Month: January 2025

Top Ten Tuesday | Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025

Posted January 6, 2025 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 10 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025

So many books to be excited about this year and these are just for the first half of the year! As if I didn’t already have tons of backlist books on the TBR, I’ve got new ones to contend with! I can’t wait!

Top Ten Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025

  1. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros – Expected publication date: Jan 21, 2025. The third book in the Empyrean series. The second was a little disappointing but I have to see this through!
  2. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins – Expected publication date: Mar 18, 2025. I wasn’t interested in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes when it was released but have since read it and now I’m all in for any other book in the THG universe.
  3. Swept Away by Beth O’Leary – Expected publication date: Apr 10, 2025. I love her other books and I’m sure I’ll love this one too!
  4. Never Flinch by Stephen King – Expected publication date: May 27, 2025. I know some people are tired of reading about Holly but I love her, so I’m totally here for it!
  5. The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb – Expected publication date: May 6, 2025. I’m anticipating this alright, but I’m also scared to read it because I cried so hard with two other books from the author I loved.
  6. The Love Haters by Katherine Center – Expected publication date: May 20, 2025. I’m completely sold on Katherine Center and I’m excited for this next one!
  7. Overgrowth by Mira Grant – Expected publication date: May 6, 2025. I read a couple of her books a long time ago and they made an impression on me. Curious to read this one and see how I feel about it.
  8. Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett – Expected publication date: Feb 11, 2025. More Emily Wilde! More Wendell! More faerie hijinks! I can’t wait!
  9. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Expected publication date: Jun 3, 2025. I love everything TJR, and this one sounds so good!
  10. A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson – Expected publication date: Jan 7, 2025. Dragons, languages, dark academia! I mean, how can I resist?!

Are you anticipating any of these books? Have you read any books by these authors? What books are you looking forward to?

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Monthly Wrap Up | December 2024

Posted January 2, 2025 by Haze in Monthly Wrap Up / 2 Comments

Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.

December 2024 Wrap Up

Happy New Year 2025, everyone!!

I’ve been so frazzled and disorganized these last couple of months that I haven’t been very present on the blog at all, or in other areas of my life. Things haven’t settled down yet and I’m still catching up but I’m trying to be a little more organized. I’m also cutting down on reading challenges this year because I got so overwhelmed last year with more than ten of them!

At this point, I’m still just trying to catch up, so I don’t have a complete picture of my goals and plans yet, but I’ll get there eventually! Thank you for being patient with me!

My December 2024 TBR Intentions

Well, the good news is that I read 5 out of 7 of the books on my TBR in December! Yayy!

  1. The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
  2. In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
  3. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  4. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
  5. The Outsider by Stephen King
  6. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
  7. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Books Read in December 2024

  1. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
  2. Bloody Acquisitions (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 3) by Drew Hayes
  3. The Fangs of Freelance (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 4) by Drew Hayes
  4. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
  5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
  6. Deadly Assessments (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 5) by Drew Hayes
  7. The Outsider by Stephen King
  8. The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
  9. Undeading Bells (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 6) by Drew Hayes
  10. In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
  11. Out of House and Home (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 7) by Drew Hayes
  12. Posthumous Education (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 8) by Drew Hayes
  13. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

Notable Books This Month

I ended up spending most of the month reading Drew Hayes’ Fred, the Vampire Accountant series! They were so fun and enjoyable, and I really loved reading about Fred and his friends. I’m a huge fan of found family stories, and Hayes really has a talent for writing interesting characters. I was so sad when I finished the last one, but I found out there’s going to be a Book 9, so I’m eagerly waiting for its release!

I also really loved The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, and I’m completely invested in the story and intend to read the rest of the series.

The Outsider and A Closed and Common Orbit are both rereads, but worth mentioning because they’re both still so good the second time around.

And finally, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was such an eye-opening read. I’m glad I finally got around to reading it, I learned so much and it made me feel so many things. I’m also very curious about the movie and I’ll probably want to watch it sometime soon.

Reading Challenges

I’m going easy on the reading challenges in 2025 because I got a little overzealous last year. These are the ones I’m committing to this year:

  1. The 52 Book Club 2025 Reading Challenge – I’m doing this one again this year because I enjoyed it so much last year!
  2. The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge – My own personal challenge because I’m a fan of SK but have plenty of his books I haven’t read yet. No time limit, and everyone is welcome to join me if you’d like.
  3. The Classics Club – This is a 5-year challenge and I’m on Year 2.
  4. Reading From My TBR Challenge – Also a personal challenge because I figure I should be at least trying to read from my TBR, but I haven’t figured out the parameters yet so I’ll come back to this later.

January 2025 TBR Intentions

I’m just taking it one month at a time. I hope to read these books in January! What about you?

  1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  2. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
  3. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
  4. ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
  5. The Terror by Dan Simmons
  6. Vicious by V.E. Schwab

How was your month in December? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful 2025 with lots of great books!

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