I can’t believe we’re already 1/12th of the way through 2020 already! What? HOW???
Anyway. January was a bit of an odd month for me. I came into 2020 ready to battle my TBR. I made plans! And I made plans to start executing those plans! And then I hit a bit of a reading slump. And I was still kind of reading during the slump, just not finishing anything, so it didn’t even feel like a slump even though it was totally a slump. But the good news is I finally managed to kick the slump and finished off my last two major review requests. Huzzah!
Overall in January I finished fourteen books–five Romance, one General Fiction/Chick Lit, and eight SFF books. Two of these were pretty short but the rest were all full novels. Also, several of these were library books so good job on getting through my library books finally! Honestly surprised I managed to finish this many books considering how slow the month started off.
Favorite Reads of the Month:
- Unbound Empire by Melissa Caruso – This book was perfection for me, what a way to end a series. I couldn’t have been more pleased. What a ride.
- Moontangled by Stephanie Burgis – This is a short novella set in the universe of The Harwood Spellbook series featuring two of my favorite side characters. Such a lovely fantasy romance–magical and full of feelings.
January’s Book Reviews:
Another thing I managed in January was continue clearing out a lot of older reviews I had waiting in my drafts folder. As a consequence I am now almost entirely caught up and back to my regular review schedule on the blog. Huzzah!
- The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards – 5/5 stars
- Off the Grid series by Alyssa Cole – 5/5 stars
- The Will and the Wilds by Charlie N. Holmberg – 3.5/5 stars
- Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton – 4/5 stars
- Cast in Wisdom by Michelle Sagara – 4.5/5 stars
- The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black – 3.5/5 stars
- Moontangled by Stephanie Burgis – 4.5/5 stars
- The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodora Goss – 4/5 stars
I also did a vampire themed mini review post featuring the following books:
- Cat’s Paws and Curses by Nancy Warren – 4/5 stars
- Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin – 3/5 stars
- Crimson Nightmare by Zoey Rivera – 2/5 stars
- Blood Price and Blood Trail by Tanya Huff – 5/5 stars
- Bloodlust and Bonnets by Emily McGovern – 4/5 stars
Other Posts:
Lots of planning posts for tackling my TBR in January with reading challenges and even a book tag to match up with that goal. I started up a new Friday feature–TBR Shelf Cleanup. I also finally managed to eek out a discussion post! Let’s hope I can keep up my one discussion post per month goal for 2020. 🙂
- 2020 Audiobook Challenge
- My Year in Reading Stats – 2019
- The Perfect Reading Challenge at the Perfect Time #StartOnYourShelfathon
- The Great Cataloging Project and the TBR Pile of Doom
- TBR Shelf Cleanup announcement
- New Year’s Resolution Book Tag
- Discussion Post: Four Things I’d Like to See More of in SFF
Plans for February:
First let’s see how I did with January’s plans. Well, in December I said my main goal for January was to ‘keep things pretty chill‘ and that certainly seems to be what happened for most of the month. Although I did have a couple of other goals I wanted to accomplish, mainly catching up on writing reviews, which I did great at, and getting my eARCs read, which I also did. Yay! I also wanted to start reading the library books I have out, which I did really great at too. I managed to finish all of them except for one that I had lost interest in since checking it out so I just returned that one unread.
February plans will be to maintain reviews (don’t fall behind again!) and really buckle down with my r/fantasy bingo reading! I only have two months left and something like 10 more squares to fill for it. Darn me and my vampire themed card coming back to bite me in the ass, lol. I also have to start putting together the new bingo card since it comes out April 1st, as well as reread Dune for one of my book clubs. I’ll have a February TBR coming up shortly so look forward to seeing what vampire books I have planned for the next month’s reading. 🙂
That was my January! Overall, not a bad month at all despite a slight reading slump at the beginning. At least I managed to get caught up on other things. Hope you all have a fantastic February!
Way Too Fantasy 
Looks like you had a great reading month!
(www.evelynreads.com)
Seriously, a reading slump? Can you tell me your secret so I can read 14 books in a month?😉 Ha ha. Great job, Lisa! Hope February is just as slumpy🤣
Lol! Well it did take me an entire month to finish Steel Crow saga so that is pretty slumpy for me. Honestly had a lot of trouble at the beginning of the month and then spent the end of the month reading like the wind. It helped that the last couple of weekends have been spent in my pjs reading lol.
Hahaha I’m never gonna live this down now, am I? 😂😂😂
Never!!
Lol
Thanks, Evelyn! It started off rocky but ended on a high note. 🙂
My month has been slumpy for sure – and no where near 14 books slumpy.
Hope February is a good month and your plans all, well, go to plan.
Lynn 😀
Well, I had a bit of a reading spree near the end of the month that evened things out a bit, but things started off really slow!
Thanks, Lynn! Hope you get out of your slump soon.
Congrats on your month, it looks like you read some really great books this month. I am desperate to finish Holly Black’s series despite the mixed reviews!
Thanks, it was pretty good despite the slow start. Some people really loved the end, I was a bit mixed on it, but you might still love it! I hope you do. 🙂
I got through 5, had one DNF, but I did get halfway through a book from my February TBR, so overall doing pretty good! I’ve got some meaty books on my plate for Feb, we’ll see how long this keeps up!
That’s not a bad month at all! I think mine would have been about the same had I not had the reading spurt at the end of the month. Good luck with February! Meaty books can be fun but I really have to be in the mood for them. I think this is why I haven’t picked up The Name of All Things yet lol.
Wow, so many books! I’m happy you had such a great month! I wish you the best of luck for February💜
Thanks, Kaya! Hope you have a great February too.
Pssh you can totally get the vampire card filled out in two months. I believe!!! And I have that discussion post bookmarked to read, can’t wait. 😄
Also, um. “Slump”…? “14 books”…??? Does not….compute………..*loud screeching noise* Kathy.exe has stopped working
Haha, well the slump was only the beginning of the month and then after that I went on a reading binge that resulted in me catching up with lots of books. I did have at least one week where I didn’t finish a single book and for me that’s a slump. Even when I’m not feeling it I can usually get through audio but it took me a month to listen to Steel Crow Saga! Lol.
I’ll have to add Unbound Empire to my TBR! it sounds so good 😍
I hope you have an amazing February ❤️✨
That series is amazing. I definitely recommend checking it out. 🙂
Thanks, hope you have a fantastic February too!
Your January sounds pretty good to me — 14 books!
My reading was off to a rocky start. It took a while for me to start reading this year and I went slow when I did.
The first two weeks were so slow and I think I was reading Steel Crow Saga the first three weeks of the month lol. But things really picked up at the end, phew! Hope your February picks up!