**I unwrap the gifts that sit under my tree. I have been exchanging gifts with friends and family the past few days, and have left everything under my tree to unwrap at the same time. I tear through colorful wrap, leaving it beside me, and I admire the lovely gifts from everyone. I stack up books under the tree and admire each one, leaving the nice notes inside them, each note a distinctive cursive that I recognize immediately. The swooping cursive of Betty, and the small, decisive letters from my cousin in the country. When I finish unwrapping, colored paper surrounds me from all sides, but I don’t mind. I love the festiveness of it all. I leave it there and eye each gift and flip through each book. Merry Christmas.**

As readers, a lot of us will receive a similar gift for Christmas: books. Our friends and family fuel our love for traveling to magical worlds and solving mysteries. I received several books for the holidays and wanted to share with all of you. Some of my all-time favorite videos to watch are hauls and unboxings, especially when it is books. There are several, so let’s get right into it.

Next up, we have Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter. Better Than the Movies was my favorite read of 2023, and it kickstarted my love for Lynn Painter. After I saw that there was going to be a sequel following Liz and Wes in college, I knew I had to read it. I am very excited to read a new book by Lynn Painter.

My next book is The Reckoning of Roku by Randy Ribay. If you don’t know, this is one of the books in the Chronicles of an Avatar series, following different avatars depicted in the show Avatar: the Last Airbender. I have loved this show for years and when I saw there were going to be books about Roku, I knew I had to pick it up. I am a bit apprehensive about this one. After reading Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, a book based on the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, I am a bit worried about reading books set in television worlds. I just really hope this book can be a good representation of the Avatar universe.

The next book in this haul is Swap’d by Tamara Ireland Stone. This is the sequel to Click’d which I read earlier this year. I really enjoyed the first one, a middle-grade story about a girl working on coding an app to help people find friends, so I wanted to continue on and read the sequel. After this, I only have one more book by this author: Little Do We Know. I actually did a review on Click’d, so if you want to see my thoughts, go check that out.

This next one is a book I have been wanting to read for years, which is The Match by Sarah Adams. This one started as an indie published book, then got picked up by a publisher and was released this year I believe. I have wanted to read it since before it was even announced that it would be traditionally published. This is an adult romance about Evie who works with service dogs. One day, a man comes into the business looking for a service dog for his daughter. They get off on the wrong-foot, but as Evie helps the two of them find the perfect dog, they start to fall for each other.

Every year when I am asked to make a list of books I want for the holidays, I always put on a “surprise book.” As someone who reads a lot and spends plenty of time watching book videos and browsing Barnes&Noble, I know a lot about books, so I want to read one that hasn’t been on my radar, or one I don’t know about. Campus Murder Club by Kristi Rose is one I had never heard of before. Because of that, I am trying to avoid knowing anything about it. So far, I think it’s about college students who play a dangerous game, but other than that, I am going in pretty blind. I do know that this is also indie-published which is also very exciting!

This next one is Secrets So Deep by Ginny Myers Sain. I loved this author’s debut novel, Dark and Shallow Lies, so I knew I had to read more. Her first book was a story set in a small Louisiana town where the main girl is trying to find answers to her best friend’s disappearance, which should be easier than it is in a town of psychics. This was a thriller/mystery with fantasy elements, which is a genre I have really been enjoying. This book is about a girl whose mother’s drowning is ruled as an accident, but she begins to learn more about that night and experiences odd occurrences she can’t explain.

Next, we have A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft. I have seen a few people talk about this and I have seen it around but I never really looked into it. All I know is that it has something to do with alchemy and what seems to be some type of competition. I miss the days of not knowing about any book and would choose blind in the bookstore, so I get excited about getting books I don’t know much about.

One of my most anticipated releases of 2024 was The Party by Natasha Preston, so I was very excited about receiving this one. This is about a girl who goes to a party with her friends, but as people start dying, they need to figure out the killer if they want to make it out alive. Natasha Preston is one of my favorite authors, so I am very excited to read her newest book.

The next two books are in the same series so I will put them together, but I got An Heir of Frost and A Queen of Ice by Elise Kova. I read and enjoyed the first two books in the A Trial of Sorcerers series, so I can’t wait to read the other books. This is a series set in a kingdom with elemental magic and a competition to compete in a tournament between all the kingdoms. Our main character Eira has water abilities and competes for the chance to travel to the neighboring kingdom she always wanted to see. I really liked the first two books so I am interested to see where the rest of the series is going.

Finally, to wrap up this haul, we have Darkly by Marisha Pessl. I read one book by this author back in 2021 I believe called Neverworld Wake. It had an interesting concept and I didn’t think it was too bad. Darkly, from what I understand, is about a girl who get an internship with her favorite game designer. The synopsis mentions odd symbols and clues in the new game, called Darkly, so I am assuming that there is a mystery involved, and between the cover and title, I would assume there will be some darker elements to the story as well.

I am very excited to read all of these books and greatly appreciate that I was given them as gifts. I would love to hear any books that you received this holiday season. I do want to try and get through some of my older TBR books first, both to make some room on my TBR shelf and to finally read them before getting to the newer ones. For my last post of the year, I will be discussing my January TBR, which I still have to figure out, then my first post of 2025 will be my December wrap-up. I will also have a post coming out for my top 10 books of 2024, once I can finally figure out my list. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and I will see you on Monday.

xoxo,

Just another reader