IT'S OFFICIAL, FOLKS! We have only 7 days until Kathy Coopmans latest, The Right Direction, is released. In honor of that, please allow me to squeal about it--the final countdown is here for the official release. I REPEAT: SEVEN MORE DAYS.

Are you ready? To learn more about the novel, follow the cut.

And just like that, November is nearly gone...

The last few weeks, I have been feeling rather bittersweet about where the time has gone. It's merely a symptom of being me--I often think of how quickly life passes us by. Soon enough, the year will be over. In between sessions of re-watching The Tudors and Victoria, and seeing friends, and preparing for the holidays, I have been trying to knock a few dozen more books off my TBR pile from this year.

Which is great! Because this week's topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted, as always, by The Broke and the Bookish--read about it here) is all about the TBR pile! In addition to the TBR stack, I tend to reread various favourites during the winter months--Wuthering Heights, Harry Potter, The Infernal Devices, The Hunger Games, Addicted/Calloway Sisters, etc.

Winter is the time of the year where many of us stay indoors for a good chunk of time. I seem to get some of my best reading done when the weather outside is... well, frightful. I have many books that I would like to read before the winter is over, so I narrowed it down to the books I want to finish by the end of the year--the first big chunk of winter.

Let's do this!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | Rating: ★★★★★

We are all someone's monster.

First, you should know that I am severely hungover from this book and its final pages and I need to get my hands on the second one immediately. A-ha! Just kidding, I have it right next to me and I am going to dive into it literally the second after I finish my review for Six of Crows. So. What to say, what to say, what to say? Where to begin? Besides, "No mourners..." Let me just take a moment to praise Leigh Bardugo's ever evolving Grisha Verse. I could go on and on about how luscious and darkly intriguing Bardugo's world is but the fact of the matter is that no words can do it, or the author, justice.

There's so much depth in the way that Bardugo has gone on to develop the world we met originally in Shadow and Bone. Although Six of Crows is set in the very same world, and readers will be happy to spot various references to favourite characters of the past, it is undeniably a story of its own. Everything about Six of Crows was frantic heartbeats and tense curiosity. Think: the thrilling fantasy of Grisha Verse, the original trilogy's magical twists of smoke, all of that world building and romance and intrigue, mixed with a cast of new characters who are fleshed out beautifully. Add in a sprinkle of a high-stakes heist that all but spells disaster from the very beginning and you have the formula for one of the best YA fantasy novels, ever.

Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy by Various Authors, Edited by Ameriie | Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)

Firstly, I have to say how exhausting it was to see some responses to the prompts in this collection being provided by the very admirable and very hard working Booktube community. I can see a lot of unfavorable comments to them, which is entirely unwarranted, and I just have to say: everyone who has been spending their time since Because You Love to Hate Me was announced, all the way to its recent publication, just slamming the mere presence of Booktubers in the collection, I am ashamed of you. There's no reason to be so tacky and mean spirited. Unless you are striving to have a book written about your rudeness. Perhaps the next topic should be about judgmental internet trolls--now that's an anthology I'd get behind just as easily. Can some-one make that happen? Pretty please?

As for the collection itself, I really enjoyed most of the stories from Because You Love to Hate Me. In all its delectable, villainy glory--from the wide range of unforgettable talent and the contributions brought forward by some of the most prominent book vloggers of the last decade, there was a little something for everyone. Certainly, there were some flaws--a few duds in terms of short stories--but for the most part, I had a little difficulty in putting the book down for even lunch. The way the stories each flowed and tangled themselves in your mind caused a massive (!!!!!) addiction on my part and I had a blast just reading it!

On the seventh (!!!!!!!!!!!!) week of Shadowhunters celebration and madness, Cassandra Clare gave to me: Seven (hundred?) fictional characters to obsess over, six books to CRY ON, five seconds of sanity (!), four... yeah, I actually can't finish this.

I was like, "Hey. Let's try and be witty today, Jessica, shall we?" but turns out I suck at this. Now, I can feel your judgment through the laptop. It's okay, though. We made it through this together and now you guys have something to blackmail me with. It's all in good fun. Real talk, though, can you believe it's week seven in Ten Years of City of Bones? I can't.

Lovers Like Us by Krista & Becca Ritchie | Rating: ★★★★★

"His satisfied smile stretches from cheek-to-cheek. Somewhere in some alternate universe, I'm a philosopher writing dissertations on that fucking smile. And its sheer effect on me." 

I'm not crying, you're crying. There's nothing like a good book to really kick you in the gut and then proceed to snuggle you afterward. Lovers Like Us is another display at how brilliant Krista and Becca Ritchie are when it comes to crafting a series of characters so real, they may as well be your best friends. It's the same feeling we got while reading Addicted and Calloway Sisters. Nothing can beat that emotion.

Picking up quite quickly after the strained events of the first installment, Damaged Like Us, we pick right back up on the romance between Maximoff Hale and Farrow Keene. As always, their chemistry is sizzling; their banter high paced and fun, their love for one another strong as love can be. If you haven't found yourself shipping these two yet, you will soon. This is their story--and it's beautiful, full of trust and flat out steamy. You can literally feel the pull as you read their interactions and I adore it. As always, the romance is out of this world.

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins | Rating: ★★★★☆

The very first thing (the most important thing, really) you should know about There's Someone Inside Your House is that its entire storyline is a mix of genres. At its core, it's very much so a typical Stephanie Perkins novel--with a lot of thrills, chills and twists sprinkled in for good measure.

This seems to be some level of confusion or distress for some readers, due in part to the way it was marketed (as a full on slasher novel) and the manner in which we--as readers--take upon ourselves to build up an image of what we believe the story will be before picking it up. At the end of the day, this is what brings in the disappointment afterwards... our inability to understand that a story isn't always our first impression of it.

Truth is: in There's Someone Inside Your House, Perkins pens a wickedly delicious thriller, slashed deeply with romance, wit and lovable characters. The novel itself is exactly how you might picture a horror novel by her to be--and I found it thoroughly entertaining. So, no. In my eyes, it didn't feel quite as frustrating for me as many other readers have seemed to say. There's Someone Inside Your House is not a full-blown horror novel but it still twists the reader in their seat from suspense and is far from a letdown.