I said in my November Wrap-Up post that I’d likely not make it to 220 books read in 2025 but that was before I started my Guild Hunter reread and as usual DEVOURED them, so with the help of a couple of novellas I read 25 books and made it to 221, which is the same as 2024 and that pleases me! 😀
Updates on the remaining 2025 challenges; I’ve read and posted the last three prompts for Amber Heights in the Romanceopoly 2025 Challenge, and that’s the challenge completed! I have had an absolute ball with this challenge. It was so much fun! Details for the Romanceopoly 2026 Challenge posted at the top of the blog!
I also completed The Goodreads Fall Challenge. This challenge contained 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: completed by reading One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad.
- Choice Awards: completed by reading One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
And I completed my own Non-fiction reading 2025 challenge. See link to that review at the end of this post!
I really feel like I ended my reading month, and reading year, on a high! I’ve enjoyed all the challenges I’ve taken part in, and I loved blogging because of those challenges. I’m also ever so glad that I started using The StoryGraph as my primary book logging website here on the blog.
Angels’ Blood (Guild Hunter #1) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Kiss (Guild Hunter #2) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Consort (Guild Hunter #3) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Blade (Guild Hunter #4) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Storm (Guild Hunter #5) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Legion (Guild Hunter #6) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Shadows (Guild Hunter #7) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Enigma (Guild Hunter #8) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Heart (Guild Hunter #9) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Viper (Guild Hunter #10) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Prophecy (Guild Hunter #11) – 5⭐, Archangel’s War (Guild Hunter #12) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Sun (Guild Hunter #13) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Light (Guild Hunter #14) – 5⭐, Archangel’s Resurrection (Guild Hunter #15) – 5⭐& Archangel’s Lineage (Guild Hunter #16) – 4⭐ by Nalini Singh
I decided to do my Guild Hunter reread in December so that I could begin 2026 (and start my Romanceopoly 2026 Challenge) reading Archangel’s Ascension. It all worked out perfectly. I have a few collages for this series (one day I’ll have them for all) and they are:
I actually have draft posts for Archangel’s Enigma, Archangel’s Viper, and Archangel’s Prophecy collages. All I need to do is add links and edit a little and they are ready to go, I really should get on that! 😀
This series is due to end with the next book, Archangel’s Eternity (Guild Hunter #18), which I am both excited about, and dreading! It’s definitely time for it to end, but there are lots of stories that could still be told, so I hope she is just ending the main players from this series and will do a ‘second season’!
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell – 5⭐
I read my first Maggie O’Farrell when I was 17 years old. I remember the shop I bought it in, I remember the shelf where it was located (that shop still exists), I remember the cover and I remember all that because I absolutely adored that book, it also completely destroyed me. Thus begun the tradition of Maggie O’Farrell destroying me with every book of hers I read!
Alice in After You’d Gone has stayed with me for well over 20 years, so when I read the synopsis of this book I knew she was going to cause me the maximum amount of emotional damage. I mean it’s essentially a book about the death of a child. There was a lot of emotional damage. It’s over a week since I read it and I’m still not right!
I loved everything about this, the prose, the narrative, the fact that the family, and not the famous writer, were the focus. Agnes, the long forgotten spouse in particular.
Agnes’s grief was palpable at times, but so was the rest of the families. Hamnet’s twin, Judith, asked what she should be called after Hamnet’s death. Those who lose a spouse have a word, those who lose parents have a word, she wanted to know if someone who loses a twin has a word. This absolutely broke my heart. I had to put the book down for a while after. There were a lot of those moments in this book.
“What is the word, Judith asks her mother, for someone who was a twin but is no longer a twin?”
This was very much a book about grief, and if you’ve read any other Maggie O’Farrell books you’ll know this is a theme she likes to explore, this time that grief takes place in the 1500’s and one of those grieving just so happens to be one of the most well known writers on the planet!
“The rest is silence”
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain #1) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer – 3⭐
Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain #1) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer was a prompt for Autumn/Fall (Amber Heights) in the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge
Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) – 4⭐& Pages To Fill (Legends & Lattes #0.5) – 3.75⭐by Travis Baldree
Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree was a prompt for Autumn/Fall (Amber Heights) in the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge
Pages To Fill (Legends & Lattes #0.5) was a really cute little introduction to Viv and her old crew, and also shows us Viv’s introduction to coffee. It was short and very sweet!
Into Shadow Novellas:
The Garden (Into Shadow #1) by Tomi Adeyemi – 2.75⭐
This wasn’t bad, I liked the symbolism, and that made it all very sad. I can see what the poetry was intended for, but it wasn’t great to be honest. It did the job it needed to do but I’d have preferred the story be a bit longer in order to convey what the poetry did.
The Six Deaths of the Saint (Into Shadow #3) by Alix E. Harrow – 5⭐
Goodness me, that was amazing! I’m at a loss as to how Harrow conveyed so much in just 31 pages. A true storyteller! Highly recommend reading this!
Undercover (Into Shadow #5) by Tamsyn Muir – 4⭐
Wow, this was really very entertaining! I’ve for The Lockes Tomb books by Tamsyn Muir on my tbr for the longest time and I think now I’m going to have to move them up the list. Really clever writing and plotting. Little peeks into the overall story happening throughout and then a nice payoff. I’d read more about this world.
Holly (Belladonna #3.5) by Adalyn Grace – 4.5⭐
Holly (Belladonna #3.5) by Adalyn Grace was my final prompt for Autumn/Fall (Amber Heights) and my final prompt for the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge. It was a great one to end on!!
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad – 5⭐
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad was my final non-fiction of 2025!
mindforbooks.ie 