Title : Miss Kane's Christmas Author : Caroline Mickelson Series : Christmas Central Series, book 1 Age Category : Adult Published by: Bon Accord Press, October 2012 Pages: 138p. Genre: Christmas feel good About Miss Kane's Christmas Carol Claus is on a mission, to help save Christmas, she agrees to join a single father Ben Hanson, and his children to bring them some Christmas cheer. It seems like an easy enough job, but Ben Hanson has written a very interesting book: 'Beyond Bah Humbug: Why Lying to Your Children about Santa Claus is a Bad Idea' that brings Christmas in peril. Miss Kane poses as the new nanny, in an attempt to change Ben's mind on Christmas and show him and the kids that Christmas can be fun. She is caught off guard by the feelings that are developing in her, how can she, as Santa Claus's daughter, be attracted by a man who doesn't love Christmas? My thoughts on Miss Kane's Christmas This was just such a sweet little Christmas romance novella. It might not be the most renewing outstanding work you will ever read, I know, but it does have all the cozy Christmas vibes I was looking for. I was not really in the spirit of Christmas myself, I was not feeling very well when I read this story. I am very glad that I picked it up, it cheered me up so much, and therefore I thought I should give it some love. So anyone who is not having all the feels, or just feels a little down, can also enjoy this story. Carol, aka Miss Kane, was such a powerful character, she kept trying in a subtle way to get through to Ben, even though this led to much friction from Ben's side. She took it sweetly and did not get discouraged. The ending was a little bit too predictable but who cares, it is a cute holiday read, they tend to be a little bit on the predictable side. It cheered me up so much, and that was all I wanted when I was reading a Christmas story. Rating Miss Kane's Christmas If you are looking for a sweet Christmas story, that does not at all take long to read, this is for you. It has all the cozy Christmas vibes, has lovely characters, and just helps you get in the mood for Christmas. The ending was predictable, the story could have a little bit more body, but in the end, it does not matter much. I think this is a solid 3 cats. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : The Chimney Sweep Author : M.J. Padgett Series : Life in Chatswain City, book 5 can be read as a standalone novel Age Category : Adult Published by: self-published 2018 Pages: 125p. Genre: Christmas feel good About The Chimney Sweep George is one of Santa's elves, who is just doing his duty by delivering presents on Christmas Eve, until he runs into this beautiful woman with a shotgun in her hand. In this cute Christmas romance, the stakes are high for George, as one kiss could mean losing immortality. My thoughts on The Chimney Sweeps This was adorable, it gave me all the Christmassy vibes I wanted. And I thought the start was very clever and funny, being held a gunpoint. The story is told from George's perspective, and he does not know a lot about humans. He does not know how appliances work and doesn't know many of the sayings, of humans, which makes for very funny conversations and situations. I like that we try to figure out through George's eyes what is the matter with Camilla, as a human reader we see that something is eating at her, but since we are only getting George's point of view, you are not sure what happened with Camilla in the past. We also learn about George's world at the North Pole. Small bits of information are given throughout the story. What I thought was a bit of a letdown is that we do not know why the chimney was so clean, it gets mentioned a couple of times however, we never get an explanation for it. My first thought was that Camilla would be a chimney sweeper, that would have been special. However, it turns out that Camilla is a police detective. So is her chimney so clean because she is never at home to use it? I might have gone with a different title, which has more of a Christmas feel to it, the cover art does help with selling it as a Christmas story, but I would not have known this from the title. Rating The Chimney Sweep Overall this was a cute little Christmas romance novella, it is a cozy story to read before Christmas and has something magical. I think this counts as a fantasy romance story, as we have the North Pole, with elves, Santa, and flying reindeer. But we also got a bit of new technology, devised, so the elves could communicate with the reindeer, and also a more modern sleigh that does not need reindeer to pull it. So Santa has been modernizing. I thought this was cool, it gives the old Christmas magic a more modern feel. These clever little details make this read 4 cats. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

It is almost Christmas! Wow, this year has flown by, it is unbelievable. Also, unbelievable all the things I have achieved this year, I am becoming more like the person I want to be daily. I am proud of the progress I have made and looking forward to continuing on this blog as well. I had forgotten for a while what it was like to read books and to be active in the reading community. I have had to take a break from blogging for a couple of months since my first Top 10 Tuesday post, due to personal issues, but I am back and I am here to stay as long as you all will have me. I just want to say, thank you all so much for the warm welcome back, it had been amazing, thank you, it does mean the world to me. Do you have an Amazon list a mile long? Well, I do not so much on Amazon but on Bol.com, it is my favorite national website for getting books. And their wishlist looks much prettier and easier to navigate than the one for Amazon. Anyway let's get into my top 10 books on my Christmas list! The illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling. I love Harry Potter and I love art, so an illustrated edition seems like a perfect Christmas gift for me. I have gone through them a couple of times in the bookstore, they are stunning. Never bought them because they were not so cheap. The illustrated edition of Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Eragon is a book dear to my heart I remember that this, it was in summer and just before my birthday, I was so excited about this book that I asked my grandparents for the second book Eldest in the series for my Birthday. I started reading it right away. I love that there are new editions to be added to my collection. Monstrous Tales by Sija Hong. I love fairytales, and love exploring fairy tales from across the world. The Tales editions by Chronicle Books are beautifully illustrated books of fairy tales, I already own the Nordic Tales edition and let me tell you, it is such a beautiful book. House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas I have been a fan of Sarah J. Maas for the longest time, but I still have to finish a series by her, that is my struggle, finishing a series. I have read Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight, and my latest was House of Earth and Blood. So now I need House of Sky and Breath, because House of Sky and Breath was amazing, and got me back into reading again like Twilight once did too, so I am hell-bent on finishing this series as far as it is out. Luckily, we have another one to look forward to in January when House of Flame and Shadow comes out. Can I just say, what an amazing cover art again I am loving it! Krampus by Brom I will let you in on a little secret, my boyfriend and I tend to give each other very unchristmasy themed gifts for Christmas, so I once gave him a metal encyclopedia, as in metal music, and he gifted me a book on the Salem witch trials. Very unconventional, so this would be a perfect gift for me. Murtagh by Christopher Paolini You didn't think I would forget the other major release by Christopher Paolini, would you? Of course, I need this in my life! I am very excited that we have a new story set in Alagaësia! The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna The first book the Gilded Ones was an extra book in one of the Fairyloot boxes, and I went in with no expectations and loved the story, I have yet to read the rest of the series, the Eternal Ones is coming in February so would be good to have this and finish this series in February! The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna We went on vacation to Edinburgh last September, such a beautiful city, I think we will go back because we enjoyed our time there. I was allowed to bookshop, and in the bookshop Martijn, suggested I pick this up, but I wasn't sure of it, and I have been regretting it ever since, as this book has become such a hype. The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher Any book will do by this author, T. Kingfisher in general has been hyped by my favorite book tubers for a long time, so I want to know why the works of this author are liked by many. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas I will admit, I did not yet get on this hype train, but that is bound to change as I already like 2 of the series Sarah writes this is going to be added one way or another. Which books are you hoping to receive this Christmas? If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Today I wanted to do something different, I want to include some real witchy content to my blog for you to enjoy. Last Christmas I came across a fun Yule preparation video by The Witches Cookery , and I decided I would try to make the Yule bread she made in that video. I wanted to do this last year before Yule, but I ran out of time, and honestly, I was not feeling as spirited as I am feeling now. I am doing so much better mentally than last year, and I have undergone a lot of changes this year. I am very proud of the progress I have made. So without further ado, I would like to present the most wholesome Yule video out there, all credit going to the Witches' Cookery of course, for this fun Yule blog. Yule preparations | Pagan Yule stories & history | Witch vlog The History of Yule Yule is traditionally celebrated between the 21st of December and the 6th of January. Yule is the celebration of fertility but also remembering the death. It is also the season of the hunt that comes after the harvest is done. It was also a time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was thin. The dead will rise in only one form this time of year, as part of the Wild hunt which is led by the German god Wodan aka Odin. Rituals during this time consisted of animal sacrifices to the gods to ensure fertility and good crops. The animals were prepared after the sacrifice into a Yule fest. A celebration in which gift-giving was also not uncommon. Except for the sacrificing part, it sounds a lot like the Christmas we celebrate today. As Yule starts on the shortest day of the year, it was also celebrated as the rebirth of the sun. There are many rituals, tales associated with Yule, and the Wild Hunt might be the most interesting of them all. Yule (Wagon) Bread Recipe The ingredients: 200 ml milk (warm) 14g active dry yeast 100 g sugar 1 swig of vanilla extract 3 egg yolks 500 g flour 100 g butter (soft) 1 pinch of salt 3 TBSP Rum or Amaretto or Milk with cinnamon 1/2 lemon (juice and zest) 50 g raisins (optional) Water & sugar to drizzle (add cinnamon for extra taste) Please make sure the eggs and butter are both at room temperature. Put the yeast, and sugar in a bowl. Warm the milk and poor it into the bowl with the sugar and yeast. Then add the three egg yolks and let it sit for about 10 minutes until bubbles appear. When they do, add the soft butter and flour to the mixture. Stir and add three tablespoons of rum in the mixture. You could also use Amaretto if do not have rum at home. I used the Kraken Rum we have on our shelf. Then add a pinch of salt, I have forgotten this step, and let me tell you, I could taste that it was missing, but if you have to lessen your salt intake, you can definitely make it without the salt, the bread will still taste delicious. But the salt would make it a bit richer in flavor. Then add the zest of half a lemon, as well as the juice. You can first stir the dough with a fork or with a spatula until the flower is a bit more incorporated and the dough does not stick as much to your hands. When it doesn't stick to your hands add the raisins. I think for my next batch I would amend the recipe a bit on this part, and increase the quantity to 100 g of raisins instead, me and my boyfriend would have liked some more raisins. You could also soak them in rum, to make them more flavourful. When you have incorporated the raisins, let the mixture rest for about an hour in a warm place. When rested, divide the dough into four pieces. Roll one piece in a long string and roll the ends inwards. Then do the same for a second piece and put that over the first so you have four little spirals. Put it in the oven (190 degrees Celsius) for about half an hour until it browns, in the meantime, prepare some water with sugar and cinnamon. When the Yule bread comes out of the oven drizzle some of the sugar water over your bread, then let it cool. Enjoy! I had a lot of fun making these, and they are delicious! So, I will be making some more soon. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

While I am working on figuring out my goals for 2025, let me switch it up again with another post because I am not good at keeping to the prompts at the moment. I want to discuss the books I want to prioritize this year. Catching Fire, Mockingjay, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins Here is the embarrassing part of this blog, I never finished reading the Hunger Games back when it came out. This year a new Hunger Games book will be released, I don't think I have to tell anybody that since it was on most anticipated releases top 10's last year. I thought this would be a good year to finally pick up the series again and finally finish it once and for all. Gleanings by Neal Shusterman by reading Gleanings I will have officially finished the Arc of Scythe series. My boyfriend has already read it of course, and a copy has been staring at me from the shelf for a long time. I am curious about these side stories, and I am looking forward to diving into that world again. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas Speaking of finishing series, I need to continue with Throne of Glass as well, I read Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows last year. If I can also get to Tower of Dawn this year, that would make this a phenomenal reading year. And then I will only have Kingdom of Ashes and the short stories to tackle in 2026. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones This falls in the category "books-boyfriend-gave-me". Maybe I should make that a reading challenge as well. Although that might just be too enthusiastic with the amount of other things in my life that need my attention. Let's just try to read one book he gave me, and call it a day. I own the beautiful Folio Society editions of this series, they are beautifully illustrated. Pet Sematary by Stephen King While I have seen many of Stephen King's movies, I have yet to finish my first Stephen King book. I will be tackling Pet Sematary as the first, I have heard it is a good starting point. Let me know if you would have picked another one for me, I would be curious to know. Authority and Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer I read Annihilation in 2023, you see the struggle, don't you? It has been a trend I want to break out of this nasty habit, it also shows up in other parts of my life, now that I am thinking about it. These are going on the list, then have another excuse to buy the new one as well. The release date of Absolution passed me by, I think I only became aware because Jade - Jadey rereads was talking about it in one of her videos. I love these new creepy weird covers so maybe I will trade in the paperbacks I have now for a matching new set, after I finish them of course. Jade City by Fonda Lee I have started this before but was not in the right mind to read this back then. I am feeling much better and I want to retry as I was enjoying the book. It did suck me in from the beginning, it was just wrong time to start it. I own the beautiful Illumicrate editions of the series. It would also make Martijn very happy, then we can finally discuss the books. He reads a lot faster than me, so he finishes books in no time. I sometimes wish I could read a little faster. What are your priority reads of 2025?

Title : Ruin & Rising Author : Leigh Bardugo Other books in this series: Shadow and Bone, book 1 and Siege & Storm, book 2 Series : The Shadow & Bone Trilogy, book 3 Age Category : Young Adult Published by: Henry Holt, June 2014 Pages: 307p. Genre: Epic fantasy About Ruin & Rising The conclusion to the Shadow and Bone trilogy. Alina barely survived the battle with the Darkling, were it not for Mal's intervention it would have killed her. The aftermath drove them into the hands of the Apparat, once a loyal servant of the king, who now had other plans. That involves Alina taking the throne of the Darkling. Will she be a puppet or will she once and for all break free from all the bonds that hold her? My thoughts on Ruin & Rising I remember that after finishing Siege and Storm I dove right into this one, and read it in one sitting, well maybe not one, I am an immensely slow reader, let's say it took me a week, which in my book, is damn fast. I could not put it down, and when I did I kept thinking about it. I didn't take many notes while reading this, which means that it was so intriguing that I just forgot to stop and write things down. Also a very good thing, I really really got invested in this book. I also think that Alina finally made the choices that I had been hoping she would take before. Taking a more active approach instead of not taking initiative at all. She is still the reluctant hero but it is more in the background than it was in the other books. This makes this book a lot more enjoyable for me. If you have read my other reviews on this series, you know how much I struggle with Alina's character. She drove me mad sometimes, it was very hard to read some of the questionable choices she made, but in the end, it made a lot of sense for the character she is. She gets thrown into a world and a position where she doesn't want to be. She finally accepts that this is the hand she got dealt and now finally makes the most of the situation. She has so much character growth throughout the series and we know have come to the climax of this. The overall storyline about Morozova's amplifiers also comes to a conclusion, and the very large amplifier was the most interesting turn of the entire series. I had not seen this one coming, I am not going to spoil things for those who have not read the series yet, but yes this book has some surprises in store. I liked that this book has its own lore, it helped the world-building a lot, but it also made the story more dynamic. As to the world-building, I am still sad that there isn't more to it in this series, at times I felt that the books were a bit rushed in this regard. I am glad that there are more books set in this world and hope that the other 2 duologies have more history and world-building in store for me. Rating Ruin and Rising This was a good conclusion to the series, the main characters ended up with their desired futures, and the world of Ravka was saved. However, to me, it was not a work of perfection, so it will still leave me stranded on 4 cats. This has to do with me not liking the main character all that much, the sometimes rushed world-building, and the overall story. The world that was created is amazing, the magic system is very interesting and something I have not read before, and all I can say is I just want a whole lot more of that. Unfortunately, I did not receive all that. I am going to continue with the other 4 books, as I do really like Ravka, and I really like Nikolai. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

It is already fall, and even though we still have summer temperatures all over the last week, I think it has been this way in many countries. I don't mind, but I also like the dark evenings of fall, but not so much the rain. This week's prompt for Top Ten Tuesday is, the fall TBR, 10 books you would like to read this autumn. 1. Haunted Voices by various authors This is an anthology of Scottish Ghost stories, this is one of the souvenirs I brought back from Scotland last year, I have read a couple of stories, but I would like to finish the rest. 2. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis I have now started this series, so I might as well finish the whole series, and of course, I want this as my Witch read of the month for November, I am planning something more Halloweenish for October. 3. Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones I own the most beautiful version of this book, the Folio Society edition, it is stunning, and illustrated. It was a gift from my boyfriend Martijn. I still haven't read it, I am a bit scared too as it is also one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies. They have recently started updating the covers of this series, and I have to say they look very nice, but I still love my edition better because it was a gift from the person I love. 4. Witches Steeped In Gold by Ciannon Smart I want to start getting through my special editions pile, I have this beautiful Fairyloot edition, just waiting to be read. And it is another witchy read, got to love all the witchy reads. I am very much looking forward to this one because it is Jamaican-inspired, a culture I know little about. 5. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas is the only middle-grade book on this list and one for Halloween month! As it is about ghosts, I am curious to see how I would like this one. 6. Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir another spooky read, necromancers sounds like something to read for Halloween? Don't you agree? Also, this has been so popular that I finally want to make my way on the hype train. 7 & 8. King of Scars & Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo I recently posted my review of Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm on this blog. When I heard that Nikolai had his own duology I just had to have it, whenever I got the chance (that being when it was on sale), I got both King of Scars and Rule of Wolves for a good price. Can't wait to dig in, I am very excited for this! 9. & 10. Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo got to finish them all because I am not allowed to watch the TV series before I finish the books. Since the TV series is pulling from both Shadow and Bones and this duology I should first finish. What are you planning on reading this fall? If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : The Magician's Nephew Author : C.S. Lewis Series : The Chronicles of Narnia, book 1 Age Category : Middle Grade Published by: May 1955 Pages: 221p. Genre: Epic fantasy About The Magician's Nephew Digory lives next to Polly in London, and they spend the summer together. Polly has found that their row houses are connected in the attics of all the row houses. They decided to go exploring but ended up in Digory's Uncle Andrew's forbidden study. From there, they are thrown into the world of magic, into a parallel world, where they find a witch they can't seem to shake, who chases them to Narnia. My thoughts on The Magician's Nephew This story is now over 60 years old, and it feels like it was recently written. It is the way it was written that makes it seem ageless. This is the beginning of Narnia, in the literal sense, as it is the story of how Narnia came to be. It also answers the question about how the connection between our world and Narnia was formed. I am a sucker for origin stories, it was something I was not so aware of, but now that I am thinking about it, I do like it. I have never heard anybody talk about this one, usually, everybody starts with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Even Goodreads believes that it should be read as a sixth book. I must disagree, I don't see any harm in reading this first, and I think it was supposed to be written as the first book in the series, as at the end it hints at The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. This book is intended as a children's book, and it is written in that way, but it also has some very mature and dark humor. To be honest, I would suggest this for kids from 10 up, not earlier. The language is still very understandable; even for kids, it will be easy to follow. I think I like that the most about this; it is so accessible in many ways. On the one hand, it is a children's adventure story, on the other hand, it has some lessons in there as well. Think of you should obey your parents/elders, if you behave badly you will suffer the consequences etc. Also, lots of child's play, like wanting to explore the other worlds, ringing the bell, and planting a toffee tree. These kinds of moments you see that it was intended for a young audience, however, it does not take anything away from the enjoyment of reading it. I very much enjoyed this story; it feels like a fairy tale, and I think this time around, I will also continue reading the rest of the series. Rating The Magician's Nephew I had a lovely time with this story. A lot of unanswered questions that I had after seeing the movies were answered here, and this is only the start of the adventures in Narnia. I can't wait to read more about this world, as it is fast and rich in its history, even when this was the very beginning of history. It is a very special kind of story, one that will always stick to me. Therefore, this story gets 4 cats! The Witchy Rating of The Magician's Nephew Since this is my first post on the blog, hi everybody. I am so glad that you found my little corner on the internet. I am also going to introduce to you my rating system for Witchy books. In addition to my normal rating mentioned above, I wanted to rate the truly Witchy books on their witchiness as well. So here we go. In this case, the witch is part of the story; however, it is not the main character of the book. We are dealing with an evil witch who wants to destroy or conquer worlds. The heroes Polly and Digory in this story do everything in their power to prevent the witch from succeeding. It is a classic kind of witch, like we see in fairy tales such as Hans and Gretel or Snow White. I am rating this book on Witchyness of 3 cauldrons it had some interesting spell casting, but the witch was not the main character of the book. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Siege & Storm Author : Leigh Bardugo Series : The Shadow & Bone Trilogy, book 2 Age Category : Young Adult Published by: Henry Holt, June 2020 Pages: 435 p. Genre: Epic fantasy About Siege and Storm Alina Starkov is on the run, but how long can she outrun her enemies? Her power has grown, but it has come with a price. She has become the Sun Summoner and is hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Shadow Fold. The Darkling is more determined than ever to claim Alina's magic and use it to take the Ravkan throne. With nowhere else to turn, Alina enlists the help of an infamous privateer and sets out to lead the Grisha army. But as the truth of Alina's destiny unfolds, she slips deeper into the Darkling's deadly game of forbidden magic, and further away from her humanity. To save Ravka, Alina will have to choose between her power and the love she thought would always be her shelter. No victory can come without sacrifice and only she can face the oncoming storm. My thoughts on Siege and Storm I should have read the synopsis before I started reading. The first comment I jotted down in my notebook was: "I am on page 17, and already the Darkling caught up with them?" If I just only had read the synopsis, this would have been clear. Anyway, I felt a bit disappointed that they were captured this fast. The desperation started early on in the book and my struggles with Alina continue because many of the notes I made during reading were about questionable choices, questionable behavior, and the list goes on and on. The thing I hated about the whole series, was that it seemed that Alina does not have any choices in any matters. She just keeps getting into the most impossible situations and seems to be accepting these situations instead of fighting her way out of them. But Alina was not the only person I was shouting at during reading, the lack of opinion from Mal almost drove me insane, but as it turns out in the end he has his own opinions as well. And I liked it a lot better when he started voicing them. This book did have one thing going for it, my favorite character of the entire series got introduced! I am talking about Strumhond AKA Nikolai!!! I was a bit bumped to hear that he was the other prince, but it did not matter in the end, he is still my favorite character, he is so damn funny and smart. Aaaah Nikolai, I miss you already, glad I have a whole duology to look forward to. Rating Siege and Storm In conclusion, I have figured out what my problem is with the series so far. It is the constantly being saved by someone part that I don't like about Alina. In the first book, she is in the hands of the Darkling where she helplessly watches him expend the fold. In the second book, she gets captured within the first 20 pages of the book by the Darkling, and after a magnificent scheme by Nikolai gets captured by yet another prince. She always remains in someone else's shadow. In the few cases where she does step out of the shadows, she can do great things and does some good decision-making. However, these moments are so few, that it does not make up for the times she is oppressed. The second book was a lot better for me, I still have my struggles, but Nikolai makes up for most of those. This is also why I have decided to give this book 4 stars. I only hope that we get to see Nikolai in the next book, as it would be a major disappointment if we missed out on him. One can only hope! If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Today's prompt for Top 10 Tuesday was actually the most anticipated reads for the first half of 2025. I was not feeling like that, I am switching it out for reflecting on 2024 instead. I thought it would be a fun experiment to look back at my goals post from January 16th and reflect on how the year has gone. Did I achieve any of the goals I set for myself this year? Let us get through them one by one. Blogging goals Write more posts and post more regularly You might have figured this one out already: I did not post regularly, and there have been months when I did not post at all. This year has been challenging for me. I went through so many struggles, and in the end, I ended up overworking myself again, which landed me in a burnout. I have struggled to get myself back together for the last few months. I am pulling myself up, but I still have some ways to go. If I struggle with myself, the blog suffers instantly, I do not have the mental capacity to post or write when I am feeling burnt out. Add translations to my posts I did not get to this either, I sometimes wonder if it is even worth my time because nowadays, English seems to be the best language to post in. Especially on social media, it is a constant struggle for me because I do not want to forget my mother tongue either, I feel that since English is becoming more and more important we should not forget where we came from, it sounds a bit nationalistic but in the end, I did grow up speaking Dutch and not English. Let me know your thoughts on whether I should add the translations, I am curious to learn what my audience would prefer. Include Witchy content This is still something I want to do, I enjoyed making my Yule bread post so much and doing the research for it as well. I have a little bit of imposter syndrome around this topic though because I feel I do not yet have enough knowledge on the subject to write proper posts. So I do not know if this will be something I will be focussing on for 2025, but I think I will see where my inspiration takes me. I think my main focus will yet again be on posting frequently rather than adding Witchy content. Personal goals Be Nicer to myself I will continue this goal in 2025, I can tell you that I have made progress on this even though I have burnt myself out through this year. I feel that was bound to happen. I have been working on my mental health for the entire year while working full-time and doing a lot of things I enjoy on the side. I have taken time to spend with my fiancée, to go on vacation, and to do fun things like going to concerts and spending time with friends. However, I still have a lot of trauma to work through, this influences me in ways that I could not have imagined. Being nicer to myself will need to be a constant continuing effort, to not fall into the trap again of overworking, which is my coping mechanism. In conclusion, yes I made progress, but it will remain a goal for the new year. Continue my musical journey If you don't remember what this one was about, I want to learn how to play the guitar and see how I can improve my singing. I have made some progress on this as well, but as my mental health suffers, all the things I enjoy doing suffer as well. So this journey is also not ending in 2024, I am glad that I have taken some singing lessons and have practiced on the guitar. There is this nagging thought that I did not do this often enough. This last part is why I have to continue being nicer to myself. I did the best I could under the circumstances. Reading goals Finishing at least 1 book a month I can proudly say, that at the moment of writing this, I have finished 13 books and I will finish book 14 before the end of the year as well. I am so proud that I have managed this, considering the year I have been having. The longest book I have read was Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas with 648 pages. The shortest book was the short story Pages to Fill by Travis Baldree, with 33 pages. I have read 3253 pages, and at the moment I am writing this, I think that is a good achievement. Looking through my statistics, this is a lot better than I have done in 2023 and 2022. I am on the rise again, reading-wise, which is a good thing. For the last few months, I have been trying out reading for an hour every single day, I have not managed to do this every day, but I have managed to do this at least a couple of times a week, this is how I have improved on my reading. It is of course not a competition for me to read, I will never get to 100 books a year, like some other readers do. I am fine with that, I did set this goal of reading every day to make sure I do something I enjoy every day. Recently I have concluded that I love learning new things, so my hour reading also satisfies that desire, as I read a mix of non-fiction and fiction. Depending on my mood, I will pick up either, reading an hour does not have any restrictions, I can read non-fiction, blog articles or fiction. The goal is just to make sure I read something I enjoy every day. Lower my physical TBR pile I have read 4 books that I know were on my physical TBR at the start of 2024, however, I have also added to my TBR so I think there are now more books on my TBR than I have read. I am glad I finished at least 4, but this can be improved upon in 2025. I will need to go through my library to see what has been added, as I have not been keeping up with this. I might do a new post once I have done so. I think it would be interesting to see what the current status is. Finishing old ARCs During the year I changed my mind about this goal, the amount of ARC's was overwhelming furthermore, I had lost interest in several of them. Some fell outside the scope of this blog, and therefore I do not feel like reviewing them. I might still read them, but I will not write a review for them. My Netgalley account has been wiped clean, I have left notes for all the books I am not reviewing, with reasons why so that the publishers have at least that to go on. These were mostly books I requested back in 2013/4 I do not think it would be very relevant for them to still post a review on them now. During this year I have requested some new books. One of them I have not read and reviewed because it turned out to be a second book in a series, this was not clear to me when I requested it. I have one left outstanding to read a review, on which I confused the release date so it will be a late review. The other two books I was approved for were Evocation and Odd Spirits by S.T. Gibson, both of which I have reviewed here on the blog, click on the titles to read my reviews if you missed them. All in all, I think I have been doing well on my ARCs. Finishing series or letting them go This has not gone well, I have not finished any series at this point, and as I said in my Goals post I have continued the Throne of Glass series, I have finished and reviewed Queen of Shadows and that is it for this year, series-wise. I have decided to unhaul one series, the Hush Hush books by Becca Fitzpatrick. I do not feel like I will ever finish this series, I did not enjoy the main character back in the day when I read the first book. And never felt the need to finish this series, so it is going. You can find them in my webshop, Arcane Archives . I hope they will find a home with someone who will enjoy the series. All other series are at this point remaining, I will have to go through them once more and decide if I want to continue them, I will continue with Throne of Glass next year, that is the one thing I can promise. Buying the missing books of series I have started I have not felt the urgency on this one, I do not think I managed to by a lot. From the top of my head, I think the only ones I have bought are The Merciless Ones and The Eternal Ones, by Namina Forna. I do not think this will be a goal for next year, I need to sort through my series first and see what I want to continue before adding more books to my shelves. So the priority will be finishing the series, of which I already own all the books. That was the last one of the goals, how have you been doing in 2024? Are there any goals you are taking with you to 2025?

It is that day again, Tuesday, time for another top 10 post. I hope that you stick to it until the end because this is going to be a long one. It took me longer to write than come up with the goals itself. I hope you enjoy my goals and that it may inspire you to have goals for yourself or just to take the next step in your life. Blogging goals  1.        Write more posts and post regularly. This is something I have been struggling with for a long time. It is very difficult for me to find the time to sit down and write a post. A lot of thought and research goes into the posts I write, so it also takes me a lot of time to finish any posts. This year I hope to change this by setting the bar low. I want to start with posting twice a week. Two posts should be a manageable amount. I want to do this for both of my blogs. I got a second blog, where I write about music, something I thought would be as easy as writing about books, but it turns out that it is a bit more difficult for me. Music is even more personal than books, I still need to find my flow for this blog, it will be something I will also be working on.   2.        Add translations to all my posts. When I started out blogging on my previous blog, Ice Cold Passion , and before that Ice Queen’s Bookshelf, I wanted to create content for both an international audience as well as my own country. I know it is ambitious to have all my posts available in two languages, but it is something that I have wanted to do since I started. I am glad I finally made the switch to a different platform for blogging, my sites are now built with Wix, which has a built-in function that makes it easy to offer your site in multiple languages. I have already tried to do this for Finding Flight Cases but I have not yet managed to translate everything yet, so I want to change that. As for Witchy Reads, posts are currently only available in English. And for now, it is fine, I want to focus first on goal one, getting posts out twice a week. When I have mastered that, I want to continue with this second goal. I think that this might even be a multiple-year project, let’s see how far I make it this year.   3.        Include Witchy content. This one is specifically for Witchy Reads, with witchy content I mean not only read Witchy fiction but also non-fiction books, but also broader than only reading books. I would like to have informative posts about witchcraft, spells, and divination. To help me explore my journey into this. My post on the Yule bread I posted at the end of the year is one example of what I want to do. I want to dive deeper into my spiritual side, and I want to take you all with me on the journey, letting you also know what works for me and what does not. I hope this will give me the balance I need in life, reconnect with nature and will make me overall a better person.   Personal Goals  4.        Be nicer to myself. This may seem strange as a blogging goal, but it does thigh into my first goal a bit. 2023 was a very hard year for me, I have come to realize that I want more out of life. I had started exploring this more, what do I want? What do I want to achieve in life? What do I still want to learn?   I have concluded that what I have been doing for years is not healthy for me. The amount of work and responsibility that I took on to my plate was insane, and it has been giving me health problems for years, because I went over all the boundaries my body was giving me. I did not understand why, I kept doing this and decided to get help.   At first, I did not know where to start and where the heart of my problems was based. After a while, I figured that out and I found a specialized therapist who kindly put a lot of things in perspective for me. She helped me realize that things needed to change, even though it meant taking a step out of the “safety zone” that I had created for myself.  In the end, it also meant leaving the company I had built together with my sister.   This was the hardest decision I have ever made, but it is also the best decision I have ever made. It was the cause of all my health issues. Now I can start healing and explore what I want to do with the rest of my life, dreams I want to achieve.   5.        Continue my musical journey. By the end of 2023, I have started doing some of the things I have been wanting to do for a long time. One of those things was taking singing lessons. I want to learn how to sing correctly and to see what I can really do with my voice. I love singing it makes me very happy. I want to continue my lessons and hope that I can also find my own sound and which genre I want to sing. I also want to learn how to play guitar, specifically electric guitar, I have had some lessons in the past but never continued as other things were more important at the time. Now that I have more time for self-care I want to see if I can learn how to play and play the songs I love. Reading Goals 6.        Finish at least 1 book a month This is also in line with being kinder to myself, and not pushing myself too much to get stuff done. If I do not manage to do what I have planned, I still have some wiggling room left for myself. The goal overall this year is to reset boundaries that have been destroyed. Also, I to not overwork myself and be oké with not doing anything occasionally.   I have set my Goodreads goal a little higher than 1 book a month since I have the feeling that this is going to be a great reading year. I have set out to read 25 books in 2024. Currently, I have already finished two books, both I started in 2023, but was not able to finish before the end of the year. I hope I will finish one of the non-fiction books, I have started as well in this month.     I am currently reading Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas, which I think would be too ambitious to finish before the end of the month. I am now a hundred pages out of the 600 pages, I am not going to push myself too much. It would be a good start if I do manage to finish it. Then I have tackled 4 books in one month!   7.        Lower my To-Be-Read pile. There are over 200 books on my TBR at this moment. This is only counting the physical copies, this excludes any old ARCs, which I will get to in my next goal, or any eBooks that I own. I am also not counting any non-fiction books that I own.   It would be awesome to lower my TBR by a hundred books, that would unfortunately not be very realistic. I will also be adding some books to my TBR, I have two books incoming this month, and on Saturday five books arrived.   A realistic goal would be twenty books, this would already be a great achievement.  I might add a monthly post where I track my progress, as an extra reminder. I think that would be fun.   8.        Finish old ARC’s. I still have some old Advance Reading Copies, that I would like to get to this year. I stopped to read and review books I think in 2019, as I just felt overwhelmed by the number of requests I got and felt that I needed to accept all of them. I did not know how to say no because I felt honored that they found my little blog and considered me. I went through all my old requests and narrowed it down, there are a lot of them that I never am going to read so I filed them all.   There are two books out of all these old requests I still want to read. The first is Tomorrow Wendel by R.M. Ridley, the premise still sounds interesting, so I want to give this one a chance even though it is old and has only 25 reviews on Goodreads.  The other one is The Emerald Tablet, which I started reading back in the day, but I was not in the right mind for it to finish it.  This is science fiction, I want to try to read a couple of science fiction books to see if this genre is something to read more of or just let go in its entirety.   There are also a couple of Netgalley books that are from around the same period that I want to get to. There are six in total, two sequels, one I have read but did not write a review for, and four random choices. If I do not read any of these this year, I will let them go, file them, and let Netgalley know why I decided not to read them.   There is one more, the only physical advance reading copy I have ever received. Jill’s Talisman it is called, this book is in Dutch and the author Dieter Ryckewaert reached out to me and asked if I wanted to read and review his book. I did indeed read the book, but never put up a review for it. I want to correct this, re-reading the book and writing the review it deserves, as the book was really good.   9.        Finish series or let them go. Yesterday I spent some time putting together a spreadsheet of all the series I have started but never finished. There are some series I own in its entirety of which I have only read the first book. For example, the Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched, Hush Hush, and Shiver. I just read the one book and never made it to the second book in the series. I feel a little shame, as these were all very popular series.   This just must change, I am going to finish the spreadsheet, as I know I am not even halfway done, and then start finishing series. I have already started this process, as I am currently reading Queen of Shadows, the fourth book in the Throne of Glass series. I am having a very good time with this series, so I plan to finish this in the first half of the year.   To keep myself motivated I can read a second book non-series next to this, so I don’t get bored with the series and stop reading it again. If a series is not keeping me interested or I am unable to finish a book in the series, then I will just have to let the series go. There are so many of them I don’t need to read all of them, especially if I do not enjoy them.   10.  Buy missing books out of the series I have started. This seems to contradict lowering my TBR, and that is why it is the last one in this top 10 goals, it is oke if I do not manage this for all the series I have started. Let me first finish the series I already own in its entirety. This is just for when my reading year is becoming incredible and I want to consider this. It is not very high on the priority list. It is also in a way a motivation to finish the series I have started. There are a couple of reasons why I don’t seem to finish the series, not owning the sequel is one of them. These goals all go together and support each other. This was not intended but they do.   What are your goals for this year? Let me know in the comments.

The theme today was supposed to be your top 10 books of 2023, however, I did not finish 10 books last year, let's just say that 2023 was not the best reading year. I have read 2 non-fiction books, in the fiction department I have read three full-length books, a novella, and two short stories. That was it for 2023, my favorite of the year was of course House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas, this was also the longest book I have read in 2023. So what I wanted to do instead today is go through a top 10 list of Witchy books I want to read in 2024, this list will not consist of new releases, as we will be discussing those later this month. I have chosen 5 books that are on my TBR and 5 that I will probably be adding throughout the year. I am not going into detail on why I picked this today, as I am a little short on time as I have been sick the last two days. I am feeling much better today so I do want to bring you my list, hope you find some new witches to enjoy. Witchy books on my TBR that I own Witchy books on my TBR to collect Looking forward to reading what your favorite books of 2023 were! Happy Reading Irene