Lauren Carroll Reads and Writes: What I Read in December

December wasn't the best reading month for me...

there were just so many books that I picked up and TRIED to read but I just couldn't swallow them...so I had to cough them back up again

Are we finished with this image yet?

BUT...I am currently reading two books that I am LOVING...I just didn't finish them in time to include them in this wrap-up - so they will be coming next month!

Oh, and before I forget....

I hope all of you who celebrate had an amazing Christmas

With that out of the way, let's move on to the books I read or tried to read in December

I had heard so many good things about Nevernight by Jay Kristoff and I love assassins - so I thought I was on to a new favourite with this one...I thought wrong. I got around 100 pages into this book before I just did not want to pick it back up again - so I didn't. I DNF'd this mutha!! But I feel bad...and I still feel like I should love this :( if you think I should PICK THIS BACK UP IMMEDIATELY then please do shout in my face...because, unlike Taylor Swift and her many boyfriends...we might get back together.

'In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?'

I listened to Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco on audiobook because I loved the first one...but this one just didn't bite at me the way the other one did. I don't know what it was about this book...I just felt like I waited so long for anything to start, but when it did I didn't know what was going on. The whole mystery was confusing and I just wanted it to be over so many times. I'm really sad...because I loved Stalking Jack the Ripper....but I think I just loved that one so much because I have a morbid obsession with old Jackie boy and I just love to read anything about him...that being said - I DO want to read the next book in the series because I love these characters and I hope Escaping Houdini will be so much better than this one.

P.S I am aware that this is a wildly unpopular opinion so I'm prepared for the fire and pitchforks...just don't be too loud when you attack me, my neighbours are old and easily worried.

'Following the grief and horror of her discovery of Jack the Ripper's true identity, Audrey Rose Wadsworth has no choice but to flee London and its memories. Together with the arrogant yet charming Thomas Cresswell, she journeys to the dark heart of Romania, home to one of Europe's best schools of forensic medicine...and to another notorious killer, Vlad the Impaler, whose thirst for blood became legend.

But her life's dream is soon tainted by blood-soaked discoveries in the halls of the school's forbidding castle, and Audrey Rose is compelled to investigate the strangely familiar murders. What she finds brings all her terrifying fears to life once again.'

Now onto the good news....I absolutely LOVED The Three by Sarah Lotz!! Again, I read this on audiobook and the narrators did a fantastic job of pulling you into the story. I was glued to this book from start to finish and instantly moved on to Day Four when I was done. I still don't completely understand the ending...if you did please feel free to explain it to me...but I enjoyed this nonetheless and wholeheartedly recommend it.

'The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. With terrorist attacks and environmental factors ruled out, there doesn't appear to be a correlation between the crashes, except that in three of the four air disasters a child survivor is found in the wreckage.

Dubbed 'The Three' by the international press, the children all exhibit disturbing behavioural problems, presumably caused by the horror they lived through and the unrelenting press attention. This attention becomes more than just intrusive when a rapture cult led by a charismatic evangelical minister insists that the survivors are three of the four harbingers of the apocalypse. The Three are forced to go into hiding, but as the children's behaviour becomes increasingly disturbing, even their guardians begin to question their miraculous survival...'

And finally to crash back down into the bookpit of despair...we have Alice by Christina Henry. I wanted to love this. I adore Alice in Wonderland, I love dark twists on old tales, and the cover is so good! - but the story fell flat for me. I just didn't get what this book was trying to do. It was weird...and not in a good way for me. I just didn't like it and actually DNF'd this one quite early on. I'm sad, because I honestly thought this would be right up my street, but sometimes in life we meet a book that we are not compatible with and we just don't get along. It's a shame...but I'm over it.

'In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo the screams of the poor souls inside.

In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blond, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn’t remember why she’s in such a terrible place. Just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood…

Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago.

Only something else has escaped with her. Something dark. Something powerful.

And to find the truth, she will have to track this beast to the very heart of the Old City, where the rabbit waits for his Alice.'

Those were all of the books I read...and didn't read in December. It wasn't the best reading month, but I found a new favourite in The Three so I'm definitely happy with that little nugget.

What did you read this month?

Any Christmas reads? Let me know in the comments or by all means link your posts so I can go and read for myself.