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Monthly Reading Wrap-Up: January 2024

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New Year, New Books!

I was having a slower reading month and then the Improbable Meet-Cute series came out and changed what my month looked like. A pretty good month, but not as high as I was hoping for, ratings wise.

Favorites this month:

  • The Frozen River
  • Sadie and the Bad Boy Billionaire
  • The Ever King
  • Oceans of Sand
  • House of Sky and Breath
  • A Story Spun in Scarlet
  • The Anthropocene Reviewed
  • A Heart Sufficient
  • Say You’ll Be Mine
  • Worst Wingman Ever
  • An Improper Agreement
  • Ashes of You
  • The Game of Hearts
  • Wish You Weren’t Here
  • The Rom Con

Least favorites:

  • In a Not So Perfect World
  • Royal Valentine
  • The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
  • But He’s My One Regret (But He’s a Carter Brother #2) by Annah Conwell
  • Recipe for a Charmed Life by Rachel Linden
  • [ARC] Sadie and the Bad Boy Billionaire (Oakley Island #3) Emma St. Clair and Jenny Proctor
  • Brisingr (The Inheritance Cycle #3) by Christopher Paolini
  • Secrets and Suitors by Joanna Barker
  • The Every King (The Ever Seas #1) by L.J. Andrews
  • The Night Hunt by Alexandra Christo
  • [ARC] Where You Belong (The Abandoned Brothers #2) by Stacy Williams
  • [ARC] In a Not So Perfect World by Neely Tubati Alexander
  • Oceans of Sand by Jessica Flory
  • The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
  • Dukes and Dekes (Chawton Falls in Love #1) by Torie Jean
  • [ARC] To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods (To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods #1) by Molly X. Chang
  • [Reread] House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J. Maas
  • Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck
  • [ARC] An Unexpected Roomie (Love Tucson #3) by Laura Langa
  • [ALC] The Search Party by Hannah Richell
  • [ARC] A Story Spun in Scarlet (Tales of Wonder and Woe #1) by Renee Dugan
  • The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
  • Drinker of Ink by Shannon Castleton
  • The Library of Shadows by Rachel Moore
  • [ALC] The Trail of Lost Hearts by Tracey Garvis Graves
  • Love Redesigned (Lakefront Billionaires #1) by Lauren Asher
  • [ARC] A Heart Sufficient (The Penn-Leiths of Thistle Muir #4) by Nichole Van
  • [ARC] Champion of Sorrows (Thieve of Sorrows #2) by Kristen M. Long
  • The Huntress by Kate Quinn
  • Say You’ll Be Mine by Naina Kumar
  • [Novella] The Exception to the Rule (The Improbable Meet-Cute #1) by Christina Lauren
  • [Novella] Worst Wingman Ever (The Improbable Meet-Cute #2) by Abby Jimenez
  • An Improper Agreement (Improper Agreements #1) by Audra Wells
  • [Novella] Rosie and the Dreamboat (The Improbable Meet-Cute #3) by Sally Thorne
  • [ARC] The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
  • [ALC] Ashes of You (Lost & Found #5) by Catherine Cowles
  • [ARC] Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice (Finlay Donovan #4) by Elle Cosimano
  • On Wings of Ash and Dust (On Wings of Ash and Dust #1-6) by Brittany Wang
  • [Novella] Drop, Cover, and Hold On (The Improbable Meet-Cute #4) by Jasmine Guillory
  • [Novella] With Any Luck (The Improbable Meet-Cute #5) by Ashley Poston
  • [Novella] Royal Valentine (The Improbable Meet-Cute #6) by Sariah Wilson
  • [ARC] The Game of Hearts (The Otherworlds #2) by Courtney Millecam
  • Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru
  • [ARC] Wish You Weren’t Here by Gracie Ruth Mitchell
  • The Rom Con by Devon Daniels

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Book Review: To Catch a Suitor (Dalton Family #2) by Sarah Adams

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Regency Romance
Length: 310 pages
Author: Sarah Adams
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: March 1st, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

She needs to move on. He wants to let her go. Will they finally be able to go their separate ways even though their hearts seem to have other plans?

Elizabeth Ashburn is madly, deeply, irrefutably in love with her best friend. They know each other better than their own minds. There is only one problem: To him, she is Little Lizzie, and nothing she does seems to replace the idea in his mind. No matter. It is her first Season and she is determined to make a match with a gentleman—any gentleman—who will help her steal her heart back from Oliver Turner and his sea-blue eyes.

Oliver Turner can remember the exact day that Lizzie grew up. And now, he cannot see her as anything besides the beautiful woman stealing his breath—no matter how much he needs to. He won’t marry her. He can’t. He loves her too much for that. Now, he simply needs to help marry her off so that she will officially be out of his reach.

IT WAS SWEET.

I am officially caught up on Sarah Adams books after having this one sit on my TBR for a few years. It was a quick read that had all of that regency goodness and gave me some good warm fuzzies.

My one thing? I feel like this entire book could have been solved with a conversation. Not necessarily in a miscommunication way, just that…if they’re best friends…why has this never come up in years and years? I don’t know. It’s just something I noticed.

ANYWHO. Perfectly solid read. I loved both of the main characters and everyone on the side too. I liked that there was a lot of plot but that things never felt stilted or forced to move things forward.

Overall audience notes:

  • Regency Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: child abuse (recounted), loss of a parent, childbirth, mention of miscarriage (side character)

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Book Review: Maiden of Candlelight and Lotuses (The Zheninghai Chronicles #0) by Anastasis Blythe

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Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 387 pages
Author: Anastasis Blythe
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: August 30th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Dreams of magic and romance have no place in the heart of a poor farm girl. Or so Liena thought…

Magical visions have a way of turning the world upside-down. One minute Song Liena is a simple farm girl hoping for good luck at the matchmaker, and the next she is a student at the empire’s most rigorous and dangerous magic Academy.

It doesn’t take long for her to realize she’s ten years behind, her magic is weak, and she is in way over her head. But Liena is determined to work hard if it means a chance at a better life for her family.

She just wasn’t counting on being noticed by the handsome Crown Prince—a warrior-in-training said to have fire magic powerful enough to decimate entire armies.

But princes are not for peasants, and everything is not as it seems at the Academy. Monsters lurk around every corner, and someone is dabbling in dark, illegal magic.
Someone who has set their sinister sights on her.

THOUGHTS.

One on side of the review I enjoyed this. It has an easy writing style that makes for a fast pace. I liked the nods to Mulan (though maybe a little too close at the beginning and end?). It’s a good premise type of set-up that leaves plenty of room for more stories in the world.

What’s missing is the world though. My main issue stems from the fact that there’s no world building. Everything is set at an academy and there’s discussions on the different types of creatures they have to defend against buuuut that’s kind of it. There’s even a Prince! And I know NOTHING about his kingdom??! Or the magic. Everyone seems to have a different type of magic yet there’s no explanation as to why that is or what type of limits there are or why someone’s works better than the next.

The romance is sweet, would have loved even more development, it was cute enough. And the side characters are your typical bunch you find at school: the nice guy, the bully, etc. I’ve heard how the series differs from here so I’m tempted to give the second book a go.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Fantasy Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: med-high
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: physical and magical altercations, weapons violence, creature attacks, bullying

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Book Review: The Realm of Oblivion by Marae Good

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 339 pages
Author: Marae Good
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: December 6th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

They say what you don’t know can’t hurt you.

They’re wrong.

For as long as she can remember, Collins Avery has been imprisoned in the same house by the same cruel and unforgiving parents – visited only by a strange woman with even stranger questions.

Problem is, Collins can only remember the last two years of her life.

Desperate to discover who she was before the accident that stole her memory, Collins escapes to meet a friend in secret. Instead, she finds herself abducted by a charming stranger, who claims that she has been trafficked from the Planet Aita…and sold to the highest bidder.

As Collins begins to piece together the events of her prior life, everything points to a huge and terrifying betrayal. Now, desperate for freedom, she must decide who she can trust to deliver her to her rightful home – a home that has never been on Earth to begin with.

But a new identity comes with new dangers – especially when your enemies know you better than you know yourself…

Swirling with magic and steeped in mystery, The Realm of Oblivion is the first book in The Realm Wanderer series by Marae Good.

LACKING.

I truly did want to love this, and it started out pretty interesting, then things kind of fell flat for me.

With memories being wiped, I initially thought that was a really cool idea. Discovering what’s what and who Collins truly is. All good things. But it also felt like I was continually watching flashback moments and being told a lot of things rather than showing since multiple people were trying to remember what had happened to them.

I liked the commentary of dark vs. light and finding that light within yourself. It had an air of working through depression and the shadow periods of our lives. Plenty of good sentiments there that I easily connected to and understood.

Romance missed me too. While at the start I was meh about how things started, then they flipped (which I admittedly do love), I guess I once again had that show/tell problem. I can’t go into much detail because it would probably venture to spoiler territory.

Overall audience notes:

  • NA Fantasy Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: closed door
  • Violence: medium
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: kidnapping, torture, memory loss, physical altercations, loss of loved ones, loss of parents

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