December Wrap Up & January TBR // 2023 is here! Work stress + holiday mood + I saw Seventeen again!!!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my final monthly wrap up of 2022 and my first TBR for 2023! 🥳

I can’t believe another year is here and 2022 has flew by! I’m honestly a bit sad about leaving 2022 behind since it has been an amazing year for me, professionally and personally. I felt like I had so much fun, but at the same time there were a lot of low moments too so it’s really been the highest highs and the lowest lows.

1. JADE FIRE GOLD by June CL Tan // 🌟🌟🌟🌟
2. QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS by Cassandra Clare // 🌟🌟🌟.5
3. WINTERWOOD by Shea Earnshaw // 🌟🌟

I was hoping to read some festive reads in December, but alas that didn’t happen 😅 I picked up Jade Fire Gold as I was in a a mood for more Asian stories after reading Last of the Talons. It wasn’t as exciting, but it fulfills my craving for some Asian-inspired story! Not that the book was bad, it just had a lot of expectations due to its initial marketing as “Zutara retellings” 😬 Then I finally finished QOAAD and with that, The Dark Artifices series. I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I last picked up the book??? Anyways it wasn’t as long and convoluted as I expected lol. I skipped a lot off Emma x Julian parts, but overall it was a great read. Then I was in the middle of reading Winterwood, which was atmospheric and perfect for the colder weather but emotionally flat. I finished it in 2023 and it didn’t really start my year well lol.

1. WINTERWOOD by Shea Earnshaw // 🌟🌟
2. THE NEAR WITCH by V.E Schwab
3. MY FAVORITE HALF-NIGHT STAND by Christina Lauren

As mentioned, I finished Winterwood in January and while it wasn’t the best, it got me craving more witchy and atmospheric story that I picked up The Near Witch. I am also in the mood for fun romance so I was debating between The Spanish Love Deception and My Favorite Half-Night Stand. I ended up picking the latter, mainly due to the page count (😂) but also it feels like tradition to read Christina Lauren in January??? It was an accidental tradition though, beginning with The Unhoneymooners in 2021 and In A Holidaze in 2022, but nonetheless made me excited to read another book by the author this month!

• Caro @ Book Cheshire Cat shares favorite shows she watched in 2022 and her least favorite books of 2022
• Kal @ Reader Voracious initiates Project Backlist to tackles our owned TBR in 2023
• Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books reviewed Eight Nights of Flirting by Hannah Reynolds which sounds sooo adorable!
• Belle @ This Belle Reads Too reviewed Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao and also 2022 Asian releases still on her TBR
• Maddie @ Inking & Thinking shares 23 books releases she’s excited to read in 2023

I didn’t do a lot of blog hopping in December and it was truly mostly wrap ups and lists, but above are some of the posts I really enjoyed!

December was a rollercoaster of emotions: I was relieved it was my last month of work, stressed because of grad school applications, sadness for leaving my friends and moving back home, and finally, elation because I got to see my favorite band and Seventeen again!

Let’s start with work first. December was my last month of work and I was both done and tired 😂 There was just so much work to do, plus the handover documents to finish. This includes organizing all the files I have collected. I am an organized-chaos type of person, so despite the chaos I do have a system and know where to find things. But it doesn’t work for everyone right so I’m trying to make my friend’s life easier by making the files organized-tidy as much as possible 😂

It was bittersweet leaving work, because I truly LOVED what I was doing and my colleagues. It truly felt like a family. I also love my life there and actually dreaded the traffic that will welcome me back, but alas it was time to go. As much as I love it, it was harder to change management rather than colleagues or workflow 🤷‍♀️ The packing and moving process weren’t as hectic as I expected it to be since I was going back early January for a trip with my sister and attending a friend’s wedding. I still had to drag around 20kgs of stuff around the airport alone, but at least it was painless 😂

On the good news, I attended two concerts in December. The first one has been long on my bucket list, which is to see one of my favorite band, Noah, live. If you live in Malaysia or Singapore you might’ve been familiar with Peterpan/Noah (I am not sure how popular he is across Asia) and I grew up listening to their songs, so it was an experience™. Not only because it was really fun and I knew 100% of his songs, but because of the fact he sung 15 songs in 1.5 hours 💀 We were all dying in the audience and yet his energy remains 100% 🔥😂 It’s truly worth it though, since his voice is EXACTLY the same as recording. Then we proceeded to hung out at mcdonalds until 2 AM since we were famished. It was super fun but exhausting, if it’s any indication I slept for 10 hours afterwards.

Then! I! Got! To! See! Seventeen! Again!!! 😭 It was a pleasant surprise really, since initially I wasn’t allowed to go but I purchased the tickets anyway 😅 But yeah, got to see them safe and sound on the tribune section so despite the pouring rain, I was quite warm and comfortable on my seats. Despite the same setlist, the experience was still amazing! I didn’t regret watching them again at all as it felt familiar but also exciting in a new way. Also we did Aju Nice 12x 💀 The venue was muddy, but I got to admit the outdoor venue was really cool. I feel bad that they had to perform and the audience had to watch under a downpour, but the footage and the memory from that day were legendary. I mean, I knew the rain was bad but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I saw this footage:

221228 BE THE SUN in Jakarta
the real definition of dancing in the rain 😭#BETHESUNinJKT pic.twitter.com/qwDdbAHgKp

— ㅇ ㅌ ㅇ 🍇 (@yeolmae9) December 28, 2022

It was funny how many carats had to put their phone on service due to the rain (many of them ditch the plastic covers since it ruins the footage 💀) and the phone service places knew immediately that they just attended SVT concert, due to the sheer number of people with wet phones 😂🙈

I honestly only posted once in December, which was my November wrap up and December TBR 🙈 I had so many plans but December proved to be such a hectic month with handover, packing, and lots of travelling. I will be posting a lot of overdue reviews and end-of-year posts soon, so stay tuned!

How was the end of year for you?

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