December 2020 Monthly Wrap Up

Hello, my lovelies and welcome to my December 2020 monthly wrap up post.

What have I been up to this month?

We’re on school Christmas holidays at the moment. I’ve been enjoying being home with my family. Although Christmas Day and Boxing Day weren’t as festive as usual.

Coronavirus COVID-19 is still sweeping the globe and now we have a new strain to contend with. *sigh* Here in England, we were given a little more freedom over Christmas. Now it’s back to our new “normal” with a 4 tier system to try to reduce the contagion level of the virus. The good news is that vaccines are being distributed across the country. Although we’ll have to be patient to see the benefits.

I had my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for all the birthday wishes – you guys are lovely! 💜 Due to local COVID restrictions, we didn’t do anything BIG with our extended family. However, Hubby, myself and our two girls had a Chinese takeaway on Friday night. Saturday evening was yummy pizzas from Waitrose – caramelised onion and mascarpone for me. Plus, Hubby cooked my favourite dish for Sunday lunch – chicken in a creamy mushroom and garlic sauce. 😉

In bloggish news…

While I’m working through my old posts, I’m also making my reviews SEO friendly with the help of the Yoast SEO plugin. All this behind-the-scenes maintenance is time-consuming, so I apologise for my lack of communication and engagement with tags and memes. However, I’ll be all finished by the end of the year ready to start 2020 with a more efficient site.

While I’m making all these changes, please let me know if any pages, posts or links throughout Flora’s Musings either don’t open or you have problems with.

What have I been posting?

Now on with the rest of my December 2020 monthly wrap up post. Feel free to click on anything that you missed this month.

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I’ve been sharing a few bookish bits and bobs this month. 😉

• 31 Dec - December 2020 Monthly Wrap Up

I’ve also been ❤️ loving ❤️ the fun tags, mems and awards around the blogosphere by my fellow book bloggers. 😉

• 1 Dec - The 12 Days of Blogmas 2020 Day 1 #Blogmas2020 #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 3 Dec - Bookish Naughty or Nice Tag The 12 Days of Blogmas 2020 Day 2 #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 5 Dec - The 12 Days of Blogmas 2020 Day 3 – Christmas Book Covers #Blogmas2020 #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 7 Dec - 12 Days of Blogmas: Great Stocking Fillers under £10 #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 9 Dec - 12 Days of Blogmas: +20 Great Christmas Movies #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 11 Dec - The Festive Christmas Book Tag – 12 Days of Blogmas 2020 #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 13 Dec - 12 Days of Blogmas: My Perfect Birthday #Blogmas2020 #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 17 Dec - Dead to Begin With by Jennifer Blackstream ★★★★★
• 19 Dec - 12 Days of Blogmas: 12 Amazing Festive Songs #Blogmas2020 #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 21 Dec - The Ghost of Christmas Past by Angie Fox ★★★★★
• 23 Dec - 12 Days of Blogmas: Christmas Reads on my TBR #Blogmas2020 #ChristmasWithKtkinnes
• 24 Dec - Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award: Announcing the Winners in the BBNYA 2020
• 25 Dec - 12 Days of Blogmas: Happy Christmas To All My Followers #ChristmasWithKtkinnes

That’s it for my December 2020 Monthly Wrap Up. However, moving forward, what can you expect from me in January?

~ Coming up on Flora’s Musings ~

• Celebrating more New Book Releases.
• Hopefully some author interviews, cover reveals, book tours and spotlight posts.
• and of course, lots of book reviews!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I take part in the Goodreads Annual Reading Challenge but that’s not the only one I take part in. I thought that I’d use these regular wrap up posts to update you on my progress in all the challenges that I’m taking part in …

~ My Current Reading Challenges ~

My time has been spent on the behind-the-scenes admin for Flora’s Musings, therefore, I haven’t taken part in any new Goodreads group reading challenges. BUT. I signed up to two annual challenges this year outside of Goodreads. Bloody hell, what was I thinking!! 😂 🤦‍♀️ 😂

🎧 2020 Audiobook Challenge 🎧

I’ve been listening to more and more audiobooks each year, so decided to take advantage of my growing addiction interest. 😉 I certainly did better than I was expecting. Check out my final scores on the doors on My Audiobook Challenge 2020 page.

🏁 Finishing The Series Challenge 🏁

At the beginning of the year, I was lamenting over how many unfinished series were on my TBR pile. Therefore, I joined the Celebrity Readers’ challenge to help. I didn’t finish as many series as I was hoping to but I’ve made a considerable dent in the pile. 😉 Check it out on Finishing The Series Reading Challenge 2020 page.

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~ The ARCs Still On My Shelf ~

Like so many of you, I use my blog to review ARCs (Advanced or Early Reader Copy). Book, ebooks and audiobooks that I receive from authors or publishers. I’m registered on NetGalley and I’ve just signed up to BookSirens. Do any of you get books from BookSirens?

Check out my current ARCs calendar. I think my monthly commitments are looking good.

• Reviews due by 1st January 2021 – Dark Angel Discovered (released on 23rd October 2020) ~ Moonlit Surrender (released on 27th October 2020)
• January Releases ~ The Segonian (19th)
• February Releases ~ nothing yet!
• March Releases ~ nothing yet!
• April Releases ~ nothing yet!

Have you read any of these books? Drop me a comment and we’ll chat.

I’ve managed to stick to my ARC Requests Plan! Limiting myself to only requesting a couple per month and trying to ensure the release dates are spread out. My ARC TBR pile is now happily under control! 😇

Thank you to the wonderful authors, publishers, tour organisers, BookSirens and NetGalley. The opportunity you give me to read books and feed my addiction is more than appreciated! 😉

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I’ve been linking up to The Sunday Post which is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. Today, I’m also linking up to the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up co-hosted by the fabulous Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight.

(See rules here: Sunday Post Meme ¦ Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up)

Don’t forget to hop along to some of the other amazing blogs taking part in the Sunday Post and Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read my December 2020 monthly wrap up post.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, stay safe and healthy.

Bye for now.
Flora x