November was a bit of a slow month reading wise, a few of the books I read were very prose heavy and took me some time to read, they were amazing books though so I don’t mind that my total numbers of books read were a bit lower as a result. I’m at 196 books read at the end of this month, I won’t make 220 as I’d hoped but I will be over 200 so that’s cool!

Some updates on my remaining challenges; I’ve read and posted three more prompts for Amber Heights in the Romanceopoly 2025 Challenge, only three posts left in this challenge. No time to think about missing it though, Under The Covers have released the challenge for 2026 and boy am I going to be busy in 2026. I’ll be posting about it at the end of December but I’m really very excited, and slightly apprehensive about the amount of work it will involve!

The Goodreads Fall Challenge, 2025’s final achievement season, has begun and runs from September 15 – December 31, 2025. This challenge contains twelve prompts in total, the first three being the usual Page Turner (2 books in challenge timeframe), Speed Read (3 books in challenge timeframe), and Book Boss (5 books in challenge timeframe). The remaining prompts are:

• Community Picks: completed by reading The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
• Hispanic Heritage: completed by reading The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
• Spine Tinglers: completed by reading The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
• Heart-Warmers: completed by reading One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston.
• Fiction Faves: plan on reading Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell in December.
• Memorable Memoirs: completed by reading How to Say Babylon by Safyia Sinclair.
• Native Voices: completed by reading Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley.
• Bite-Size Books: plan on reading One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad for this prompt and as my last non-fiction for 2025.
• Choice Awards: the prompt for this is to read a book that was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad will l work for this prompt as well.

I’m honestly very annoyed about the whole Goodreads Choice Awards palava, it gives me the massive ick. I’ve been moving away from Goodreads the last year, and these challenges kind of pulled me back in because they are genuinely helpful for picking up books that I wouldn’t normally, but the Goodreads Choice Awards feels fixed, I know there is public voting but I’m not convinced that it’s legit, and the nominations often don’t make sense. There were at least two books on this years nomination list that hadn’t been published at the time of the announcement. How is that possible?! I need to think about the use of Goodreads going forward.

I finished book eleven in my own Non-fiction reading 2025 challenge. I think it’s safe to say that it’s the best non-fiction book I read this year. See link to that review at the end of this post!

As you can see by the above graphic I’ve begun paying for The StoryGraph Plus. I’ve also started updating it daily. It will be interesting to see how that will look going forward, I like the ‘compared to’ feature.

Girls Who Lie (Forbidden Iceland #2) by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir – 3.25⭐

I liked this but I didn’t like it as much as The Creak on the Stairs, I could kind of see what was coming BUT I also liked how it was revealed, and how it was dealt with. The story doesn’t get wrapped up neatly, and I actually really appreciated that. A lot of the time cases like this don’t get the results that we think they should, and this felt in line with how I think the justice system would work in Iceland.

What I really didn’t love in this book was what felt like the forced ‘maybe’ romance between Elma and Sævar. I’m not saying they don’t have any chemistry, I just think that them catching feelings over a long period of time would be less cringe. Elma is kind of selfish, and I just didn’t like how she treated people in this book, she has very little self awareness for someone who is supposed to be good at figuring out things.

I will still be reading the next book though! I’m hoping Elma is less annoying in the next book! 😀

Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle – 5⭐

“Do you know the biggest mistake people make?”

“Asking rhetorical questions?”

She smiled. “Making up their minds before they have all the facts.”

Oh I had such a good time reading this book! Time travel books are tricky, often times they lead to overthinking things, and there can be a risk of breaking ones brain trying to figure out the logistics of it all. This book was no different, but I did enjoy how the ‘science’ worked, even if there was a glossing over of some things, like the license, BUT I actually appreciated the not knowing, maybe some things are just cemented in time?! 

I love the time travel trope but surprisingly (as a huge romance fan) time travel romance is one of my least favourite tropes. I much prefer time travel mysteries/thrillers, now if there happens to be a romance included in that, I’m all in, but I just prefer higher stakes. This had higher stakes and there was a hint of romance that felt just enough for me. The rest was intrigue, clever storytelling and edge of your seat reading. I’ll be adding more A.G. Riddle to my TBR!    

Out On a Limb (Out #1) by Hannah Bonam-Young – 4.75⭐

Out On a Limb (Out #1) by Hannah Bonam-Young was my forth prompt for Autumn/Fall (Amber Heights) in the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge.

Mile High (Windy City #1) – 3⭐& The Right Move (Windy City #2) – 3⭐ by Liz Tomforde

I honestly don’t know how I feel about this series, half the time I’m rolling my eyes and practically passing out from the cringe, and the other half I’m caught up in everything and can’t wait to read about the other characters. It’s annoying!

I don’t know, this series is just so over the top and utterly bonkers, but if you just suspend belief and roll with this madness they are somewhat entertaining?!

Why is everyone, everyone’s ‘best friend’ like they are in school? I mean I have three best friends but I don’t say that to people, I’m an adult! 😀

I don’t want to read the rest of these right away as they kind of annoy me, but I also want to read the next one right away. This series is like Pringles, once you pop, you can’t stop! 😀 

Chasing Serenity (River Rain #2) – 4⭐& Making the Match (River Rain #4) – 4⭐by Kristen Ashley

I skipped these two when I was doing a River Rain reread a while back, as they aren’t favourites of mine, but I felt like I needed to have a something easy to read between books so I decided a reread was in order. They might not be my favourite but they are always fun to revisit.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley – 4.75⭐

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley was my fifth prompt for Autumn/Fall (Amber Heights) in the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge.

The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel – 4⭐

The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel was my sixth prompt for Autumn/Fall (Amber Heights) in the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge

Love Arranged (Lakefront Billionaires #3) by Lauren Asher – 2⭐

These two were utterly exhausting!

I don’t know if it’s just my current mood, or if this book wasn’t as good as the others, but I just did not enjoy this addition to the Lakefront Billionaires series.

I found both Lorenzo and Lily really very frustrating. Lily really drove me up the wall though! She made everything so much more complicated than it needed to be, and her constant need for validation from Lorenzo once he admitted his feelings (but not feelings of love) was so irritating. She was incredibly childish and to be honest, downright selfish. I’m all for having boundaries and putting yourself first when needed, but she couldn’t think of anyone but herself. It was so off putting!

And it took them both soooooooo long to sort things out, I don’t mind some miscommunication but these two were the worst communicators I’ve read in a while!

I also didn’t love the story overall! The political aspect felt contrived and very poorly executed, and the fake dating wasn’t done well at all.

Also, something that I found to be really strange and can’t understand why it was a thing (and I know it was in book one, but it didn’t bother me as much in that book) was Lily’s mother not ‘allowing’ her grown ass daughter to stay over at her boyfriends house until they were married. It was just so dumb!!

This was just a dud for me, I’ve enjoyed this authors other books though so I won’t be giving up on her!

Babel by R.F. Kuang – 4.75⭐

This was a incredibly well researched book that looked closely at linguistics and colonialism. It had a way of really digging in to the brain, at around the 20% I got overwhelming angry about the colonisation of Ireland and the affect that had on our language. Like I was full on raging! That’s powerful writing and I could see how this would make certain people uncomfortable. To that I say ‘Good’. Sit in those feelings, examine them, think about the damage colonialism causes. Take a stand against it and the genocides it often causes!

As wonderfully researched and written as the book was, the story is very slow, I did struggle a little bit in the middle, it felt like nothing was really happening and I got a little bored of Robin’s POV. I loved the little snippets we got of the others, I think this would have been a standout for me had it been multiple POV but I also understand the impact having Robin narrate had on the story overall, especially at the end.

The end!! Jeebus I was a mess, I knew Kuang is known for holding no prisoners (hence why I’m too afraid to start The Poppy Wars) but man, it was rough!! I’m not entirely sure I’m over it to be honest. Been feeling a little slumpy since I finished! 

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair – 5⭐

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair was non-fiction number eleven for 2025 and this is one of the best books I’ve ever read! Outstanding!!