December Wrap-Up & January TBR

It's 2026! I'll pretend to be excited about another year going by, but really, I hate the passage of time, though it is great when a new year of new books is upon us. But, as for life in general, it was good in December. Christmas was nice, work is okay, and I'm ready to get through these next couple of months of cold weather and experience warmth again.

In this wrap-up, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in December

We Who Will Die: 3.5 stars (my review)

The Ones We Burn: 3 stars

God of Malice: 3 stars

God of Pain: 3 stars

God of Wrath: 3 stars

God of Ruin: 3 stars

God of Fury: reread

God of War: 3 stars

Kiss the Villain: reread 

I read nine books in December, and it would have been more if the holidays didn't take up so much free time. Of those nine, though, two were rereads, God of Fury and Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent. I'm prepping for the next two Rina Kent releases coming in 2026 by reading the entire Legacy of Gods and the Vipers series. I read through the LoG books so fast that I couldn't really give them super accurate ratings. I think they're all in the 3-3.5-star range, though, except for GoF and KtV. I'd give those 4 stars. In addition to the Rina Kent books, I had one other physical book I read in December. It was The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix. The only ebook I read was We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark, which was a NetGalley ARC.

Books Bought/Received in December

I was doing so well with the book buying in the beginning of December, then... all of the B&N sales hit, and I was weak. Overall, I bought 18 books and received 22 in December. I ordered much more than that, though, but thankfully, they won't charge until next year. Whew.

The 22 books I received consisted mostly of preorders that finally arrived and Christmas gifts. They include the Bookish Box box set of the Lady of Darkness series, the Acrylipics A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire 3D-edge edition, the FairyLoot Epic November book Tower of the Tyrant by J.T. Greathouse, the FairyLoot Call of the Forgotten trilogy by Julie Kagawa, the FairyLoot What Fury Brings edition, and the FairyLoot The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy edition. I also got Frankenstein, Dracula, Three Shattered Souls, Four Ruin Realms, Unchained, and the first three books in the Crowns series by Nicola Tyche for Christmas. In addition to those, I also downloaded the free novella, A Crown of Ruin by JLA, and I got Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno via trade credit at my local used bookstore.

Now, for what I bought. I only received six of the 18 books I purchased. That includes Meet Cute with a short story from JLA, Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent, Red City by Marie Lu, Kill the Beast by Serra Swift, Terror at the Gates by Scarlett St. Clair, and the FairyLoot Adult book for December, Dawn of the Firebird. All of the non-FairyLoot books were ordered from B&N.

 As for the remaining 12 books, some will be here soon, while others will be a while from now. They include the Aurora Crate editions of two of Melissa K. Roehrich's books and FairyLoot editions of Slaying the Vampire Conqueror, the last two books in the Ashes of Thezmarr series, and The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman. The other six books will come from B&N in the next week or so. Those include Game Changers, Heated Rivalry, Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Aspect of Essence, Vicious Fae, and The Bride of Brutal Hearts.

Currently Obsessed With

I am officially out of my Interview with the Vampire obsession and I moved right into my Heated Rivalry obsession. I wasn't too sure about the show at first. It seemed fun, but nothing amazing. Then, the last two episodes happened, and I was hooked. I ordered the books too. Surprisingly, they're like some of the few MM hockey romances I haven't read yet. Weird. Other than that, I've watched the Taylor Swift End of an Era documentary series as well as continuing to watch Grey's Anatomy. I'm on season two now of like five million. Lol. I also watched Home Alone 1 and 2 over the holiday.

December TBR

I'm carrying over a whole giant list of TBR books into 2026, most of which, I'm actively reading right now and have been for the past few weeks. I am currently reading Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose Darling, The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde, Court of Nightmares by K.A. Knight, Three Shattered Souls by Mai Corland, and The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie Wen Zhao. I'd also like to read Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa Roehrich, The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten, A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene, The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman, and re-read Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. I very much need to start Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Marsh, To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast, and Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter as well. Those three are all NetGalley eARCs. Oh! And I need to read A Crown of Ruin by JLA.

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Okay, well, that's the month of December, plus some January sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!

Stacking the Shelves: The Christmas and New Year's Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, 2025 is officially over. Good riddance. I hope 2026 is better, but I don't know if it will be. Sigh. In happier news, Christmas was good. Saw family, ate food, opened presents, etc. It was also nice just being off of work for a while. I need to take some more time off in 2026. Since I don't have ApollyCon tickets, I think I should be able to do so without any problems.

As for books I got in the past two weeks, I'll start with the Christmas haul. My mom got me quite a few books off my list, including Frankenstein and Dracula, the B&N editions. She also got me Unchained by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Four Ruined Realms and Three Shattered Souls by Mai Corland, and North Queen, Shadow Queen, and War Queen by Nicola Tyche. And she got me the Supernatural box set and a couple of other DVDS. And a new Buffy Funko Pop.

 

 

Next, I have a preorder that's taken a loooong time to get here. It's the Bookish Box box set of Melissa K. Roehrich's Lady of Darkness series. It's very pretty. While the font on the spines annoys me, the colors are very pleasing overall. I'm glad I bought this set, even though I haven't read the series yet. Oops. Because it took so long to ship, Bookish also sent out a free crown with the others. That was nice of them.

 

 

 

And here, I have part of the B&N order I made when they were having their 50% off sale online. I couldn't partake in the 25% off sale in-stores, so I splurged online. And this isn't even all of what I ordered. It's just what came in before New Year's. I got Red City by Marie Lu, Terror at the Gates by Scarlett St. Clair, and Kill the Beast by Serra Swift, but I expect a few more things will arrive soon. 

 

 

 

Here, I have some FairyLoot orders that arrived, and a B&N preorder that came in. My FairyLoot preorder of The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy came in right before the holidays, and I think Dawn of the Firebird by Sarah Mughal Rana also came in around then. It's the December Adult sub pick. Now, Meet Cute, a Valentine's Day anthology featuring a short story by JLA, came in, and I ended up getting a slight refund, as the dumb publisher decided to use stickers to group the individual stories together so you can "open" one each day before Valentine's Day. The stupid sticker rips the pages! I was so mad. I wouldn't have ordered it if I knew that. Thankfully, it wasn't super expensive, so I just decided to keep it and get the 20% refund from B&N for the damage. I'm just super annoyed at whoever thought that was a good idea. At least use stickers that don't rip the pages. Yeesh.

 

For the ebooks, I have one, and it was a surprise one as well. Jennifer L. Armentrout released a novella in the Blood & Ash world, specifically one that has bonus content from her recent release. I downloaded it immediately, but I still haven't read it. I know. I know. It's terrible. But, I'm in the middle of like five other books right now. I really want to finish some of those first. And, I'm really into reading physical copies, so reading on my ebook apps just sounds icky at the moment.

 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?