Heartbeat Monthly [46]: 2025 Last Half

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on December 28, 2025 | 0 Comments

Haul

Bought

Red Rising by Pierce Brown (anniversary edition)
Sorcery Rising by Jude Fisher
Wild Magic by Jude Fisher
Magician Apprentice by Raymond Feist
Light Bringer by Pierce Brown (Sub Press edition)
Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (deluxe UK edition)
Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (Waterstones)
Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (Goldsboro)
Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (Illumicrate)
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff (US edition)
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff (Barnes & Noble)
Ship of Spells by H. Leighton Dickson
Fallen Gods by Rachel Van Dyken
The Dark is Descending by Chloe C. Peñaranda
Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen (Illumicrate)
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (Fairyloot)
A Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett (Fairyloot)
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning (signed copy)
Empire of the Dawn tour dust jacket (signed)
Ollivander’s wand shop sign, from Ren Faire

From subs

Fateless by Julie Kagawa (LitJoy quarterly)
The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley (Illumicrate, July)
Voidwalker by S. A. MacLean (Illumicrate, August)
The Isle in the Silver Sea Tasha Suri (Illumicrate, October)
The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers (Illumicrate, December)

Freebies

Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff, ARC (thank you, St. Martin’s Press!!)

What I’ve been up to

I usually do a monthly breakdown when I go months in between these posts, but honestly my life this year was a blur. Here’s a few highlights:

May

I did get to see Motionless in White like I talked about on my last Heartbeat Monthly, and THEY WERE AMAZING!! It was my favorite performance since I saw Avenged Sevenfold (my favorite band) for the first time waaay back in 2006. During Eternally Yours, CHRIS POINTED AT ME!! (At least, I’d like to think it was at me. I was wearing a pink BLEGH shirt!) It made my whole night and I’ll never forget it! I saw them at Sonic Temple – I ended up going two days (it’s a four day festival), and I even went solo the second day. I had so much fun! I also saw Ice Nine Kills for the first time and they were fucking phenomenal!

July

Inkcarceration was in July, that’s always fun! Saturday (my birthday) was pretty fucking miserable, though, because it was POURING in the last half of the day. The highlight of that weekend was seeing Three Days Grace and Architects, they were amazing! I’ve seen 3DG before, but it’s been years. I got a little emotional at that show! Slipknot headlined one of the days, and they were SO GOOD live, but unfortunately I had to leave that show early. Because I was soaked through my poncho, my phone got wet…well, it was dying and I tried to charge it and messed it up worse. It wouldn’t charge at all, and the friends I was with didn’t want to see Slipknot, so they left. I had no idea where they were parked and wanted to make sure I could find them, so I had to leave before my phone fully died. Thankfully it ended up being fine after I soaked it in rice overnight.

August

I saw Skillet in August, they were amazing as always! Was kinda bummed that they didn’t have anyone opening for them, though.

November

YALLfest was in November, of course! I did what I have done in past years and went to Florida first to spend a week on the beach, then hit up SC on my way north for YALLfest. You can see my full recap of the event HERE!

The beach was fantastic and much needed. I went deep sea fishing (which I haven’t done since I was around 20, with my dad) and caught a bunch of fish, including snapper and jack. The snapper was to die for! I also went on a dolphin boat tour – sadly I didn’t see any dolphins, but I got to see some during deep sea fishing so that made up for it.

After YALLfest I ended up going to see Atreyu because they were playing in Charleston (funny enough, the venue is literally RIGHT around the corner from the YALLfest events – and I never even knew it was there, wild!) and they’ve been on my bucket list for YEARS. I’m so happy I finally got to see them, they were fucking amaaazing!!

And, to make the month even better, at the end of November I also got to see Story of the Year (also fucking amazing live!), so I got to cross off two bucket list bands!

Current obsessions

TV: I started rewatching Stranger Things before season 5 came out, and I forgot how much I loved it. I’ve been on a huge ST kick for a couple of months, especially with season 5 vol 1 & 2 coming out!

Music: Hallucinations by Khordhell and Motionless in White has been my hyperfixation song for a couple of months

Games: I started playing Fallout 4 sometime around spring, and let me tell you. That game had me in a CHOKEHOLD for months! It’s all I did there for a while. One of my days off I literally played for 14 hours, lmao. Definitely a new favorite!

Crafts: I’ve been cross stitching a lot the past few months!