Thursday, January 19, 2023

Halfway Through January And What I've Read

So I'm trying again with this reading thing. Halfway through last year, I completely lost my reading motivation and just read the In Death series by JD Robb again and again. Seriously, for about seven months the only books I read besides In Death books were the books my book club chose. It was very sad. I think I did read a few other books on our summer vacation but not many.

So I'm trying again. In December I discovered the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber and I read a lot of them. And then I started reading some other books and now, I find I'm once again in a period of my life where I can't stop reading. And I'm so happy! So here's what I've read since the start of this year.

A wide variety of people said this was a great book, and they weren't wrong. I loved the role of Marcellus (the octopus). I love the community around Tova. This reminded me of A Man Called Ove in that it featured a slightly grumpy, eccentric, older person, and their circle of people. This book is well worth the hype!

 I think Emily Henry is fast becoming a must read author for me. I really enjoyed this book. I loved the relationship between the sisters although I was sad for the sense of responsibility Nora felt. This was a solidly good book.

 This was a fun, sweet book but not earth shattering. It's a good book to pick up around the Christmas holidays and I'm realizing that any book set in a bakery is one that I'm going to enjoy. Don't ask me why! The premise of this book isn't original (twin sisters switch lives) but it was a fun read.

 Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove series isn't earth shattering but I really like reading about her characters. After 10 books, I'm invested in them and want to know what happens to them. I can't believe I only have two books left to read in the series. I don't want it to end.

I'm not giving up on the In Death series completely so I re-read this one, which I hadn't read in almost a year. These books will still keep showing up as ones I read this year -- I'm just hoping it won't be a whole year of reading mostly this series again!

 After all the Christmas books I read, it was refreshing to read a Channukah book. And Hannah Reynolds is a favourite new author. I really like her characters. And between this book, and the one below, I kind of want to go check out Nantucket now...

If you follow me on GoodReads, you will see that I only rated this book four stars. I wish I could give 1/2 stars though because this book would get one. I loved so much about it -- I'm just very particular with my 5 star ratings :) This felt like a tired rom-com trope (a regular person falls in love with a celebrity) but it was so well done, I was invested in the story anyways. I just loved so much about this book. I highly recommend it!

I enjoyed this story and am sad that my library doesn't carry any of the other books in the series. I would love to read more. And even though dogs were a main feature of the book (and you all know how I feel about dogs), I really liked the story anyways.

 This was a good book. I really enjoyed the story and the ending and the main characters. Even though this might be a teen novel, I still wanted to read it and see how it ended. I want to read more from this author!

 This was a fun take on a rom-com. I read it in one sitting because the story sucked me in and I stayed up way too late reading it. I wanted to see how it ended. Even though the ending was somewhat predictable, I couldn't wait to see how the author got there.

So this is what I've read thus far this year. Have you read any of these books? Have I intrigued you enough to check any of them out? Do you disagree with me on any of these titles? Most importantly, do you have anything I have to read in the next few months? Let me know!

9 comments:

  1. I have read and loved a few of these! I want to read The Summer of Lost Letters which I have on Net Galley from a year ago - or two! I have a few of those Sarah Morgan books from that series, they are pretty cute.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved Remarkably Bright Creatures!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You can 100% give Nora 4.5 stars. :) I just say it in the comments ha. I read 4 books last year with celebrity love stories and this one was my favorite and I DID give it 5 stars! I think you'd also like The Bodyguard by Katherine Center.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love The Charm Offensive. I read her second book, Kiss Her Once for Me, last month. Yay for getting your reading groove back.

    Lauren @ www.shootingstarsmag.net

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are all new for me so thanks for sharing- adding a few to my queue!

    ReplyDelete
  6. So many good books. I love eye catching covers.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You have started off the year with lots of great books!! I see a few "new" ones that I really want to add to my list and a few of my old favorites too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have "Nora Goes Off Script" waiting for me at the library for pickup. I'm nervous since I generally don't like tropes, and found "Book Lovers" way too trope-y while everyone else loved it. We'll see!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, what a busy month of reading and it isn't over yet!! I read (listened to) So Long, Chester Wheeler and really liked it. The narration was very well done. Just finished Sorry, I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come. It was pretty good. Trying to get through Winter Garden but it is taking me forever.
    I enjoyed the one Emily Henry book I've read. Had this one on my book club's consideration list but they chose something else for us to read that month. I like the sound of and cover for The Lost Letters book. Will check it out.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for being interested in my life as I blog it and for leaving a comment. Comments make me happier than reading a good book and drinking a cold Coke. Almost :)