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The Quiet Hours: A Slow Start to the Year
Hello, friends. I’m writing this on a quiet, January morning. The final moments of last year have now slipped away. Outside, there is a sprinkling of frost on the ground, a chill in the air, but the sky overhead is cloudless. In the bare tree outside, birds are singing. The world is muted, as if it’s still deciding whether it wants to wake up. I’ve poured beans into the coffee machine and brewed a fresh cup, wrapped myself up in a soft blanket. I too, am still sleepy, but it’s a satisyfing lull. Before I can start looking at emails and to-do lists, taking down the tree and returning to…
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My Top 10 Books of 2025
Hello wonderful, bookish friends and welcome to the first day of 2026. As a new year starts, I think this is the perfect time to reflect on the books that have stayed with me throughout 2025. This past year was a year of discoveries and slow, thoughtful reading and I found so many reads that invited me in to linger in new worlds. This list is my top ten reads of 2025, the books I couldn’t stop thinking about long after I turned the final page, and the ones I kept recommending to friends. So please, dear reader, pour yourself a warm cup of coffee, settle into a comfy spot,…
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Wishlist Wednesday- Throne of Nightmares
coffeestarsbooks November 25, 2025 10:02 am Throne of Nightmares Release date: 10th Feb 2026 Publisher: Little Brown Genres: Fantasy ⊹ ⋆ Romantasy ⊹ ⋆ Add to Storygraph Add to Goodreads Join the conversation: Bluesky Instagram Twitch Discord Synopsis: A prince who prefers games of the head to those of the heart. Prince Sloth hates leaving his enchanted library, but when a forgotten deity threatens the very fabric of the Underworld, he’s thrust into a race against time. He must find the Book of Nightmares – an ancient artifact that has the power to break worlds – before it unleashes a deadly game to free its master, the Goddess of Night. When…
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December 2025 Hopefuls
coffeestarsbooks November 24, 2025 6:03 pm Hello friends and fellow bookworms. Here we are again, nearing the end of the year, and I’ve found myself quite far behind my yearly reading goal. So this month we’re hoping to do a lot of reading, though there’s a few very long books on this list, so it definitely feels like a challenge. Perhaps this will wind up being too ambitious, but I want to try. Empire of Dawn I feel like I need to get to this one soon, even though it, like all the books in this series, is quite long. I’m not sure if I’m ready for the end of…
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November 2025 – Haul and Wrap Up
coffeestarsbooks November 24, 2025 5:13 pm Hello friends and fellow bookworms, and welcome to my November haul and wrap-up. It’s been a quieter month on the reading front- life has been busy and I’ve been splitting my free time between books and a little gaming (League of Legends, Anno 117, Pokemon and the new Disney Dreamlight Valley expansion if you’re curious). Even so, while I haven’t read much, I’ve managed to bring home a few new books to add to my shelves, and I’m excited to share them with you here. What I Read This Month: The Starving Saints Started reading: 28th October Finished reading: 16th November I’ve been interested…
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The Moss & Ink Society: November 2025 Prompt
Welcome, friends, to the inaugural gathering of the Moss & Ink Society. Each month, this space will offer a prompt- something atmospheric and aesthetic- for those who want a gentle nudge toward books that match a particular mood, image, or theme, rather than a strict reading challenge or a pre-selected “book club” book. For November, our prompt is Forestcore: damp moss and rot, mushrooms and evergreens. In the darkest part of the forest, you never know who (or what) might be watching. If you want to participate, you’re welcome to choose any book that evokes this mood, whether through setting, tone, or just the feeling the book gives you. Below,…
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Wishlist Wednesday- Innamorata
coffeestarsbooks November 24, 2025 1:55 pm Innamorata Release date: 17th March 2026 Publisher: Del Rey Genres: Dark Academia ⊹ ⋆ Gothic ⊹ ⋆ Fantasy ⊹ ⋆ Romantasy ⊹ ⋆ Add to Storygraph Add to Goodreads Join the conversation: Bluesky Instagram Twitch Discord Synopsis: Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy. A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their eldritch magic. But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: beautiful Marozia, the heiress to the House, and her cousin, the uncanny…
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June 2025 Hopefuls
coffeestarsbooks June 2, 2025 8:57 pm Now that we’re a few days into June, I wanted to share what I’m hoping to read this month! It’s always hard sticking to these kinds of lists as a certified mood reader, but I have gotten a bit better over recent years with reading books almost as soon as I’ve bought them, so I’m hoping any planned purchases will just wind up in this list too. This month I’ve tried not to be too ambitious- I’ve got a lot going on in my personal life, from my parents visiting for a weekend to my ADHD assessment finally taking place after many long months…
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Wishlist Wednesday- Hazelthorn
coffeestarsbooks June 3, 2025 3:55 pm Hazelthorn Release date: 28th October 2025 Publisher: Feiwel & Friends Genres: YA fantasy ⊹ ⋆ Gothic ⊹ ⋆ YA Horror ⊹ ⋆ YA LGBTQ+ ⊹ ⋆ Add to Storygraph Add to Goodreads Join the conversation: Bluesky Instagram Twitch Discord Synopsis: Evander has lived like a ghost in the forgotten corners of the Hazelthorn estate ever since he was taken in by his reclusive billionaire guardian, Byron Lennox-Hall, when he was a child. For his safety, Evander has been given three ironclad rules to follow: He can never leave the estate. He can never go into the gardens. And most importantly, he can never again…
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May 2025 Haul and Wrap Up
coffeestarsbooks June 2, 2025 2:24 pm Hi there friends and fellow bookworms. I hope the first few days of June are treating you well! Now that we’re heading into a new month, I thought I’d share my wrap up and a small May bookhaul with you all. May was a surprisingly good month for me for reading. I’ve been in an incredibly long reading slump, and my ability to read quickly has sort of disappeared, so it was nice to feel excited about books again this month. I’m not sure how it’ll be heading into June- we’ve got the Nintendo Switch 2 coming in a few days and I definitely…
