My December book hauls are always unpredictable, not necessarily because it’s Christmas and I would get lots of bookish surprises (I usually only get books I explicitly wish for) but rather because I tend to panic buying books before the year ends so that I can at least try to stick to New Year’s resolutions without having to fail in the first weeks already 😀

This year I feel like I have nothing to be ashamed of though. I got a few books for Christmas and spent my last Audible credits of the year but otherwise I mostly got a few review copies and some free eBooks and didn’t buy a single physical book by myself this month which is quite a success for me 😀

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne: I saved this book up for my Christmas wishlist right when it came out because I didn’t want to spend 20€ on a theater play script but was still curious about the new story, so I’m glad my sister gave it to me.
• Lügennest („Broken Promise“) – Linwood Barclay: I love mysteries that are set in small towns like Twin Peaks or Wayward Pines, so I couldn’t resist giving Linwood Barclay’s Promise Falls trilogy a try and got it from my parents this Christmas
• Liar Liar – M.J. Arlidge: This book I got from Nicole who was my bookish Secret Santa this year and while I still need to read the 3rd book in the Helen Grace series I’m happy that I’ll be able to binge books 3 and 4 back to back now.
• Lost and Gone Forever – Alex Grecian: I must have been very nice in the past year since my Secret Santa even got me a second book for Christmas and now I can’t wait to read the new Murder Squad mystery (hopefully soon)!

• A Simple Favor – Darcey Bell: I was very surprised to get a review copy of this psychological thriller from HarperCollins Germany, especially because it’s not a finished copy but still a script and I find it pretty exciting to get to read a yet unpublished book in such an early state.
• Das Walmesser – C.R. Neilson: As you might have noticed I kinda have a thing for Nordic crime novels and when I found out that there would be a murder mystery set on the Faeroe Islands I just couldn’t resist because I’ve never seen this small tiny country being represented in a book before.
• Ohne Ausweg – Kathrin Lange: In December a new book in the Faris Iskander series came out and since I really enjoyed the first two novels about a special unit focused on religious crimes in Berlin I was happy to get a review copy from the publisher.

• Killer Instinct, All In & The Fixer – Jennifer Lynn Barnes: I read Barnes‘ „The Naturals“, a YA thriller about a „Criminal Minds“-like teenage FBI unit, a few weeks ago and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, so I got the second and third book in this series right away along with the first book of the Fixer duology written by the same author.
• The Other Side of Eve – Paul Ikin: I only learned about this book because the author started following me on Twitter (successful marketing move, I’d say) and when I looked up his book I was stunned by how pretty it was („pretty“ is a little understatement because OH MY GOD,  JUST LOOK AT IT) and since 30€ for a hardcover is a lot of money I was glad to see that the author was a giving away the eBook for free in December so that I could read it before having to decide if I really want need a finished copy.
• The Dark Side – Anthony O’Neill: This science fiction thriller is being advertised as „for fans of The Martian and Quentin Tarantino“, so do I need to say anything else?
• Carved in Bone – Jefferson Bass: I hadn’t heard of this thriller series until I read a review on Nelly’s blog and since it’s being compared to Simon Beckett’s David Hunter series and is also set on the famous Body Farm in Tennessee I definitely want to give it a try.
• Totenfang – Simon Beckett: Talking about the David Hunter thrillers: Germany was lucky to get the 5th book of the series before it is published in other countries in 2017 and since I’ve now finally caught up on the four previous novels I got the audiobook of the new one and want to start it soon(ish).
• Herr aller Dinge („Lord of All Things“) – Andreas Eschbach: Since reading his fantastic time travel story „Das Jesus-Video“ I’ve been a big fan of Andreas Eschbach and enjoyed all the books I’ve read by him so far but didn’t manage to get to this one yet. I have actually no idea what it’s about but it got very high ratings so I’m almost sure it won’t disappoint me.
• Ich finde dich („Six Years“) – Harlan Coben: Harlan Coben is one of my all-time most-read authors and while I’m waiting for a new book in the Myron Bolitar series to be released I’m trying to catch up on his many standalone novels.
• Todestrank – A.J. Kazinski: I enjoyed the first two books in the Niels Bentzon crime series for their rather unusual and quite thought-provoking mystery stories and since the audiobooks are narrated by my favorite German narrator this was definitely an auto-buy.
• Kill your friends – John Niven: John Niven’s books (and tweets) always crack me up with their rude and politically incorrect humor and „Kill your friends“ is one of only two books I haven’t read by him yet – not for long since I now finally have the audiobook to listen to.

Did you already read any of these books?
Which books did you get in December and did you have a bookish Christmas?