Hello!

I know I say this every month, but how the heck is it already the end of January? Is this adult life? Time just keeps going faster and faster and you’re not entirely sure how it happened? I’m not a fan, but it’s an excuse for me to talk about all the books I’ve read this month.

And 2022 is off to a flying start – I’ve finished 5 books this month so far and I think I’ll finish my current audiobook on Monday before February joins us on Tuesday, but as of yet, not quite at 6.

Here are the ones I finished:

Get a Life Chloe Brown (Talia Hibbert) – 4 stars
The Brown Sisters books have had so much hype on bookstagram and booktok that I decided to use my audible credit on it, in hindsight I think I would have enjoyed the paperback more because the voice actor and the accents she chose were really irritating and made me think I wasn’t enjoying the story. Once I realised the story itself was very sweet, I decided it was definitely a 4 star book. Next year when I’m off my book buying ban I think I’ll buy the trilogy and give the characters my own voices.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Benjamin Alire Sáenz) – 5 stars
Narrated by Lin Manuel Miranda? Yes please! A lovely YA tale of a young boy’s discovery of himself, through friendship, family and a dog called Legs. Although short, I really enjoyed listening to this story – it was a really lovely take on a coming of age story with the perfect mix of naïvety, self-discovery and a nice reminder of what it was like to be a teenager in the late 80s without the internet, phones or binge watching TV. Definitely putting the sequel on my tbr.

Talk Bookish To Me (Kate Bromley) – 4 stars
A book about being obsessed with books? Count me in! Especially having just reviewed every book I read in 2021 I know I particularly enjoy books about people who work as writers or in publishing in some way. This was a nice easy read about a complicated college relationship that neither participant expected to ever have to revisit. Don’t get me wrong, the attitude of the two protagonists was a bit off sometimes and some of the behaviours threw a few red flags but at it’s heart, it was a nice easy contemporary romance.

Albion: The Legend of Arthur (Robert Valentine) – 1 star
Absolutely the worst Audible plus book I’ve listened to – I was drawn in by the Arthurian legend and the full cast (which theoretically was very exciting), but it was generally just not a good story. All that happened was battle after battle after battle, then Arthur died and the remaining characters went off to do their own thing and nothing appeared to be resolved at all. The full cast recording was cool in principle, but absolutely didn’t work because there was no narrator so the story was harder to follow, and as 95% of the cast was generic man, they were incredibly difficult to identify by voice alone (which is where a narrator would have really aided the story). All in all, it was a slog to listen to and it was just bad.

Billy and Me (Giovanna Fletcher) – 3 stars
Contemporary romance is my go to ‘easy reading’ genre for sure – in all honesty, I chose this book because I’ve seen lots of people on tiktok doing ‘Alphabet Challenges’ and I’d already read an ‘A’ so I thought I’d pick a ‘B’ book! Billy and Me started as a really lovely tale of a village girl who meets her very own Mr Darcy who is in fact an actor playing Mr Darcy in a remaking of Pride and Prejudice being filmed in the village. As the story develops and Sophie leaves her job in the café she’s worked in for her entire adult life, it becomes a bit less ‘cute romance’ and more melodramatic soap opera and some of the dialogue and actions read a bit like fanfiction, but it was an easy enough read and I’ll be reading the sequel before I decide whether they’re going to the charity shop or not.

Which leads me to, what I’m currently reading:

• Audiobook – Grand Theft Astro (Scott Meyer)
• Paperback – Always with Love – Billy and Me #2 (Giovanna Fletcher)

Balancing blogging and work and general life stuff has been a real challenge for me recently, but getting to write about things I really love like books and goal setting makes it much easier to write.

So thank you for reading what I love to write!

Sophie xx