Books Under the Tree Tag 🎄 It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Hello fellow bookworms 🎄  It’s finally time for a Christmas Tag!!! Even though I’m posting a bit more again in December I only had time for one festive Tag and managed to find one I hadn’t done yet! The Books Under the Tree Tag was created by Jessica & Christeena @ Game of Tomes and had questions I loved, so I picked it as my seasonal book Tag 🎅 I missed doing Book tags in November, so I’m happy to be back with some festiveness and fun questions about what I want to find under my Christmas Tree this year 😄🎄

Let’s start!!

1. What book would you like to find under the tree this year?

I don’t have a huge wishlist this year 🎄 As I spend a lot of money moving to my new flat, I probably won’t get many books for Christmas, but that’s okay. I still have a good physical & digital TBR as well as a great library access, so I’m happy with that. However, I wished for three books (all sequels) that I most want to read next year! It was hard to choose only three, but I went with what I most felt drawn to at the moment 😄 I’ve come to appreciate sci-fi a lot more this year, so I wished for two sequels to books I enjoyed. I adored Skyward, with it becoming a surprise favorite of the year, so I need to get to the sequel! I also liked Unearthed, but I read it over a year ago and still haven’t read the sequel Undying 😱 Here, I put the Kindle book on my wishlist, as it’s cheaper. Another book I enjoyed was Small Spaces and I really want to read Dead Voices, as it’s winter-inspired (each book in the series seems to be centered on a season) ❄

• Starsight (Brandon Sanderson) 📚 Sequel to Skyward
• Undying (Kaufman & Spooner) 📚 Sequel to Unearthed
• Dead Voices (Katherine Arden)  📚 Sequel to Small Spaces

2. What is the best book you have ever received for Christmas?

Radio Silence (Alice Oseman) 🎄 This was surprisingly hard, as I a) haven’t read some of the books I received for Christmas years ago  (I should probably get on to that) 😅 and b) only found one book on my best-of lists I got for Christmas. In the end, I picked Radio Silence, which I think I got as a gift in 2018. It was the first book by Alice Oseman I picked up and I unexpectedly fell in love with the story! I could relate to the characters so much, loved the focus on artistic hobbies, and actually got interested in podcasts. I hadn’t been interested in them before, but after listening to Radio Silence I was a lot more open to trying them out 🥰 I already reread this year again this year as it has become such a comfort read for me! I’d definitely recommend it 💕

3./4. What book gives you all the Christmas feels & puts you in the Christmas spirit?

My True Love Gave to Me (Anthology) 🎄 I feel like I reread the same festive books every year but one of my favorites is definitely My True Love Gave to Me! Normally I’m not a big fan of anthologies, as I never tend to like all the stories, but this book is the exception. I loved the majority of the festive stories, with only a few I liked a bit less. I love that each story has a different take on the season, with some being a bit more whimsical and others romantic. Rereading the stories never fails to put me in the Christmas spirit, so ever since I discovered this book all the way back in 2016, I have reread it around Christmas 💕 I’d definitely recommend it, even if you don’t usually reach for Anthologies!

5. What book have you read this year that you would like to throw out with the Christmas tree after the holidays?

The Last Magician (Lisa Maxwell) 🎄 I actually had three 1-star ratings to choose from this year, but in the end I went with the book that I had the highest hopes for. The Last Magician sounded so great: there’s time travel, magical abilities and a mysterious barrier keeping the magicians trapped. It could have been so great … yet instead the pacing dragged so much and the plot turned off course quickly for me. I also didn’t connect to any of the characters, nor did I see any positive relationships. Everyone was just at each other’s throats and while I kind of understood it, it was also sad to see no close bonds between the characters. Worst of all was the romance for me, as I thought the love interest was disrespectful and the relationship deeply unhealthy. So all in all, this was a disappointment for me 😔

6. What is a book from this year that you would like to place under a friend’s tree?

This is so hard as I loved so many books this year 🎄 Yet I still love this question so much, as I have many books I’d love to gift others 💕 In the end I went with my three top books of 2020! Firstly, I had to mention Jackaby, as it was not only my first 5-star read of the year but also my favorite one 🥰 This is a backlist series about a paranormal eccentric detective, told in the POV of his assistant, a curious, clever woman. It’s set in the 1800s and gives off some Sherlock/Supernatural vibes 😄 Secondly, I also got obsessed with the Murderbot Diaries, a series of adult sci-fi novellas. The protagonist is a SecUnit (part bot/part human) owned by an evil corporation. The best things is that Murderbot is so socially anxious and therefore very relatable, yet also dangerous. Last but not least, I also loved Cemetery Boys, about a trans brujo dealing with an annoying, yet attractive ghost boy while trying to earn their respect. It had the best slow-burn romance, an interesting world and a great cousin dynamic 💕 I would definitely gift all of them to friends!

• Jackaby (William Ritter) 📚
• All Systems Red (Martha Wells) 📚
• Cemetery Boys (Aiden Thomas) 📚

7. Challenge: create a stack of books in which the spines alternate green and red! Share the titles.

I don’t have that many books with me, but here we go! 🎄 By luck, I actually had some green and red books with me at my university flat (though I barely have any green books 😂), so I built this small festive stack of books in my kitchen 🥰

8. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. Who do you tag?

• Sofii @ abookathought 🎄
• Margaret @ weirdzeal 🎄
• Mel @ cottoncandybookwitch 🎄
• Sabrina & Veronika @ wordyandwhimsical 🎄
• Tiffany @ readbytiffany 🎄
• Morgan @ morganisreadingagain 🎄

What books would you like to find under the tree? What book would you like to throw out? What book would you like to gift a friend? 🎄