i MUST read these books before the end of the year! 📅 📚

Hello friends. How is everyone doing? We are quickly approaching the end of 2025. Let's not think about it. Let's not think about it. And a video I like to do pretty much every single year is the end of year book tag. End of year reading tag. This was created by Ariel bet who I'm sure many of you know as one of like the OG booktubers now has a wonderful podcast that I listen to every single episode of me listening to books unbound. Books Unbound with Railene. And this year, Ariel gave the questions a bit of a revamp. We have some different questions. Isn't that exciting? She overhauled the tag a bit. So, that's what we're going to be doing today. I want to talk about my end of year reading. How do I picture my end of year reading going? As I'm sure many of you know, my end of year reading is pretty busy at the end of the year, particularly because of me reading the top 10 of the Good Reads Choice Awards mystery thriller category. So, a lot of my reading will be taken up by that, which I'm actually so excited about. We'll talk about that in a sec, but I really just want to read some good thrillers and mysteries. Thinking about my predictions of what I predicted were going to be top 10. Do I think I'm going to read some good mysteries and thrillers? Actually, maybe not. But in theory, I'm excited for that. So, DA is literally by my foot right now. Now I'm having to like make sure I don't step on her as I move a bell. But yeah, we're going to be talking about the end of year and how I want my reading to go. What books I'm going to prioritize getting to before the end of the year. Am I filled with fear and dread as to whether I'm going to reach my reading goals? These are all questions. These are all questions that we have. So, let's get into it. What are we doing? Are you fighting my dress? You're fighting a book. This old lump. This big old lump. What do you have to say for yourself? She doesn't care. She just wants to basically be by my side all the time. She's purring cuz I'm holding her. This is how we spend a lot of our time. Are you okay? Are you acting up so I paid your attention? We've not had enough attention today, have we? Question number one is, are there any books you started this year that you need to finish? Now, if you know me, you'll know I very rarely do that. I very rarely start a book and don't finish it. If I do, it's a full DNF. I think I I soft DNF about one book a year. And I have soft DNFed one book this year. That is just not the kind of reader I am. There's this question cuz Ariel is that color reader. Ariel puts books down left, right, and center and picks them back up again months later. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I can't I can't picture it. I can't imagine doing that. But I guess I'm worse cuz I just finish every book that I'm reading whether I'm enjoying it or not. So that's not a great way to live either, is it? Anyways, I have one book that I started this year. I don't know how far in. I got maybe about 50 pages and I did not finish. And there's like I'd say a 70% chance I'm going to reading this end of the year. If I'm reading it, I'm reading it in the video I'm currently working on that will hopefully be with you this weekend, but it's a video I don't actually have much control over. It is Royal Assassin by Robin Hop. So, this Yeah, I don't want to spoil the video, but like, who knows? Who knows how the video is going to end up. This is on the docket for the video, but the video might end before I get to this book. That's all I'll say. But yes, I can't remember what video I started this in, but I quickly decided now is not the time. I'm in Struggle City with fantasy. We're going to talk about that a little bit later on. We all know my struggles with fantasy at the moment. And I decided, okay, now is not the time to enjoy this. Want to read this, but I really want to read this book. I really want to read this book. I really, really enjoyed Assassin's Apprentice. And I just feel like Miss Robin Hobb could be a fantasy author for me. Everyone loves Robin Hobb. And I want to get into this whole universe. I want to get into this whole world. And there was stuff I enjoyed at the start of this, but yeah, I don't know. So, I'm sure most of you know the story of this series where we're following Fitz, who is a royal bastard. He's an unrecognized son of the king and he's kind of sent to be an apprentice at the castle partly with like working with animals but also to be trained to be an assassin and yeah that's all you really need to know and it's this fantastical but like historical setting world and I just really want to enjoy this but it is daunting as we know my struggle city with fantasy me and fantasy are not getting along. I have not rated a fantasy above four stars this year but I've had one four star and even that was probably 3.75. So really I'd say I haven't really given above a four. >> The most hideous experience for me to go through. How horrible and >> So yeah, me and fantasy are not in a good place. And I don't know if this is the fantasy to break me out of that. I fear I need to get back in a good place with fantasy and then read this. So yeah, this is the only book that I've started and not finished. And I'd say probably a 70% chance whether I get to this or not. There's like a few other books I'm reading in the video that may end the video. I do really want to read it and really want to enjoy it. Question number two is, do you have an autoutminal book to transition into the end of the year? I want to give a quick shout out to the XX. I read this in my most recent vlog. Perfect. Perfect autumn transition book. I basically read this on the days that it's set in October and it's just such a good autuminal book. I I said in that vlog I didn't like the romance in this. Well, no, it's not that I didn't like the romance, it's I didn't care about it. I didn't care. What I did care about was pumpkins and witchiness and autuminal fairs with caramel apple pies. >> We're gonna get pumpkin spice lattes and get donuts for two, just me and you. >> And just the whole setting of this book is so perfectly autumn. I don't think I can sum up to you. Like, it is the perfect autumn transition book. So, you guys either need to read this now, like literally today when I put this video out, or you need to save it to next year and read it next year. It's such an easy read. It was fun. I had such a fun time. But I do have a couple more. Well, I have quite a few more books that I'd say are like mood ready for this time of year that I'm going to be reading soon. I'll just quickly fly through these. We have Rebecca by Daffhne Demorier. I've said in every kind of like October/ November TBR I've done for years that I would read this and I'm still yet to read it. I am a bit daunted by it. It is a classic. I'm a little bit scared, but everyone tells me I'm going to love this. Every comment when I said this year I was gonna be reading Rebecca. Everyone's like everyone's like freaking out in the comments. I'm like okay okay. Yeah. A woman moves into her new husband's home and she's haunted by the ghost of his first bride, Rebecca. And I think, you know, it's a classic for a reason. It's a trope that's been done again and again by people as inspiration from this book for a reason. I need to read it. So Rebecca's going to be being read. Then we also have House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson. Alexis Henderson. Perfect autuminal vibes. Oh, I'm just so excited to read this. This one's vampires, vampires, vampires. Perfect for the season. And then we also have The Fall of Witch Rivera, which is more like an autuminal uh romance, contemporary romance. I really enjoy Crystal Minardo's YA contemporaries. They're, you know, they tackle difficult topics, but they also do it with this light. This is going to be my third Crystal Minardo now, and there's just something about them that I really enjoy from someone who doesn't read a lot of YA anymore, and I just think this is perfect. This was a surprise. I didn't think I was going to be reading this and I think it was like a random number generator prompt in TBR K Pluto that picked this book out for me and I could not be happier. It's so serious. I was This is perfect for this time of year and otherwise I would probably not have been reading it. Perfection. A romance that warms your entire body like a cup of hot chocolate. Need we say more? I'm very excited. So yeah, I feel like that's some good kind of like autuminal fall reading that's going to be going on in these last few months. Question number three is, is there a new release you're still waiting for? And there's not really because I feel like not a lot of books come out in November and December. September is the big book month. Like if you're a big boy, >> if you're a big boy book like Mr. Richard Osman, he's a big boy. Uh, your book is going to come out in September because that's like the perfect runup to being a big big book at the end of the year and in like the holiday season. But there is one book. There is one book and it is Brians and Bread Knives by Travis Bowry. This is a sequel to Legends and Lattes and Bookshops and Bone Dust. And we're following characters from both. And I'm so excited. And if there is a book to make me love fantasy again, it is that one. But I fear I have to love fantasy again before that one. And I probably won't get to this before the end of the year if I'm entirely honest with you. Just knowing what I'm my reading plans are. This will be up there as like maybe my first book of the year next year because I always try and have a five star as my first book of the year and Travis Bowry is let yet to let me down. I love him so much and um yeah, I'm sure you all know what Legends and Lattes is, but it's this cozy fantasy and there's a little coffee shop being run in the first one and then there's like a bookshop in the second one and maybe now the coffee shop and the bookshop are going to merge. Are we dreaming? Is this real life? Are we true? >> Yes. My team. The dream team. >> I'm so excited. I There's something about I want to love cozy fantasy and cozy fantasy really is set up for me to love it. But I fear Travis Pry has spoiled it for me because every other cozy fantasy I read just doesn't get it like he gets it. Like he is cozy fantasy to me. His books are cozy fantasy. I am so lucky to live in a world. He's one of those authors I feel like I'm so lucky to live in a world where his books are being published and I have got years and years of Travis Baldry books ahead of me and it's just so good. It's just so I am so excited for that. The way I'm talking about it, I feel like I need to read it before the end of the year, but I don't think I've got plans to. But I am so excited. So so so excited for that. Question number four is, what are three books you want to read before the end of the year? I have picked a few that I have set plans to read. Number one. >> I don't need to say anything. I don't need to say anything. The Impossible Fortune by RH Osman. Number five in the Thursday Murder Club series. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I say I have set plans to read this. There is a world in which this is this isn't nominated for the good readads uh mystery thriller category. I feel like I might just read this anyway. If there's a one which is not nominated, I'm going to read it out of out of protest probably still in that video. So, it's going to get read anyways. I love Rich Osman. I love him. I love the Thursday Murder Club. Probably one of my favorite series ever. I'm so passionate about it and just I can't wait to be back with these characters. I enjoyed We Solve Murders. I gave it five stars. But it was like the way I am with these characters. We're five books in. I loved them all so dearly. Last Devil to Die, the fourth book, is by far my favorite in the series. and it really like leaves the characters in an interesting difficult place. This takes place a year after that. And so I'm just very intrigued to see where the characters are and how they're doing. I'm just so excited. So excited. Everyone who's been reading it so far that I trust has been loving it. So I can't wait. Then a big book, a big boy that I'm going to be reading for the end of the year is Dungeon Crawler Carl. Probably one of the biggest books of the year so far. Like top top top. And I feel pressure, but I'm gonna be reading this this week. I'm very excited. I said this when I think it was on TBR Pluto. Like I've watched so many people talk about this. Like I know so many opinions about this and how many people have loved it, but I don't really want to know the plot. It's one of those books I've kind of tuned out the plot, but I know that we've got Carl and he's breaking up with his girlfriend and there's like these he's in a video game like trap filled fantasy dungeon that's on the set of a reality show and there's Princess Donut who is Da. I'm excited but I'm also nervous. I feel like there's pressure around this book cuz so many people have loved it, you know, to see what I think of it. But I I'm excited to throw my hat into the ring and who knows, maybe this will be like a top series for me next year cuz I know there's like eight books out already. So yeah, I really really really really really really can't wait to get into this to sink my teeth into it and see what I I personally think of it. This feels like a good end of year book, you know, to see what I think of it. And then I do love to do some like Christmy reading. Merry Christmas. I love doing some Christmasy book reading in the leadup to Christmas. That is a me thing. I do it every single year. Whether it be murder mysteries, there's so many great Christmy murder mysteries out there. Christmas murder mysteries are just so fun. It's just so fun. And I just love getting in the mood. I love getting in the spirit. I love Christmas. It's the best time of year. And so I just thought I'd put a book in that I am going to be reading for like Christmas, the end of year. This was actually the most recent book on my TBR. It's Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife. I believe this is like a Christmy Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Christmasy murder mystery. I I think this one is also very much like you are supposed to solve it. Like there's stuff throughout. Oh my god, there's floor plans. I don't want to look too much, but there's floor plans. Oh my god, there's like puzzles throughout. There's puzzles. So yeah, I will be reading this before the end of the year. All I need to know is it's a Christmas murder mystery and it bites you to play detective. Can you find all the clues before they do? It's exciting stuff. It's exciting stuff. So yeah, I'm going to read this before the end of the year alongside some other Christmasy mad mysteries and then just some other Christmy books that are on my TBR. It's going to be like an episode TBR 200 where I scare on my TBR for any Christmasy book and try and read it. So yeah, I'll be reading this before the end of the year as well. Question number five is, what trends have you noticed in your reading this year? I think we all know the big one. I think we know the big one that say it hating fantasy. I don't know what's happened. A switch flipped at the start of 2025 as the clock struck midnight. Some kind of spell was cast that made me hate fantasy. I don't know what it is. You know, I think it could be down to having a bit of a stressful year. I personally have found I've spoken about this a lot. We don't need to we need to don't need to get into it, but not moving very very hard in the sense that I am someone who needs routine, who likes to plan for my life, who needs stability, and this is the most unstable situation where we don't know when we're going to be moving. You know, moves have fallen through. We just had some not very not great news about the current move that we were thinking we'd definitely move out before the end of the year. But I don't I now don't know if that is going to happen. There's like something wrong. We don't get into it, but like higher up the chain that basically could be sorted tomorrow or it could make the whole chain collapse. So that's really fun. That's really fun. >> I'm fine. I'm good. I'm great. I'm groovy. >> And I think the mental energy that that has taken up has a made it not a very good year for me. When I really thought 2025 was going to be the year that I sorted my life out, it has stayed not where I wanted to be. But also, I think it's meant so I didn't mean I didn't plan to get into all that, but it's meant that I don't like fantasy. It's meant that I don't like fantasy. It's meant that I can't deal with the world building, with the weird terminology, like the weird I that is my biggest thing I'm hating at the moment when they're like great great dragon skies, you know what I mean? Like the weird sayings that they come up with instead of like for sake, you know what I mean? That has been the biggest trend. It was literally like a switch was flipped. Fantasy is always up there as one of my most read genres with mystery and I'm just not I haven't been enjoying fantasy. I haven't been enjoying fantasy. I've also been reading less this year which was a goal like it was I didn't want to well I didn't want to push myself to read 150 books which I have done in previous years. I wanted to be like I think usually I read about maybe 130 books naturally and I didn't want to push myself but I currently I think I'm only on about like 85 right now right this second and again I think maybe that's just like a brain space thing. I don't feel like I've I've got loads more time like I don't feel like oh I'm reading less. Look at all the other stuff I've done with my time. I don't feel like that has happened. So that's not great. I feel like my five stars have come from more unexpected places. We're going to do a five star um bracket challenge. What's that video? What do I call it now? Like battle to find my top five star of the year video next week. But my five stars have been more unexpected. Like I've had two or three I think three five star romances out of I think like 12 um five stars I've had. So like I don't read a lot of romance and a lot of the romance then proportionately that I've read has been five stars. In terms of murder mysteries, I've only given five stars to Agatha Christie. One was a reread, Murder on the North Express, and one was a new one, the ABC murders, and a Lady Hard Castle, which I love. Obviously, I love Lady Hard Castle books. But those have been my only five star murder mysteries. Now, murder mysteries, I think I always am a bit pickier with because I love the genre so much. I am I'm, you know, I know what I like and I know when it's done well and when it's not done well. But yeah, I just think my five stars have been a bit more like all over the place, a bit more eclectic and no fantasy obviously in there. So yeah, those are my reading trends and life trends, I guess. But yeah, reading trends I've noticed this year. Question six is, how do you feel about your reading goals? Anything you want to change, adjust, or abandon? Let's fly through these quickly because a lot of it's a lot of the same, but I will probably be diving more into these in some of like end end videos of the year or at the start of next year. No, at the start of January, I do a video where I go through all my reading stats and how they actually went and then I set new ones. My reading goals, sorry, how they went and I set new ones. So reading go on number one was get my physical TBR under 240. Hey flop >> girl you have done it again. Constant the bar for us all. Okay so you all know that hasn't happened but I tried with TBR 200. I have made a real effort to like get my TBR down. >> Sure Jan. >> So the the the habit is there. The the goal you know the acting on the goal is there. I just haven't I'm not going to reach the arbitrary number that I've set. I reckon I might get down to like 275 by the end of the year. 280. 275. I'm currently on 299 as we speak. I'm not going to go above 300 again. I can't remember where I was on at the start of the year. We'll talk about that in my when I do the the goals video. Yeah, it's not happening. But the the the essence of it the essence of it has been happening, which is all I can ask for. I haven't just gone through life not thinking about it. I've been thinking about it a lot. I just have kept bringing in books. My other goal was to only have 10 series that I had only read the first book in. So the goal instead of like finishing loads of series was to make progress in series because I have a lot of books, a lot of series where I've only read the first. At the start of the year I had 22 series where I'd only read the first book in a series. I currently have 21. So that's that goal has not happened. >> This woman did not deserve this >> and it won't happen. I'm not going to suddenly read like however many 12 books 12 second books in series before the end of the year. I don't have any plans to do that and I might be starting more series at this rate. So that is not happening. That is not happening. Next goal was to read 15 non-fiction. I'm currently at nine which is pretty good. I'm going to read at least one or two more before the end of the year. So I think I'll have read more non-fiction this year than I have other years, especially proportionally considering I've read a lot less this year. So I'm I'm happy with that. I feel like again all these goals are just to point me in the direction I want to go in. I set arbitrary numbers but re so I can like reach the goal or not because goals do need numbers to see whether you reach them but really I am pleased whether I'm going in the right direction and proportionally I have read more non-fiction this year and will have done so. And then my final goal was to read 50% authors I've read from before. So I track authors by whether I've read them before whether they're debuts or whether they're new to me. And I'm almost certainly going to reach this. I think currently I'm at like 52% authors I've read from before. and I will be reading some authors I haven't read from, but I think I'll be reading enough to keep it at that 50% mark. So, I'm happy about that. Now, the idea with that goal was that it would give me a higher average rating because if I'm reading from authors I read from before, they're authors I've enjoyed enough to pick up again and thus it should end in a higher average rating. That hasn't happened. So, really, what was it for? Cuz that was all the goal was for was to hopefully give me a average rating. But yeah, I think I'm going to hit the goal numerically at least. And the final question is, have you already started making reading plans for next year? Not really. Not really. I think I want to keep reading down my TBR. Obviously, TBR 200 is going to continue and that will probably be a big project next year and I really I'd love to hit it next year. Like, I'd love to get under 200 next year. Like, I started it this year. I laid the groundwork, but I'd love to get fully under it this year. I would really like to get some of the older stuff off my TBR. And maybe I'll prioritize that kind of at the start of next year, like really getting some of the older books off of my TBR. I think so far in TBR 200, I have been reading newer stuff. I've been reading like books I'm currently really excited about. Well, no, last episode TBR 200, I feel like the average length uh a book had been on my TBR was like 40 months. So, that was actually something I got some older books, but they were still books I'm really excited for. There's some books on here that I am not really excited for. Like I still want to read them, but they don't fill me with like excitement like some of the other books here do. >> Push me up against the wall, give me a kiss, then I might get excited. So, I want to get those kind of books off the TBR. I want it to feel fresh. I want it to feel new. And so, yeah, that would that would be nice. But I don't really think about the new year until it happens. And to be honest, my reading is probably the thing in my life I'm happiest with. I'm thinking more about particularly with the move, the new kind of life I want to live. and my reading, I think, will just kind of continue as is because I'm kind of happy with it. I'm happy with it. I'd like to, yeah, I guess still read more non-fiction, but that's always a goal and it never happens. Yeah, I'd really just like to get the TBR down. I think that'll be the big big goal for next year. So, there we have it everyone. That is my end of year TBR, end of year reading tag. Let me know your answers to any of these questions. What are some books you really want to get to before the end of the year? What are some reading trends you've noticed in your reading so far this year? I would love to know. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for watching and I'll see you very soon in another one. Bye. [Music]