Sela O.

The Bane Chronicles: The Runaway Queen

“It was a very bad idea. It was a terrible idea. It was the worst idea he had ever heard. It was irresistible.”

The Bane Chronicles Book 2

Authors: Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson

Genres: Fantasy. YA.

It’s not easy writing about what you have read years ago, but I do my best here. The Runaway Queen is the second story in The Bane Chronicles, the compilation about Magnus Bane life before and some after he met Alec, and from the time we read about Magnus in The Mortal Instruments, we wanted to know this kind of story since he is quite old and had many things to tells us throughout the books.

What to Gift your Bookish Friend for Christmas

Hello, dearies!

How are the Christmas preparations going? Have you decided on gifts for your friends, lovers, significant other, family-member? The question is, what kind of book do they like?

It has become a thing during gift-giving dates, Christmas, Birthdays, Anniversaries, and the sort, to not gift your friend who likes books, a book. Even when we say that we want one, most people do not seem to take it seriously, I have been given a book for Christmas, once, and one time only. And once, I gift card for a Bookstore I believe, and that was secret Santa and I specifically said that a book would be okay, so yes.

5 Christmas-related Books for this December

What’s Christmas without a little light reading about Christmas? 🎁 🎄

Hello, dearies!

Is December going well? Every day seems to get colder over here, but we don’t have snow so it’s only that, cold, cold, cold. 🧣🥶

Today, I decided to bring a little Christmas back as I did in 2020, though I did this in 2018 as well, they were not all related to Christmas, you can still check those out and maybe find another good read that you haven’t seen before.

Okay, let’s start with this 2021 Christmas-related book recommendations. Oh, they are not from this year but I saw this time around and thought they looked interested enough.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I get a tiny commission if you get one of the books, but the prices do not change for you. Thank you for understanding.

To get the book you liked best, click on the red button. 🖱️

Finding Christmas

By Victoria Schwimley

Dr. Lauren Spencer is missing something in her life. Her medical practice has become mundane and ordinary. Her children are growing older, and her husband is rarely home anymore–since he got a promotion at work. Frustrated on Christmas Eve, after her “thoughtless” husband sent her to the department store for a last minute gift for his boss, Lauren engages in an altercation that will change her life.

Finding Christmas

Deck the Hearts

By Rachelle Ayala

Opposites attract and sparks fly in the delightful small town of Christmas Creek.

Holly Jolly lives for Christmas. It’s the only time of the year, as far as she’s concerned.

Gordon Gills doesn’t need a reason to hate the holiday season. He doesn’t see the point.

Gordon returns to the mansion he inherited and finds Holly making a mess with her Christmas decorations. Unfortunately, his great-aunt’s will stipulates that he must make merry every Christmas if he wants to keep his inheritance.

Holly is determined to infect the grouchy Gordon with every dose of Christmas cheer she can muster and show him what Christmas is really about.

Deck the Hearts

Fool Me Twice at Christmas (A Fake Engagement, Small Town, Holiday Romantic Comedy)

By Camilla Isley

There are two types of relationships: fake and real.

Chuck and Kate’s used to be real, oh-so-real. But after she broke his heart four months ago, leaving him, it became all just pretense for the sake of their entwined families.

With parents who are best friends and business partners, it’s not easy for Chuck and Kate to announce they’ve split up. But with the holidays looming over them, they can no longer keep pretending.

Chuck and Kate head home for Christmas, determined to tell the truth—and end up accidentally engaged instead. The more they try to pull apart, the more the Universe seems to push them back together, shortening the road to the altar. And when just-for-show kisses stir up forgotten feelings, things get even more complicated.

Now, with the midnight hour approaching, will Chuck and Kate’s relationship turn out to be fake or real?

Fool me Twice at Christmas

Blame It on the Mistletoe

by Beth Garrod

Elle is a social medial star with the #DreamLife…or so it seems. Determined to shake up her content and gain new followers, she’s on a mission: can she find a British fan to swap with for Christmas?

Holly loves everything about Christmas. But after a mortifying mistletoe disaster with her ex, her perfect plans unravel like a bad Christmas sweater. Can Holly save the holidays when she switches places with favorite social media influencer?

Blame It on the Mistletoe

On Christmas Avenue: A Christmas Romance From Hallmark Publishing

by Ginny Baird

Everybody loves a parade!
Well, everybody except Evan…

Evan, the county sheriff, knows that businesses are struggling in the small town of Clark Creek. But unlike the mayor—who happens to be his mother—he doesn’t think that hiring a “Christmas Consultant,” whatever that is, will help. Especially when this Christmas Consultant proposes a holiday parade that seems likely to overwhelm his staff and leave the town in even more debt.

On Christmas Avenue

That’s it for now, dearies! I trust there is something good in there for all of you, even if it’s just one book. 📕

Like and share if you’re in the mood, or if you want others to know about these books. 📚 Thank you for reading and I hope you come back.

Happy Reading! 🎄

Beautiful Disaster: About the Book

“It wasn’t just me, and it wasn’t just him, it was what we were together that was the exception.”
Many little quotes like this make it a great read.

Author: Jamie McGuire

Genre: Romance, New Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, YA

Page Count: 432 pages

Year Published: May 26, 2011

Main Characters: Travis Maddox. Abby Abernathy.

I cannot believe I don’t have a book review for Beautiful Disaster. And honestly, all that I remember is that I loved it at the time, despite being kind of a regular one, a romance, yes, but no fantasy in there. Yet, it hooked me for a time. 💞

Now, there is a movie in the making, and for some reason, I am excited about it. I am not feeling the actors that much, but I want to watch. Filming ends this week, and Jamie has been giving us regular news on it, and it’s making me want to read the book again. There are two sides of Beautiful Disaster, from Abby’s point of view and from Travis’, and the one from Travis freaking Maddox was too much excitement. I mean, he is on my list of favourite male characters in books, so there, I admit that bad boys do hold their appeal.

About The Tales of Beedle the Bard

“All the old kids’ stories are supposed to be Beedle’s, aren’t they? The Fountain of Fair Fortune… Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump…”

Hello, dearies! How’s December so far?

Mine is cold. ⛄

I’ll jump right in because this one is going to be short, have you ever read The Tales of Beedle the Bard?

They’re not a necessity within the wizarding world, and you can read the whole Harry Potter saga without them, but it’s nice to know those side stories that Ron told us about in book 7, spoiler? If you read and watched the movies, you know when they are mentioned.

It was nice reading these, they are short stories, and they make you go a little deeper into the magical world that we wish we were part of, though, of course, the main story that you want to read there is the Tale of the Three Brothers since on The Deathly Hallows you will want to know what three things you need to master death.

What’s up, December?

Wow! First Day of the Last Month of this 2021.

Happy December, dearies! I trust this one started full of reading and happy thoughts for everyone.

Since it’s already here, then we might as well make the best of it, right? No point in crying over spill potion. As 2022 comes closer and closer, it has become increasingly and shockingly obvious that all the books I was supposed to read this time around did not happen. I had a few difficult months and still going through it all, but have decided to keep going. 💪

Interview with the Vampire

“It was as if when I looked into his eyes I was standing alone on the edge of the world…on a windswept ocean beach. There was nothing but the soft roar of the waves.”

Author: Anne Rice

Genre: Gothic, Horror, Vampire 🧛

This one is not going to be easy.

Hello, dearies! I barely remember the details but the general idea instead since it was such a long time ago that I read Interview with the Vampire, what I do remember is thinking how darkly different it was from the movie.

Of course, I had watched the movie before reading the book, but when I read this book, it was a real eye-opener for my young mind.

The Last Mermaid

“Who are you?” he asked, keeping his voice gentle, although she still showed no sign of fear.
“The keeper of this isle,” the lady replied”

Author: Shana Abe

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Mythology, Historical

Happy Friday, dearies! Are you ready for the weekend? I am! 📕

Today, I cannot really say how this one about The Last Mermaid will go, but I have some notes that I’ll share after reading each part of this book. I must confess that for a while, I seriously considered giving it 2-3 stars because I was confused and it took me a while to finish it, but then Shana did what she does best when I’m reading her books, she managed to catch my attention each freaking time that a book part would end, oh, sorry, this one is divided in three Books (Short stories) but as it turns out they’re all related.

Alice Cullen

“No one dressed by me ever looks like an idiot.”

First Appearance: Twilight

Last Appearance: Breaking Dawn

Alice is portrayed by Ashley Greene

Hello, dearies!🧛

I thought to stop by with a quick appreciation for a character that pretty much makes the whole Twilight series better. Alice Cullen, yes! That’s about all I need to say. LOL. Not really, I’m just going to fangirl for a little a bit and then we can move on.

Spoiler Alert, if you are not familiar with Twilight or the other books in the saga.

OneWord Book Challenge

Hello, dearies!

How’s the week so far? Halloween is around the corner, and I decided to come in with a little challenge that I found on Instagram, another, yes.

This time around is for the OneWord, the challenge is supposed to be a stack of books with One Word titles, but I am doing it here, and what do you know? I have a list of book titles that are one word and from one series, cool? I think so, but I’ll include other titles too, even if I love this particular series.

Here we go. 📚