Monthly Wrap Up: January 2020

Good morning friends and welcome back. Today, I’ll be doing my Monthly Wrap-Up for the first month of the decade.

January feels like it was super long and super short at the same time. Classes only started on the 6th of Jan, but it feels like we’ve been in school for forever. I got a good amount of reading done, I managed to write some posts, but this college + school + blogging thing is not going how I imagined it at all.

Books:

Covers are from Goodreads

So, I read 10 books last month which is great since I feel like I didn’t read anything at all. I’m 1 book behind schedule on my reading challenge, but for now I’m okay with it. I also signed up for YARC, but haven’t read any Asian books, or books by Asian authors yet. That’s mostly what I’m going to read now in February.

January was a pretty good month with only two 3 star books, while the rest were 4, 4.5, or 5 stars. So yay!

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• Heir of Fire By Sarah J. Maas – 4 | It was good. I really liked it, and the series has been getting better since this book, which I’m super glad about.

• This is Where It Ends by Marieke Nejkamp – 3 | I’m mixed. On one hand, the characters were really blah, and I didn’t care much about them. Autumn and Claire were annoying, and Tomas, Sylv, and Matt were the only one who mattered to me. Tyler was also pretty one dimensional, but the story itself is sad. All these people dying, hoping, crying, wanting to survive, it really got to me. No one should ever have to go through what these characters did, but the sad reality is that people do. And that’s something that needs to change.

• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – 4 | So, it was good, super suspenseful and creepy. Like really creepy. TBH, I did get scared at times and had to put it down and take a deep breath lol. It was kind of slow at the start as well. And then that ending. It started off great, and I was shocked and it was good. And then there was no explanation about what happened after!!! I think the author wants the reader to guess, or maybe it should be obvious? Idk, I just would have loved a more solid conclusion/epilogue.

• Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas – 4.5 | This is probably the best book in the series. All the amazing women in this book, the witches, Manon and Aelin’s fight, Dorian’s parts (which broke my heart) and honestly, it was just amazing.

• Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine – 4 | It was good, but I was put off by the characters for some reason. I would have loved to get to know the side characters better, maybe even have some chapters from their POV. But I still liked the plot and friendships a lot.

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• Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas – 4.5 | Totally not YA anymore lol. I still love all the amazing characters, especially Manon, I’m glad everyone’s paths have crossed, and I’m eager to see what happens in the next book.

• Also Known As by Robin Benway – 3 | This was so so so cheesy. It’s a fun read to pass the time, and I loved Roux, but everything else was so cheesy and insta-lovey and yeah.

• The Chain by Adrian McKinty – 5 | An absolutely amazing terrifying and thrilling book. I loved it. The idea of The Chain is so interesting, and it’s also so terrifying, because (God forbid anything like that ever happens to anyone) I would do anything to save my child as well. I couldn’t sacrifice my kid in the hopes that the police would help. I just couldn’t. And that’s really terrifying.

• Paper and Fire By Rachel Caine – 4 | It was a great sequel, and I like the characters even more and how everything’s moving now. The plot was good, but I kind of don’t want Morgan and Jess to be together. It’s just moving too fast. And I don’t really like Morgan.

• Someone We Know by Shari Lapena – 5 | I couldn’t put this book down. The secrets, the surprises, the twists, the connection of every character to the murdered woman (I don’t remember her name lol) made this so interesting because just about anybody could have been the murderer. And I totally did not guess that ending at all.

Total Number of Books Read This Month: 10

2019 Wrap-Up + YARC Sign Up

So, in the place of tags, I’ll be sharing all the 2019 wrap-up posts I did, and my YARC sign up post.

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Most Anticipated Releases of 2019 | 2019 Blogging Wrap-Up + 2020 Goals

End of Year Book Survey + Reading Wrap-Up| Year of The Asian Reading Challenge

Let’s Talk Bookish:

Audio-books | Bias Towards Books and Authors

Toxicity in the Book Blogging Community | Anxiety and Book Blogging

Required Reading

Great Posts From Around the Blog-O-Sphere:

Meeghan wrote her review of A Darker Shade of Magic, and I loved it so much

Caitlin talks about the books she’ll never read, and it’s super interesting

Kerys discusses the pros and cons of audio-books

Chana talks about her ratings and why they aren’t trustworthy, and I relate

Vera, Sabrina, and Ruzi talk about their plans for 2020, and it was so much fun to read (also welcome Sabrina!!)

Life & Blog Updates

So, my posting is completely off and I hate that. I really want to write more posts. But I’m not finding the time to do so. Even my weekends now are busy. It’s so frustrating. I have a few book tags, and a book recommendation post that I’m working on, but it’s taking me so much time to write them since I can only manage like 20 to 30 minutes each day (which is nothing)! I’ve been writing this wrap-up post for 5 days now.

At least I’m still getting a chance to read. School is stressful. College is stressful. And it’s getting to me, which it shouldn’t. Honestly, I need to chill a little bit, but I feel like I can’t. Lol, I finally understand why everyone who’s in college always complains of the stress and having so much to do in so little time.

I did get a little creative and I changed up my sidebar a bit, and got a new divider. I was starting to really dislike the old one. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new tiny changes!

I also love designing featured images. It’s just amazing putting together different fonts, colors, alignments, and pictures to create a unique header for a post. I feel like I’ve become a mini expert at it lol

I’m also not sure what other reading challenge I should join, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to share them down below!! I was thinking maybe a mystery/thriller reading challenge, but that will probably be easy, so I’m looking at maybe doing a third one as well. I’m very ambitious like that 🤦🏽‍♀️ Last year I couldn’t even finish one, and here I am wanting to do three.

My posting’s probably going to continue being sporadic, but I am still writing posts. I just need to finish/edit and publish them.

That’s A Wrap!

That’s it. I read 10 books, did 3 yearly wrap-up posts, a reading challenge sign up post, 4 LTBs, and I finally managed to post this wrap-up. So yeah, I’m proud of myself.

My goals for January were to

• read 12 books, ❌
• write 2 more wrap-ups, ✔
• write 1 book recommendation post, ❌
• write at least 4 LTBs, ✔
• write 1 creative post, ✔ (YARC counts…)
• and write 1 or 2 book reviews ❌

I met three of those goals, and failed the other three, which isn’t too bad. My goals for February are to:

• read 10 books,
• publish 5 posts besides LTB,
• write 1 book recommendation post,
• write 3 LTBs,
• write 2 book reviews,
• and figure out a schedule for my classes/organize my life

Hopefully, I’ll be able to meet all of these. Wish me luck guys!!

And that’s it for this wrap-up! How was January for you? What were your favorite books this past month? Are you taking part in any reading challenges? If so, which one? Any tips you’d like to share for my stressed self? Let’s chat in the comments below!