December is gone and so is 2025! Did everyone survive the holidays? December was very busy for me, leaving me not a lot of blogging time, but still a bit of reading time. Obviously, this post will not just be for December, but will also show how I did on my other reading challenges for the year. First, though, let’s take a look at what went down in December:

December Reads

• House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
• House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
• The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
• The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa
• The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

Five books, which given how long the Maas books were, that’s really not bad. As I said in my WWW post, those books are CHONKY! Finishing off the year re-reading the Iron Fey series was just perfect. It had been a while since I had read those and they’re just as good as I remembered.

2025 Reading Challenges

Time to take a look at how these reading challenges went. Some went very well, others . . . eh, I tried.

My original goal was to read 75 books in 2025. In September, I knew that 75 was not going to happen, so I dropped it to 65. The five books I read in December brought my total to . . . 53. Not what I wanted, but still a nice amount of reading for the year, especially given the reading slumps I had. Here are the reads:

1. Passion by Lauren Kate
2. Rapture by Lauren Kate
3. Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis
4. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
5. Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis
6. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
8. Apostles of Mercy by Lindsay Ellis
9. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
10. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
11. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
12. Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross
13. Caraval by Stephanie Garber
14. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
15. A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer
16. A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer
17. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
18. Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen
19. The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman
20. Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen
21. The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop
22. These Broken Stars by Amie Kauffman and Meagan Spooner
23. This Shattered World by Amie Kauffman and Meagan Spooner
24. All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
25. Their Fractured Light by Amie Kauffman and Meagan Spooner
26. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
27. Funny Story by Emily Henry
28. The House on the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
29. Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune
30. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sandu Mandanna
31. The Women by Kristin Hannah
32. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
33. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
34. Heartless by Marissa Meyer
35. The Wedding People by Alison Espach
36. Division of the Marked by March McCarron
37. Elevation of the Marked by March McCarron
38. Lamentation of the Marked by March McCarron
39. Resolution of the Marked by March McCarron
40. How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
41. The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith
42. The Conjurer by Luanne G. Smith
43. The Glamourist by Luanne G. Smith
44. None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
45. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
46. When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips
47. The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
48. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
49. House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
50. House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
51. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
52. The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa
53. The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

This year, I wanted to read all 14 of the winners of 2024 GoodReads Choice Awards. I really enjoyed this challenge – it made me read a lot of books and genres that I wouldn’t normally do. I didn’t read all of them, but I did read 11. Here are the ones I read:

• Fiction: The Wedding People by Alison Espach – 7/3/25
• Historical Fiction: The Women by Kristin Hannah – 5/31/25
• Mystery/Thriller: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore – 6/5/25
• Romance: Funny Story by Emily Henry – 5/6/25
• Romantasy: House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas – 12/16/25
• Fantasy: Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune – 5/18/25
• Science Fiction: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley – 6/23/25
• Debut Novel: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang – 7/25/25
• YA Fantasy: Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross – 2/16/25
• Memoir: The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop – 4/4/25
• History/Biography: The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss – 11/11/25

I missed reading the winner for Best Horror, You Like It Darker by Stephen King, mostly because I just wasn’t feeling it, and Best YA Fiction, Heartstopper: Volume 5 by Alice Oseman, mostly because it was another series and I couldn’t get all of them in time. As I mentioned a while back, I started reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, winner for Best Nonfiction, but ended up not finishing it.

For anyone who is new around here, I used to be really bad about reading the first book or two in a series and then getting distracted and not finishing it. Below is a list of series where this has happened, although I have pared down the list a bit and gotten rid of some series that I no longer have interest in.

My goal: to complete seven series on this list in 2025. As of August, it has been completed! Here are the series I finished:

1. Noumena series by Lindsay Ellis (3 books) – COMPLETE AS OF 1/29/25!
2. Scarlet series by A.C. Gaughen (3 books) – COMPLETE AS OF 4/1/25!
3. Cursebreakers by Brigid Kemmerer (3 books) – COMPLETE AS OF 3/11/25!
4. Starbound series by Amie Kauffman & Meagan Spooner (3 books) – COMPLETE AS OF 4/30/25!
5. Fallen series by Lauren Kate (5 books) – COMPLETE AS OF 1/7/25!
6. The Marked series by March McCarron (4 books) – COMPLETE AS OF 7/17/25!
7. Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith (3 books) – COMPLETE AS OF 8/13/25

Also finished the below series started in 2025:

• Cerulean Chronicles by T.J. Klune
• Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas
• Letters of Enchantment by Rebecca Ross

I was very excited about this, since it’s the first year I’ve actually completed a Complete the Series challenge. So much progress made! I might skip this one for the new year and concentrate on other things, but I’m not sure yet.

Blog Updates

I didn’t blog much in December, mostly due to the aforementioned hectic schedule due to work and holidays, but I did blog some. Here’s what happened:

• Month in Review: 1
• Teasers/Top Tens: 2
• WWW Wednesday: 2
• Reviews: 1

Yeah, only six posts. Not very many. Looking over my yearly stats, I posted 137 times. Weirdly enough, my most viewed post was my review of the Fallen series posted on January 9th. Not sure how that happened, but there it is. My views and likes are up for the year, although comments are down, probably because I didn’t have time to respond back to most people who were nice enough to comment. I’m going to do better! Promise!

Shop Updates

Lastly, a little update on my shop, Tabby Cat Textiles. December brought me my very first sales! I sold three things! One of them went to a friend of mine, but the other two were completely random people who found me somehow. I made the move away from MakerPlace and now I’m solely on Etsy – there’s just more traffic there. I’m working on posting more to the shop’s Facebook and Instagram as well, so please give me a follow over there, if you are so inclined. I’d really appreciate it.

Here are some new items posted in December. Some have already been bought, but some are still available:

Overall, December was busy and crazy and extremely challenging, but with the new year, I have high hopes that things are going to get better. Happy New Year everyone!

Categories: Month in Review

Tags: books, Month in Review, year in review