Here‘s my #wintergames points total for the first two weeks so far! Thank you for everything @LiseWorks and #holidaybookdragons ✨✨✨

an unusual and very bleak book to read during #wintergames but it was leant to me by someone at work after a really interesting conversation about true crime. This is the graphic novel memoir of a woman living in Yorkshire during the time of the Yorkshire ripper murders and reflecting on her own experiences with sexual violence. An interesting and horrid look at what authority figures notice and don‘t notice, it reminded me of My Friend Dahmer

I‘m sorry I‘m SO late posting my week one game points- it‘s been a difficult weekend here in the UK with the enormous storms and I spent so much time trapped at train stations in the middle of the night trying to get home 😔 I managed to find 607 words in the phrase though!

#wintergames #holidaybookdragons

I was trying to control my desire to buy this book with money I don‘t have when I discovered joyfully I could get the ebook through the library. I devoured it do desperately and every single page was incredible. I‘m going to read every single thing of hers I can get my hand on forever.

#wintergames #holidaybookdragons

I loved this book - in some ways it was quite a typical, slightly surreal book about a neurotic millennial woman Going A Bit Strange a la Nightbitch. The thing that made this feel really fresh and cool to me was the class aspect of a woman from a working class background ‘marrying up‘ to a more upper middle class guy and it all coming out monstrously in her relationship with food. I loved it

#wintergames #holidaybookdragons

This book was fine. It had the issue that annoys me across a lot of books of every single character sounding like a self help book/someone repeating what a therapist told them and announcing the ways their minds work rather than behaving like people, which did annoy me, but I liked the setting and bones of the story, and it was very Christmassy.

#wintergames #holidaybookdragons

This book was so completely magical it made me wonder why I let it sit unread on my kindle for so long. It‘s made me want to do an entire Philip Pullman reread - perhaps Christmas is the perfect time?

#wintergames #holidaybookdragons

Not a very #wintergames book but I finished this on my flight back from Prague and I absolutely loved it! A beautifully written queer story (romance…?) between the headmaster‘s wife and the matron of a very ‘dark academia‘ elite girls boarding school. I couldn‘t have loved this book more if I tried it was perfect

#holidaybookdragons

I downloaded this because I saw it was a silly smutty Nutcracker retelling with a ‘sugarplum faerie‘ and I was surprised by how much I genuinely liked it rather than just laughing at it. Really suspenseful at times in addition to being romantic and sometimes very very dirty. Some unexpectedly disturbing sexual violence though, so tw for that

#wintergames #holidaybookdragons

First book of #wintergames finished for the #holidaybookdragons! I‘m obsessed with this series of romance Shakespeare retellings set among Indian-American families. So funny and cute and I love all the characters

Happy #wintergames ❄️❄️❄️ it‘s midnight in Prague, and I‘m getting a slightly slow start to this year‘s games as I‘ve got one more day left of a trip here with my friend before I head home and get festive in earnest. The plan is to finish this amazing Indian-American wedding infused retelling of much ado about nothing tomorrow - it‘s so deliciously written

Hello #holidaybookdragons and @LiseWorks ❄️ I‘m so excited for #wintergames24. I‘m super excited to both watch and read the nutcracker this year!

Hot chocolate 100%, the idea of eggnog makes me feel a bit ill
Christmas morning
My parents always did an angel but I‘m open to stars
Fish on Xmas Eve, turkey or goose Xmas day, Chinese New Year‘s Eve
This year I‘ll be travelling for the first time ever so we‘ll see it if I like it!

I am beyond happy that the #wintergames is back this year! I'm starting to get very festive already and this is always a highlight of my year

Thank you so much to @staycurious and @liseworks for hosting 😍

I can‘t believe it‘s November! I‘m so absurdly proud of every member of the #skeletoncrew during #hauntedshelf. It‘s been a pleasure being spooky with you. Our total is 99,083 including my points of 50,615 🎃

Now to get started on my Christmas book stack…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN to everyone who celebrates it and particularly to my #skeletoncrew comrades for #hauntedshelf 🎃🎃🎃 I‘ve loved playing with you guys so much!

Let‘s get those final points in and celebrate! And a huge thanks to @PuddleJumper for organising so much and working so hard for us

This was quite YA for my taste but I did like it and I think it had great spooky sapphic Halloween vibes for YA readers. I loved the worldbuilding and the way the fantasy and romance fit together. Plus, how could I not give ‘vampire meets death oracle in high school‘ a pick rating??

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

I really wanted to enjoy this and it ticked so many boxes for me on paper, and then it just never quite came together for me. I didn‘t dislike it but it wasn‘t everything I was dreaming. Maybe my expectations were too high because I‘d been saving it for #hauntedshelf 🤷‍♀️

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For the #hauntedshelf book cover scavenger hunt ‘Figure‘ prompt my brain went right to this gorgeous novell retelling the myth of Pygmalion - a woman who becomes and wants to be more than a crafted figure!

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Another one for the #hauntedshelf book cover scavenger hunt! This one is for Horns, which I‘m interpreting a wee bit liberally as antlers. I love this Scottish folk horror novel so much.

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This book made me feel so nostalgic for being a preteen in the twilight era and I would have been OBSESSED if I was 12. Unfortunately I‘m not 12.

Yes it was ridiculous in a lot of ways I don‘t feel fair judging it for, but the one I can‘t get over is the ‘very desirable‘ male lead having no personality traits at all. I literally can‘t tell you a fact about him apart from occasional random violence.

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

Not veeery #hauntedshelf appropriate but I loved this really biting ‘young woman in city‘ novel. I get a little exhausted of that genre sometimes but this felt so natural and genuinely funny (at times) and observational. One of the best of this type of book I‘ve read

#skeletoncrew

I‘m home from my anniversary trip and playing catch up with my #hauntedshelf book cover scavenger hunt photos! Here‘s day 17 and Blood

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This is the one book I‘ve managed to finish for #hauntedshelf while on holiday in turkey for my anniversary! And to be fair, it was a lot of short stories so when I add up all the stories and bingo boards I think it should serve the #skeletoncrew quite well!

I haven‘t managed to post loads for #hauntedshelf the last couple of days but I thought I‘d let you know my very good reason - im in turkey to celebrate me and my boyfriend‘s tenth anniversary!! I‘m reading hard and will be back to my regular spooky posting on monday 🥳

I‘ve been running loving cozy mysteries this autumn and today the #hauntedshelf book cover scavenger hunt challenge and Knitting caused me to add this one to the tbr!

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ahoy #skeletoncrew! Time for the next game of the #hauntedshelf games. There are INFINITE POINTS available for this one so keep coming back to this post and let's keep our infinite word chain going

For day 14 of the #hauntedshelf book cover hunt we've got one of my very favourite grey books I've read recently! And it's a spooky one too.

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For day 13 of the #hauntedshelf book cover scavenger hunt we have one of my favourite purple reads of the last few years! I love the witches of thistle grove series so much, it was very bittersweet finishing the series this month.

#skeketoncrew

This book didn‘t break the mould in any way but did in need it to? A sweet, funny vampire romance about a failing art teacher and her 200 year old roommate. This did everything I needed it to do. The fact that Frederick watches Buffy gets him lots of points with me

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

I can‘t believe we‘re already at the first points check in of #hauntedshelf! I‘ve been reading a lot of short stories and doing a LOT of bingo boards - hence the pretty damn high total so far! I swear, matching books to bingo boards is the best and most calming hobby in the world. #skeletoncrew

I totally had a good time reading this ‘dark fantasy romance‘ retelling of Hades and Persephone, though there were definitely times I was laughing at it not laughing with. It felt quite odd to me how so many hallmark romance movie cliches were just shoved in with literal actual Greek gods - suddenly Persephone is a struggling journalism intern and Hades owns a sexy night club lol. I firmly enjoyed but also… what

Playing catch up with the #hauntedshelf book cover scavenger hunt today as I forgot to post my book for yesterday! Here‘s a wonderful gothic dark academia book I loved this year with leaves on the cover

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For prompt 12 of the #hauntedshelf book cover scavenger hunt we have my very favourite book with moon in the title!

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Ahoy #skeletoncrew! Can you believe we‘re nearly two weeks into #hauntedshelf already?? I can‘t believe how fast it‘s all going!

We have our first points check in tomorrow (October 13). You can either make a post with your total points so far and tag me, or comment on one of my posts. If you have any questions about adding up points please do let me know!

Ahoy there #skeletoncrew 🎃🎃🎃 can you believe we‘re ten whole days into #hauntedshelf already??

@Bookwormjillk is hosting a cosy readathon all through this weekend if you‘d like to scoop up some more readathon hour points before our first check in on the 13th!

#cozyreads

The tenth prompt for #hauntedshelf cover hunt was candles and my brain flashed all the way back to secondary school for this one!

#skeletoncrew

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

Coffee 100% ☕️
Both!
Spoooky
Both? But I read more audios in general, tagging my current one
Halloween - we don‘t have thanksgiving in the uk obviously but I‘d love to experience it one time!
Gloves
All of the above!

An incredible standalone vampire book rec for #hauntedshelf today!

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One from the tbr for the #hauntedshelf book cover hunt today!

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Stephen Graham Jones is such a reliable horror writer for me. I always know 100% I‘m going to enjoy whatever he‘s written for me and this was no exception. Very strange, very slasher-y, a perfect litlte Halloween novella to prove why you can‘t trust eerie mannequins or high school boys.

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

I‘ve been really enjoying the trend recently in books dealing with the horror of the beauty industry and how it preys on women in different ways. I loved the extra layers added to this story by the really deep and touchingly detailed story of the Chinese-American piano prodigy and her relationship with her parents and American-beauty status.

#skeletoncrew #hauntedshelf

For prompt 8 of the #hauntedshelf photo challenge I picked this gorgeous looking romance novel! I haven‘t read it but I have a copy at home because I bought it as a gift for a friend….. but now I‘m super desperate to read it and I might have to buy one for me. Why does this always happen??

#skeletoncrew

One of my favourite standalone horrors I‘ve read this year - this is very strange meta one about a horror movie shoot from the 90s where something strange went wrong, that is now being remade. Very very spooky.

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

When I saw the prompt festival/fair in the #hauntedshelf book recommendation prompt list this was the first place my brain went!

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Prompt 7 for the #hauntedshelf book scavenger hunt is Dark and there‘s only one book that always makes me think of dark - probably the greatest and most iconic true crime book ever written!

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When I saw the morally dubious prompt for the #hauntedshelf book recommendations my brain jumped right to the book that got the TikTok book girlies started wirh their obsession with morally grey tattooed angel faerie men 🧚‍♂️

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Prompt 6 for the #hauntedshelf photo challenge is cold so here is my absolute favourite cold weather horror book ever! I‘ll never see mountains the same way again 😬

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I can‘t believe I read into the drowning deep TWICE and never realised it had this novella prequel! I preferred into the drowning deep because of the long slow pacing, but this was really fantastic and I loved how it covered so many of the same themes from a different angle. I loved noticing all the things I never realised were references to the past.

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

I didn‘t love this as much as the spice isle bakery series of cosy mysteries, so it felt like a bit of a cosy mystery step down in some ways, but it feels unfair to compare it to the best cosy mysteries I think I‘ve ever read. This was quite ‘by the book‘ with quite a simple mystery but I had a great time and I loved the Kentucky setting a lot. The author wrote the town so well.

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

For this #hauntedshelf rec I saw the category ‘dark‘ I was thinking what‘s the darkest book I‘ve read. This is some quite extreme horror, needing trigger warnings for absolutely everything, but thr writing was so oddly lyrical and it‘s such an individual book about a relationship I‘ll probably never see the likes of in print again.

#skeletoncrew