Happy New Year everyone! I hope your New Year's Eve was safe, no matter if you partied or stayed home (I get it!). I pretty much just watched movies and reflected. Anyways, I thought I would share my December Wrap-Up in order to start the new year.
Although I didn't read all the books I had planned to (I pretty much failed the #Cramathon), I did read several. Mostly the Grisha trilogy, so I did make a dent in the #Grishalongathon at least.
1. The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings #3) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Rating: ★★★★★
I finally finished this series, and the tears were real people. If it's not your cup of tea, I totally understand, but the finale was just very emotional for me. I had gone through so many things alongside these characters it felt, so to see them go hurt a lot. I couldn't believe the story was finished. Every character came into their own, from the smallest of hobbits to the grandest of kings and wizards.
2. Shadow and Bone (Grisha Verse #1) by Leigh Bardugo
Rating: ★★★
I had no plans to read this series this month until the #Grishalongathon happened. My only real desire to read this trilogy was so that I could finally read Six of Crows. This book definitely was not Leigh Bardugo's best writing. In fact, this was filled with overdone tropes with very basic characters. However, I would label this as a guilty-pleasure read for me, because it was nice to read something so simply written, that didn't require a whole lot of mental energy.
3. A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
Rating: ★★★★★
I plan to do a write an actual review of this book, so I'll be short here. I read this in about 24 hours. Tahereh Mafi's writing to so fantastic, I sped through this. Shirin is such an amazing character for me, being Muslim. Much needed, so emotionally driven.
4. Siege and Storm (Grisha Verse #2) by Leigh Bardugo
Rating: ★★★
The second book wasn't much better than the first, I'll be honest. However, I did enjoy meeting Nikolai, Tamar, and Tolya. These three characters made the series for me. I read the books in the series so close together, that the events of each one seem to blur together. That or the books were very forgettable, unfortunately.
5. Ruin and Rising (Grisha Verse #3) by Leigh Bardugo
Rating: ★★★
Ruin and Rising didn't exactly improve the series for me, however, I could definitely see Leigh Bardugo's writing change slightly. I am still unsure whether I'm satisfied with the conclusion or not, I just really hated Alina and Mal. I was more interested in the side characters, so I'm very happy Leigh Bardugo is releasing King of Scars this month.
In conclusion, I did not exactly complete any readathon I planned on doing, but I did make good progress. I have so many books I want to read in the new year, so here's to ever-expanding TBR's.
Of course, as usual, if you ever wanna discuss any books (I did a #Grishalongathon reading thread on Twitter), you know where to hit me up.
Love, Ru.
Instagram: @ru.reads