Words of December || Wrap-up

I had such a good year and then December messed it up.

I usually start my December wrap-ups reminiscing about the year and talking about how I'm reflecting and planning for the next. Not this year. I'm taking it one day at a time. It's also pushed me to implement a few changes that have been on my mind.

Grab a drink and settle down, I have a few things to rant about.

books

I read 15 books in December and most of them were not good. Intentionally. I was in a shitty mood in the second half of December, enough that I wanted to be angry at books instead of being angry at myself. I don't want to write about the bad books so I'll split this month's reading in two categories—books that deserve a paragraph and books that don't. I won't write about rereads, as usual.

Starting with the good:

Out of Options by Jillian West. I didn't expect this to be good but it had enough hurt/comfort elements with really sweet characters. I couldn't help but like it by the end. I'm still not a fan of Omegaverse and I find the tropes repetitive but this one was cute.

Texting Dr. Stalker by Pepper Winters. This book's tagline is "a green-flag stalker romance". Green-flag?! I was too intrigued to pass it up. I fully expected this to be bad but it was actually good. I kept waiting to figure out something that would make it red-flag but by the end, I actually agreed with the green-flag statement! I honestly didn't care much about the characters or the romance. I was purely there for how the author toed the line of green-flag vs red-flag.

Let's Talk Money by Monika Halan. This was the only non-romance book of the month. I looked for beginner books on Indian finance and found this. It was really helpful. I understood so much and I feel more confident about Indian finance. I'm nowhere researched or close to an expert but this was a good starting point. It was one of my best books of 2025.

Coming to the okay and the bad:

• One Moment Please by Amy Daws. Started my bad books torture with this one. Great pick. I do not recommend it unless you want to hate the book you read.
• A Lady Awakened by Cecelia Grant. This was actually not bad but not good either. It was boring and predictable. I couldn't even be mad at it so it's in the "bad" pile.
• Hans by S.J. Tilly. I don't even know what to say about this. It was sufficiently entertaining, though.
• Sunshine's Grump by Merri Bright. I was annoyed this throughout the book. Hated the Alpha-Omega thing. Unfortunately couldn't hate it enough to take my mind off things.
• Dr. Stanton by T.L. Swan. Now, this is a great book to be mad at. I rate it -5/5 (minus 5). It is 619 pages of nonsense. It was so bad. I hated the characters.
• Dr. Stanton's The Epilogue by T.L. Swan. Since I hated the book so nicely, I read the epilogue novella. This was bad too. Bad enough to pull me out of my funk, actually.
• Big Bossy Mistake by Lillian Monroe. I was hopeful for a good read but this was disappointing. This had good elements but. Nah.
• In Case You Didn't Know by Carrie Elks. This had potential. There was some specific thing I didn't like, though. I don't remember. Meh.
• Hidden Waters by Catherine Cowles. The author has gotten better since writing this book. I will stick to the latest books.

As you can tell, not a great way to end the reading year. I was just not doing well outside of reading and was lowkey taking my anger out by picking up shitty books for the last 2 weeks. I reread 3 old favourites in the last to try to make up for it. At least I didn't enter 2026 annoyed with myself for ruining reading too.

blogging

I managed to keep up with the planned schedule. It was actually harder than expected. I changed the topic of a blog post because I didn't have the time to write what I initially wanted to write about. I barely managed to write every weekend.

Although I aimed to loosen up on blogging, I wanted to end 2025 with 50 posts. It was one of my only goals for the year. I won't be attempting it again for at least a year so I wanted to get to the finish line. I was so close. And I did it! It took me quite a bit of effort to reach the finish line because of how I was feeling otherwise and I'm proud of myself for seeing it through.

In case you missed any, these were the December posts:

• Words of November
• Japan 2025 Trip Haul
• Castaway Diva Kdrama Review
• My 2025 Favourites || Clothing, Home, Tech
• My Best Books of 2025

As I've mentioned a couple of times in previous wrap-ups, I will be taking 2026 one blog post at a time, based on my energy levels and mood. I haven't mapped out when I want to post or what I want to post. Maybe I'll write every weekend or only once a month.

I have ideas. I have a few things that I want to write about. I have at least a couple in my mind right now. When they will actually be written is up in the air.

It's funny that I'm welcoming to 10th (!!) blogging anniversary with this mindset. I am not planning to write a specific post for the blogversary yet. I don't have any ideas for it yet and figuring one out is not really a priority.

There's so much on my mind about the blog and newsletter, in the limited time I give to it. It's not refined and I don't know what I exactly want to do yet other than take a step back. We'll see. I'll probably write fairly often because it's become a habit now but I want to not think about it too much.

content consumed

Blog Posts

• Michelle wrote about A day at Bodleian Library and the Treasured exhibition.
• Hannah shared her 2025 stationary faves.
• 24hr YA Book Blog created a Book Blogger Challenge for 2026.
• Caro announced the Out of Comfort Zone Reading Challenge for 2026.
• PagesUnbound discussed book blog promotion.
• Vaish wrote about her journey doing the 52 book club challenge in 2025.

Movies

I'm not one to watch a lot of movies but a friend visited me for a few days and we watched a couple together.

• Mona Lisa Smile. This was good. Got mad at a few things and later realised I was wrong. The movie showed the point well.
• Good Will Hunting. This was okay.

TV Shows

• Finished Dynamite Kiss. I waited until the last 6 eps came out to binge them. It was really annoying me and I'm glad I waited. The drama was not cohesive and just randomly did things.
• Rewatched What's Wrong with Secretary Kim. It's a comfort show for me.
• Rewatched Castaway Diva because I didn't want to try new Kdramas again and get disappointed. Wrote a review on it.
• Rewatched Still 17 with the excuse that I'd finally write a review on it. Didn't but enjoyed it as usual. It's my ultimate comfort Kdrama.
• Rewatched Lovely Runner.
• Started binge-watching Manifest, my first English TV show in a long time. Watched until almost the end of 2nd season in the last 2 days on 2025. Interesting concept and I was glad that it's fast-paced enough to take my mind off things.

life

The month was so long that I can't believe it started with the tail-end of a vacation.

December began in Amboli. My friends and I decided to extend our Goa trip by a couple of days to check out Amboli, a hill station at the border of Goa and Maharashtra. It was a quaint little town.

My main goal for December was to do my annual health checkup. I honestly haven't checked in 5 years but my new job sponsors it and the 2025 quota ends in December. So I did that. The results did not look good. I'm working with a doctor and taking medication now.

I'm not sharing specifics here because I'm conscious about what I share online. This blog post will be public for everyone to read. I shared everything about my health issues 6 years and I wasn't happy about the decision later on, so I'm sticking to writing an overview here. If you're a friend I talk to via text/email, you'll most likely hear more about it soon.

Quick update on my paint-by-numbers tiny project, I finally finished it! It took a few months and I took a long break at the end but I'm finally done and it looks SO GOOD. Although the idea is not technically, I'm really proud of it because of the time and effort it took. I'm planning to frame and display it somewhere at home.

One of my best friends visited me for 4 days at the end of December and it was the highlight of my month. I was feeling so lonely and dejected, being away from my people. It meant a lot that she came here for a bit. I showed her my favourite spots (so far) in this city and we spent a lot of time talking. I felt even so sad when she left.

December was also my birthday month. I didn't do anything special for my birthday. My mood was not good and the fact it was my birthday somehow made it worse. I'm going to pretend it didn't happen.

Took the day off on 31st to stay at home and started a new tiny project which I got as a birthday gift. It was lowkey and exactly what I needed.

chat with me

I just realised I didn't wish you yet. Happy new year! I wish you a joyful and peaceful year ✨

How was your December? What are you looking forward to in January? Are you switching anything up?