Can you believe it’s already December? I’m a little shook at how quickly November seemed to zoom right by me and that I can’t recall reading much of anything at all last month!

Work in November was been overwhelmingly busy with projects ending, people leaving, and new things to start sorting for next year as my organisation goes through a merger. Having to prepare communications for the region and projects, as well as representing Southeast Asia in our global works council (similar to a union), on top of finding time to blog and read, really stretched me quite thin! To say that everything seemed to be overflowing might be a bit of an understatement and part of me is even glad to see that we’re in the last month of 2020 now because I’m truly running low on steam 😂

But it hasn’t been all bad! It has been an incredible month for book mail and I’ve received many of the special editions that I ordered earlier in the year. I haven’t spent much on regular book buying in 2020, but I’m 100% positive I made up for all that with the many special editions that I purchased. I really kissed that money goodbye, friends 😂

Now… ON TO THE “FUN” STUFF!

In November, I read 15 books! **Okay, I just totally surprised myself with that count because I expected to see that I only managed to read five books or something because that’s really what this month has felt like 😂 LOL I didn’t have any five star reads or DNFs and the majority this month were 4 stars. If you can’t tell I went on a bit of a historical romance binge and the light reads were exactly what I needed! The books were a good mix of blog tour reads, ARCs and new books on my TBR.

Being the only book I rated 4.5 stars this month, The Cousins was my favourite read but I think the Moose Springs series are close contenders because they really brought me a lot of joy and I can’t wait to continue on with the series in December as I was lucky enough to get the ARC!

Book covers are linked to Goodreads and the text is linked to my reviews if available!

4.5 panda stars

The Cousins

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4 panda stars

The Tourist Attraction (Moose Springs #1)
Mistletoe & Mr Right (Moose Springs #2)
Boone (Eternity Springs: The McBrides of Texas #3)
The Highland Renegade (Lords of the Highlands #5)
Born at Dawn (Da’Valia Trilogy #1)
The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars
Gargantis (The Legends of Eerie-on-Sea #2)

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3.5 panda stars

A Scandalous Bargain (The Pretenders #2)
The Forbidden Duke (The Untouchables #1)

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3 panda stars

The Forgotten Gift
Sarah’s Dream (The Grémillet Sisters #1)

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2.5 panda stars

The Straw King – The Pharaoh’s Daughter
The Price of Temptation

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2 panda stars

Gung-Ho: Vol 1

As a total mood reader I never plan TBR piles and even my possibility piles have been pointless this year, but I have been thinking about what I hope to read in December and I’ll be focusing on:

• MANY ARCs: BECAUSE WELP!!! 😭
• Blog tour reads: I have a few but not that many…
• POPSUGAR Reading Challenge prompts: I’ve been horrible at keeping proper track of what I’ve been reading and can use to check off prompts. I need to have a look through my spreadsheet and update it so I can plan the month better! Hopefully I can complete the regular challenge this year before giving it another go in 2021! 😉

I did a little better with keeping track of community posts in November but I know I also missed a lot and I’m sad (and sorry!) that I didn’t have time to read and engage more. 😞 I’m going to be realistic and say that I’ll probably have even less time (and brain space) in December, but once the new year rolls around that is really going to change and I’m more than ready for it! For now, here are the posts that I managed to read and really enjoy!

• Sabrina @ Wordy and Whimsical made a fun Miscellaneous Matches post about pairing books with anything else!
• Rin @ Rin’s Reads posted about the new era of virtual book events!
• Eleanor @ Not-So-Modern Girl wrote a great post with six simple ways to invest in your blog!
• Charvi @ Not Just Fiction talks about stepping out of her comfort zone with non-fiction (so relatable!) and shares five NF books she loved!
• Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog shares a few bookish shops to treat yo self! (And I did 😉)
• Zenobia @ ThatZenBlog shares tips on how to maintain that perfect NetGalley ratio (that we all love/hate and know so well)!
• The Orangutan Librarian shared thoughts on the freedom to fail. “And, above all, we’ve got to focus on our own flying, not getting distracted by what others are doing.”
• Stephen @ Stephen Writes shared a fun post on book bloggers’ non-bookish favourites (because we do talk about non-bookish things too)!
• Reading Between the Dunes made a cool post about the seven books that influenced their current writing voice!
• Kal @ Reader Voracious posted 7 perfect gift ideas for book lovers–and just in time for the holiday season, too!

That’s a wrap on November, folks! One more month to go and I’m sure we’re all more than ready to move onward (and hopefully upward) from 2020! Hang in there, friends, and I hope you all manage to have a decent, if not good, if not great, December! 🥰