I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah! I hope you had a wonderful holiday no matter how you celebrated it this year.

Especially this year.

My husband and I usually celebrate with family, but, like so many this year, we felt it safer to stay at home due to Covid. As a result, this year we spent the day in our pj’s watching the new Wonder Woman movie and eating all the yummy food. A nice, relaxing holiday.

Still missed our families though.

But I thought I would share the books I got/bought with gift cards for Christmas. This is a thing bloggers do, right?

From my amazing mother-in-law I received the following:

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

I love the premise of this. What happens when two ordinary college students get super powers? They don’t become the heroes in this book.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

January is the ward of Mr. Locke, feeling much like one of his artifacts. Until she finds a mysterious book. I love the way this book sounds, and asked for it on the recommendation of a friend. I hope it’s as good as she made it sound!

Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness

If you like the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness, you will love this. It’s the story of Marcus, set both in the past at the time of his being turned into a vampire set to the backdrop of the American Revolutionary War, to the present, where his lover is starting her own journey to immortality. I have already read this book, but I didn’t own it, and now the All Souls universe is complete again! Mwah ha ha ha.

From my bestie I received a gift card with which to purchase what I wished. And what I wished for was, naturally, books. I also received a gift card from that most wonderous of humans, my husband! His was so I could purchase books. Because he has met me.

Here are the books I bought with those gifty cards!

Peace and Turmoil by Elliot Brooks

Thirty years of peace have reigned over the lands of Abra’am. That may soon come to an end. I’m not gonna lie, I saw this on booktube and became intrigued. It sounds intriguing.

House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess

Five people compete, to the death, for a chance at the throne. Plus, dragons! Let’s be honest, they had me at dragons. But this kind of competition for the throne thing sounds interesting.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

When Laia’s brother is captured, she makes a deal with some rebels. They’ll get him out of prison if she agrees to go undercover and spy for them at an elite military school. Elias is attending that school, though he doesn’t want to. This book has been raved about, so I picked it up to see what all the excitement was about.

Artifical Condtion: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. I loved the first book and I am looking forward to seeing what this novella has in store for me.

Paradise Planet by Jesse Lonergan

To survive after crash landing on an alien planet, a vacationer must battle against a hostile environment, killer lizards, corporate bureaucracy, and the pessimism of her sole companion, the drug-addled captain of the ship. This graphic novel sounded interesting when I added it to my list of books I wanted back in November.

The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso

Deep within Gloamingard Castle lies a black tower. Sealed by magic, it guards a dangerous secret that has been contained for thousands of years. I loved the first two books I read by this author, so I had to pick this one up too.

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

People lived because she killed. People died because he lived. They both seek the same prize. This also came with all the acclaim, so let’s hope it lives up to the hype!

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Rosemary joins up with the crew aboard the spaceship Wayfairer. Then they get hired for a job tunneling wormholes to a far distant planet. After reading To be Taught, if Fortunate by the author I knew I had to pick this up. It just had to happen!

This Place: 150 Years Retold by Various

Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators. These stories are journeys through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact. This looks so cool! How could I not pick it up?

Point B (a teleportation love story) by Drew Magary

Set in a science fictional universe where climate change is fixed but people get killed via teleportation, a young woman named Anna Huff has to navigate her adolescence and a murder mystery. I liked The Postmortal enough to give the author another look. And I like what I see in this book.

This last book was given to me by my book club Secret Santa.

Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. Sounds like just the apocalyptic book I need!

What books did you get for Christmas?