November & December 2025 Reading List

I have always been a lover of books. Before we had the kid in 2012 I used to read excessively (or so others have said). However, when I became a parent my reading was one of the first things I sacrificed in an attempt to keep the kid alive. However since returning to academic study I’ve really been crying out for more reading – it’s like my brain has remembered that it can do things other than trying to keep another human being alive.

I tend to read all over the place, but my junk food of reading (the stuff I love and crave) has always been a bit of romance with fantasy or paranormal as it’s base. I just love the escapism and the fact that there’s always a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. So of course when I went looking for something to ease back into reading for pleasure I decided to take a chance on the author everyone was talking about; Sarah J. Maas.

I refused to start with “A Court of Thorns and Roses” because, in my experience, if everyone raves about something I tend to find it a bit middle of the road; enjoyable but not the first book I’d think of to recommend to someone who only had a one book reading limit. I decided instead to go with “House of Earth and Blood”. Lucky for me my local library had it available as an eBook. Yay!

I read it within a couple of days and moved on to the next one in the series. I picked up my first book on 11 November and by the end of November I’d read 6 books. I really enjoyed the Crescent City series. I will say that the spice level at times was a little too spicy for my liking so there was a lot of blushing and skimming to try and minimise the impact. I was also grateful there wasn’t a lot of it – the story didn’t suffer in an attempt to get the spice in there. I moved on to the much hyped “A Court of Thorns and Roses”.

Controversial opinion in coming: I didn’t enjoy it like I did Crescent City. I found the Female Main Character (FMC) much more enjoyable in Crescent City and the Male Main Character (MMC) slightly more appealing then the ACOTR MMC. I will say that I really enjoyed the group dynamics in all the books, with Crescent City still my overall favourite. If you haven’t read either series I actually recommend starting with Crescent City – even though there’s a cross-over I think it’s much nicer coming to the ACOTR characters after meeting them in Crescent City.

My favourite books of the 2 months was “The Crimson Moth” (both books) and “The Serpent and the Wolf”. Had I know that “The Serpent and the Wolf” was an incomplete series I wouldn’t have started it – I would have waited. (I’m too old to try to keep characters in my head in between releases!) It was really enjoyable for me and I loved both the leads. I loved the world the author created and the magic system. I really enjoyed it and still think about it now and again.

“The Crimson Moth” and “The Rebel Moth” were both really good and had a nice pace to them and world building. I enjoyed the chemistry between the FMC and MMC and the way they interwove together. I’d recommend this series to anyone before any of the others I read in 2025.

Notable mention goes to “A Tribute of Fire”. I loved the first book in this series so much and was hanging out to see how it kept going, but it just kinda jumped the shark in book 2. I loved the MMC in this series. I loved the tension they had together and the way their stories connected. I loved the premise of the book. It just kinds fizzled once they got together and really book 2 and 3 could have been 1 book by the end of it.

My least favourite reads: “The Lost Bookshop” and “The Moorwitch”. I really wanted to love “The Moorwitch”. The location (Scotland!) and the world setup was really great. The magic system was unique and a really interesting take on powers. But the FMC just lacked something and then the MMC seemed incomplete. It was just marginally more enjoyable then “The Lost Bookshop”. I really struggled to get comfortable with this book. The premise was great – multiple timelines and points-of-view – but I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters. I think this is one of those books that if it’s for you, you’re really going to love it and it’ll be a top 10 book for you. It’s one of those ones for me where on paper it looks great, but I just couldn’t connect with it and when it comes to reading for pleasure it’s all about the connection for me.

I read 18 books from 8 November to 31 December 2025. I think it’s safe to say that I got a little bit “into” reading again. I watched hardly any television during that period and it was brilliant! I did minimal social media time and I spent more time enjoying being with my family and in the house. I feel like I got a little bit of my pep back and it’s in part thanks to reading.

Side note: Pre-kid I had a massive physical book collection. It was my pride and joy (obviously before I found patchwork and got into fabrics!). When we moved into our “family” home and out of our couple home I got rid of about 80% of my books to make space for other things (fabric???). However, now I’m very much a fan of the eBook which I read on my iPad. I tend to only buy physical books for study purposes or if they’re out of print. I’m also a fan of supporting the local library if I can, so a lot of what I read will be library if possible. I did grab a Kindle Unlimited pass in December when they were having a 3 month for $3 special. I’m absolutely loving it and so I suspect I’ll keep it moving forward. All the books I read in November and December were eBooks.