December (more like Bookember, amiright?) recap

December may have been the nicest month to me this year. I received a crazy amount of books, finished books I wanted to get to, and finished my first semester away from home. While I went back to a blogging slump and had a few frustrating circumstances come my way, I feel relatively good with how I'm closing my year off. Now onto the books!

For review:

• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury)

Hand-me-downs aka books Shae was getting rid of: 

• Princess in the Spotlight by Meg Cabot
• A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier
• This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
• Evidence of Things Not Seen by Lindsay Lane
• Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by
• The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepher
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Gifts: 

• How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer (Thanks, Shae!)
• Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill (Thanks, Shae!)
• Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay (Thanks, Mom!)
• Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn (Thanks, Shae!)
• The Distance Between Us by Kasie West (Thanks, Emma!)
• On the Fence by Kasie West (Thanks, Emma!)

Number of Books I Read: 6

What I'm Reading Now/Next: 

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn
• Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

Bookish (and not-so-bookish) Happenings:

• As you can see (or saw on Twitter), I finally cashed in my Harry Potter virgin card! I've already gone to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal, but I definitely want to go back now. After the books, I'll watch the movies!
• I finished my first semester of college. I was going to do a recap, but I'll think I'll hold off for the end of the year. Only because I'm lazy and really don't want to think of school anymore. 
• I attended the Bloomsbury Shindig earlier this month (or late November) where the wonderful Bloomsbury employees showed us 2015 releases. 
• DID YOU SEE ALL THE BOOKS I GOT? 
• I also ordered a package from Better World Books that should be coming next week. 

Don't forget I'm currently hosting a giveaway for The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord, which you should go enter in NOW. Watch out for my 2015 End of the Year Book Survey this week! 

Rewind & Review: December 16th - 29th, 2013

Image taken from Shae Has Left the Room

Rewind & Review is a weekly book blog hop hosted by Shae Has Left the Room where we review the previous week, but I'll only be participating every two weeks.

In the past two weeks, I've gotten more books than usual because of Christmas! So this haul will be fairly exciting.

Books for Review: 

•  Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anna Blankman (Harper via Edelweiss)
• Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor (Harper via Edelweiss)

Books as Gifts: 

•  Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
• All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
• Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe by Shelley Coriell
• The Chance by Karen Kingsbury  (The last four thanks to my grandparents and then for my mom for picking them out)
• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (Thanks to my parents!)
• The Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce (Thanks to Shae, Sam, and Victoria!)
• Also, a Books-A-Million gift card from my best friend

Books That I Won:

• Ashes to Ashes by Melissa Walker (Thanks to the lovely Epic Reads ladies)

Books I'm Reading: 

• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
• Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor
• I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Yes, I'm starting to multi-read, but it's kinda controlled.

Previous Blog Posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday - New-to-Me Authors in 2013
• Waiting on Wednesday #2 - Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen
• Review: Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott
• Finish line: #ReadingCram
• Are You an Elf or a Grinch? 
• Review: Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Bookish Happenings:

• CHRISTMAS!
• I gave a lengthy list of book suggestions 5 pages long to a friend and another blogger that didn't even include contemporary reads. Giving book suggestions makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
• I finished my first read-a-thon. 
• A really nice blogger commented on my first ever blog post, which is not only cool and sweet, but cringe-worthy because that writing is so old.
• I'm thinking about some exciting bloggish things in 2014!
• Rachel from one of my favorite blogs, The Reader's Den, is super sweet and sending me ARCs just because. I feel loved. 

Upcoming Blog Posts: 

• Top Ten Tuesdays
• Review: United We Spy by Ally Carter
• 2013 End of Year Book Survey 
• Mini reviews

So these past two weeks seem to have slowed down in the blogosphere with the holidays. I've read a lot of great books lately and hopefully will tackle all my reviews soon. Hope you had a great Christmas!

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Finish line: #ReadingCram

Today marks the last day of my first read-a-thon! What an experience. I never fully got the point of a read-a-thon before except that it made you rush, but now I understand that it also provides a goal (I'm a goal-oriented person) and a community (I love communities) making it even more fun to read. Also, it's pretty nice to say how many books you read at the end of it all. In case you forgot what I aimed to read during the two week period, here is the link. 

What I ended up reading: 

• Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
• Everbound by Brodi Ashton
• Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
• All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
• Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe by Shelley Coriell 
• See Jane Run by Hannah Jayne - DNF
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - started today

Total pages: 2,804

Favorite book: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Runner-ups: Graceling by Kristin Cashore and Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

What next: 

There's no more #ReadingCram, but I still want to read as many books as possible before school starts back up. I plan on finishing Throne of Glass and then working on Edelweiss galleys (i.e. Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anna Blankman, Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor, basically all the Harper titles). Problem? I need to finish my library books (i.e. Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis and I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan), and reread Girl of Fire and Thorns (since I don't remember any of it and need to get to Hector). Maybe I should start a poll someday. Until then, comment below what you think I should read next! 

What have you been reading? What should I read next?

And happy belated birthday to one of the best blogger friends out there, Emily!

End of the Year 2013 Reading Cram Read-a-thon!

End of Year 2013 Read-a-Thon #ReadingCram is hosted by Jenny from Juliababyjen's Reading Room and Dana from Dana Square and will run from the 9th of December (today!) to the 22nd of December.

Why should you participate? 

1. To chisel off some of your TBR pile. 

2. Do all the fun challenges and win some prizes. 

3. Encourage others to read like a speed demon (and yourself) + reading with others is loads of fun. 

 So let's get in our last books of 2013 together in the #ReadingCram!

Embarassingly, most some of these books are ones I've been saying all year that I'll be reading. I posted about them in the summertime, in the spring, every season. But now I have this challenge to really push me. I already completed 3 books these past couple of days so I won't add those. 

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen | Graceling trilogy by Kristin Cashore | Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas | Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers | Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein | Gilt by Katherine Longshore | 

 And if I can actually achieve the above titles, I'll dig into Edelweiss.

Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor | The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik

There are other Edelweiss copies that I won't download until the last possible second because I really think I would like them better as an actual book in my hands. I'm still wary about ebooks, but they're so tempting.

My goals: If I really wanted to complete my goal, it would be to finish every one of these. But life gets in the way so I would like to finish at least four books, which means that if I finish a trilogy, that's three right there. A mini-challenge may be fun, but that's secondary to me.

This is my first read-a-thon or challenge of any sort so hopefully I don't completely fail. If anyone else is dong this read-a-thon (or any reading goal for December), I'd love to hear what your goals are and what books you'll be reading. Did I miss a certain book that is a NECESSITY?

Do you have a December goal? Any personal reading challenges before 2013 ends?