I love the feeling of a fresh year of reading. There’s always so much anticipation when it comes to the new books I’ll pick up or even the old books that I’ll revisit.
I’m off to a good start when I comes to reading this year. In January I read 21 books, of a variety of qualities. One was pretty low in the rating departments, but one will be one of my favourites of the year.
You’ll find everything I read below the cut:
1. Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Prompt: Recommended Read
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This book was really interesting. I liked the different powers because a lot of them were really unique and creative. It was also different from the usual fantasy books I read. I wanted to keep reading to know what was going to happen and how it was going to all play out. However, the climax felt a little anticlimactic. That being said I did really like the ending twist!
2. Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
Prompt: Book you’ve been putting off
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This book was really sweet. I felt like it took awhile to get where it was going, but it made me cry. I love these characters and I’m glad they got a happy ending.
3. The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: The Dystopian aspect of this was really good. It felt like a unique take on the genre, and I liked the basic premise. I also really enjoyed the AI overlord. Since reading Illuminae, I’ve always been fond of a morally grey artificial intelligence character. This book did not end up in the place I expected it to go, which is probably a good thing. I also didn’t expect the romance. It didn’t blow me away completely, which is why it’s not a 5 star, but still definitely worth being picked up.
4. Under the Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I picked this book up because I was contemplating teaching it as a last minute novel study. I decided not to do it at the time, but I wouldn’t say I wouldn’t teach it. I really enjoyed this story. I have to admit that I didn’t know a lot about the murder of Reena Virk before I listened to the audiobook of this story, and I’m really glad to have read it. It’s crazy to think about how something this awful happened in Victoria of all places. It was fascinating to learn about the people involved and how everything went down. The story was well constructed and it left me wondering how the people getting introduced were involved. I was really intrigued.
5. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
Rating: 5 stars
Format: Physical Book
Review: So I really, really enjoyed this book. I loved going back to this world that I loved and getting to see characters that I loved so much, in this case Ronan and Adam and brief mentions of Gansey and Blue, etc, again. I loved getting more depth into Declan as a character, and I love him a lot more than I ever did before. When it came to newer characters, I thought that the cast was pretty well rounded with interesting points of view/perspectives. I like getting the perspective of a villain type character, and I really liked the addition of ‘visionaries’. I was little confused about some of the plot additions because they felt weird when I considered the entirety of The Raven Cycle. However, that being said I love the way that Maggie Stiefvater writes, and I loved this story, and I loved these characters. I definitely recommend this one!
6. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I think this was probably my favourite book of the Graceling Realm series. I will admit that there were times where I was a little meh about the plot, because it felt like it took forever for things to get moving. However, once it did get moving I really enjoyed the story. Bitterblue is a fascinating character, and it was cool to see her as a grown up and learning to be a good queen for her country. I liked the way that all of the books came together in this final novel and how we got to revisit old characters. I was also really fascinated by the way the country was dealing with the aftermath of Bitterblue’s father’s reign. Having the people have to put themselves back together after the mind control of the country’s former king made so much sense as a plot aspect, and I was really intrigued by the psychology of it all. I wasn’t the most keen on the love plot, but it wasn’t a detriment to the story either. Overall, the series is totally worthwhile to pick up.
7. The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I’m not usually one for reading stories whose entire existence are romance. I’m not inherently opposed to them, but I’m not always in the mood for them. However, this was really cute and totally what I was in the mood for at the time. I liked how it kept me guessing and I didn’t expect the twists. I liked the somewhat Romeo and Juliet-ness (with slightly less melodrama) of the romance. It’s not the best thing I ever read, but I had fun and it was a cute story.
8. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Rating: 3 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I don’t have a lot to say about this. It was interesting for sure, and I have to say that I don’t ever remember reading it when I was younger. I felt for the character of James, but the story wasn’t my favourite thing ever.
9. Watching You by Lisa Jewell
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: Watching You had a slow start, and a lot of threads that kept me guessing. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it as I read the story because I kept trying to fit all of the pieces of the puzzle together and then my theories kept being proved wrong. I liked all the different points of view and the police interviews excerpts between scenes. They lead me down the wrong path when I was concocting theories. The ending worked really well in my opinion because the clues were there all along, I just had to put them together. It didn’t blow me away, but I had a solid, good time when I was reading this. I couldn’t put it down last night because I just needed to know how it all played out.
10. Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Rating: 2 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: Libba Bray is one of my favourite authors, and I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with this book. I wanted to like it a lot, and it’s definitely been on my TBR for a long time. However, it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t really like Cameron, and I didn’t really like the story. The vague ‘was this all a hallucination’ of the story is not something I enjoy in a novel, and this rather heavily relied on this for the ending. The hijinx aspect of it was fun, and I can see where people could really enjoy it. Unfortunately, I just am not one of those people. I was meh about the romance aspect, and some of the language used made me a little uncomfortable in a 2020 perspective. It just wasn’t for me.
11. The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr
Rating: 5 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: Before I read/listened to the audiobook of this, I read a review and so I was kind of expecting not to like it very much. That being said, I loved this book. I listened to it in one sitting and it made me bawl. Some of the characters in this book completely sucked, but it felt so realistic in how the characters would react and deal with a character like Flora. I really enjoyed Flora as a character. In my opinion, it was very well written and I just felt so, so sad for Flora. It really made me sad to see her struggling with her amnesia and also with losing her brother and dealing with the aftermath of the kiss that triggers her memory. I just wanted to give her a hug and I was so glad about the ending.
12. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Rating: 4 stars
Format: eBook
Review: I picked this up because of the show, and I was really pleased with it. I like the way the stories were interlaced, and how similar the adventures were to the show. Obviously, there were some differences but overall I still really enjoy the way the stories were adapted to television. I also really enjoyed the depth that reading the book gave to me, and I’m looking forward to reading the next collection soon. I should have a full review of this coming soon!
13. What Kind of Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel
Rating: 5 stars
Format: eBook
Review: I have a full review of this up on the blog. It can be found here. To give you a sneak preview of that, I really enjoyed this book. It gave me all kinds of feels. I will admit at first it was really confusing about what exactly was going on, but once I put all the pieces together, I fell in love with it. I highly recommend it.
14. Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten
Rating: 3 stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I was super intrigued by the summary of this and also by the cover. I also liked how it started. I enjoy a good mystery, and was interested to find out what exactly had happened between June, Delia, and June’s boyfriend. I thought the whole of the book was going to be June trying to put that all together. It was not. There was one hell of a twist in this book that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I didn’t expect it, but I also didn’t like it. There were somethings we learned after the twist that I liked as developments but on the whole after the big reveal I spent a lot of time thinking WTF, and not in the best way. That being said, I did still have fun reading it so it does have that going for it.
15. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was one hell of a book. I did do the whole book movie thing the wrong way around and watched the movie first and then finally years later I picked up the audiobook. Almost everyone in this book was terrible and sucked, except for Nick’s sister. I really enjoyed the story and the thrill of it, and I was kind of glad to already know what the big twist was prior to reading it otherwise it would have stressed me out a whole lot more than it already did. It’s not my favourite thriller, but totally worth picking up if you haven’t already.
16. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The main character was really well developed and I really enjoyed the way that the story came together and the romance developed. I wanted a little something more out of this, but on the whole it was a really cool world. I will definitely be continuing on with the series.
17. Memento by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Rating: 5 stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I had such a fun time reading this novella. It’s super disappointing that it’s not on Goodreads, but I’ll live in the long run. I really enjoyed learning about AIDAN’s origin story. It was nice revisiting of the world, and it was amazing that they were able to break my heart in such a short amount of pages.
18. Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin
Rating: 5 stars
Format: eBook
Review: This book is above and beyond the perfect for me. I absolutely loved this book. I’m going to have a full review of it coming closer to the publication date but I’m fully obsessed with this book and think you all should read it when it comes out.
19. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I have had this book recommended to me by someone my boyfriend works with. I had been meaning to pick it up for awhile but finally got around to it. I liked it a lot more than I expected. The development of the main character was really good and I really, really felt for her! Also the ending of this book killed me. It was definitely a really unique story that truly works. I’m not sure I fully get all the hype I’ve heard of about this book, but I definitely enjoyed the story.
20. Puddin’ by Julie Murphy
Rating: 4 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This book was really sweet. I liked it about as much as I liked Dumplin’, but for a different reason. There were some really good things about this one, and I really liked the development of the unlikely friendship. It didn’t blow me away like other books I read this month but I had fun.
21. Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Rating: 3 stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was a pretty good sequel, and I think I liked it better than the first one. However, it still wasn’t my favourite thing.
What did you read in January?
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