Month in Review for December 2014 and Upcoming Reviews

It's weird how fast December went by, and weirder how quickly 2014 flashed by for me. The good news is we made it back from Montana safely, the bad news was... it was snowing in Idaho as well. It seems snow keeps following me around, which is fine, since last year we didn't get nearly enough for my liking. There is still lots of snow in our yard, but I chose a photo of frosted trees on our way back from Montana for the month in review photo. That is definitely a winter wonderland I wouldn't want to walk through.

Statistics:
 Total Posts: 15
  Total Critiques: 7
  Genres:
    Dystopia: 1
    Classics: 3
    Historical: 3
    Horror: 1
    Sci-Fi: 3
    Steampunk: 1
    Urban Fantasy: 1

Most Popular Posts of December:
Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge: Participation Announcement
NQAC: Biweekly Update #5 A Kindle Fire HDX... Possessed?
An Ugly (Dog) Sweater Holiday Card, and Where to Find My Guest Post
The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter (The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire #1) by Rod Duncan
SFF: The 5 Best Gifts for Book Lovers

Pageviews for the Month: 630+
Comments: 11!

Blog Schedule and Features: Critiques on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. On Sundays, I rotate between the Sunday Fun Five, and Confessions of an Insomniac Book Devourer (or Not Quite a Confession).

The Monthly TBR Lottery is cancelled until I catch up with review copies... and my other draws.

Upcoming Reviews

Fair Warning: There should be a bunch of Kate Daniels books reviewed in the month of January. I am currently obsessed and continue to gush about them in every possible post.

Song of Blood & Stone (Earthsinger Chronicles #1) by L. Penelope

I'm reading this right now, and it isn't what I expected. At first, I thought it was very light fantasy with steampunkish elements and a tad of romance. Currently, it looks to be epic fantasy that reminds me of the Tairen Soul series, in a good way. What confounds me the most is people are labelling it YA- and in my day, YA didn't have descriptive sex scene(s). I'm told that should be the domain of NA (New Adult). Goodreads users sometimes confuse me with their labels, and this is the case so far with this book. I also may be showing my age- YA seems to be a bit different now then in my youth.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult, Diverse Character(s), NOT Litha's Version of YA- because she is an old lady.

A Dance With Dragons (ASoIaF #5) by George R.R. Martin

You know, since I've reviewed all of the A Song of Ice and Fire series but this one on the blog, I may as well review it. It would be honest to say this book disappointed me, but I still read it in a week, and was left shaking with withdrawal. What's terrible is that I read all the ASoIaF series in a month, and then I waited for the next one to come out in a few years. I'm still waiting, people. But this series is entirely worth the pain torture sheer brain-hemorrhage-inducing agony of waiting for.

Genres: Fantasy, Heroes I Love, Heroines I Love, Action/Adventure, Wandering Aimlessly.

Out of Orbit Critique:

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

The memoir of an eighteen-year-old psych hospital patient that is heartbreakingly real and shook me up as a teen when I read it. I thought I was reading fiction for the first half of the book, Googled it, and then found out it was a memoir. It's also a movie, but as always, the book is better.

Genres: Memoir, Out of Orbit, Historical, Heroines I Love