Winter Recap

For consistency, were looking pretty good as it hasn’t been half a year since my last post. I’ve been thinking, and have decided, the best way for me to recap my reading into manageable chunks, would be to do this by season. I know, 4 posts a year is definitely more than 1 (if annually) or 2 (if bi-annually) posts on recapping reads, but I feel personally it would take the grand nature of the task away. I’m always mildly panicked every time I want to do these because of how many books I’d have to recount and remember. BUT, I digress.

First things first, let’s talk about our current reads.

This is my first Stephen King book. I’m making good on my quest to read more horror
So far I’m enjoying this book, well as much as you can when reading about grief
Practical Magic was one of my favourite reads a few years ago so reading the prequels before settling into a reread

I’d also like to note my current podcast of choice is Books Unbound hosted by Ariel and Raeleen. I’ve been a fan of Ariel’s content for a while watching her home renovation series, and this podcast honestly settles my brain and is just a joy to listen to. I also get so many reccs on books to read, graphic novels to get and films to watch as well.

So this winter, we managed to read 20 books. I gathered some stats for you,

Big Wins:
– Read 2 ARCs
– Finished 1 series (2 if we count the one I DNF’d)

Formats Read:
– 9 eBooks
– 1 Audiobook (3 if you count immersive reads)
– 10 Physical Books

Genres Read:
– 7 Fantasy
– 3 Romantasy
– 3 Romance
– 1 Horror
– 3 Sci-Fi
– 1 Literary Fiction
– 1 Non-Fiction

For the recaps, I will do a 1/2 line review for each book, highlighting my standout/favourite book of that month

2025 was a strange rollercoaster of mainly 2 and 3-star reads for me. The fact that this changed in December, although the number of books read was small, meant we had a relatively great reading month.

  • Freeset by Sarina Dahlan – This was the final book in The Four Cities, and it was a satisfying conclusion imo. Definitely recommend reading Reset, then Preset (prequel), and finish with Freeset if you choose to pick up this series.
  • I’m Glad My Mom Died by Janette McCurdy – I was late to picking this up, but I finally understand the hype (not the word I want to use, but the best to describe the various reccs I’ve seen for this book); very raw and unfiltered account of her life. Not a light read, but an important one
  • Artificial Condition by Martha Wells – We Stan ART in this household and that is all I will say on that
  • A Magic Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon – This queer magical realism tale, following a depressed millennial turned magical girl, was a whimsical and charming read with a strong message. Also, magical girls have debt too, and I felt seen

My highlight book for December was What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella.

I touched on this in my initial review, via the various tracking apps, that I had picked this book up when it was released, but it never moved from my TBR pile until she passed. This book, although short, was raw. Mixing her real experiences with fictional elements, exploring the grief and struggles felt when suffering from a terminal condition and the effects it has, both on the self and those around.
Exceptional writing from an exceptional author.

The new year rolled around, and my mojo for reading was rekindled. If you were to see my tracking, you would know that January is never my strong month. It’s never consistent, with little to no reading taking place.

  • Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber – I’ve only read one other Stephanie Garner book and I had a great time with it. This book took my love for film (you’d never know from this blog this was the case) and my love for magical realism. Looking forward to the rest of the series
  • Picnic and Promises at Strawberry Farm by Victoria Walters – Our first ARC of this month and honestly such a cute book. Very easy going, small town romance
  • First by Ali Hazelwood & Bait by Adrianna Herrera – I grouped these two together as they came from the same collection I backed on Kickstarter. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t vibe with these. Great potential, just not the best sadly. Will I make it through the rest of the collection?
  • The Romance Rivalry by Susan Lee – A romance novel based on romance tropes found in novels; who doesn’t love books about books. A sweet, K-pop-esqe, palette cleanser
  • An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole – Our second ARC for this month. Deep exploration of classicism, racism and elitism in a university setting shrouded in magic and mystery was just a great time.
  • Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros – Tracking apps will convince you this took me a year to read, but in truth, I got about 150 pages in and gave up reading it for a year. But we finally made it through, and I guess that’s what counts in the end. Very eh book in the series, here’s hoping books 4/5 are great
  • Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells – Martha is insistent on introducing me to robots in this universe, and then proceeds to abruptly remove them from my life. And I’ll still give it 5 stars, even if I’m emotionally devastated

My highlight book for January was The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.

I picked this up on my train trip to Wales, and proceeded to devour this book like it was sustaining my life. The plot was fun, the chemistry was great, the humour was great. This book was honestly the serotonin boost I needed.

A genuine joy to read and who knows I might watch the film adaptation XD

February was apparently the month I decided that retellings of classics was my vibes (maybe I channelled Wuthering Heights in cinema energy). It was also the month we had our first DNF of the year.

  • Between Jobs by W.R. Gingell – This book felt like a fever dream and I’m still unsure where I sit with it overall
  • Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage – First in the Blue Rebel Ranch saga and I enjoyed it for what it was. Is it bad to say I’m sticking it out because I want to read Teddy’s story #westanchaoticqueens
  • Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid – Our first retelling for the month and it was a take on Macbeth, but focusing more on Lady Macbeth (I’m not sure why I’m explaining this as the title gives this away). Very dark, and I can still hear the sounds of waves and dripping water till this day
  • Our Vicious Oaths by N.E. Davenport – I enjoyed this book but if I can be honest for a second, there was a lot of smut in this one. If the characters weren’t doing it, they were thinking about doing it or just never ending horny. I’m not a prude in any way shape or form, you can see from my read pile, but it did take me out of the plot for a bit sadly
  • What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher – Our second retelling of the month and this was a take on the Fall of the House of Usher. Not a classic I have read so I have no thoughts in that department. I will say however, Fungi, whilst fascinating, has always been deeply unsettling at times

My highlight book for the month of February was Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid.

As I work my way through Ava’s back catalogue, I’m finding more and more that I really enjoy her writing. This book was a sapphic, enemies-to-lovers, dystopian standalone that left me wishing this book was longer.

I have seen people complaining about the ending, and I won’t spoil it here, but to me it felt needed. I would have hated a generic HEA after the trauma and character development we went through.

Mention of honour was my first DNF of the year, and that goes to The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake. I think it was a mixture of me not caring for the characters or plot, and the gap between my completion of the second book in the series and picking up this one. I don’t think I have the energy to reread the other books before trying again. Also, the audiobook has like 10 narrators and that overstimulated me to no end. I still love you Olivie, and will buy pretty much everything you write.

So that was winter. I hope you have enjoyed this post and I will post again soon (once I’ve finished my assignment) noting what books I plan to read this spring :3

Toodles!

2026

So, we’re unemployed.

Honestly I started this post a while back and then the unemploy-ening happened so the direction of this shifted – This isn’t going to be one of those pity party posts. It happened, I’m not distraught, and I’m looking at this as an opportunity to really think about life and what I want to do.

But yes, we’re unemployed and I now have an abundance of time on my hands. I guess we can kick things off with our ‘2026 Goals – If I call them resolutions, I won’t do them’.

  • Read 50 books
  • Read more books that are on my physical TBR
  • Diversify my reading genres
  • Complete my Economics Module (with a good grade) and pick up next module
  • Aside from uni module, undertake some self-learning
  • Pay off majority of debt
  • Bake more bread and make more soup
  • Take time to enjoy the everyday

In the wise words of coffee senpai from Persona 5, let me explain.

Reading Goals

  • Read 50 books
  • Read more books that are on my physical TBR
  • Diversify my reading genres

I will cluster these together, but I’ve set myself an overall goal of reading 50 books. When I look at my previous years of tracking, I have not been consistent in the slightest for how many books I’ve read.

For both 2023 and 2024 I overachieved, but in 2025 I didn’t even meet my goal of 50 books. I give myself a light pass because I was working a lot in 2025 and that took a lot of my mental space up. 50 books seems highly achievable this year – as of writing this post on the 14th Feb, Happy Valentine’s Day btw, I have finished 12 books with 3 in progress.

I do however have 2 supplemental reading goals, which is to focus more on reading books I physically own (over KU, Kobo plus or any random library picks) WHILST also diversifying my reading. Genres I have in mind for this is Horror, Non-Fiction and Brandon Sanderson, as these are not ones I tend to lean towards reading if I have a choice. I’m also a big mood reader so there is also that – if the mood isn’t mooding in that direction, then it isn’t happening.

Before anyone corrects me, I am aware Brandon Sando is an author and not a genre, but his books are thick lil numbers and I have always been egregiously intimidated by them.

I should note, I have failed diversifying my reading so far this year. I am a huge romance and fantasy reader, often enough with books having both these in abundance, and all my reads so far are one or the other (or both – looking at you Onyx Storm that I FINALLY finished after picking it up on release last year).

Studying

  • Complete my Economics Module (with a good grade) and pick up next module
  • Aside from uni module, undertake some self-learning

As you can guess, I am finally continuing my degree and on the agenda is an Economics Module. I am not confident. I feel like my brain is losing its wrinkles and ridges because taking in information is honestly so fucking difficult. My attention span is non-existent to the point I’m having to drown myself with pomodoro timers, focus apps and brown noise in order to get through 2 pages of reading. I’m hoping to get a good grade to get the momentum going so everyone send me your good juju.

I know it’s probably not going to be that bad, but if we can drape our lives in existential dread, who will?

I also want to spend time outside of studying my degree completing a personal curriculum. Not sure on what yet, but I have a few topic ideas that I think would be fun to research and also a nice brain break.

Life

  • Pay off majority of debt
  • Bake more bread and make more soup
  • Take time to enjoy the everyday

Throwing it out there first, ‘Pay off majority of debt’ will probably be hard considering I currently have no income, but we’re still keeping this in the forefront of our minds.

Onto more interesting goals, ‘Bake more bread and make more soup’ and ‘Take time to enjoy the everyday’. They are not word for word follow it kind of goals but I wan’t to put more of my spare time away from doomscrolling into activities like baking, making soup from scratch, or going on walks. I also want to learn how to pickle things – I swear to you, the art and process of pickling things is so fascinating and you can pretty much pickle most things. But, I have only ever done this somewhat successfully once, so who knows, maybe it’ll be my calling in life.

Not really sure what to add now as this post is too long, so ttyl. Maybe I will finally post those book reviews I have written :D

Love, Eliza

Well hello

It feels oddly surreal writing on this blog after so long.

A lot has changed in the almost 6 years it’s been since I committed to a published post here. We’re ever closer to the daunting age of 30 and I still feel like im drowning on dry land half the time.

I feel oddly motivated to have this blog back and to really put in the effort of documenting my thoughts and feelings – I know, shock fucking horror, she’s back again.

Over the last few months I’ve tried to take more of a break from being perpetually online. I stopped streaming and spending hours on twitch, I avoided mindlessly hanging in discord without purpose, and I’ve stopped staring at my phone like its the closest thing to a lifeline I have.

I found myself in a mental rutt. I started noticing patterns in how I felt I was using my time doing things that just took from what little reserves I had and not feeling proud or content at the days end.

I was also feeling a lot of resentment to how my worth as a person was almost dictated solely on transactional means.

In short, I was tired.

But alas, let us not spend this entire time complaining.

As I said, a lot has changed. I changed jobs. I got myself a pretty cool boyfriend. I started streaming, and then I stopped a few times in between. I made friends and I lost friends. I started and proceeded to watch the entirety of Greys Anatomy 5 times. I watched Arcane, picked up playing Valorant and TFT, AND lined Riots pocket because I have no backbone for not buying in-game cosmetics.

But saying that, a lot has stayed the same. I still start hobbies, hyperfixate on them for a time, then refuse to touch them for an undetermined amount of time. I still have debt, albeit less of it. I still stand by buying books, finding new books to add to my TBR, and reading books are 3 separate hobbies (all of which im very good at).

In order to acc get this post over the line and get it published (I’ve been writing this for the last 4 months on and off), I’ll wrap this up now.

I will be posting older book reviews I’ve written after jazzing them up a bit. I will TRY, hard hard emphasises on the try, to add posts here more often.

I will also hopefully be adding a post on a reading challenge I picked up recently and things I’ve read so far in the year – what are the faves, what are the ones we had higher hopes for, and what books are we super excited for.

TTYL

Love, Eliza x

P.S. have a picture of some type of flower

Book Review: Pachinko – Min Jin Lee

I know I mentioned in my post New Reads, that I was going to complete a book review for The Vegetarian by Han Kang, but my grandma recommended a book for me to read when we popped over for dinner the other week. I was sceptical at first – Her bookshelves are filled with numerous classics and biographies, whilst mine is filled with thrillers, sci-fi and the occasional romance book. So to say our tastes vary is a slight understatement. But I went into reading this with an open mind and damn, did this book surpass my expectations and has easily wedged its way to one of my favourites. I’ll try not to include spoilers.

Synopsis

Pachinko follows a Korean family from father Hoonie in the late 19th century, to his great grandchildren, throughout the 20th century. The story covers life before both wars, life in Asia during, and the post war events in great detail.

Thoughts 

I’ve read a lot of reviews on Goodreads about this book and I find the majority of what was disliked (if any) are things I actually enjoyed. I loved the fact that you followed a family from the onset to the end. We could see how certain circumstances, maybe death or the birth of another, affected character development. We tracked how each character grew and could see their individual struggles.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this book is that depending on where you are born deciphers what strand of history you learn; being born and raised in the UK, we learnt more about the European aspects of the wars, with only a 2 minutes discussion about other continents involved. I know if you take history as further education, you may cover this but it’s not something everyone is exposed to unless you study this in your own time. For me it was eye opening, learning about events that happened within the same timeline of something I have studied on countless occasions just reminds you how big the world actually is.

I know there was a 50/50 split regarding the time jumps after chapters to cover the story across the period selected, but I can understand why this was done. We know, from personal experiences, that grief in the immediate space after something has happened is difficult for many. But it’s about the lasting consequences as well; how has someone’s personality changed 5 years, maybe 10 years after an event; how has it changed them.

One of the notable things that I disliked about the book, although I can see why it was done, was the ending. I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but it gave me Sopranos vibes. That is if a book could cut to black mid scene.

Favourite character

Although I do like most of the characters in the book for various reasons, I’d have to say my favourite is Mosazu. There was just something about him that I really enjoyed. I love the fact he wasn’t blinded by a dream that was unattainable; he was very much a down to earth character and had a big heart. I feel like I resembled him a lot when he was younger – dropping out of school and finding a job that he really enjoyed and was good at.

Least favourite character

This wasn’t a tough choice, but my least favourite was Noa. I won’t say much as I feel his story was a main thread throughout the book and should be explored by everyone with fresh eyes, but some of the thoughts his character would have, some of the things he said and did were quite toxic. I know there is probably a consensus on other characters we are subconsciously drawn to dislike, through plot and description, and Noa probably isn’t one of them but for me every time I’d try to connect with his character and explore his perspective, he would do something that left me feeling more frustrated with him rather than sympathetic.

Would I recommend

I would definitely recommend this book to any one interested in broadening their genre pool and anyone interested history based novels. I really enjoyed this book and have told many people already to give it a try and let me know what they think.

Rating

4/5 stars

And finished! For my first ever book review that wasn’t for educational purposes, and one that I have actually completed, I’m proud of myself. I will try my hand again at some point – It’s in my To-Do schedule drawn up. Thank you for reading :)

Assess the view that self interest can only be realised in the context of a virtuous life.

Philosophers who argue that morality is constitutive to self interest are taking a stronger position than most contractarians because they are claiming morality is not simply sufficient for self interest, but it is jointly necessary and sufficient. In other words, the conditions under which I act in my own interest are exactly the same as the conditions under which I am moral.

Plato argues that the telos of a person is to reach a state of eudiamonia; flourishing or fulfilment. He suggests living a virtuous life is the necessary condition for reaching eudiamonia and this means that being a virtuous person is not just instrumental of your self interest but it is constitutive of it. Plato’s virtues include; wisdom of your intellect; courage of spirit or ‘thumos’; and discipline of appetite. Continue reading Assess the view that self interest can only be realised in the context of a virtuous life.

Short story made from boredom – Based off Castle of Otranto

“She pushed her frail and weakened body through clusters of white lily bushels. Red scars left on her dirtied white skin, paled by the florescent moon up in the twilight sky. Her breath quickening, her pace echoing that of her heart; thud, thud, thud. Hollowed branches snapping carelessly beneath her soles. The end was nigh and she could feel it, but she kept running.

Isabella turned, glancing quickly at the tall, leafless trees as the cast eerie and daunting shadows on the path she had taken. A luminous, green glow in the distance signalled the castle; her once safe haven, now merely another hollowed shell in her ‘perfect life’. She knew it was too soon to stop. Manfred was near, she could feel it. Shivers ran down her spine as the wind whispered muffled ‘run’s and ‘save me’s; even the spirits knew she was in danger. The end was nigh and she could feel it, but she kept running.

With a final push, she finally escaped the forest and entered what seemed to be dead land. A screaming silence enveloped her; no whistling winds, no insects, no birds, just the sound of her heart; thud, thud, thud. Thick fog limited her vision. Anything could be out there, but she knew it was seemingly heaven here than with Manfred.

She ran into the fog, disorientated, no idea of direction, she just ran. Crisp grass tickled her beaten soles, she could almost taste the freedom. Mind distracted by this wanting trance, she tripped over airs of nothingness. Hitting the ground, all soul and drive left her body. A single tear formed a crystal in the crevice of her dead eyes. The end was nigh and she could feel it but, but could she keep running.

Isabella tried to stand but it felt as if the spirits once pushing her on, were now holding her down, pinning her to this fate and signalling her coming end.

‘Isabella, my dear, my beauty. Why did you run?’ Isolated in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed the man who makes her blood run cold had finally caught her. The end was nigh … the end was here.”