Can you believe we are ONE week away from Christmas and two weeks away from the end of the year of 2022!!! I can’t believe it haha But I do love that the 1st of January falls on a Sunday though. Should be fun to start the year off with a full week ahead. So tell me what all of your plans are for the week of Christmas? I am planning on gift wrapping, reading lots of Christmas books, catching up on my Christmas movies, and getting my readathons and reading challenges all set up and ready to go for 2023! I will have some fun Christmas posts this week, and more favorite of the year posts! The last week of the year is where most of those posts will happen though. So good news for this past week is though I got the NEW Kindle Scribe and I absolutely LOVE it! I am just on it all the time and I love the processor, the size and the writing abilities. Its super neat and fun to use. Check out my review if you want more details on it.
Bookish Posts and Books Read of Week of December 11th through December 17th
Wow! This week was so good for me, with 13 books read! Yeah, it was such a strong week for me even though I did have a DNF. But everything else was super strong turnouts for me! It was a mix of current TBR reads and some Christmas delights! Although this upcoming week is when all the Christmas books will probably be done.
(All my books read and their reviews are on Goodreads, I have linked for you)
Book Listened-The Christmas Pact by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward–Rating 4 Star—-If you are looking for a short and endearing Christmas romance to read, I definitely recommend this one. I normally don’t go for illustrated covers, but I do love these authors. So that is what got me to pick this one up. I definitely loved this one here. It was so delightful, fun and sexy. Just had everything that entertained. I do wish it had a bit more Christmas feel to it, but other than that it was charming.
Book Read-Falling Embers by Catherine Cowles–Rating 4.5 Stars—This was utterly delightful! I just loved this one. I was nervous about it, because I know some readers didn’t enjoy this one like others in the series, but I ADORED it so much! There was so intimicy and growth and loved the unconventional heroine and the whole drama with the mama felt so genuine and my heart broke for the heroine. I definitely related with this as my mama is similar in some ways.
Book DNF’d-Anastaia by Sophie Lark—DNF—-I wanted to enjoy this one. This book was portrayed to be a historical fantasy romance with some relation to the tale of Anastasia. And yeah its not a romance. I don’t care what Lark fans say, this is NOT a romance. Its really just a historical fantasy, with romantic elements that has a HEA and light steam. I think this book is way overhyped. So know what you are getting with this one and its like 800 pages! Like holy smokes, yeah I just couldn’t get into this book and it was way more slow burn than I thought it would be. So make sure you read the reviews, I recommend the negative ones because the 5 star reviews aren’t communicating what this book is really about. But if you loved it, then I am happy for you, I just think this book is portrayed to be something it isn’t.
Book Read-Hidden Waters by Catherine Cowles—Rating 5 Stars—-This book was just perfection! I definitely understand why this book is so well loved and I definitely agree. It was everything that I could have hoped for with this one. It was so endearing, loved the family connection, the character growth and the romance was “chef’s kiss” perfection.
Book Listened-Safe At Last by Maya Banks-–Rating 2.5 Stars—I wanted to love this one but wow the first half was so ROUGH! I almost wanted to DNF this one. Now I kept with this one because the set up you just want to find out what happens. But the heroine was so annoying and just grated on my nerves. So I really struggled with this, and I know from the reviews on Goodreads, I am not alone in this haha but it was such a struggle.
Book Read-Blackmailing Mr. Bossman by Anna Hackett—Rating 4 Stars—This book was so wonderful, I absolutely loved this one here. It was so so good. Such a fun sexy suspense type of read, and it just had me on the edge all the way through. I can’t wait to read book 3 as the hero is such a broody grump who doesn’t believe in love haha
Book Read-Vicious Prince by Rina Kent—Rating 4 Stars—This one was so AMAZING! It’s arranged marriage, and unconventional heroine and the double-faceted hero. So there are plenty of complexities to this story and it was so much better than I was expecting.
Book Read-Painted Scars by Neva Alta J—Rating 4 Stars—-Such a solid mafia arranged marriage. If you are a fan of mafia romance, then this author definitely needs to be on your watchlist. So I can’t recommend this one enough. It was super addicting, a page turner and a really compelling read.
Book Read-Opulent Obsession by Stasia Black and Alta Hensley—Rating 4 Stars—This is a super HOT book, I just love the balance that we find in this one and the growth of the serial plot. If you liked the Initiation by Nikki Sloane, then you will enjoy these books.
Book Read-Home With You by Claudia Burgoa and Grahame Claire—Rating 3 Stars—This was a cute story, not as Christmas feeling as the first book, and I wasn’t a fan of the set up of the second chance trope. It just didn’t make sense to me. So I struggled more with this one and I just didn’t have an interest in the romance.
Book Read-Last Duke Standing by Julia London—Rating 4 Stars—Such a wonderful book that this one delivered. Such a strong historical and I had such a blast with it. I really adored it.
Book Listened-The Christmas Backup Plan by Lori Wilde—I finished this one off yesterday afteroon and it was so delightful and HILARIOUS! Like I didn’t expect it from Lori Wilde, while she has good humor I totally didn’t expect that the couple’s bickering would be such fun banter to listen to.
Book Listened-Once Upon A Christmas Carol by Karen Schalter—This book was AMAZING! and its in GRAPHIC AUDIO!!! So if you have Audible plus, I highly recommend this one. And its only 2 hours, and was so endearing and man had my emotions all over the place!
Elite New To Me Authors of 2022
2023 Updated Reading Tracker Spreadsheet
Elite Newly Published Released Books of 2022
Bookish Posts To Look Forward To This Week
2023 Spreadsheet Tracker Video
Christmas Movies Favorites
Elite of Atmospheric Reads of 2022
Elite of Best Writing of 2022
Elite of New Series of 2022
Elite of Hidden Gems of 2022
Christmas Book Tag
Current Reads
My Current Audiobook Christmas at the Amish Market by Shelley Shepard Gray. I haven’t listened to much of it yet, but I am really looking forward to trying out a new to me Amish author. I wasn’t able to get to the Lynsay Sands this past week, but I will be reading it over the weekend and is a great way to kick off my week. I can’t resist trying out more Catherine Cowles, and I am so curious in getting more about this heroine, I just fell in love with her in Hidden Waters. I need an addicting read so I know that Neva Alta J will deliver on that. Then I gotta work on my Christmas books haha I have so so many lined up that I want to get to.
Book Releases I am Excited For
An Alien Berserker For Christmas by Mina Carter
Deception by K. Webster
State of Shock by Marie Force
My Weekly TBR
These are books that I have a rough TBR for, I normally don’t like a super strict TBR as I tend to be a mood reader, so I might get to these books but depending on my mood, and with it Christmas time, my mood could be all over the place haha But I have a great mix of Christmas books, with some MC romance, a regular contemporary and even a sci fi romance. xsss
Favorite Book of the Week
New Additions to A&R
Last Chance Cafe by Linda Lael Miller
The Pool Boy by Nikki Sloane
Answering Atlas by Chantal Fernando
The Fine Print by Lauren Archer
I have the first book in that Cowles series. I want to start it soon, so I am glad to see you are enjoying it so much. I recently read Moonlighting. I liked it, but then again, I always enjoy Bowen’s book.
You make using the Scribe soo tempting! I’ll also wrap gifts and will work a lot!
Yay for a Lani Lynn Vale read!! I really enjoy her books so much. And Moonlighter by Sarina Bowen was GREAT!
I am going to spend time with my family, hopefully get some extra reading done and watch Christmas movies!
I have 2 Fires (1 original and 1 last year’s) and a Paperwhite, but lately I’ve been reading on my iPad. Maybe because I’m getting older and the screen is so large. lol It’s kinda heavy though so I bought a soft lap thingy to use and it works ok. I can’t believe Christmas is a week away! I’ll be wrapping presents this week and hopefully reading. I hope you have a fantastic Christmas-y week!
Wow, you had a fabulous reading week! I miss the weeks when I could read more than 2 books a week! I hope you have another great reading week!
I want to watch some Christmas movies this week! I’ve hardly seen any. although at least it looks like Christmas here now since we got a bunch of snow. 🙂
Hope you have a wonderful week and merry Christmas!!!
You got a lot read! I didn’t this week. Too many other activities going. Happy holidays!
You had a really great week. I can’t wait to read Lynsay Sands. Love her books.
I can’t believe we’re already at the end of the year either! You’ve had some great reads! I’ve enjoyed Catherine Cowles so I’ll have to read those ones too. I’m definitely grabbing Once Upon A Christmas Carol. I need some short ones to complete my audio challenge and I love the way it sounds. I’ve been enjoying Shelley Shepard Gray’s stories, Amish and contemp, too!
So glad you’re loving the Scribe! Can’t wait to read your review and decide if I “need” it, too. 🙂 I can’t tell you happy I am that you’re loving the Tattered & Torn series!! I just love those characters so much. Hidden Waters was definitely one of my favorites. Shattered Sea was a bit different for me since it didn’t include a member of the Easton family as a main character (even though they still featured heavily in the story). Laiken’s story hurt my heart – and there was a scene in the prologue that actually brought me to tears! Hope you’ll love that one, too.
Have a great week and happy holidays.
It is crazy that Christmas and the year of the year are almost here! Time seems to be speeding by. I am glad that you are enjoying your Scribe. It is a neat device. I hope that you have a fantastic week!