of series – the original trilogy, the Burning Witch trilogy (daughter of the House Witch), a standalone story of the crown princess of Daxaria (The Princess of Potential), and The Ether Witch duology (or trilogy? is there a third book to come?*) about the son of the House Witch.

*) Yes, I learned that there will be a third and final book in the Ether Witch trilogy. Also, The Princess of Potential definitely stands as book 4 of The House Witch trilogy and should be read before The Burning Witch books, if one wants to read them in their (chrono)logical order.

Dec 23, I finished The Bookshop Below, by Georgia Summers, yesterday, and while I liked it a lot, I was disappointed that I didn’t love it like I had expected. It was a bit too slow paced, a bit too… ethereal, maybe? Today I started Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore, by Emily Krempholtz, and am happy to find that one seems to be exactly what I expected.

Vuoden poiminnat 2025

Marilka1 Comment

Josko tämän tällä kertaa suomeksi, kun kirjat ja statsit kuitenkin taas englanniksi. Vuoden poiminnat, kuukausi kerrallaan. Melko rauhallistaha tämä elämä nykyisin, tasaista kotielämää.

Tammikuu

Eläinlääkärissä oksetuttamassa suklaita
  • Aloitin töissä uudessa roolissani Head of Delivery
  • Ace söi levyllisen tummaa suklaata, mutta selvittiin säikäyksellä

Kuukauden kirja: Paris – Paris Hilton

Helmikuu

Timmy-vahtina
  • Olin muutaman päivän Timmy-vahtina tosikoisen ollessa reissussa

Kuukauden kirja: Rachel Greenlaw – The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells

Maaliskuu

Inkoossa, Café Wilhelmsdalin terassilla
  • Aurinkoinen mutta tuulinen päiväretki Inkooseen ja Tammisaareen
  • Ace 5v

Kuukauden kirja: Benjamin Alire Sáenz – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Huhtikuu

13-vuotias Meggie
  • Meggie 13v
  • Tosikoisen synttärikahvit

Kuukauden kirja: Mary E. Pearson – The Courting of Bristol Keats 

Toukokuu

Kukkia isoäidin haudalle
  • Timmy 13v
  • Isoäidin syntymästä 100 vuotta, kukkia haudalle

Kuukauden kirja: Colin Mochrie – Not Quite the Classics

Kesäkuu

Fiskarsin vanha paloauto
  • Firman liikuntapäivä Fiskarsissa
  • Täytin 50v, kahvikekkerit perheen kesken
  • Jääkaappi-pakastin hajosi, uuden saamisessa olikin vähän draamaa mukana [A Tale of Two Fridges]

Kuukauden kirja: Sylvie Cathrall – A Letter from the Lonesome Shore

Heinäkuu

Vanha Porvoo
  • Kesäloma
  • Puolison sisko Jenkeistä kesävieraana pari viikkoa
  • Päiväreissu Suomenlinnaan
  • Parin päivän reissu Turun saaristoon
  • Kuunariristeily Helsingin edustalla
  • Päiväretki Porvooseen ja Pellinkiin

Kuukauden kirja: Heini Harve-Rytsälä – Helikopterilääkäri

Elokuu

Terassin uusi kaide ja syyskukat täydessä kukassa
  • Takaisin töihin kesäloman jälkeen

Kuukauden kirja: Sangu Mandanna – A Witch’s Guide to Magical Inkeeping

Syyskuu

Hans Zimmer & Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Esikoisen ja keskimmäisen synttärikahvit
  • Hans Zimmerin elokuvamusiikki -konsertti esikoisen kanssa
  • Oikeaan jalkaan lilja-tatuointi

Kuukauden kirja: Haruki Murakami – Kafka On the Shore

Lokakuu

Iltaruskon Helsinkiä

Kuukauden kirja: Dan Brown – The Secret of Secrets 

Marraskuu

Joulukaktuksen ennakkokukat
  • Isän puoliso joutui sairaalaan, saattohoitoon

Kuukauden kirja: Courtney Floyd – Higher Magic

Joulukuu

Pojan valmistuminen
  • Isän puoliso kuoli
  • Esikoinen valmistui AMK-kandiksi

Kuukauden kirja: Emily Krempholtz – Violet Thistlewaite is not a Villain Anymore

Year 2024 in Short

MarilkaLeave a comment

No major events, no huge highs, no deep lows, just life. But life is quite enough, quiet life is good. Let’s do a short recap of what that quiet life looked like in 2024.

Starting with the Best 9 from Instagram and the Year Wrap from Spotify. Spotify requires a tiny bit of an explanation: I read the book The 69 Eyes in the spring which lead me to listen through all their albums, adding songs to my Liked Songs as I was listening. I mostly listen to music only while driving or otherwise out and about alone, so the listening minutes aren’t that high and listening to the full discography of a band that’s been around for a while does cause a peak in the stats, for sure.

My bookish year reviews are separate, I won’t mix them into this. I read 148 books, 52309 pages – so you can see that has taken up a whole lot of my year 😀 See my 2024 in books posts:

On to the monthly reviews!

January

  • We built a new bed out of solid walnut. H had ordered the wood precut from an Estonian company, but built it the rest of the way himself (with some help from me)
  • I read 10 books

February

  • My dad turned 75 and I helped him host a small birthday celebration
  • I had a week off work
  • I read 16 books
  • My ex-mother-in-law (my kids’ grandmother) died (on my dad’s birthday :O)

March

  • Funeral of my ex-mother-in-law was in early March
  • Ace turned 4
  • I read 10 books
  • We went on a little roadtrip in south-eastern Finland (pit-stop at Malmgård) on Easter

April

  • Meggie turned 12
  • My daughter turned 21
  • I read 14 books
  • We had a fullblown “takatalvi” ie. winter came back for a week or so

May

  • Timmy turned 12
  • It was sunny and warm, I was reading on the terrace a lot, H opened the grilling season
  • A bird made it’s nest in the wheelwell of our AMG; it’s shifter or smtg broke in the spring and it sat in the yeard for some time before we managed to push it into the garage
  • I read 14 books

June

  • I turned 49
  • Someone (well, at least I believe it was intentional vandalism) loosed the lugnuts on the wheels of our other car resulting in me losing the front wheel on the driver’s side while doing 130km/h on the motorway, giving me serious anxiety and PTSD for some weeks
  • I visited the Lohja Tytyri Mines for a company dinner
  • We went without a (working) car for most of June
  • I read 10 books
  • I took a train to Hämeenlinna to visit Aulanko with my old friend from the Uni
  • My godmother died

July

  • We were on summer vacation (4 weeks)
  • We went on a roadtrip to Kotka (Katariinanpuisto and Langinkoski) and the Strömfors Foundry village
  • I read 11 books
  • The funreal for my godmother was in July

August

  • We had the 30y reunion of our Theology class
  • August marked 4 years of sobriety for H and me
  • I took a couple of tattoos: a chameleon on my arm and a falcon on my shoulder
  • I read 14 books
  • My step-grandson was born

September

  • My son turned 24
  • My step-daughter turned 23
  • We had all family here for the b-day celebrations of those two older ones
  • Had some warm days left so we still had some meals outside, e.g. a crawdad feast
  • I got a sunflower tattoo on my leg
  • I read 15 books

October

  • Had a bit of an accident with Ace: he accidentally bit me in my hand when we were playing tug-of-war
  • I read 11 books
  • Got a couple of funky denim caps with ears – bully and rabbit

November

  • November brought sleet and storms
  • A tree fell down in our backyard during one of the storms
  • I read 12 books
  • We had our company Christmas party in Herrankukkaro

December

  • Helsinki Christmas Market ❤
  • Christmas, kids over for some goodies, food, and their Christmas gifts
  • Lots of Christmas baking
  • Brunch in the city with some extended family on mom’s side
  • I read 11 books

Happy New Year 2025!

This year I’ll be 50 and fabulous (as ever) in June. I’ve also got some new stuff at work, with a new role starting tomorrow. What else? Nobody knows yet. I just hope this year will be as uneventful as the last one, with peace and happiness for everyone. And books. Lots and lots of books.

The 147 Books of 2024

Marilka1 Comment

Let’s get down to business then, with the year of books 2024 full review. As the title states, I read a total of 147 books this past year, with one more getting finished probably tonight. Didn’t quite make it to 150, which was my unofficial goal. I don’t generally do goals – I mean, reading is not a chore – and didn’t start this year with one either, but sometime in the early autumn it seemed like 150 would come to pass so my brain turned it into a goal without asking me 😂

So anyway, those 147 books translate to roughly 52000 pages; StoryGraph says 51909 while Goodreads claims 52430, but I figure StoryGraph is closer to the truth because there I actually select the correct edition for each book, while in Goodreads I don’t really care to. Which pretty much simply demonstrates that pages are an inaccurate measurement for reading too, as it goes 😉

[Edit. I finished the first Lady Julia Grey by Deanna Raybourn 43 minutes before the year ended, so actually 148 books, bringing the page count to 52,309 (StoryGraph). And I could even say I did hit the 150 mark, since one of this year’s books is a bundle of three: White Haven Winter is a compilation of books 4-6 of the White Haven Withces series by T.J. Green.]

Be as it may, I like the stats, so before delving into the actual books, let’s look at them a bit deeper. Or at least list a few more numbers:

  • Average book length was 356 (Goodreads) / 358 (StoryGraph) pages
  • The Great God Pan (Arthur Machen) was the shortest book, 41 pages
  • The longest book was Les Miserables (Victor Hugo), 1264 pages (and I do admit to not reading every word or even page entirely faithfully, so a bit of cheat there)
  • Fantasy was, unsurprisingly, the top genre, again, with 70 books
  • Romance comes next with 47 books, Mystery comes third with 27 books, Historical 25 books
  • Classics are quite high in my stats this year with a total of 17 books; partly though not solely thanks to the Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club books (read more about both in my bookish notes)
  • As always, there was a bit of non-fiction in the mix too, this year 8% which means 11 books, not quite one per month
  • As for the format, surprisingly print wins with it’s 55% ie. 81 books, even though I read a book of each format at any given time, finishing about 3 books per week – and if I’d have to guess, I’d say it’s usually 2 Kindle for 1 print, but I guess my holiday reading (mainly print) tipped the scale then
  • Languages: all of 5 books in Finnish. It would’ve been 8 had I found the Tuomainen books (The Rabbit Factor trilogy) in print, but as it went, I ended up reading them in English on my Kindle (more about that too in the aforementioned bookish notes)
  • My top authors this year were Deanna Raybourn 9 books (the Veronica Speedwells, and I now started her Lady Julia Grey series), RuNyx 7 books (Gothikana and the 6 books of Dark Verse), and TJ Klune also 7 books (some older ones, and the newest one, Somewhere Beyond the Sea)

Ready for the montly rollup? Ready or not, here we go! Some months I read more, some months I read a bit less, but I always read!

January – 10 books

Picks of the month:

  • First book of the year: Assistant to the Villain, by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
    What Cha-Bang way to start the reading year! Funny, witty, nutty – one of my favorite books of the year (in the series category, since in August, book 2 was released, and next September I’ll get more villainy goodness when book 3 comes out!)
  • Klune of the month: Into This River I Drown
    Older TJ Klune, sweet and lovely as ever! Oh, how it touched my soul ❤
  • Faeries of the month: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of the Faeries and Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
    Took me a bit to get into the story, in the first book, but ended up loving it! Also in the favorites of the year, also in the series category (and also, getting some more of Emily Wilde in 2025 too when book 3 comes out in February)

February – 16 books

Picks of the month:

  • Silly fun: Mead Mishaps series by Kimberly Lemming
    Three books in total, three interracial romances of the fantasy creature kind. Adventures, enemies to lovers, a bit of smut too.
  • Klune of the month: Murmuration
    Another adorable sweet story from his older works ❤
  • Best series: The Shepherd King duology, by Rachel Gillig
    Fantasy, romance, but of the darker variety. Awesome storyline, suspence and mystery even.
  • Top single: Gothikana by RuNyx
    A dark neo-gothic mystery (and romance), that had me hooked and made me look into more RuNyx
  • The disappointment: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
    Not the story but the writing style. The book lacks all of the ambiance of the musical/opera.

March – 10 books

Picks of the month:

  • The Zamonia book: The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
    I love Booklings and I love Animatomes and I love Zamonia and I love Bookholm with it’s bookstores and the underground labyrinth. I wish they would translate more of Zamonia to English!
  • Klune of the month: The Bones Beneath My Skin
    The girl who loved bacon. And the romance, obviously. And the, everything about this book, too! I noticed they’re publishing this with the new cover styles in 2025 – I definitely will get me a copy!
  • Top single: A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey
    Dreamy, surreal, absolutely wonderful fantasy read, almost like magical realism except that there was nothing realistic about any of it. Except that the setting was London. Somewhere not in time.
  • The disappointment: The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
    So dreary and kinda boring! A product of it’s time, for sure, but so very acutely not my time.
  • The book I wanted to love but didn’t: The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
    It had all the makings, but I didn’t love it like I expected I would. I liked it, for sure. I just didn’t love it.

April – 14 books

Picks of the month:

  • The Dislike: Yön Kantaja by Katja Kallio
    Not that there was anything wrong with the book in particular, I just found it utterly fucking boring!
  • The non-fiction: Andy by Lamppu Laamanen
    Crazy motherfucker that Andy. Reading this book was like reading my teenage diaries, except obviously my shit was not even a % as wild as his. And nobody even knows what is true and what not. I enjoyed it anyway!
  • Klune of the month: John and Jackie
    A bit less than most Klune, but a sweet story anyway.

May – 14 books

Picks of the month:

  • Top single, also feel-good of the month: Elodie’s Library of Second Chances by Rebecca Raisin
    A book that makes you smile, that wipes away all the darkness left by the sullenly reads preceding it. Makes you feel cozy and warm.
  • Klunes of the month: Crisped + Sere, Withered + Sere
    I never thought I’d encounter a Klune I didn’t like, but here we had it. This was a dark dystopia duology that I just could not like. So, the exception to the Klune rule.
  • The crazy romantacy: Not Your Average Hot Guy and The Date From Hell by Gwenda Bond
    Funny, hot, crazy fun!

June – 10 books

Picks of the month:

  • The disappointments: The Atlas Paradox and The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake
    I liked The Atlas Six well enough though even that would never have made my top list. Paradox was ok, Complex was a total bore. I really can’t suffer books that dwell inside of the characters heads too much – I have enough of that in my own. I want stories that flow instead of stagnant inter-relationship ponds.
  • The surprise delight: How to Become a Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
    Ready Player One meets D&D. With footnotes. With footnotes that have footnotes! Funny, dark humor, adventure. And to be continued; book 2 will be published in May 2025
  • The non-fiction: The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
    Coulda fooled me – this book is total Indy Jones stuff and then some! In the jungles of Honduras.
  • Top single: Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban
    Lesbian romance situated in the British high society on the 1800s. This is actually part 1 of a duology, but the second book wasn’t quite on the same level even though I certainly enjoyed that one too!

July – 11 books

Picks of the month:

  • Top single: A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
    Something of scifi mystery with a very warm heart. Book 2 will be out in May 2025
  • The disappointment: Children od Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
    Not surprisingly, though, since book 2 was already nowhere near as good as the first one. Not bad, just not very good either. A meh.
  • The tome: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
    I love the story. I love the musical, but even then, the book didn’t disappoint. Still, there was just too much irrelevant stuff there. I mean, if Hugo was trying to get this published today, he’d be told to cut out at least a third of the book. Still, I loved it, even though I skipped and skimmed that third or so.

August – 14 books

Picks of the month:

  • The long-awaited sequel: The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness
    Book 5 in the All Souls series. It was originally a trilogy, then there was book 4 (which wasn’t quite as good as the original trilogy), then 5 (which again was right up there!). And now we are to expect a book 6 maybe next year, with rumors about even book 7!
  • The not quite as long-awaited sequel: Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
    Book 2 in the Assistant to the Villain series. Obviously waited only for half a year for this one. Such a fantastic series, this!
  • Top single: The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
    I thought this was fantasy, but it wasn’t. It definitely is fantastical drama/adventure though, and a delightful feel-good story!
  • The magical realism: The Story Collector by Evie Woods
    The magic is so subtle, but it’s there. And the story is so lovely, so heart-warming. Could’ve been a top single, but damn it, Top 10 only holds ten books!

September – 15 books

Picks of the month:

  • The long-awaited sequel: The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams by Karen Hawkins
    Book 4 in the Dove Pond series. There are seven of those sisters, so should be 3 more books to come. Subtle magical realism, sweet romance. Cozy reads, these are.
  • The Finnish crime: Merkitty by Max Seeck
    My favorite Finnish author. He spins the suspence masterfully, and while the murders are violent, they don’t feel gory, they don’t make me feel dirty.
  • Top single: In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker
    A witchy magical realism with twists and turns, a mystery and a romance or two, and a happy ending.
  • The story behind a rock album: Clockwork Angels by Kevin J. Anderson (and Neil Peart)
    The fantasy story that puts meat around the bones of the Rush album of the same title. An awesome story of its own worth, but a gem for a Rush fan
  • The disappointment: The Thorn and the Blossom by Theodora Goss
    I though it would be good but it felt like experimental writing. The same love story, told twice. The magical twist is cool, but the execution was not what I expected, by how much I loved her series The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club (see favorite series at the end)

October – 11 books

Picks of the month:

  • Top single: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
    Oh, the sweetness of this book! The warmth and the love!
  • Klune of the month: Somewhere Beyond the Sea by
    The other top single, also the long-awaited sequel. Book 2 of the Cerulean Chronicles. Heart-warming story where love and caring win the day
  • The slight disappointment: The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling
    I loved the first two books of the Ex Hex series, but this was not as good. Not bad, just not as good as I expected.

November – 12 books

Picks of the month:

  • The long-awaited sequel: Now or Never by Janet Evanovich
    Book 31 of the Steph Plum series. Can’t believe how many there are already! New one out every year or so – I started reading Plums when I was pregnant with my younger kid who’s 21yo now. At that point, there were maybe 6 books out. It was love at first book and it’s never turned cold!
  • The non-fiction: The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop
    I didn’t even know she was a Broadway DANCER before becoming an actress! She does have that elegance, though, and her background lends a cool twist to her line in Dirty Dancing, when she comments to her husband that Baby probably gets it (the dancing, the moves) from her.
  • The book I wanted to love but didn’t: Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
    I don’t mind reading children’s books, like this one with the demography of about 12 year olds. This starter of a series was not bad, not even disappointing, I just didn’t love it as a I thought I would. I will get and read the other books as they come, for sure.

December – 10 books

Picks of the month:

  • Top single: The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
    This most certainly IS fantasy, not even just magical realism. Amazing story, and well worth all the hype.
  • The meh: The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore
    The Pumpkin Spice Café (first book in the series) was a rather nice romance with a touch of mystery, but in this one, the storyline was just a lame excuse for the smut. And that’s just a bit boring to me. I’d rather watch 5 minutes of porn than read a book with no other content than smut.
  • The book I wanted to love but didn’t: The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
    A book I so wanted to love, but ended up merely liking, sort of. A cute story as it is, but a bit dragging and boring. At least it has a real sweet ending!
  • The gothy mystery: Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris
    Fabulous read, could’ve been a top single too.
  • The disappointment: The Moonlight Market by Joanne Harris
    Also a book I wanted to love but didn’t. The main character was just so STUPID! And the ending? I’m not sure it was all that satisfying.

The Top Lists of 2024

A lot of fantastic, fabulous reads in the year and not all of them got on the top list either, since I limited myself to 10. Skirted that a touch, though, by making a separate list of my favorite (complete, or as complete as they were this year) series 😉 So, the Top Lists, s’il vous plait:

Top Singles (may be part of a series, but singled out):

  • Gothikana, by RuNyx
  • A Market of Dreams and Destiny, by Trip Galey
  • Elodie’s Library of Second Chances, by Rebecca Raisin
  • Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend, by Emma R. Alban
  • A Letter to the Luminous Deep, by Sylvie Cathrall
  • The Wishing Game, by Meg Shaffer
  • In the Shadow Garden, by Liz Parker
  • The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst
  • Somewhere Beyond the Sea, by TJ Klune
  • The Lost Story, by Meg Shaffer

Top Series (as complete as they were by the end of 2024)

  • Assistant to the Villain series by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (book 3 coming in Sept, 2025)
  • Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett (book 3 coming in Feb, 2025)
  • The Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig
  • The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series by Theodora Goss
  • Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn
Been one heck of a reading year! On to the next one - Excelsior! as Veronica Speedwell would say.

P.S. Edit: one last book of the year and sneak peak to the next

I finished the excellent first book in the Lady Julia Grey series, Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn just before the year changed. Thus, I will start the new reading year with book 2, Silent in the Sanctuary in Kindle and The Wicked King (book 2 of The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black) in print (I’m maybe 70 pages in).