 We’ve closed the book on December and 2025. Now, we turn the first page of 2026, looking ahead at what’s in store as we say ‘Hello!’ to January and all the exciting things to come! December, as expected, was a quiet month for content due to all the festivities going into Christmas and New Years. Work was busy, I was busy, weekends were full of events and such… However, there are still things we can wrap up, as well as a look back on everything that’s happened this year. So, let’s dive right in!  December 2025 saw three book reviews published, including a throwback book review on an incredibly profound book I read back in 2018, as well as the series review for Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas! You can read the full reviews by clicking on the links below:
Both the throwback book review and the series review were also recorded as videos and published on the TaleInferno YouTube channel:
Again, no standalone blogs or vlogs, but work is being done to have this going in 2026! The story analysis of the Dragon Age series also continued, with two more episodes published to the TaleInferno YouTube Channel as we continue the journey in Dragon Age: Origins. You can find links to them below:
I’m really looking forward to continuing this in 2026, as well as jumping into more games to analyse more incredible stories. I’ll go into this more later in this wrap up!  I’m pretty happy with completing two books this month, each falling within the fantasy/romantasy genre. The first book I finished reading was For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn. This is the first book in the Hell’s Belles series, and I’m unsure how many books will come into this series. I gave it a 3.25/5 rating. It’s a book that I thought took on the concept of death and the afterlife very uniquely, and I enjoyed the premise of the storyline. Definitely not a book for the young eyeballs, with some scenes… damn, romantasy lovers are well-treated in this one. I also got myself the second book in the Fae & Alchemy series by Callie Hart this month: Brimstone. So, once I finished For Whom the Belle Tolls, I jumped right into it. And, very happily finished it. Just like For Whom the Belle Tolls, I gave this book a 3.25/5 rating. This was a really good follow up to Quicksilver, and I enjoyed the inclusion of the omniscient narrator, being gifted with two points of view in this instalment. All in all, a nice way to get through December by completing these two enjoyable romantasy books. And now I’m finally getting myself into Alchemised by SenLinYu, which is lining up to be my first book to finish in 2026!  In 2025, I completed 24 books. I really wish it could’ve been 25 books in 2025 to make it sound cool, but I didn’t quite get there! You may have already seen the list on social media, but here’s the list including a collage of all the books from my StoryGraph 2025 wrap up. I’ve also included my ratings from StoryGraph, so you can see how these stacked up for me. 
 If you followed along on social media, you would have seen me open a book from the Book Grocer's Fiction Book Advent Calendar each day in December. This was so much fun, and the plethora of books I now have are all going to be on my list to read in 2026. So, in case you missed it, here are the books I got in December as part of this advent calendar, listed in the order I opened them.
I’m looking forward to working my way through each of these in 2026, and I’m hopeful I can get through all of them. I will note I may not read them in this order, but we’ll see—It might help keep me on track. I also have a bunch of other books I have received as gifts and purchased from authors at conventions earlier this year as well that I also want to get through in 2026… Looks like I’m going to be pretty busy, and I can’t wait to go on this journey with you all!  Now that the festivities of Christmas and New Year’s are all done, we should see a return to some level of regularity of content in January.
After getting the book review out for Fourth Wing at the end of December, I will be publishing the reviews for the next two books in The Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros this month: Iron Flame and Onyx Storm. I don't think I’ll follow that up with a series review, noting that the series isn’t finished yet! With that in mind, I may hold off on doing this until we get to the conclusion of the series, so something to look forward to in … however long it takes! After Onyx Storm will be the reviews for the books that make up the Black Death duology by Minette Walters: The Last Hours and The Turn of Midnight. Will I be able to fit in both these reviews in January? Guess we’ll wait and see! And, for those who have been enjoying my throwback book reviews, I may sneak one or two of these in this month if I have the time. Our story analysis journey in Dragon Age: Origins will continue in January, with Episode 10 already available on the YouTube channel! A nice little way to kick off the new year. On that note, I do plan on trying to jump into another game as well this month to do a dual first-time playthrough AND story analysis combined, so make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel so you don’t miss it! January will also be the month that I’ll get a blog/vlog or two out, which will be 101’s on some basic skills in writing, namely the use of some punctuation. So, if you’re looking to level up your skills and knowledge in this space, keep an eye out for this. You may have also seen a reel I published on social media on my ‘first impression’ on the book I had started reading: Alchemised by SenLinYu. This is something new I thought I’d try, so I could share with you my first impressions before heading into a book, and then once I’m done I’ll come back on with a raw, unfiltered response to how I feel after finishing the book. With how I’m tracking with Alchemised, I should be getting my ‘after’ feelings on social media sooner rather than later. And, with how it’s been going so far, I have a feeling it’s going to be emotional (and hopefully the happy variety, but I somehow just can’t see this happening with how things are going right now). But what’s coming out in 2026 in general? Well, a lot. Or, I should say, hopefully a lot. I’ve got a huge ‘to be read’ list for 2026, which means my list of books to review on TaleInferno is going to continue to grow, with 12 that I read back in 2024 also on that list. Let’s just say, I’ve got plenty of content to get through just with books, let alone everything else. What do I mean by everything else? Well, obviously there are the videogames I’d really like to play and deep dive into the stories on this channel. I absolutely adore the Dragon Age series, and look forward to getting into Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. However, there’s also so many other games I love that I want to revisit like I’m doing with Dragon Age, such as the Mass Effect series, the Assassin’s Creed series and the first Red Dead Redemption, to name a few. And there’s also a lot of games I haven’t played at all, or started playing but never finished, that I also want to jump into. This includes Outer Worlds, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Red Dead Redemption 2, and so many more. Outside of gaming, there’s also the throwback book reviews I’ve got in my pocket. There’s a number of books I reviewed on the previous TaleInferno I know I won’t go back to, but I still want to give them their time to shine. And then there’s the blogs and vlogs on writing, linguistics, and a whole lot more… let’s just say, I’m so excited about what’s in store for 2026, and I can’t wait to share it all with you and ignite the story together. So, if you want to keep up to date with what’s happening on TaleInferno this year, follow on social media, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and check out TaleInferno on The StoryGraph and Goodreads: Until next time, seeya!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorCharlotte is a lover of all thing’s related to storytelling. When she’s not working, you can find her buried in a book or spending too much time completing side quests in videogames rather than focussing on the main story. Archives
January 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed