I was so excited for the end of the month and to be able to fully write down this post. I’ve so much to talk about this time that I am so excited. As you might or might not noticed I miss my December overview on purpose. The time of joy wasn’t the best for reading. I got ill, thousands of things to do for Uni… whatever… at the end of the month I couldn’t even finish the ONE book I was planning to read until Christmas and yet I fail. After bailing that goal and with not much book-ish news I thought it would be pointless to write a post saying “Hey, for the last post of the year I just want to say I didn’t finish my book and I didn’t buy new ones either, so see you in 2017.” Therefore, this past month will be together with December, I’ll still break them apart so it doesn’t felt like everything went down in January.

December

As I said, I ended up only set one book to read and that was Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson & Laurene Myracle. It was a nice book and a little preview of John Green writing style – or I thought it would be, I’ll be explaining in the next post. Surprisingly, the story that attracted me the most and my favourite was The Jubilee Express write by Maureen – correct me if I’m wrong but after a quick research I find out she’s actually John Green’s sister?! And HE is a youtuber?! WHAT?! – Moving on, despite the story taking place around Christmas time and my ultimate goal to end the year was to finish it on the 25th… I fail. I got so mad at myself. I only got one job, to read the book and I couldn’t. Great way to finish the year, Joana. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

Speaking of Christmas, I got a little gift from my parents that is currently my Holy Grail, Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook! Any Jamie book is amazing for me, I love cooking and I love him as well, so when I want to try something new I always go check on his website first, and when is gathered with Christmas I have in my hands the perfect combination. There isn’t much more to say he is one of my favourites British Chefs and I would love to have space in my kitchen reserved for all his books and magazines.

Also, I’ve decided to buy The 100 series by Kass Morgan, I believe this isn’t the first time I talk about it but I made up my mind and the first three books are on my list to buy soon. I don’t plan to read them yet because I know they are completely different from the TV show and I don’t want to lose interest but why should I wait for the show to end to buy the books?! I need to buy them now and when I fell “ok, now is a good time to read it” just grab them off my shelf instead of losing hours looking for them in every bookshop and cry when realising I should do this along time ago. I’m being a little bit overdramatic but my point is to take the chance while I can because in the next time it may not be there for me.

Moving to the books I want to read, I finally add The Selection by Kiera Cass. I’ve heard so many things about it and don’t get me started about the cover. The only thing is driving me off is the actual story itself. I know I’ll probably enjoy it but not as much to be able to read all series, so I’m still in between buying it or forget about it. We’ll see, maybe one day I snap and just buy it. Another and a super exciting addition was We Can Be Mended by Veronica Roth. This is an epilogue set 5 years after Allegiant or as I like to call MORE DIVERGENT GOODIES. When I knew about this book I knew I needed ASAP to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, the only way to get a copy was to pre-order Carve The Mark and to submit the receipt to their website until 17th of January. So the deadline is now over but they said on Twitter it will be for sale in the future. So any Divergent fans out there stay strong the book will be in your hands soon. Obviously, I didn’t let this opportunity to slip throw my hands and pre-order it from Amazon – I’m still waiting for it to be delivered hopefully all this delight mean that instead of receiving one I’m going to receive two. I’m so EXCITED!!

Now that I’m writing down all the new books I added in the want to read shelf on my Goodreads I’ve just realised I still go for the duologies, trilogies and series after saying on my November Book Overview I needed to take a break from them. I think I can’t help it. Up next is Illuminae by Amie Kaufman. Before having this book on my hands I wasn’t really sure if I would like to read it, the few things I hear didn’t look a big deal and it didn’t catch my eye but when I open it… it blows my mind! Imagine a conventional book: white pages, black font, size 10 (maybe), small space between lines, a mix of long and short paragraphs. Did you picture it? Now forget everything, the book is completely different from the ordinary, which gets me pretty excited. Basically, the story is told through letters, emails and all sort of ways, except a simple white page with text. If it wasn’t so expensive I would be already reading it.

January

January started off pretty good! We all know and love the after Christmas sales, it’s great and we can find real bargains that make us loose all the money we receive. As always, I went to do a little shopping myself and I ended up buying three new books: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella and the one I was most excited for, The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking. If you never hear about the concept of the Hygge is basically the secret of the happiness of the Denish people. Denmark is considered one of the happiest countries in the world and Meik Wiking is the president of The Happiness Research Institute, in Copenhagen, and wrote everything about what makes Danes happy and (most importantly) cosy. I’m loving and learning so much that I’ll probably be writing a post about it soon.

Jumping for Ransom Riggs, I’ve already read Miss Peregrine book and it didn’t get me as much excited as I was when I finished Divergent but I still want to read the next one because I’m in love with the format. The book is beautiful from cover to back. The details on every page, the old wall covering style for the chapters, the old photos, and even the story have that creepy and dark aura around it which I find exciting and a big page turner. Also, I finished this book on the 20th and because I ordered Carve The Mark and it was expected to be delivered on the 26th I decided not to start another book because I didn’t want to leave it half way through and go read the “shiny new book”. After realising the delivery was delayed I straight jump into Finding Audrey. It has a similar size to Riggs book so I knew it wouldn’t take me long to finish it, and I was right, I’m currently half way and I probably finish really soon.

Also, I’ve been reading little sneak peeks – more like full chapters – from other books and three stood out: Caraval by Stephanie Garber, #Famous by Jilly Gagnon and By Your Side by Kasie West. Each one of them has his own way to grab my attention but they were the ones I got really excited to be released. So those three are in mine anticipated releases list of the year so far. Although I want them so bad I’m still going to wait for them to be released in Portuguese – or at least try – because that way I don’t get new books and read more of my TBR and also if the covers aren’t that pretty I can always by another version hardback and in a different language – now I’m starting to realise speaking at least two different languages have those advantages. Speaking of covers these next two got me intrigued but the covers sold me out: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton and The Thousandth Floor by Katherine McGee. I’ve never seen such beauty and I know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but when you see a gem like that is to die for.

At last but not least, in February my goal is to finish Finding Audrey, get my hands on Carve The Mark and We Can Be Mended (fingers crossed) and probably I won’t have enough time to do all this but I’m currently really happy with my reading rhythm and even if I start March finish any of those books I’ll fell accomplished anyway.