January Wrap-Up & February TBR

→ Well, this month has been a hoot. I started the year off strong – working out, eating healthy, keeping with a routine – and then sickness just hit us all. It’s actually unbelievable how often my husband, son, and I get sick. I’ve been sick twice just this month – first with a stomach bug, then a cold. My son got the stomach bug I got then, at the same time, got a cold. The poor kid was struggling for days but there wasn’t much I could do until it all just ran its course. My husband had to stay home from work for a week because of the illness he got. Then, my mom had a short hospital stay because of colitis.

It’s safe to say that the rest of January ended up being one unproductive mess. I don’t even know how the toilets got cleaned. But I did manage to read, work on my book, and do some blogging. So, it wasn’t a complete loss! My husband and I also had a lot of time to binge movies and shows so expect a bit of a roundup of reviews coming soon!

• BROTHER by Ania Ahlborn – [Goodreads] This is a horror book, supposedly. I think the reviews ruined it for me, to be honest. They all made it seem so much more gory and insane, but it wasn’t. I wrote a full review for this – you can check it out here.
• THE KISS QUOTIENT by Helen Hoang – [Goodreads] Another disappointment for me. I’ve only heard good things about this one, so I’m in the minority, but so many things made me feel uncomfortable. You can check out my full review here.
• ESSENTIALISM by Greg McKeown – [Goodreads] Technically I’ve been working on this one for months, but I finished it in January so I’m going to count it. This was an amazing motivator. I enjoyed almost everything about it – which was surprising because I never read self-help books. Review to come.
• DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid – [Goodreads] Ok, so, as of writing this wrap up I’m still listening to this one BUT I’m writing it on Monday which means I have a day and a half to finish the 2 hours that I have left. So far, it’s alright. Review to come.

• THE LAST CITY by H.J. Nelson – [Goodreads] I had the privilege of beta reading this book last year and absolutely loved it. I think she ended up changing a few things so I’m excited to reread it and see what’s different. It’s the sequel to The Last She – which I adored and reviewed last year.
• A RUINOUS FATE by Kaylie Smith – [Goodreads] I saw this around and bought it. That’s really all there is to it 😆
• THE MIGHT OF GABRIEL by A. Winchester – [Goodreads] In my early blogging years, I read this author’s first book (she went by a different name at the time). I loved it, but I think she ended scrapping it and putting all of her effort into her new demon hunting series. I can’t wait to give her new adventure a try!
• THE STRANDED by Sarah Daniels – [Goodreads] I believe I saw a review for this on It Starts At Midnight and because I trust every review she writes, and she usually likes the same dystopian style books I like, I bought it 😀

THIS WOVEN KINGDOM by Tahereh Mafi – [Goodreads] I’m actually hoping I’ll be done with this one by the time this post goes up but I highly doubt that. Instead, I’ll probably be 75% of the way through. I’m enjoying it so far! Though, it is kind of slow.

FINLAY DONOVAN JUMPS THE GUN by Elle Cosimano – [Goodreads] I read the first two last year. I absolutely adored the first one, the second one was alright, but I’m still going to give this one a try. Especially because one of my favorite book clubs chose it as the botm with an author discussion at the end of the month!

I don’t have a lot to share here right now. I’m currently in the brainstorming phase as I rework a lot of my ideas from last year. In fact, I’m basically scrapping all 28,000 words I’ve already written. Yep, 28k words. But I’m feeling good about the new direction I’m going in. I’m hoping by the end of February I can have some new character aesthetics to share with you 🙂

How was your January? Did 2023 start off on the right foot? Or is February going to be the start of your “new year” 😆 ?