{Month in Review/Monthly Preview} Happy Holidays and welcome to the Busiest Time of the Year!!!



How are you holding up so far?

The holidays are always SO busy for me. It's one reason I've always been bogged down whenever I do NaNoWriMo. I didn't even try NaNo this year, which was a great decision because I didn't even BLOG for two weeks. Illness and blog events and work don't mix...or schoolwork and finals, etc! November is just always so tough, don't you think?

No matter what you celebrate, I hope the holidays are good to you this year. I do enjoy seeing family, and I always shop throughout the year whenever I find something perfect, so I can usually relax and not do much shopping in December. So nice!! My wallet is always hit really hard, though.
My sister has a birthday four days before Christmas and my mom is a couple of weeks after Christmas, and now I have a niece whose birthday is next weekend. Ouch! But it's so much fun buying baby toys...and then I wind up spending more than I should because it's all so darn cute...........


I'm going to try really hard to continue to have 4-5 posts a week through the month of December, but I'll apologize now for any slipping. It's just such a busy month! BUT I have a lot of awesome stuff planned, so yay for the best laid plans! ^.~

What is your December usually like?

A Week of Snow White

The event unfortunately ended a day earlier than expected, but there were still tons of great reviews and posts, and I appreciate everyone that commented and visited and tweeted and discovered new books and had fun!

I emailed the giveaway winners on Friday night, so check your email and your spam!!! You have until Monday to reply to me if you haven't done so already! ^_^

Here's the Schedule of Events if you missed out and want to catch up! 

WINTER is now out in the world, whoo-hoo!!! Have you read it? Did you love it? I have SO MUCH LOVE for this series. And ahhhhhhh, STARS ABOVE!!! Sooooooo excited for that anthology now that I know there's a short story that takes place AFTER the series finale and continues on. Eeep, eep, eep!!!!!!!!!!

Let's Chat About Nail Polish!

 I didn't do much with my nails this month, TBH. ^^;;;;;;;

I kept my Halloween Cats way longer than I probably should have, then wore a GORGEOUS new shade from the new OPI Holiday Starlight Collection called Guys & Galaxies (pictured below), then did all-black nails for Black Friday. I only just changed it up again this weekend. (Blue glitter with two white accent nails that have blue French tips for Chanukah)

I only have pictures of Guys & Galaxies, but it's a beautiful wine color with a gel-like consistency:


I found this Nook Case at Barnes and Noble. In person, it's even more glittery. I saw it and took a picture because I WISH THIS COLOR EXISTED AS NAIL POLISH!!!!! 

Please, Nail Polish Companies!?

Pictures of the Month

Book Related first!!! My local B&N hosted a launch party for Marissa Meyer's WINTER to celebrate the release of the final book in The Lunar Chronicles Series and had a bunch of fun events planned to celebrate. And now we're actually getting Marissa Meyer at that same store in February, ahhhhh!!! *flails with excitement*

For the party, my friend Kristin is rocking it as Scarlet!!! I love how this picture came out!


Kristin runs a blog about books and her family if you want to see more about her called Four Wolves in the Den!

What do you do when you're miserable and sick? Eat soup, drink something hot and warm, watch movies, and listen to music, of course!



I usually go to visit my dad on Sunday nights and we watch Once Upon a Time together (And sometimes Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. if I get done work early enough and there's enough time after we eat dinner. ATM, we're caught up on both shows, which is AMAZING, because we've been behind on Shield all year thanks to watching Season 1 on DVD and then watching Season 2 via Netflix all Summer into Autumn. We only just caught up on Thanksgiving, phew!

ANYWAY, a couple of weeks ago when we were watching Once, my dad's dog Mary Jane was curled up against the front door. She gets doggy dreams and makes yelps when she's dreaming, so that's when you know she's asleep. That door had her ear UP and in the most comfortable position for close to an hour! But she looked so gosh darn cute in a tight ball!!!!



...Yeah, I didn't take a lot of pictures this month, either. ^^;;;


MUSIC 🎶

Well.........I've mostly just been shuffling my favorite iPod Playlist this month. It's fun listening to nostalgic songs, though! AND I figured out how to HEART a song...not sure what it does, but hey! Maybe plays them more frequently? That's my hope, anyway. I hearted a song that I used to ADORE when I was in school, and my iPod popped up with a message that said something like, "You Just Hearted Your First Song!" Yeah, that song was appropriate to be first! (Er...don't laugh, but "Desperately Wanting" from Better Than Ezra) So many memories associated with that song!!

I got my hands on both Hamilton the Musical and The Light Princessi this month, two musicals I've really been wanting to listen to! I just haven't had time to sit down long enough to relax and concentrate on the stories yet. Hopefully this month!

The only "new" music this month was listening to a couple of the songs off Adele's new album 25 and Ellie Goulding's new album Delirium to see if I wanted to buy them or not. I decided not on Ellie Goulding's because it's too dance club. The songs don't have enough of that ethereal quality I loved so much in other songs by her. I'd still like to hear more Adele before deciding, but YouTube doesn't have a lot up there yet!

Right now, I'm listening to a lot of holiday music! But ugh, get "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" out of my head, please, because everywhere I go, some store is playing a different version of this song, and it's constantly in my head now...mashed between all the artists...

MOVIES!!! 

I finally got to see Ghibli's new movie When Marnie Was Here, which I was really looking forward to. I didn't like it as much as other movies from them, though. Parts were really predictable, while others weren't. Then again, I watched it while sick, so....!

I finally got to see Inside Out again, too! I'd been waiting for it to come out on DVD!! I watched that while sick, too, just because I could.

I haven't watched much TV this month. I'm looking forward to watching The Wiz, which aired this past week and is now sitting on my DVR!!

That was my November. 

How was yours???

Here's a look at everything that happened in November!
 

ONGOING GIVEAWAYS:

*FACSIMILE by Vicki L. Weavil  (12/11)

Check out the December Blog Tour Schedule for more upcoming giveaways!
DECEMBER BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE
(Most blog tour stops feature giveaways as well!)


*THEIR FRACTURED LIGHT by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (12/11 review)
*ENDURE by Sara B. Larson (12/30 review)


 
READING NOW:
{All links to Goodreads!}

*THEIR FRACTURED LIGHT by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner {YA}


PLANNING TO READ IN NOVEMBER:

*ENDURE by Sara B. Larson {YA}
*THE WRATH AND THE DAWN by Renee Ahdieh {YA}
*THE ACCIDENT SEASON by Moïra Fowley-Doyle {YA}
*SERPENTINE by Cindy Pon  {YA}
*COURT OF FIVES by Kate Elliott {YA}
*THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins {Adult}
*SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo {YA}
*THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS by Anna-Marie McLemore {YA} 
*ASH & BRAMBLE by Sarah Prineas {YA}
*PASSENGER by Alexandra Bracken {YA}
*BANISHED by Kimberley Griffiths-Little {YA}
*WHEN WE COLLIDED by Emory Lord {YA}
 
[link to my GoodReads account so you can see my blurb feed as I read]
READ IN NOVEMBER:
{All links to Goodreads!}

TOTAL: 9 Books ;_;

*ME BEFORE YOU by Jojo Moyes {Adult}
*AFTER YOU by Jojo Moyes {Adult}
*RED GIRL, BLUE BOY by Lauren Baratz-Logsted {YA}
*WINTER by Marissa Meyer {YA}
*TRICKS by Ellen Hopkins {Upper YA}
*TRAFFICK by Ellen Hopkins {Upper YA}
*A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V.E. Schwab {Adult}
*EVERYTHING BUT THE TRUTH by Mandy Hubbard {YA}
*THESE BROKEN STARS by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner {YA}

REVIEWED IN NOVEMBER:
{All links to my review!}

*RED GIRL, BLUE BOY by Lauren Baratz-Logsted {YA}
*MISTY COPELAND: POWER AND GRACE by Misty Copeland with Photography by Richard Corman
*TEAR YOU APART by Sarah Cross {YA} [redux]
*STITCHING SNOW by R.C. Lewis {YA} [redux] [+Design Vlog]
*SIX-GUN SNOW WHITE by Catherynne M. Valente {Adult} [redux]
*FAIREST OF THEM ALL by Carolyn Turgeon {Adult} [redux] 
*THE STEPSISTER SCHEME by Jim C. Hines {Adult} [redux]

FEATURES IN NOVEMBER:

*Looking Back: Shifting from Spooky Mode to Holiday Mode. Happy First of the Month!!!
*A Week of Snow is Coming My First Ever Writer's Retreat, Fun Nail Art, Fantastic Books, and even more to look forward to in October!
*{A Twist in the Tail} Announcing BBC One Production of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy [AKA THE GOLDEN COMPASS]!!! 
*A Week of Snow White: Schedule of Events!
*A Week of Snow White: Link to YOUR Posts!
*Snow White Cram Session: Did You Know These 6 Facts About Snow White?
*Ten Movie Adaptations of Snow White!
* Happy Book Day to WINTER, the final book in the Lunar Chronicles Series, and the reason we have A Week of Snow White!
*A Snow White Fairy Tale Rant and Talking About THAT SCENE in ENCHANTED by Alethea Kontis
*{Guest Post} The Story Behind FAIREST OF THEM ALL with Carolyn Turgeon [Redux]
*{Spotlight + Teaser} THE SHADOW QUEEN by C.J. Redwine [Redux]
*How to Become the Crit Partner of a NYT Best Selling Author in Fifteen Easy Steps {With Marissa Meyer's Crit Partner Tamara Felsinger!)
*Two GREAT Snow White E-Book Deals...only 99¢ each!!!
*I'm alive...are we still okay?
*Top TWENTY 2016 Debut Novels I'm Looking Forward To!!!

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