Every year, Spotify does their Wrapped summaries at the beginning of December, telling their users what songs and artists they listened to the most, along with other interesting listeners facts. They do the same for the artists, telling them their most popular songs, and where the majority of their listeners are from. This year, I saw authors and readers doing the same sort of thing, but about books. I found the template they used on Canva, and decided to make one for myself. So, if you didn't see my Wrapped on social media, here it is. Though I've added a few more tidbits here. Enjoy!

Above are my goals for 2024, none of which I accomplished. With Left On Earth, I contemplated over and over whether to make it a novella or a short story. And I wrote it as both throughout the year. In the end, I decided to make it a longer short story, but I still have a lot of writing to do for it. I plan to continue working on that story this year. With 3 Secrets, I did get some more words into the story, but it is not finished yet. I hope to finish it this year. I did work on the plot for 2 Fans, but only the first half. Not sure if I'll get to that story this year.

Though I didn't accomplish the goals I set at the beginning of 2024, I did have two book releases, and write a total of 84,415 words that doesn't include the words I removed during edits. Those words were between Once Upon a Dance Club Wish, Lion's Crossing, and my three works in progress I mention below.

2024 releases:
Fox Trapped (Shifter Towers book seven)
Once Upon a Dance Club Wish (City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams book one)

Coming in 2025:
Lion's Crossing (Shifter Towers book eight) - will be available for pre-order soon
Plus more to come!

My current works in progress are:
1. City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams book two
2. Romance Tales from the Quadrants book two (working title 3 Secrets)
3. Dystopian short story (working title Left On Earth)

I also asked for the rights back to four of my older stories. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but didn't know if I would have the time to revise/rewrite them and republish them. But it is my goal to work on them this year along with my other WIPs.

Authors are not only supposed to write, but they're supposed to read, too. In 2024, it was not only my goal to write more, but also to read more. I'm a slow reader, so I set a goal of 24 books for the year. Two a month. In 2024, i surpassed that goal, reading 31 books. There were many I started but did not finish. Because I'm a slow reader, I don't have time to push through books that don't intrigue me. I never mention these books or review them, as they simply weren't meant for me. But I did read a lot of great books, the longest one being 448 pages, and the second longest at 447 pages. Plus, I tried the Fold Reading Challenge to diversity my reading. It was a great way to find many new authors and read from a variety of settings, cultures, and view points. There is another Fold Reading Challenge this year, which looks fabulous! I will not being doing it, as I already have a diverse collection of books waiting on my physical and digital bookshelves for me to read. So, my goal this year is to get through them. I'm hoping to read at least 30, though hopefully more. Plus, there are some upcoming releases that I have pre-ordered, and many more on my wish list waiting for their release.

2025 Books Pre-Ordered:
You Started It by Jackie Khalilieh - May 20
Titan of the Stars by E.K. Johnston - May 27

Here's a recap of the books I read in 2024 (in the order I read them):
All of them were great reads, but my top 12 are in bold.
Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik
Gaza Writes Back Edited by Refaat Alareer
The Jackal by Erin E. Adams
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong
The Red Palace by June Hur
His Ducking Alpha Dragon by Lorelei M. Hart
TJ Powar Has Something to Prove by Jesmeen Kaur Deo
The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed by Noreen Mughees
One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole
Deadly Cure by Mahi Cheshire
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Snowglobe by Soyoung Park
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Road to Ruin by Hana Lee
Missing White Woman by Kellye Gerrett
Pretty Furious by E.K. Johnston
Delivered to My Tigers by Mazzy J. March
Midwife to Destiny by Nana Prah
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
Love in the Air by Mariah Ankenman
Dead Sound by Anise Eden
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White
Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau
Sensory: Life on the Spectrum Edited by Bex Ollerton
Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis
Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo

What were your favorite reads of 2024?

I have many goals for 2025, many of which I already mentioned. I will be posting them in a separate post on social media, but I'll recap what I already mentioned...

• Lion's Crossing to release in February
• finish City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams book two and submit for publishing
• finish Romance Tales from the Quadrants book two and submit for publishing
• work on Dystopian short story
• Revise/Rewrite four formerly published stories and republish them

Thank you for all your support over the last year!

I'm super excited to have another book release this year, and a new series at that. I wasn't sure if I was going to write more mpreg, but after the popularity of Fox Trapped, my imagination kept filling me with new ideas for new mpreg stories. Thus, how my City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series was born. I had ideas for four stories before I started writing the first, though I've written this series so that it's open to so many stories if I want to write them. 

And Nelson got his story first, the poor guy is so down on his luck after losing his boyfriend, place to live, and job in less than a month. And he just wants to find real love. Here's more about his story, Once Upon a Dance Club Wish...

Wishes don’t come true… but that didn’t stop me from making one.

I’m not a one-night stand kind of omega and going to nightclubs? So not my thing. I’m a homebody and would love nothing more than to find someone to fall in love with and eventually marry. And kids? Sign me up. So when my friends decide to drag out for some “fun”, I do what any guy would do, I wish for what I truly want. 

That’s when everything changes.

Now I’m standing in a meadow where the city streets should be, meeting a smexy alpha promising me my deepest desires as long as I follow him. I do, unwilling to leave his presence. And that’s when my life is turned upside down in the very best of ways… or so I hope.

Once Upon a Dance Club Wish is the first book in the new MM Mpreg City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series by USA Today bestselling author Jessica E. Subject. Once Upon a Dance Club Wish is a MM shifter fantasy romance that features a man down on his luck who doesn’t know shifters exist, a turtle shifter who longs for a mate but doesn’t think he’ll ever find one, the wizard who brings them together, and many other fantastical creatures from the Enchanted Forest. If you like fated mates, true love, meggs, baby turtle shifters, and a guaranteed happy ever after, Once Upon a Dance Club Wish is for you! While each book in the City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series is set in the same world, they can be read as standalones.

Make a wish?

What I really wanted was a stable job and relationship, to no longer have to move every time one coupling ended or another began. I took a deep breath as I stepped out into the cooler night air. “I wish I could find a man who would love me and whom I would love for the rest of my life.”

Suddenly, a wave of vertigo hit me, as if I’d been knocked off-balance by an invisible force. The door slammed shut behind me, quickly blocking the loud music from inside. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my senses to right themselves again. I needed to be fully aware of my surroundings out in the alley. I’d only had one drink. Yet, when I opened my eyes, the sight before me left me even more confused.

Instead of escaping into the alley behind Hung, I’d somehow ended up at the edge of a forest. Behind me, the emergency exit in the large brick building had disappeared, giving way to a meadow of tall grasses that swayed in the breeze. Plus, it was daytime. It should be dark. The moon should be out instead of the sun.

Shit, had that punk slipped me something, leaving me in a delusional state?

A couple steps into the forest, I sat on a fallen log. Probably not the best decision with white pants on, but none of it was real anyway.

With my eyes closed, I massaged my temples and took a few deep breaths. That’s when I noticed a difference in the air. In an alley, I expected the combined scents of exhaust, sewage, and a sampling of many food sources. Yet, wherever I’d ended up smelled of moist earth and vegetation with slight floral notes blown in from the meadow.

I can’t really have ended up here, right?

Then, blurry and glowing like a mirage, I spotted a figure walking toward me. A man, naked in all his glory. With his thick thighs, warm-brown skin, and a lightly haired wide chest, he was quite a sight to behold. Yes, definitely a dream.