Hello!

Usually I start all my monthly based posts with a comment about how I can’t believe another month has gone by (but I’ll save my feelings about how I feel I’ve already ‘wasted’ a month of the year for a more existential post…), but this month I’m more baffled by what an awful start to my reading year I’ve had!

I managed to read 5 books (not the awful bit), only 3 of them were from the ridiculous 10-book tbr I set myself (still not the worst bit) and I’ve already given out my first 1 star review of the year.

In 2023 I gave out TWO 1 star ratings. Two. Over the whole year. In January I’ve already read a book that I disliked enough to give one star. And there was a two-star book that the more I think about it might also have been a one star for me.

But that’s enough suspense – here are the 5 books I managed to finish in the order I managed to finish them!

Galatea – Madeline Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I picked up this tiny little book on a Boxing Day Waterstones trip with full intent for it to be the first book I read this year as a quick win. It’s teeny tiny, about A6 in size and only 56 pages long and I still only finished it on the 2nd cos I was so tired I couldn’t stay awake long enough to read it on the 1st… oops!

But once I’d had some sleep, it was a decent enough read! It was Madeline Miller’s signature literary style about another character from Greek mythology. I honestly don’t know where the line is between what is considered factual in terms of the Greek history and where Miller’s creative license in retelling is, but honestly not knowing didn’t impact my enjoyment – it was as engaging as a 56 page story can be, I read it in one sitting (on the second attempt) and I’m not sure I entirely understood what happened but I had a nice time, so it was an easy 3 stars and a quick win to get the reading goal off the mark!

Bloodmarked – Tracy Deonn ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a book that I didn’t quite finish on my December TBR but as I was coreading it, I definitely got through it faster than if I was just listening to it or reading it with my eyes, particularly because the font in this book is so tiny I probably would have got so frustrated and DNF-ed it.

Just like it’s predecessor Legendborn, I rated this 3 stars for much of the same reasons – there were far too many characters and terminology for me to understand, retain and recall, it was way longer than it needed to be and I just don’t really care for Bree as a protagonist. The magic system is (in my opinion) overly complicated, the barely-there romance is somehow instalove and slow burn simultaneously and (again, in my opinion) is almost better off not being there. There was a bit of progress when some of the main characters split off from the rest of the group and they each got more time to develop their characters and further their relationships and I was considering a 4 star rating… but then in the endgame, the entire cast reappeared and I was expected to remember who everyone was by first name and how they were significant and my tiny brain can’t handle it.

It’s the kind of 3 star rating where I’m intrigued and invested enough that I will read Book 3 when it comes out next year (and I appreciate that the production team aren’t rushing it’s release for the sake of maintaining hype), but I’m not looking forward to it as such.

If only I’d known it would only be downhill from here…

The Principle of Moments – Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson ⭐️⭐️

This was the December Illumicrate book (which I only recently realised was publicly released in January so that was kind of cool I guess) and honestly I wasn’t particularly excited about it – the blurb summary didn’t really appeal to me but because the Illumicrate subscription is quite expensive, I really try to make an effort to read it as I receive it otherwise it may get lost in the depths of my physical tbr… and I almost wish I hadn’t with this book.

In the acknowledgements from the author, Jikiemi-Pearson admitted that she started writing this book instead of paying attention in English classes when she was 16 and finished it in an A Level English class and I don’t know if perhaps this is really mean to say, but maybe she should have paid attention? I didn’t care for any of the characters, it was clearly a set-up book for a longer series but within this one book it was just so dragged out and slow and because it set up so many plot points, it was really unsatisfactory when only one was resolved in a really anticlimactic way. Alongside that, there were some really obvious continuity errors that appeared to have been overlooked in editing – they weren’t plot relevant mistakes but they really took me out of the story, as did the missing punctuation. I even ended up choosing a particular tab colour to signify the moments that really pulled me out of the story, which I think signifies how often it was happening.

It was a real slog to read and each time I review it I wonder whether it deserves 2 stars or if I should knock it down to 1… I think I’ll leave it for now, but it’s really highlighting that maybe the Illumicrate subscription isn’t for me and I really can’t justify collecting pretty books I don’t like just for the bookish merch (but I do really love the bookish merch).

With This Kiss – Carrie Hope Fletcher ⭐️

And from a maybe 1 star, to an actual 1 star! I really wish I didn’t hate this book because I preordered a signed, special edition back when it came out in 2022 and, yes, it’s taken me two years to read it but I’m glad I didn’t prioritise it because I think it would have been even more disappointing it I’d read it as soon as I got it.

The character’s were so melodramatic and every conflict felt so forced. The romance was insta-lovey, the magical realism would have been cool if it wasn’t applied to such an annoying character. Fortunately it was only 320 pages and I read it really quickly.

More importantly – this book needed a trigger warnings page. There was one chapter that needed trigger warnings for sexual assault/harassment and description of suicide and I honestly think it’s irresponsible that there was no warning for either of these things. I don’t think it’s the place of Goodreads or Storygraph to have these triggers listed or the responsibility of the reader to look up the triggers for every book they read – it should be within the publication. From the blurb it was somewhat predictable that there would be mentions of death, as the whole premise is that the protagonist sees how people die when they kiss, but these other triggers should have been listed and the reader should have been made aware.

I honestly don’t know what to do with the special edition of this book I have now because I don’t want it but I spent money on it and that makes me even more annoyed. I can’t believe I’ve already read a 1 star book this year.

Murder Most Unladylike – Robin Stevens ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Who’d have thought the book that redeemed my January reading was a middle grade murder mystery?

This is my book club pick for January and in the briefest summary I can manage, when my husband and I got married we asked our guests for a copy of their favourite book so we have a little library of our favourite people’s favourite books and in an endeavour to read them all, we take it in turns to pick one each month to read. This book in particular came from one of my bridesmaids who was 11 at the time, hence the middle grade!

But honestly I really enjoyed it – the characters were really sweet, the mystery was actually really good (and the ending took me by surprise!) and through the first half, I felt like I was enjoying it in the way an adult pretends to enjoy playing a game with a child, but then at some point I started genuinely enjoying it and it took me by surprise.

The other thing I really enjoyed is that the main character Hazel is from Hong Kong but living at an English boarding school in the 40s and it was really interesting to see her perspective on how she’s treated differently and the things she did to fit in more than any other girl who would be the ‘new girl’. I found that fascinating.

Then in the acknowledgements, the author says that this project started as a NaNoWriMo challenge which made me like it even more because it actually gave me hope that maybe I can publish a NaNoWriMo project someday as well!

So that’s everything I read in January! The average rating wasn’t great, the amount of my tbr I got through wasn’t great, but I’ve been reading consistently and I’m still on track with my reading goal for the year. If I want to read 52 books this year I need to finish one book a week and I’m on track for that, so at least there’s that!

I’ve just decided that I’m going to give an order to my February tbr because for some reason, knowing what I want to read next is incentivising me to read, but honestly all I can hope for this month is some books that I enjoy more than these! But with the new Ali Hazelwood book coming out on February 6th, I think it’s a given (but I don’t want to put too much pressure on it and feel disappointed).

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx