DECEMBER READS

December has been a strange month for reading. I feel like I've barely touched a book yet here I am having read a bunch - some of which are chunkers! Seriously, I powered my way through the third book in a political fantasy in just a few days - the first book took me
M O N T H S! 

Overall, I am pretty pleased since I've been incredibly unmotivated and I suffered a nasty migraine for a few days which rendered me inable to do anything but sleep, along with christmas and all that comes with it. 

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LIBRARY OF SOULS by Ransom Riggs
4 stars
I finally got around to finishing this trilogy, though I think book two is my favourite! I know, most people think the second book in a series is the worst but when it comes to trilogies I find I often love the second book (*cough* diminy *cough*). This was a really fitting end to the story and I loved that it wasn't necessarily a happily ever after but everything was still all well and good.

FOUR PICTURE BOOKS by Various
So I cheated a little... I bought these picture books as Christmas gifts and read them over to make sure they were suitable... They're books so why not count them? I was also slipping behind again on my reading challenge and I knew I was going to struggle to catch up again as I had some books I wanted to read this year and knew I would struggle to hit my goal so I popped these on goodreads. I refused to lose my goal by one or two books haha!

TALES OF THE PECULIAR by Ransom Riggs
4 stars
So the Miss Peregrine series wouldn't be complete without reading this! Again, as it was short, I wanted to catch up to my goal although this wasn't as quick a read as I anticipated. I think my main issue was I just didn't care about these stories. I was content with the world we had and I didn't feel this added anything else to the story, it's just a rather nice edition to own.

A LION AMONG MEN by Gregory Maguire
5 stars
I'm not sure how or why I started making reading Maguire a November/December tradition but it is. I started in 2015 when I read Wicked (started it in the July and read the bulk of it over Christmas but it was January before I finished!) and then last year I read Son of a Witch, so this year I read the next book in the Wicked Years! I'm not sure if it's my age/maturity, reading level, or that I'm used to Maguire's writing now but I flew through A Lion Among Men compared to the previous two! 
I'm not a big high political fantasy reader but I adore Maguire's world building. I desperately want to continue and finish the Wicked Years - I only have one book left and it's the biggest - but I also want to keep my tradition and read it next Christmas! I own a bunch of Maguire's other works but I refuse to read any until the Wicked Years is over!

EMMA AND VIOLET by Jerome Hamon
3 stars
This graphic novel was another of my netgalley books and whilst the art was beautiful and it was engaging the story ends abruptly and with too many loose ends. There is a second book but I was just so incredibly mad that it was like someone cut a full story in half to make you buy the second book that I don't even care anymore.

WHERE WE WENT WRONG by Andi Holloway
2.75 stars
This was an impulse NetGalley request that I honestly didn't think I'd love. I want to get into adult mystery novels as there are a lot more out there than YA and since it's the genre I love I figured I ought to keep my options open. I loved the first half of this book but the most interesting mystery was resolved at the 50% mark and I spent the rest of the novel somewhat bored and fed up. I sort of gathered what was happening and I didn't care for the second person narrative. It took me longer than it ought to to figure out the narrator wasn't talking to me but to another character. Just meh.

THE PRINCESS SAVES HERSELF IN THIS ONE by Amanda Lovelace
5 stars
Ughhhh this poetry book!! I adored this and have the second book high on my to buy list! I know many people dislike the writing style, which is similar to Milk & Honey, but that's what I love about it. I need all the poetry like this asap!

THE WORM AND THE BIRD by Coralie Bickford-Smith
5 ​hundred thousand million stars
asdfghjkl I absolutely a d o r e Coralie Bickford-Smith's illustrations and would happily have her tattoo my entire body. I first discovered her through The Fox and The Star (because fox) and since then I just can't stop looking at the book covers she has designed. Seriously. Those Penguin Leatherbound Classics? CBS. Penguin English Library? CBS. UGHHHHH. I've actually known what I want my next tattoo to be for a while but just not exactly the design but I've now managed to narrow it down to two of Coralie's designs. Do I need her permission to get it tattooed? I haven't a clue but I will give her to world if she'd let me carry her beautiful work on me everywhere I go!