Meeting Goals & My #1 Book of 2017 (December Book Wrap-Up)

Guys, it's the last day of 2017. What happened? This year breezed right on by! We're looking at entering 2018 tomorrow. Crazy. I have a lot to cover in one post, so let's get to it, shall we?

Writing
After NaNoWriMo ended I told myself I didn't have to do any more writing on Follow the Raven in the first week of December if I didn't want to. As it turned out I did end up writing another 2,000 words a few days after the finish line, so the story is currently sitting at 52.2k. I optimistically hoped I could finish the entire thing before the New Year, but obviously that didn't happen. I don't have much left to write; that will have to be done in 2018 at this point. Regardless, I'm very proud of myself for having rewritten 95% of it and thus completing 95% of my 2017 New Year's Resolution. It's a huge accomplishment for me, and I'm (mostly) looking forward to the editing/revision process during the "Now What?" months, which I plan to participate in for the first time starting in January.

As for Wattpad, I am very happy to say that I've successfully released a chapter a week since my newest story's initial release in late November! "The Dimension Keepers" has taken off in a way none of my previous stories on Wattpad have before; my readers seem really excited about the new direction I'm taking Kay's journey. I can't wait to see their reactions to certain upcoming events next month. My current stats for this latest book are 242 reads, 33 votes, and 15 comments.

Reading
While November is primarily focused on writing, December (for me) is primarily focused on reading. I managed to finish six books this month - just in time for 2018 - which makes 50 books total for the year! For the first time ever, I completed my Goodreads reading challenge! I told you all this was the year! I did it! :D

• Psion by Joan D. Vinge
• Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
• A Hero for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
• Lock and Mori: Final Fall by Heather W. Petty
• What Light by Jay Asher
• A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

**Spoilers Ahead**

Considering the amount of praise Everything, Everything has received, I expected much more from it than what I got. The story sounded promising in the beginning. It was a unique concept: A girl allergic to life outside her home falls for the boy next door and risks everything to be with him. Only...not. Because as it turned out, the whole premise was one big lie to both the protagonist and the readers. The author chose such a cop-out ending for the story. I was so disappointed that she felt the need to have a happy ending rather than continue down the dangerous road she had previously set up for her main character. What began as a YA romance that promised uniqueness ended up being exactly the same as the rest of its kind, and I just don't understand how so many people can give high praise to an ending that makes it feel like you as the reader were lied to as well. I'm not really inclined to read this author's other book because of this.

The long-anticipated ending to the Lock and Mori trilogy was finally released in late November, which meant my library got it in early December for me to start reading. I was so excited going into Final Fall; I couldn't wait to find out how everything went down and how loose ends would be tied up and whatnot, since this was only meant to be a trilogy. So you can probably imagine my surprise when I held the book in my hands for the first time and discovered that it was only 200 pages - shorter than either of its predecessors. I had no clue how the author was going to fit everything there was to fit in 200 pages, especially once I started reading and Mori was still imprisoned 70 pages in. I really shouldn't have doubted, though, because if I've learned anything about Heather Petty as an author it's that she knows what she's doing. Mori resolved her evil father problem halfway through the book, and the other half was about her trying to get the heck out of London while avoiding the police and Sherlock himself, as he finally began to turn on her once he saw who she was becoming.

There were a lot of things I really appreciated about this book. First and foremost being that Sherlock and John Watson (who only made cameos in the first two books) FINALLY began to hang out together. That happened at some point during the five months Mori was away, and I cannot tell you how much I fangirled when she realized Lock was spending time with John in her absence. Another thing I appreciated was how much we really began to see the classic Moriarty in Mori with this book. Not only that, but we got to see how and why she became such a bad person by the end of it all. And what she did to Sherlock in the end! Man! I never saw that coming. Lock, too, really began to become the true Sherlock Holmes by the end of the series; I even noticed that as things became worse between the two of them Mori stopped referring to him as Lock and began to call him Sherlock again. I don't know if that was intentional, but either way it was expertly done.

However there were a couple of things I didn't care for with this novel as well. First being that - as I mentioned before - so much of the first half of this book was Mori imprisoned, being snarky to her captors, and trying to find a way out. She didn't actually escape until after 70 pages of what I felt to be unnecessarily drawn-out content. Then when she did finally get back to London, she solved her evil father problem almost immediately, without really having to fight him much. I thought that was a bit anticlimactic, given the plots of the first two books. I also didn't care for how much back and forth internal dialogue was going on with her. I could understand why some of it needed to be there - I think she realized she was becoming the person she hated but knew it had to be done - but she would have her mind made up about something and then two seconds later she'd read a postcard and suddenly she was changing her mind again. Her internal dialogue just felt confused and unnecessary most of the time.

Finally - and seriously, I think this is the biggest thing that stands out to me right now - there was a line in this book that was never explained. Like, a really, really important, you-cannot-overlook-this line concerning John Watson. I don't want to give too much away, but Mori mentioned that as it turned out she would have to apologize/answer to every citizen in London for making Sherlock who he was, except for John. And that was never explained! By the end of the book there wasn't even an epilogue detailing what happened to her after she did what she did in the end. If this was only meant to be a trilogy, considering how different the Sherlock/Moriarty rivalry is in this alternate universe where Mori is a female AND when their rivalry begins when they're teens instead of adults, you can't just assume your readers are going to know what that means. Of course I have an idea of what she meant by that line - I'm a Sherlockian, after all - BUT it was so massively important that I seriously think that Heather Petty needs to write one more book just to explain what she meant by it. It implies so many things about what became of Mori after the trilogy ended that I just...I need an explanation! Please!

Despite these complaints - and my desperate desire to see what became of these two after this trilogy ended - I really, really enjoyed Lock and Mori. I reread the reviews I wrote for the first two, and I think it's interesting that I didn't think Sherlock was really in character way back in the beginning. Of course he wasn't - nothing had happened to make him the Sherlock we know yet. By the time all three books were over I think we got a really great look at how things would be different for Sherlock and Moriarty had one of them been female instead, and I absolutely loved this series. I want to own these books. I want them on my shelves. Without a doubt, this was the best young Sherlock I've read to date. Well done, Heather Petty.

My Top Books of 2017

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! Below is a list I've compiled of books I chose as the best of the bunch I read in 2017. I will say before you read the titles that this list was way harder for me to put together than last year's. In 2016 six books managed to get a 5/5 star rating from me, which made the list obvious and easy. This year only two books managed that, while there were 15 runners-up that got a 4/5 from me. I had to narrow down my options quite a bit, and it was not easy, but after contemplating it for several days I am satisfied with what I've chosen. They all earned their place at the top, that's for sure.

(Note: I have not listed the Skulduggery Pleasant books I read this year - the first of which gained a 5/5 while the others got 4/5 - for the sake of discluding the obvious. But I did definitely enjoy all of them!)

The first two on this list are the 5/5 star books. I also decided to count the first three books of The Selection as one since they are part of the original trilogy, I read them so close together, and I gave them all the same rating.

• The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
• One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
• Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
• The Selection #1-3 by Kiera Cass
• Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Of these seven books, the ONE that I believe is the best book I read this year is One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus. I can't even put into words how brilliant this book is. It captures such real, raw emotion and made me so angry on behalf of each of the four main characters for completely different reasons, as they were all so different from each other. I think the best part about it, though, was that the answer to the mystery was staring us all in the face the entire novel, but it wasn't until the author chose to reveal said answer that it all became clear. The title of the book is on point, and it is absolutely, 100% fantastic.

My Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2017 - as with the two years previous - was 50 books. And ladies and gentlemen, I JUST made it to 50 this year. I did it! I finally, finally did it! I am so proud of myself for having made it happen this time around. I knew I would reach the goal sometime! That said, though, I'll be changing up my game plan a little bit in 2018 in terms of reading, for various reasons that I'll detail in another post coming soon. For now, suffice it to say I could not be happier with how 2017 turned out for me, both in reading and writing, and I can't wait to try new things in the New Year!

I'll see you in 2018, everyone. Big things are coming your way! Happy New Year! :D

Reading Like a Boss

I wanted to write a full-length blog post about halfway through the month, but things are so nuts right now with my reading and with Christmas and New Year's coming up that I simply can't find the time to do anything longer than what you'll see here. So just to keep you up to date with things, here is a brief overview of the craziness that has been December so far.

I was fully recovered from the insanity of NaNoWriMo by about December 10, and I ended up writing another 2,000 words of my novel in that time. It's still not finished, but it's pretty close. I'm satisfied with where it is for now.

I gave myself a couple of days at the beginning of the month to just do nothing. No writing, no reading - nothing that would tax my already melted brain. But it wasn't long before I finally picked up a book and started my reading quest. As of the last time I posted something here I was reading Psion and Everything, Everything. I have finished the latter; I'm still about 100 pages away from finishing the former. My review for at least one of those will be in my wrap-up at the end of the month.

After I finished Everything, Everything, though, I got a little overzealous with my reading and...well...I am now currently reading four books at the same time.

Yes, yes, I know I'm crazy. But there is a method to my madness - or at least there was when I decided to go ahead and start reading that fourth book. To be fair to myself I am almost done with two of them, and I'm hoping that even with the craziness of Christmas weekend coming up I'll be able to get a decent amount of reading done. My plan is to finish those two books this week so that I'll only be reading two at once, and then power through a shorter book toward the end of the month to get to my goal of 50. Either way, guys, this is the year - I am actually going to make my Goodreads goal for the first time!

This has been a great year for me in terms of both reading and writing. At this point I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get any more work done on Follow the Raven before the New Year, but all things considered, I did really well at getting 95% of my rewrite done in 2017. (Thank you, NaNoWriMo!) And finally reaching my goal of reading 50 books in a year is an awesome accomplishment to add to my other amazing accomplishment. I'm feeling really good about how 2017 treated me in the realm of books. It's a perfect springboard to try something new next year for both reading and writing! (You'll hear more about that in my wrap-up.)

That said, I'm off to finish my reading goals. I'll be back on December 31 with my wrap-up for the month as well as the year, and I'll get to tell you about my grand bookish plans for 2018 as well. See you next time!

I Freaking Did It (November Book Wrap-Up)

I'm alive! This was yet another NaNoWriMo that was difficult for me (but in a good way) and left me not wanting to do anything for a couple of days. Thus, the late November book wrap-up. But we're here now, and I'm about 50% recovered, so let's get to it!

Writing
Last month I committed to sitting down and writing 50,000 words in 30 days, as I had done three years previous. Once again I emerged victorious and I beat my word count from the previous years, and for the first time ever, I finished NaNoWriMo but not the book I was working on. As it stands right now I estimate I only have a few thousand words left to finish the novel, but my biggest concern as of a few days ago was hitting 50k and validating before midnight on November 30, which I did. I won my fourth year in a row.

My chart above kind of speaks for itself; I started off the first couple of days strong, but then I fell behind and did not catch up again until the very last day when I won. I would say that the first half of the month went fairly well in terms of ease of writing, but as the month drew to a close and I was nearing the climax of the story I found it more and more difficult to sit down and write. I majorly changed the plot at least twice (something I can fix in January and February) and I was writing a lot of excess dialogue and description that I didn't necessarily need just to fill up my word count. And I still didn't finish the actual novel after all that, ironically. By the time it was the last few days of November I simply did not want to sit down and write. Not because I didn't want to write the story but because the deadline was stressing me out and I hated feeling pressured. But as with three years before I made it through and pulled it off in the end.

I think it's safe to say this NaNoWriMo was probably the hardest one I've done so far. The story I was writing was something I have wanted to rewrite for years but never had the discipline or desire to actually follow through with until this year - and even then I wasn't originally planning to write Follow the Raven for this year's NaNo, as you read in my last couple of wrap-ups. The story still isn't entirely figured out, but at least I have a much better feel for my characters than I did before since I opened up my mind a little and let them tell their own story rather than try to control everything myself. And of course, the stress of that deadline wasn't helping as I neared the end of November. But even though this was the hardest NaNo I've done thus far, I think it was also the most rewarding. I finally did something I've wanted to do for years. I only have a few thousand words left to finish my rewrite of Follow the Raven, rather than the daunting entire novel I was staring at a month ago at this time. I'm really proud of the winner's certificate I got this year. It is hanging proudly for all to see. I freaking did it, guys.

In unrelated and smaller news, I also released the prologue and first chapter of my newest Wattpad story, "The Dimension Keepers." It has been received extremely well so far, and I'm so, so excited to really get into this book and introduce a lot of neat things that I think hardcore fans of Sonic will really enjoy. Since we still don't know much about the Boom universe I've taken many creative liberties with this story. There are lots of references and alternate dimension theories coming soon, along with lots and lots of action. (This is a book about war, after all.) This book went live on November 17, and it already has 74 reads, 10 votes, and 5 comments. Crazy! I'm very excited to release more chapters this month and see what my readers think.

Reading
As November was primarily focused on writing, I did not get much reading done at all. Like, at all. There were a couple of days where I just felt really burnt out from writing and decided to read instead, which was refreshing, but ultimately I only managed to finish the two books I'd already started going into NaNoWriMo.

• Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico
• The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon

Too Many Ghosts was a book I picked up at the library from our sale/donation cart. At the time they had a bunch of older books on there and this was one of three that I picked up over the course of a couple of weeks. I started it in October because I figured it may be some kind of classic ghost story, and it was, in a sense. It took me forever to get through it because the writing was way different from the kind I'm used to reading in today's YA fiction (Too Many Ghosts was published in the 50s), but ultimately I really enjoyed it. The only part that really freaked me out was the beginning, when we didn't yet know it wasn't actually ghosts doing the things that scared everyone in the mansion. Other than that it was just an enjoyable, classic read.

The Silver Eyes, as I explained last month, is one of a couple of books based on the Five Nights at Freddy's game series that scared the crap out of me a couple of years ago when they first came out. I had hoped that the book would be just as scary if not more so, but there were only one or two parts in the entire almost 400 pages that really had me scared or creeped out. The rest was really bad writing that I ended up skimming through because I'm a nerd and I wanted my answers. A lot of my personal questions/theories were answered/confirmed, but now I'm on the fence about whether I want to read the second book as well. Time will tell.

Now that the insanity of National Novel Writing Month is over, I'm going to shift gears this month and focus primarily on reading. I am currently in the middle of two books - Psion and Everything, Everything - which you'll hear more about at the end of this month when I've finished them. GUYS. I am SO close to reaching my goal of 50 books this year. I've had this goal for the past three years and gotten really close the last two, but I seriously think I'm going to make it this time! Once I finish the two books I'm currently reading I'll be at 46/50. I'm so excited; I'm actually going to reach my goal of 50 this year. 2017 is the year! YES!

That said, I'm going to go read. Make sure to check back here at the end of December to see if I made it to 50, and to find out what I believe were the best books I read and/or discovered this year. See you next time!