Happy new year! Worldwide 2023 has officially started. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish all my 2022 blogging stuff in 2022, so I have to stay into the old year a little longer. Why? I still have to wrap up December and recap the entire final quarter of the year. The latter post will be up tomorrow morning. But first things first, the month that was December 2022.

Life

In life, not much exciting has happened. I’ve been very absent from the blog, but that was with good reason. At the start of this month, the entire operational process at work changed and that was – and still is – a really hectic and chaotic time for everyone. I was and am very tired as a result. Furthermore, we Dutchies celebrated Sinterklaas (especially families with young kids) and there were the Christmas drinks and festivities. Of course Christmas itsself and NYE. Honestly, I don’t really care about NYE, I hate all the fireworks. We also had a taste of winter with low temperatures, frost and ice. Not as bad as in the US or Canada, but it’s still annoying. Fun fact, we ended the year with temparatures you only see in Spring, 15 degrees Celsius. In December I managed to read more books, allbeit with quite mediocre ratings.

Read books

1. Butterfly Island by Corina Bomann: This is another hystorical fiction novel by an Author I’ve read several novels from. Fortunately, this one is actually translated from German into English. However, I found this book less compelling. I could put it down easily and leave it for a while. However, when I picked it back up, I could read chunks of the story. I didn’t manage to finish it in November though. 3 stars.
2. Cursed by Marissa Meyer: I love love LOVE The Lunar Chronicles and the Renegaades series by this author, so naturally I had to pick Gilded up when it came out back in 2021. It’s another fairytale retelling but in my opinion the book was a little bit too big. However, the ending made me curious enough to anticipate the sequel Cursed. That book came out last November and I started it quite soon. However, I couldn’t finish it in November so I had to take this into December. I will try to post a review as soon as I can, but this series is not for me. The writing is marvellous, but the story is too long. 3 stars.
3. Huntress by Malinda Lo: A few years ago, I read my first Malinda Lo book. This was a queer contemporary and I really enjoyed it. Therefore, I was really excited when the Dutch release of Huntress was announced. In fact, this is the first ever book by this author to receive a Dutch translation, so the stakes were high. However, it lacked for me. It is a fantasy novel, but everything is excecuted in such a way that it’s just not enough. It’s there, the story has a lot of potential, but it didn’t come out that way. 3 stars.
4. IT by Stephen King. Another book I couldn’t finish in November, but it’s such a chonker. I had high hopes for it and they partially came through. Can we just agree on the writing being phenomenal? The concept and idea of this story are awesome, but the many many details slow the book down majorly. Unfortunately, pace is something I count heavily towards my reading enjoyment and this was off. I can’t actually tell you what the story of this book is all about. Such a pity. 2 stars.
5. Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir: Earlier in 2022, I read The Creek on the Stairs, the first installment in the “Forbidden Iceland” series. I really enjoyed this thriller, so when the sequel was available in Dutch I decided to listen to it. Well, this one… Lacked. It lacked intrigue and suspense, some really important points in a thriller to me. The ending was interesting though and I managed to finish it quickly, but I didn’t feel really connected to it. 3 stars.
6. A Sky Full of Stars by Dani Atkins: Another book that has been on my TBR for a good while. Again, I waited for the Dutch translation. You know when you’re reading an Atkins book, it will be such an emotional rride. This one is no different. Unfortunately, it was predictable too. This took away the depth for me. The main theme of this book is organ donation which should receive more attention overall. So the fact that this was the main theme of this book was great to me. 3.5 stars.
7. De kroon en de nacht by Jana Hoch: This book is the final book in the “Royal Horses” series by Jana Hoch and is not translated into English. However, I enjoyed it. 4 stars.
8. Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff: The final book of the year and what a letdown this was. It has been more than 2 years since I finished Godsgrave and I just couldn’t get into the vibe of this series anymore. Furthermore, the travelling they did – and they did that a very lot – slowed the story down and took away my reading enjoyment. For a series finale, this was disappointing. 3 stars.

Bookhaul

That’s just one this month, the newest book by Nino Haratischwili. And guess what? It’s not translated itno English yet again. So no real reason to mention it.

Well, that was the final wrap up for 2022. December was a better month in terms of quantity, but not in terms of quality. Many books were quite mediocre. Let’s see what 2023 brings!