Hello and welcome to my first book round up of the year! January was a weird one, it both felt like it went on forever but I also felt there weren't enough hours in the day for most of the month. I planned a weekly post for the blog each week but extravagant ideas meant that didn't happen. They are on the way for sure, just taking a bit longer than usual as I want them to be perfect!
The beginning of January was perfect for reading, no work and the sun was shining, so I managed to get through quite a few books before I went back to work. However, after I went back to work, my evenings felt shorter and my weekends passed in a blur and barely a dent was made into any books. But hey, no worries, here's a round up of the 6 books I did manage to read in January and my thoughts.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green* ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you've read my post earlier on in January about this book then you'll know why I rated it 5 stars. I was a bit worried going in as it wasn't about what I thought it was going to be about and after learning it was sci-fi rather than about design I didn't know if I was going to like it at all. Turns out I did though as it was entertaining, exciting, and constantly hitting me with action that usually isn't my style but had me hooked. Do read the full post for more thoughts!Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was one of the few books I bought while in Australia after reading my first Neal Shusterman book, Scythe, and loving it! I also thought it was cool that he wrote this with his son Jarrod! While it was an interesting idea, it didn't wow me as much as Scythe did so while it was great writing and an excellent story I just felt a bit let down as I had Scythe to compare it to. It was an entertaining dystopian road trip type story and I still enjoyed it enough for 4 stars!Clean by Juno Dawson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I had this on my shelves for a while after winning it off from a publisher on Instagram but hadn't got around to it. However, after Ria raved about it during our guest recording of Rants and Reviews I knew I had to put it higher up my TBR pile and in January I finally got around to it! It was a different writing style than what I'm used to but it was actually really easy to follow and read, which I wasn't expecting. While it's about a drug addict trying to get clean it's not as predictable as you’d expect, there were a few twists that left you wanting more. Definitely worth a read if it's your thing.Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Another one I bumped up the pile because of everyone all over the internet raving about it! It actually made it onto my vow to read list so that's one ticked off already. It was a little bit slow to get into, mainly because I don't know a lot about Asian culture and there's a lot of footnotes to refer to, to learn the slang etc. However that aside I soon got hooked by the drama and excitement and bought the second book to dive straight into after the next few books on my list (even with my book buying ban eek).A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you've listened to our last episode of the series of Rants and Reviews you'd know we did a mini book club and assigned each other a book to read. This was the one Anjali assigned to me thinking I'd enjoy it and for sure I did! It was a little slow to begin and a bit rushed at the end but it was chock full of adventure and totally not what I was expecting (in a good way)! I am now in love with the sassmeister Monty and will read anything else with him in forever.A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzie Lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Monty was exactly why I went straight onto the second book... Although it follows Felicity his sister there are still moments of Monty sass. Even though there were less sass and less Monty I actually felt this was better than the first book, so that says a lot. Similarly, it was full of adventure and fun and a lot of 'yes you go girl' at Felicity chasing her dreams. Plus Mackenzie has fixed her pacing issues from the first book so that's another positive. Definitely recommend these two!If you want to keep up with what books I've been reading feel free to add me on Goodreads, or follow me on Twitter for my twitter thread of reads!
What have you read recently? Was it any good?
*Copy sent for review, all opinions are my own
