Hello!

I know a lot of people find that January feels like it goes on forever and don’t get me wrong, I could do with an extra payday, but I still don’t know if I feel ready for the year and could do with an extra week before February 😂

However, I’ve not mastered pausing time yet and February is coming anyway so I have picked out the books I’ll be attempting to read in the next month in each of my categories and the reading gods have blessed me with nothing particularly long and scary, but as compensation I have a lot of series!

Let’s jump right in.

Wedding book club: The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency – Alexander McCall-Smith

TL;DR – when my husband and I got married we asked our guests to gift us a copy of their favourite book and in an endeavour to read them all, we choose a book each month and I read it and he doesn’t.

In the first two years of our/my little book club, we took it in turns each month to choose the books and now I’ve put the remaining titles into a spinner and I’m letting that tell me what I need to read. This month it chose another series – The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency was a series my god-mother gave me and since the wedding she’s given me physical editions of two more books in the series. I’m not challenging myself to read the entire series in a month because although I may push my own reading limits, I’m not here to obliterate them!

I’ve definitely have my eyes opened to mystery/thrillers in the last couple of years so I’m excited about this one! I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this book and I’m looking forward to it!

Sibling book club: Her Majesty’s Royal Coven – Juno Dawson

My sibling chose this months book and I only bought this last year so I’m glad to be making an impact on my TBR (which I’m doing relatively well with this year, but I’m also rereading more books than in any other previous year which isn’t so helpful).

What I can remember about this book is that the cover is fluorescent pink, I think witches are involved and it may or may not be sapphic (I bought it from an LGBTQ+ book shop). It’s a bit chonky so I’m a little bit nervous about how long it’s going to take me to read but I’m hoping I get really sucked in and I’m excited to have a little balance of fantasy amongst the other genres I’ll be reading this month.

New Release: Spiral – Bal Khabra

Is this the second book in an interconnected standalone series where I haven’t read the first book? Yes, but the female main character is a ballet dancer and I love ballet dancing so I needed to pre-order it, obviously.

I feel like I haven’t read contemporary romance in ages when in reality it’s only been about four weeks, but it is one of my most read genres so that’s a long time! I’m excited to try a new author and hopefully read about someone who actually knows something about dancing. I need a good book boyfriend and I hope this book gives me that.

New Release: Deep End – Ali Hazelwood

Someone who always gives me my favourite book boyfriends, female character’s who make me laugh and share my self-deprecating, sarcastic humour and the pinnacle of nerdy, STEM characters – Ali Hazelwood.

This is a New Adult romance about college swimmers (maybe divers?) but if I’m being realistic, Ali Hazelwood could write the terms and conditions of my bank account and I would still eat it up. An auto-buy either, one of my favourite and I cannot wait to read her newest release.

25 in 2025: The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky

Yes, I’ve read this book before but I re-added it to my TBR when I got back into reading because it’s been at least a decade since I last read it and I feel like I need to check whether I still like it? This one is a little bit exempt because even if I don’t like it as much as I used to, I loved it so much when I was a teenager that I think I would keep it for nostalgia’s sake, but there are other books that I would Marie Kondo and say thank you before either putting on my Vinted or donating to a charity shop.

I forgot how short this book is and I think there is a genuine risk that I’m going to get sucked in and potentially read it in less than 48 hours. I’m really excited to re-read this and get another book ticked off my 25 in 2025!

25 in 2025: The Luminaries – Susan Dennard

And continuing the list of series I keep starting we have The Luminaries – I remember when this book came out in, maybe, 2022 (?) I was constantly in awe of how beautiful it’s cover is. Then for Christmas that year, my sibling gifted me a gorgeous sprayed edge edition of the sequel and now book 3 is also out so at least it’s only a trilogy, but it’s still another series to commit to!

I honestly couldn’t tell you anything more about this series but I’m looking forward to finding out more!

Bonus: Maximum Ride: School’s Out Forever – James Patterson

Now this isn’t a book that I technically ‘need’ to put on my monthly TBR, but more a case of ‘if I read the other six I will read this one next’.

One of my picks from my 25 in 2025 list in January was the first book in the Maximum Ride series, The Angel Experiment, which I absolutely devoured and loved feeling so nostalgic by reading, so obviously I would like to continue reading at least the six books I own physically (of the now 11 published with more still coming?) so if I get the chance to read book 2, School’s Out Forever, I will absolutely be taking it.

I have a couple of other books like this that I would like to read to continue with some series, including Glow by Raven Kennedy from the Plated Prisoner series and The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss from the Kingkiller Chronicles.

So those are the 6 books and a bonus that I plan to read in February! From my perspective at the front end of the month, where most of these books are relatively short and I think will be fast paced and engaging, this seems very achievable, but from where I am at the back end of January with just a few days left of the month and three books from my TBR still to read, experience tells me I should perhaps not be so optimistic!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx