Welcome to my January wrap up! It’s been a pretty good start to 2022 in terms of reading and although there’s a mix of ratings I’m happy overall with what I’ve read this month.

Here are my posts for January:

• 2022 Goals
• December Wrap Up
• 2021 Wrap Up
• Winter TBR
• February Releases

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Reading Stats

I read 7 books and 2424 pages with an average of 78 pages a day!

♡ my average rating was 3.64

♡ 4 physical books, 3 ebooks (3 ARCs)

♡ 2 fantasy, 2 horror, 2 historical fiction, 1 contemporary

♡ 5 adult, 2 YA

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The Books

★★★★★

Regardless of the other books I read, I consider January a success just for discovering two 5 star reads in a month! I already knew I would like both of these books but not to the extent of them being new favourites. The Hollow Places is just the right mix of creepiness, intrigue and humour, and it kept me entertained and on edge the whole way through. A Dowry of Blood is such a beautifully dark book and I devoured the story. The writing is lyrical and perfectly captures Constanta’s passion, hurt and defiance. Plus vampires, duh.

★★★½

Daughter of the Moon Goddess was my first read of the year and although it’s definitely not a new favourite, there were some great aspects to it. Including mythology is always a huge bonus, and the descriptions of the world created a very fairy-tale like atmosphere. I wasn’t too keen on the romance or pacing though, and I’m not exactly sure how it will be developed into a duology with the ending.

★★★

Sadly there were quite a lot of books this month that I didn’t fall in love with, but they’re by no means bad books. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea had beautiful descriptions and I did like the way Axie Oh made the story her own and reimagined mythology which tied in really well at the end. However it read a little too young to me even though the main character is 16 and I wasn’t really convinced by the romance or character motivations. I loved the backdrop of South American history in Violeta and how it’s told through one character’s life, but I didn’t particularly care about any of the characters. The writing style was beautiful and descriptive, however it bogged the story down and dragged it on a bit too much. I think The Shadow King suffered from the same thing, because some sentences and paragraphs on their own were haunting and profound, but it made the rest of the book a bit clunky and hard to read. It was fascinating to read about the Italian Invasion though. No Longer Human was a tricky one to rate but I eventually settled on 3 stars because I appreciated the overall story and Dazai’s reflections but I just didn’t really enjoy reading it and that is a crucial part of my ratings.

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Thanks for reading! How did your January reading go?

—ella♥

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