January has been a month hasn’t it? What a start to the new year! And just think we have 11 MONTHS more to go! HAHA Its going to be wild. I do love how long January is, I know it can drag for some of us, but its really the only month of the year that feels so long. January was a great reading month for me though. I kicked off the year with some amazing reads and also very eager for the year and see what I am able to pick up. This was also a month for some good buddy reads as well. I have been sick for most of the month and just starting to feel better. I guess that is what I get for not getting sick for years other than covid lol I think the last time I had the common cold was back in 2018 LOL
Reading Stats
I read some great books this month. It was really interesting of a month though. I did try to focus on balancing out some more sub genres and did pick up some great fantasy. Which reading more fantasy romance is one of my more focused goals for the year (and I might have become hooked into rereading one of my favorites this month -Tairen Soul by C.L. Wilson). I really have had a solid month of reading. And I have been pretty good in picking up a good amount of various sub genres as is one of my goals for this year.
Books Read: 48
Audiobooks: 16
Audio Book Listening: 244:13:00
Number of Pages: 8,405
Library Books: 13
Books Acquired: 13
Re-Reads: 5
Diverse Reads: 16
Romantasy % Read: 17%
Self Pub Books:22/ Trad Pub Books: 21
Total Books For Year: 48
Historical: 3
Contemporary: 9
Dark: 5
Erotic Romance: 2
Fantasy: 12
PNR: 7
Romantic Suspense: 2
Romantic Comedy: 0
New Adult: 2
Longest Audiobook: Binding 13-25 Hours
Longest Book: War of Monsters-710 Pages
6 Stars: 8
5 Stars: 7
4.5 Stars: 7
4 Stars: 12
3.5 Stars: 1
3 Stars: 6
1-2 Stars: 3
DNF: 1
Average Rating: 4.3
Acquisitions/Savings
So one of my goals for this year, is to track my acquisitions and see what I am saving through my subscriptions and such. So each month I will be sharing my month’s current savings. Now while part of me would love to purchase everything and keep all of it, and while I do have the money to buy books, its nice to save money when and where I can especially during a recession.
January Totals:
Total Spent: $96.78
Subscription Costs: Libraries, Audible Plus, Anyplay, KU: $18.98
Total Month Savings: $181.45
Yearly Totals: $96.78
Reading Challenges
So, I am not participating in too many reading challenges this year. My focus for the year is the Goodreads (of course), Romanceopoly and a few of the reading challenges on Storygraph. Just simple ones. So below I will be sharing my reading progress with you on these every month.
Goodreads Reading Challenge
I did at the beginning of the year decided to aim for 600, however, after this month, I think it will be too stressful. There are some family trips I have planned and I want to be a bit more social and do some more inspirational study. So I am aiming for 400 this year which is still a lot of books haha So currently I am at 48/400. I am 14 books ahead of schedule.
Romanceopoly Reading Challenge-Under the Covers Book Blog
So I have completed the challenge completely. This was such a fun challenge to do! I highly recommend doing it next year. It was also great for working through some books in my TBR I have been meaning to get to. I am currently at 21% having completed 8 prompts out of 39.
Books Read
My reading for this month was Spectacular! I absolutely had a blast of reading and wow so MANY favorites and so many SIX STARS!!! I was really shocked how many of those I came across.
Top Books of the Month
Ambrose Young was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She’d been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have…until he wasn’t beautiful anymore.
Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl’s love for a broken boy, and a wounded warrior’s love for an unremarkable girl. This is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast, where we discover that there is a little beauty and a little beast in all of us.
What a wonderful story this turned out to be. This was my first time reading this author writing a full-on romance. The only other book I read from her was a historical fiction so this type of story was so different but so unique and deeply layered. Definitely one of the most emotional stories that I have ever read.
An unlikely hero…
He was once known as the Creature. An indefinable “it.” His life had never been his own, used and abused by despicable beings. Worst of all, he never knew himself.
Despite his tortured past, despite the darkness inside him, he has chosen a brighter path. He has a name—Erebu. His first stand was to defy the Master who created him to save his son. But instead of destroying the greatest enemy of all, he himself was destroyed…
An unlikely love…
From distant lands, across fathomless seas, someone heard the Creature’s cries. He gave Ere a second chance, a miraculous rebirth that came at a steep cost, remaking Ere with his own breath, body, blood and soul.
This mysterious savior has a past of his own to face, and a future to define and embrace. Will Ere be able to find him in time? Will they forge their path together or pursue separate destinies?
An end and a beginning…
No matter their decision, one thing is certain: they must work together to unite all Kinds if they have a hope of defeating their ultimate nemesis.
The end is near…
And so is a brand new beginning.
This book people was amazing! A top of the year read and also one of the most flawless MM romances I have ever read. I just loved it so so dearly. And it was so addictive, there was something so much more to this story than anything I have read from this author before.
When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.
After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.
To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish―into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.
Shadow and Bone meets Lore in this epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.
Such a beautiful story. I was shocked by how much I really loved it. Definitely worthy of the hype. And it had such a unique setting and dynamic to the relationship. If you love letters being written between a couple, you need to have this book in your life.
Honorable Mentions
I wish I could express how much I adored all of these books and could have added them also in my top favorite and they are really all over the genres here. Definitely most swoony worthy reads that I can’t recommend enough if you haven’t read them!
I loved Making Faces too! Happy to see the hype is real with Divine Rivals. I’ve seen it all over the place and was curious. January kind of flew by for me. So busy. I didn’t get near as many books read as you! Only 17 compared to your 48. That’s wonderful. I can understand scaling back from a goal of 600 books to 400 seeing that you’re taking more family trips this year. I hope you feel better!
I would have expected January to seem long after returning from the holidays and abbreviated work weeks, but it went quick for me. It’s smart to lower your challenge a bit. If you read more – bonus!
January was a quick month for me because I was so busy. I was happy to see you enjoyed Making Faces so much. I loved that book.
Can I ask a question about your totals you spent? I found it a little confusing.
You said your Total Monthly Savings was $181.45. Where did this number come from? Did you get it by adding up what all of the books you borrowed for free or used subscription services for would have cost if you didn’t have them?
You said Total Spent was $96.78. Does this include the subscriptions or just what you paid for the books you bought?
It would be interesting to add what the cost of the books you used subscription services for would have cost to see if those subscriptions were worth it. Maybe that’s something you’re keeping track out. I just couldn’t figure out how you got the $181.45.
Yes so the totals are just from my spreadsheet. The monthly savings is a combination of things. Its from library books, subscriptions like KU, or book deals/sales. Keep in mind I have 4 different library subscriptions and that saves me a LOT of money on books but I also watch kindle deals and grab books when they suddenly come on sale. So I take my total at the end of every month and minus the monthly costs of subscriptions from it and what I place in the post is the total after I take away the costs of subscriptions. I am doing this just to be more transparent on what I am spending on books but I also find it fun to see what I am saving on books by using out of state library subscriptions and KU.
Okay. That makes sense. I think it would be nice if you included the total amount you would have spent on the books from subscriptions etc so that people can see the math for the savings. Like, total cost of all books read was through subscriptions was $x. Otherwise it’s hard to see how you saved that large of an amount.
You had an awesome reading month in January!