We’re in December and already blogging is taking a backseat. I had no doubt this would happen this month though. Even with our current restrictions on seeing other households Christmas still manages to take over a little. In my case, in the form of online shopping because I’ve not finished my Christmas shopping. My time on my laptop and online is spent browsing websites rather than writing posts and reading your blog posts which sucks because I’ve seen some really good posts pop up on my blog feed the past week. I suppose if I had better time management skills in my personal life this wouldn't happen but where’s the fun in that? I’ll just be stuck in playing catch up instead and really that is something I’m much more used to.

 

What have I been doing the past couple of weeks? Honestly, reading and working. Bit of TV thrown in to the mix. Work has gotten busier with training and work, probably because everyone is getting ready for Christmas. My team will just have me and another new starter working so it will be a case of the blind leading the blind. But how much can go wrong in the space of a couple of weeks? I really do think it’ll be ok, and I’m 2 and a bit months in, I sort of know what I’m doing at this point so I’ll be alright. Talking of work, it has weirdly helped me get slightly more into the Christmas spirit. They’ve been doing some challenges online to get us to win a Christmas hamper (everyone who takes part gets one). I’ve only done one but it has been fun to see the different challenges. They’ve also given us Christmas Eve off and given us vouchers as a bonus. It’s nice to actually have things to be excited about over Christmas I also watched Dash & Lily on Netflix and I think that helped a little.

 

Like I said, blogging has fallen on the back burner and it sucks. I’ve got half finished drafts for a couple of posts but I knew I wouldn’t have the time to finish them so they;’ve been hanging about waiting for me to finish. I’m hoping next week I’m better rested and have more time to blog. I do have a week’s worth of your posts to catch up on so it might take a while., Thankfully, I think everyone works a bit slower this time of year so it’s not as many posts as some weeks.

 

Then the only other thing to talk about is Taylor Swift’s new album, Evermore. I have been listening to that album on repeat. I am fully obsessed. If you haven’t listened to it already who even are you? My current favourites are tis the season, no body no crime and long story short.

 

What I’ve Been Reading

I started some of my #SnowInLoveBingo reads and most have been total winners. I already knew I liked Beautiful Wreck but it was great rereading it/ Well Met and Spoiler Alert were both amazing. I actually think Spoiler Alert could be a favourite of the whole year. The Ex Games wasn’t a total loss, I just expected a little more. It fell a bit flat compared to other Jennifer Echols reads. I’m currently buddy reading Thirteen Storeys with Vera which I have mixed feelings about. I tried the audio first but my head just wasn’t focused enough to pay attention to the book so I had to get the ebook instead which works a lot better for me. If it has a really good ending it’ll be a winner for me but it all hinges on how that book ends I think.

 

New To Me

Turns out I lied last time I did one of these posts, I had in fact bought books and I’d just forgotten so there are a few books here this week. I’ve even read a few and there will be more before the end of the month. I got a £50 Amazon gift card as part of some insurance I took out so I’ll be treating myself to some books (feel free to rec some of your favourite reads to me below).

And I even got one ARC. ARC requests are now reserved for only my most anticipated books and this one is from an author I’ve read since I was a teenager, Sarra Manning. Also, there’s a staffy rescue in this book and Milo is a staffy so you know I needed to read this (a staffy is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier in case you don’t know, I feel like it comes under the umbrella of pit bull in the US).

 

What have you been doing lately? Am I the only one finding ways to be busy when I can’t even go out and meet up with friends? And tell me some must buy books to treat myself with my gift card.

 

At the beginning of September I saw the #FallIntoRomBingo on Twitter that Jen and Dani had organised. I was so excited by the bingo card and wrote a whole post how I planned to take part… and then fell into a two month long reading slump. It was the ultimate self sabotage. Life had other plans but luckily for me, Jen, Dani, and Aarya decided to do a Winter bingo card and so I get to try again with #SnowInLoveBingo instead. I have tried to pick a lot of books already on my shelves to use for each square but we all know as soon as you write a TBR list you promptly want to read anything but the books on that list. Hopefully, that won’t be the case here as I really want to read all of these.

Row 1

Outside Europe

This one I thought I would struggle with but then I immediately thought of Therese Beharrie because her books are fabulously and she always has me ready to book a plane ticket somewhere. I chose One Last Chance mostly because I’ve had it on my Kindle to read for a while. It is the perfect time to give it a shot.

 

Family Drama

This one I did struggle with so read through Jen’s recommendation post which had a lot of good suggestions on (half of my picks were guided by that post, although I conveniently already had a few of them chosen). Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai fits, I hear there is some family drama in it so it’s time to finally read it and remove it from my TBR.

 

Hot Beverage

I wasn’t too sure what to make of this one. It’s such a broad phrase, you know? But (again) looking at Jen’s recommendations list showed The Chai Factor, which has been on my TBR for a while. I don’t own a copy but I am cool with buying one. This is one of the squares I’m fairly flexible on, if I stumble across another fit I’ll take it.

 

Meta

I actually had a couple of picks for this one but I decided to go with Beach Read because it’s a book about writers, perfectly meta. I know I saw a couple of mixed reviews on it but as a whole people have been positive and I impulse bought it during my slump so why not, right?

 

Fluffy

Fluff means different things to different people. It either needs to be a light rom-com or a YA romance. Both tend to be easy reads for me and a fluffy read is always an easy rude I can curl up and escape into and usually finish quite quickly. For now, I have There’s Something About Sweetie as my chosen read because I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while but this is another flexible square as you don’t know fluff until you start reading it.

 

Row 2

Childfree HEA

I have read a few childfree HEAs but I am always happy to find more. It gets annoying when every HEA ends with the couple married with 2.5 children. I did have have to search around for this one and I’m not sure if there are any on my Kindle already. This one will be either Not Another Family Wedding by Jackie Lau as it explicitly says the one MC doesn’t want kids, or One and Only by Jenny Holiday as it appeared on Jen’s list.

 

Into The Woods

Initially, I was going to choose a shifter romance, they are always set in the woods, and I still might, but I saw A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane on Jen’s recommendation post and I bought that a few months ago so I think I might read that instead.

 

Black Historical

I have been meaning to read An Extraordinary Union forever and it was one of my picks for the fall bingo which never happened. As soon as I saw black historical it was either going to be this or I was finally going to read something from Beverley Jenkins.

 

Feels Like Home

I had to search my Kindle for the phrase ‘feels like home’ for this one. I mostly managed to avoid spoilers but I’ve got a few possibilities from it. Apparently, this phrase appeared in Well Met and Sweet Talkin’ Lover which have both been on my Kindle a little while so I’m hoping to read those. I do have a mini list for this one, just in case my mood takes me somewhere else.

 

Fake Relationship

This is my catnip and I kind of thought I’d have a whole bunch of books on my Kindle to read but I’ve read a lot of them. I think Outmatched is a good fit and I borrowed it on KU about six months ago.

 

Row 3

Reread

This is one category I’m just winging it on. I adore rereading but I am very much led by my mood with what I reread so I want choose a book for this one until the mood strikes. I’ve got a long list of books I have been dying to reread but I don’t know which one I fancy rereading right now.

 

Cover/Title I Love

I have stopped buying books simply because I love the cover (for the most part anyway) but Make A Scene is one book I know the cover drew it to my attention. It’s a cover by Leni Kauffman and she has been doing magical things for illustrated romance covers. I adore this and it’s the perfect excuse to get around to reading it.

 

Happy Holidays

I know I already have Therese Beharrie on my list but her latest release is called His Princess by Christmas, could that be more fitting? It might be one of the first reads for this bingo card because I need something to attempt to get me in the holiday spirit.

 

Last Book Acquired

I was going to make this my most recent purchase on 1st December… but my most recent purchase is second in a series I’ve not actually started yet (don’t judge me) but I did go and purchased You Had Me At Hola when I finished formatting this post this morning so maybe that instead?

 

Audiobook or HEA

I have quite a few audiobooks I want to listen to but I saw The AI Who Loved Me on Jen’s recommendation post and I remembered I got that with an Audible credit a while ago so it’s a perfect time to listen.

 

Row 4

Blogger Rec

I was going to ask for recs for this post but then I figured I should choose a book I bought because of your guys reviews. One book on my list is Only When It’s Us because of Nick’s review of it. Then there is You Had Me At Hola because Vera told me about it a while back and I still haven’t got to reading.

 

Brown Eyes

I didn’t even try and hunt out a book for this, Jen’s rec post showed The Kingmaker is a good choice and I meant to read that book months ago (a year ago?) so that is my must read.

 

Small town Romance By AOC

Talia Hibbert immediately sprang to mind for this square, in particular her Ravenwood series. I tried to read the first book a couple of years ago and DNFed )a me issue, not the book. I wasn’t in the mood for it) and I retried reading that last week after drafting this post and loved it so I think I will make the next book in the series, Untouchable, my next read.

 

Snow

I wasn’t sure on this one. I thought about finding a wintery snow covered cover for my choice and then saw I had The Ex Games unread on my Kindle. I know the MCs are athletes in winter sports or something so it seemed fitting. I also have Booked For Christmas by Lily Menon as that is about the couple getting snowed in. Either will work.

 

F/F Contemporary

Didn’t even need to think on my choice for this one. I bought Written In The Stars pretty much as soon as it released. It’s a no brainer I’ll read this.

 

Row 5

Messy Characters

Jen’s post came to the rescue again with this and I will either try and read Stripped again (I DNFed it last time I tried to read but I think it was me and my mood more than anything) or I’ve got Speakeasy by Sarina Bowen on my Kindle.

 

Specific or Unusual Profession

Spoiler Alert is an option from Jen’s rec post and I have been dying to read it, it released during my slump so I need to pick it up. I also saw New Orleans Rush on my Kindle and I’m pretty sure that the romantic interest is a magician and that certainly counts as an unusual profession.

 

Rules/Lists/Resolutions

I’ve read so many books with lists and rules in but I needed to hunt out for one because I’d read the obvious picks. After searching my Kindle 10 Things I Hate About Pinky came up and the one MC is a list writer which totally fits.

 

Music

I’ve got a couple of obvious music type books on my Kindle but I kind of wanted to choose ones less obvious. I do actually have a release from Mariana Zapata I’ve not read yet called Rhythm, Chord & Malykhin which I am pretty certain involves a band.

 

Retelling/Mythology

 

I have a million Jane Austen retellings I could pick for this one, I actually have Staci Hart’s Wasted Words which I think I got as a freebie so I’ll clear that off of my Kindle and read that.

 

And that is my TBR for the #SnowInLoveBingo so who wants to bet I don’t read any of them? Are you taking part in this? Do you prefer a shorter challenge like this?

It’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these hasn’t it? I have missed you guys, but I will say I may not be doing these weekly, simply because I haven’t done anything lately so what will I fill you in on?

 

What has happened lately? My boiler sprung a leak which was a fun discovery a couple of weekends ago, but I got someone and he said it was a common problem, a small plastic part had become brittle and just needed replacing. I haven’t had anyone in the house in a while so having the repair man in was weird! He worse a mask the whole time and had little plastic shoe covers on and was really friendly. It was a relief to finally have the heating back on and not worry about breaking the boiler further to have a shower.

 

It seems to be the past couple of weeks it’s been about things going wrong, in the middle of the night my smoke alarm battery started to go and did that wonderful beeping thing to inform me. It beeps once a minute until you change it. Who keeps 9v batteries in the house? And when I tried to take the battery out it beeped at me louder! It was not what I wanted at midnight on a work night. I fully felt like Phoebe from Friends on this one. I got new batteries the next day and just had a rather restless nights sleep until then. I didn’t even know the smoke alarm worked! I meant to test it when I moved in and just never got round to it so at least I know it works?

 

What else? Honestly, I have done nothing. I had a ridiculously long video call with friends which was so nice. I think I forgot how much I missed my friends and I’m sad as the UK government has announced that my area will have the highest restrictions in place when our mini lockdown ends next week. We can still only meet outdoors and the weather has just been getting colder and colder so we probably won’t get to catch up in person before Christmas, not properly. I understand why, the restrictions are right and fair, but I reserve the right to be disappointed by the news all the same.

 

We are apparently allowed to expand our bubble to 3 households at Christmas though… but the standard number of households we usually have at Christmas is 6 so I’m not too sure what’s happening there. Can’t expect my mom and stepdad to pick their favourites on who can see them so I’m kind of thinking about cancelling Christmas this year. I’m seeing so many Christmas decorations going up along my street, everyone seems to be lighting the outside of their house up like Blackpool Illuminations (follow the link on that one because if you aren’t from the UK you will not understand that reference). Half of my street have had their decorations up for about 2 weeks and it’s making me even more anti-Christmas. I don’t own any decorations as I moved in after Christmas last year but now I’m thinking I won’t bother buying any. It’s not like anyone will be coming in the house over Christmas so the only person seeing the decorations would be and I honestly don’t care. I think I’m just ready to get this year over with in the hopes next year will be better. This pandemic has been pretty shit and I definitely feel like I’ve lost a year of my life.

 

I have spent the past few days thinking about next year, though. I turn 30 at the end of February and although I don’t think I’ll be able to do anything on my birthday, I am hoping I can do something at some point next year to celebrate. Anyone got any good ideas of things to do? I have been wracking my brain for things I’ve always wanted to do or places I’ve always wanted to go but I’ve drawn a total blank. I just really want something fun to look forward to with my friends, we all need it I think.

 

What I’ve Been Reading

Since I started blogging again my reading game has been strong! I do feel abject fear after finishing a book as I try and figure out what to read next but I am so happy to be reading again and even have a reading challenge lined up for winter in the form of #SnowInLoveBingo which I am very excited to start. I will say I’ve included everything I’ve read for the whole month since I didn’t do a proper wrap up since coming back. I am kind of impressed at how much I’ve read lately. I’ve loved catching up with the Hidden Legacy series, can’t wait for the next book. Ice Planet Barbarians was crazy sauce and hilarious, great easy KU borrow. The Lady’s Champion was also a KU borrow and it was alright I might continue the series we’ll see. I enjoyed The Poet X but that ending! If you’ve read that book how did you feel about the end. And then I read 2 old books from my Kindle because I really do need to clear my shelves and enjoyed both.

 

I won’t show you the new to me books because I haven’t bought any. I did buy the gorgeous new mug in at Words & Kisses which is pretty and there’s a historical one as well which hasn’t come in yet but you can preorder.

 

What have you been up to lately? Anyone else feeling anti-Christmas because of the pandemic or have just become the Grinch?