This is always a fun month to get to for the year for me! Winter is so much fun with the holiday season in full swing and all the decorations that start to spring up. Granted the weather isn’t always the best, but I feel like everything else sorta helps make up the crummy cold and darker days. The hardest part about this month is the fact I can’t buy a lot of books for myself. Something about taking perfectly good gift ideas away from them lol! So I’ve gotten into the habit of taking pictures of the books I see and sending them to my mom. She passes the word along. Best part is if I don’t get one of them, I have a picture of the books as a reminder of what I wanted!

Also, I managed to hit my Goodreads Reading Challenge already! I hit my reading goal of 100 books for the year. I am stoked! Granted we have a full month left of the year. I wonder how many more I can squeeze in to the next 31 days. Do any of you guys have a reading goal for the year? Where are you at with it? Just remember, whether you hit the goal or not, the point is that you tried! And look at how many you were able to accomplish this year. That alone is pretty freaking impressive.

I hope everyone has an amazing December! If you celebrate Christmas – Merry Christmas! And to all the other holidays – Happy Holiday!

My Reading List for December 2021:

The Night Circus By Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Death of a Messenger By Robert McCaw

Someone’s found a body at Pohakuloa, the army’s live-fire training area. Bearing all the marks of ancient ritual sacrifice—the murder is the grisliest of Detective Koa Kane’s career.

The bizarre case draws Koa deep into his own Hawaiian roots. As Koa probes the victim’s past, he must sort through a rich roster of suspects—grave robbers, native activists, thieves, and star gazers.  Koa surmounts a host of obstacles as he pursues the murderer—an incompetent local medical examiner, hostility from haoles (Westerners) and sovereignty advocates, and myriad lies.

Did the victim stumble upon a gang of high-tech archaeological thieves? Or did he learn a secret so shocking it cost him his life and put others, too, in mortal danger? Will Hilo’s most respected native detective catch this fiend in time, or will the killer strike again—with even deadlier consequences?

Potions, Poisons, & Peril By Shea MacLeod

Deepwood, Oregon Cozy. Magical. Deadly.

Emory Chastain, owner of Healing Herbs, sells everything from love potions to herbal tea blends. She is also the most powerful witch of the modern era. When a stranger drops dead in her shop, Emory is left with no choice but to investigate.

Enlisting the help of her friends and the very handsome Noah, she soon discovers that someone is using magic to poison people, turning them stark raving mad. The clock is ticking, can Emory stop the killer? Or will time run out for the residents of Deepwood?

The Words to Bind By P. Stormcrow

It all started with a munch, a meetup for the kink-minded. How was Luna supposed to know that it would change her life forever?

A munch.

A play party.

A Dom that sets her passion aflame.

After a string of failed vanilla relationships leaves her feeling unfilled, Luna Weir decides to give the fetish scene one last shot. But with her one and only experience as a submissive leaving much to be desired, she has little hope that the lifestyle is her answer. So when she gives the local scene one final try in the form of a casual meetup for the kink-minded, the last thing she expects is to be pulled back into the world of ropes and commands.

But that is precisely where she meets Jacob Dakota—Mr. Tall, Dark and entirely Dominant. The experienced Dom commands respect from other Dominants and desire from the subs in the community who frequent The Playgrounds, a local fetish club. And when Jacob takes her under his wing, Luna senses he wants something more beyond the careful words and veiled glances.

Now she must figure out whether her feelings for Jacob are enough for her to take a leap of faith and relinquish control. Because a simple yes will bind her to him, heart and soul.

Days of Blood and Starlight By Laini Taylor

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Try a new cozy spot out for reading this month!

Feel free to join me in my own book club in discord! It is a place where we can all just talk about the latest books we are reading, authors can share what they are writing, and everyone can chat about our book we’ve all voted on reading for the club. Book Club and Their Shenanigans