Eight books to finish out the year is pretty dang good if I do say so myself! The holiday season had me feeling both romantic and murder-y, which is an odd combination, I’ll admit, but here we are! There were quite a few standouts this month. I adored Red, White, and Royal Blue and went so far as to buy a physical copy. I had a good laugh during We Solve Murders, and took some swoony strolls through both the Edwardian and Georgian eras in Britain. But my top read overall was a Gothic Horror with stunning prose, characters that leap off the page, and an emotional mystery that had me captivated for days after I finished the story.

Top Read Overall

Don’t Let the Forest In

by C.G. Drews

If you loathe ambiguous or open-ended novels, this one will drive you mad. I, for one, enjoy the insanity of such storytelling and thought this was a brilliant piece centered on grief, mental illness, and the ways we embrace darkness. The intensity of this book held until the very end, and I inhaled it all in a single day. Not only was the storyline immersive, but the characters captured my heart. This book made me pause and think. Difficult topics of loss, mental disorders, identity, and more we tackled in an eloquent manner that didn’t shy away from the gritty, messy side of such a discourse. The use of stories, art, and folklore to create even more separation between the logical and the fantastical drove the atmosphere into a surreal, gothic imagining.

These characters are hooked in my mind, just the way they were intended to be. Consider me an unequivocal fan of C.G. Drews and their craft.

Read my full REVIEW

Check it out on The StoryGraph

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Though not in the top spot, the following books 1. Made it onto my TBR, and 2. Managed to actually get read this month. Want a more in-depth peak? Click on any title to read my review!

I already CAN’T WAIT to dig into my January TBR! Though my anticipated reads always shift based on my mood and what holds come in on Libby, a book you can expect to get a review for is: Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney.

Happy reading!

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