I read a lot of books in January and it set the standard high of how many books I can possibly read in a month. Though after finishing my last book of January, I haven’t been reading much and February seems like it’s a month with only two full weeks so don’t expect six books to be in my February wrap up lol.
Since I’ve read so many books in January, I thought that I’d tier rank them from my least to most favorite. Picking out my least favorite book from this bundle is pretty easy but picking out my favorite is hard because I’ve read what I’m willing to consider as three 5 star or almost 5 star reads.
1 Star
I was being way too nice to this book after finishing it. At first, I was on team “I didn’t like this, there were a couple of problems, but there were some things I didn’t mind and laughed about”. 48 hours later, I couldn’t stop thinking about this book but not in the good way. I quickly changed to team “this is horrendous, so many problems, everyone’s awful and the romance wasn’t even worth sticking this through.” This is a British rom com of a group of friends from school reuniting for a week long celebration before two of the friends in the group get married. The main character is from a different social class than the others, in other words, her friends grew up filthy rich and she didn’t. The people in this book were awful and the author, the main character, however you want to interpret it, made excuses for their bad behavior constantly. Trigger warning for sexual assault/harassment. In the beginning, I thought the main character was okay but as the book went on, I started to dislike her too. It’s a 1 star from me or a 1.5 star if I’m being nice about the couple of times I laughed.
4 Stars
I really enjoyed this book. The only reason this isn’t higher on the list is because it was so short and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted more. I think this is the type of book that everyone needs to read at least once, but especially if you’re feeling burnt out or a little lost. I know that I’ll definitely be revisiting this book at least once a year and find something new from it each time.
Here’s a quote that I really enjoyed: “Before long, Dex was no longer nursing something as simple as an odd fancy for a faraway insect. The itch had spread into every aspect of their life. When they looked up at the skyscrapers, they no longer marveled at their height but despaired at their density — endless stacks of humanity, packed in so close that the vines that covered their engineered casein frames could lock tendrils with one another. The intense feeling of containment within the city became intolerable. Dex wanted to inhabit a place that spread not up but out.”
4 Stars
This book has a really bad rep you all, it’s not that bad, it’s not bad at all??? I was having a bad mental health week, honestly couple of weeks, and I wanted to start a series that I can just fall into and what better series than one with pretty colorful covers and really big books? This book felt truly cozy, I love the world building and learning about Feyre. I liked how she was smart with things (until she wasn’t and had me rolling my eyes until I could see the back of my brain) and stood her ground. I liked her sisters and knew right away that they’re going to be real interesting to read about in the future. I wouldn’t go as far to say it’s a retelling but it does borrow some events/themes from “Beauty and the Beast” which was pretty fun. My main quip with this book is that Feyre kept talking about how everything was this color she couldn’t name or desperately wanted to paint and it was the same sentence thrown around every couple of pages or so and I was like girl, I get it. You like to paint. But other than that I had a great time.
4.5 Stars
I discovered this author January last year and it honestly introduced me to a writing style and genre I still don’t know how to describe but truly love. It’s so mesmerizing, gripping, and eerie. This book follows our main character as she tries to reintroduce wolves back into the Scottish highlands. We’re introduced to a group of mysterious and unreliable characters from both her present and past. From her present timeline, we meet the local police chief, angry farmers, and her twin who doesn’t like to leave their house and in the past timeline, we meet her twin’s ex, their wilderness loving father, and their lawyer mother who’s determined to shake the wild out of our main character. And of course the wolves are just as much a character in this story as well as everyone else. Trigger warning for domestic abuse, physical abuse, PTSD, and emotional abuse. I truly loved this book, the way it sucks you into this forest and the journey of these wolves and our main character as they acclimate to this environment that truly wants them gone.
5 Stars
This is ranked over “Once There Were Wolves” because while I truly loved “Once There Were Wolves”, this book had more of a tension filled plot. They’re both have high intensity moments but this book had more moving parts than “Once There Were Wolves”. “Little Eve” follows this “family” living in an abandoned castle, once again in Scotland, as they wait for this “reckoning” their religion promises. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t know much going into this book and I personally feel like you should know very little as well. If you like *cough* *cough* cults, this is a good one for you but I’ve never read a book about a cult and thought that this book was in a whole other genre. I was expecting something else so when I realized what was happening, I was as the youth once said, shooketh. This book was honestly creepy and gripping from the beginning to the end and I liked how it was short and the pacing of the chapters made it a fast read. It’s got the perfect mix of a Victorian setting, creepy cult, and unreliable characters. I highly recommend it. It does have windy writing so it’s a book you’re going to have to really pay attention to.
5 Stars
I’m calling this book cozy again and in this situation, it’s definitely a wrong word to use lol. This book is a lot darker than the first one and as the title suggests, it does explore Feyre’s fury. The character growth in this book is phenomenal. The way the author paints a visual of this toxic and abusive relationship without using too many words honestly is an art of itself. So trigger warnings for toxic relationships and emotional abuse. It’s hard to talk about this book since it’s a sequel but if you thought the world building was great in the first book, prepare to read even more great world building. We explore a whole new part of the Faerie world in this book and are introduced to a new set of characters. We love a good found family. I love how this book is a perfect balance between politics, adventure/action, and romance. My favorite part of this book has to be the way the ending came together. The author pulled this thread she had wound around the plot, unseen to the readers, and let chaos unfold. I personally cannot wait to read more.
