Hello bookish friends and welcome to the all-new and improved #CaseClosed. It’s shorter, it’s sharper but it’s still as PHENOMENAL as ever 🤣

#CaseClosed is my monthly wrap up post where I share the books I’ve read, the content I’ve posted on the blog, the state of my NetGalley shelf and how my 2025 Goodreads Challenge went (spoiler alert, I completed it a while ago 🤭) plus what I plan for 2026.

I read five books in December:

➡️ The Night Watcher by Tariq Ashkanani
➡️ The Killer Question by Janice Hallett
➡️ We Should Have Left Well Enough Alone by Ronald Malfi
➡️ Darkrooms by Rebecca Hannigan
➡️ Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce

Another slow month. At least in November, I had the excuse of taking two weeks off to focus on writing reviews. I don’t have that this month. I’ll blame Christmas 😂

During December I posted the following reviews to damppebbles (it was a busy month as I wanted to catch up with my outstanding reviews and make sure I had all of my #20BooksofSummer reviews posted before the end of the year)…

💛 The Drop by S.R. Masters
💛 The Whistler by S.W. Kane
💛 Mimik by Sebastian Fitzek
💛 Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
💛 Broken Girls by Joy Kluver
💛 Honeycomb by S.B. Caves
💛 Love Kills by David Jackson
💛 The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman
💛 In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan
💛 Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
💛 Strange Pictures by Uketsu
💛 Freakslaw by Jane Flett
💛 The September House by Carissa Orlando

I posted five Top Ten Tuesday posts during December…

⚪ Books I’d Like to Read That Are Outside My Comfort Zone
⚪ Books Set in Snowy Places
⚪ Books on My Winter 2025-2026 To-Read List
⚪ Books I Hope Santa Brings
⚪ Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf

I also posted five WWW Wednesday posts where I share my previous read, my current read and what I plan to read next.

🟧 Wednesday 3rd December
🟧 Wednesday 10th December
🟧 Wednesday 17th December
🟧 Wednesday 24th December
🟧 Wednesday 31st December

And of course, there was #CaseClosed for November, along with my Top Ten(ish) Books of 2025!

My review with the most views in December was once again The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman. It’s rapidly turning into my most viewed review post of the year.

My most popular non-review post in December was a bit of a strange one: damppebbles.com turns TWO! #blogiversary 🎉🎂 #giveaway #damppebbles #bookblogger #amreading. Maybe it was the draw of the giveaway (which is definitely very, very closed!)

I completed my Goodreads Challenge for 2025! I ended up reading 93 books in total (60 was my goal) 🥂🎉🙌 Some of them were a little on the short side. Some of them were not!

Goodreads has sent me (and the rest of the reading world) these lovely images. I feel now is a good time to share them with you. As a side note, I’ve read another book since these arrived, so they’re not quite up to date.

Bit of a shocker this one….

I’m joking, of course 🤭 It’s ALL I read!

This one is quite special though…

I know many of my blogger friends will score higher than this, but for someone who sometimes struggles to stay on top of review writing, I’m taking this into 2026 as my inspiration!

For this year’s Goodreads challenge I plan to read 53 books. Fifty-three because I started one book in December which I’m only a squeak of a way through so it doesn’t *officially* count 😳

On to my NetGalley update for this month. This is what I currently have to read on my NetGalley shelf.

💟 The Exes by Leodora Darlington (February 2026)
💟 How to Kill a Crime Writer by Sarah Lotz (February 2026)
💟 Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward (February 2026)
💟 The Shark by Emma Styles (March 2026)
💟 How to Get Away with Murder by Rebecca Philipson (March 2026)
💟 It’s Not What You Think by Clare Mackintosh (March 2026)
💟 Last One Out by Jane Harper (April 2026)

One of my bookish goals for last year was to keep my NetGalley shelf at five ‘to be read’ books or fewer. I’ve had moments this year where I have managed that. But they’ve never really lasted all that long. Saying that, I am only two books over my five book limit, and I haven’t added new books since my last #CaseClosed post, which I see as a win! 2026 will be the year I reclaim control!

So in summary…..
January: 11 eARCs to be read | 14 to be reviewed
February: 14 eARCS to be read | 11 to be reviewed
March: 12 eARCS to be read | 12 to be reviewed
April: 9 eARCS to be read | 11 to be reviewed
May: 5 eARCs to be read 🥳 | 14 to be reviewed 🙈
June: 1 eARC to be read 🍾 | 11 to be reviewed 🙈🙈
July: 3 eARCs to be read 🥂 | 7 to be reviewed 😥
August: 6 eARCs to be read (but one of those isn’t mine) 😅 | 5 to be reviewed 😮‍💨
September: 6 eARCs to be read (7 if you count my guest reviewer’s book) | 7 to be reviewed 😥
October: 9 eARCs to be read 😱 | 0 to be reviewed 😌
November: 9 eARCs to be read 😟 | 1 to be reviewed ☺️
December: 7 eARCs to be read 😳| 4 to be reviewed 🫤

I’ve made a real dent in reviewing my non-NetGalley books this month. The number has always been high. All year long, it’s given me slight palpitations. It’s now down to a lovely, manageable FOUR. So I have eight reviews to write in total. Four NetGalley, four non-NetGalley. Pretty good, right??! That’s good progress.

Out of the five books I read in December, my book of the month is…

♦

♦

♦

♦

♦

Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce

So long, December AND 2025. December was another slow reading month for me but 2025 as a whole wasn’t too bad. I smashed through my very sedate Goodreads challenge. I feel a lot more in control of my review writing, having cleared a fairly hefty backlog of books. damppebbles had more views than it has ever had before, again smashing through 2022’s very respectable viewing figures. I think it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to top that in 2026 but I’m going to give it a darn good go! I caught up with a number of my favourite series, I read more Richard Osman books than any other author in 2025 (five in total) and I am proud that my children call me a Richard Osman Fan Girl. I am. What of it? 🤭😂 I completed the Summer Reading Challenge for only the second time. It’s taken me forever to write the reviews, with the last one being published on 30th December. Talk about cutting it fine! I also managed to post a #CaseClosed wrap-up post every single month in 2025. That was a bit of a feat in itself!

All in all, it’s been a brilliant bookish year. But most of all, thank you for your support. For all of the likes, shares, the follows and comments. Thank YOU! It means the world to me and I will never stop being grateful for the love and support 🥰 You’re brilliant! I hope your December was full of cracking books, your 2025 reading stats are your best yet, and that your 2026 is stuffed to the brim with the very best books. Five stars all the waaaay! Let’s make 2026 OUR year. Much love x

P.S. If you’re looking for your next read then check out the hashtag #fivestarflashback on Bluesky. I’ve been re-sharing all of my old reviews from the dawn of time itself (or 2016 if you prefer). It’s been so much fun digging in the DP archives! There are roughly five reviews posted a day so lots of lovely book suggestions if you’re in need of inspiration.

Follow me on the socials: Bluesky | Mastodon | Threads | Instagram | Facebook | X | Goodreads |