January Wrap Up!

Kapow! January is down! Today I bring you my amazingly awesome wrap up for January that I’m sure you’ve all been hanging onto the edges of your seats to read, yes? Good. You know for once, I’m not finding myself saying “I can’t believe January is already over!”. Nope. For me January passed in a normal and timely fashion much to David Tennant’s disappointment (and if you don’t get that reference then I am so, so sorry).

January was a pretty decent reading month for me, in total I read 9 books! I participated in two read-a-thons and started tallying up the numbers towards my Rock Your TBR challenge:

Am I pleased? Yes. I am. After receiving quite a lot of books for Christmas I was absolutely determined to get through all of those before I went on to reading the others books of mine that sit looking so tempting on my bookshelf and I STUCK TO MY GOAL. That’s a first. I’ve read a lot of great books this month and that’s always terribly exciting. I’m well on my way to ~~surpassing~~ hitting my goal of 60 books for the year, as well.

Let’s get on to the books!

Dark Destiny by Thomas Grave

I was kindly contacted my Grave himself and asked to read this for review, so I did. The premise of the book sounded absolutely incredible and like so much fun – I had grabby hands instantly. Whilst overall I was perfectly satisfied there were a couple of things that didn’t quite sit right with me and my reading experience of this felt a little bit long. Nonetheless, it was a really fun read with a whole bunch of unique ideas and plenty of street fighting. I recommend checking it out.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

According to Yes by Dawn French

As expected, According to Yes was a lot of fun. The writing style was so distinctly Dawn French that I could imagine her reading the book aloud to me as I went along. The book is suffering from some “meh” reviews on Goodreads right now but I would recommend reading it if you’re interested in doing so. It’s a light and breezy read with some really fun and quirky characters. Although it does get a little weird in parts, I still think it’s worth it. It certainly has a good message.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey

As you might know, Steampunk holds a special place in my heart. Okay, that sounds a little too romantic, but basically I really like anything Steampunk. I was super thrilled to receive this as Christmas time and gobbled it up as though it were chocolate. I enjoyed this cover to cover and I enjoyed Will even more. Who’s Will? I hear you say, well you’ll just have to read it to find out.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

I learnt two important things from this book:

I love alternate historical fiction and I need to read more.
Ryan Graudin is a woman. Not a man.

This book was a-maz-ing. I read it so quickly. In fact, I’m not entirely sure I stopped to do anything apart from read this (well, I did go and see The Good Dinosaur – it was also amazing). You’ve probably seen this book floating around by now, it was released in October 2015 but hasn’t been as talked about as I would like – this deserves more attention. The premise of the book is: what if Hitler won the war? If any of you like history I’m sure I’ve got your attention now. Please, read this. It’s a great way that Graudin has commented on the “what if” of history and presented to us, dear readers, a reality that could have been.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Man, I could not put this book down. This is a fantasy book about a land with three kingdoms who each have a problem with the other. There are a whole bunch of characters and the themes and ‘feel’ of this book have been accurately described as a YA version of the A Song of Ice and Fire series (better known by the TV series, Game of Thrones). If you like fantasy, then you’ll like this book.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron

This book broke my heart but was a fantastic read. Cambron has given us a story that takes place in two different periods and is an amazing (and unique!) war story. Half of the book takes place in the modern day and follows Sera as she tries to work out the story behind this missing portrait (and also its whereabouts) and the other half follows Adele who’s a violinist who ends up in Auschwitz for trying to help a Jewish family. If you’re looking for a good war story then this is it.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

The Sage, the Swordsman, and the Scholars by Pierre Dimaculangan

This book was kindly sent to me by Pierre himself and I was eager to read it! The premise of this story sounded fabulous and it didn’t disappoint. It’s set during Ming empire in China and just oh my goodness the battle scenes were wicked. Pierre is a really great guy who’s done his research and gave me lots of little tidbits to fill in the actual history that took place around the setting of this book. I highly recommend checking this one out guys, it’s so much fun to read!

// GOODREADS // BUY //

After the End by Amy Plum

So much yes for this book. I have finally read an Amy Plum book! Hooraay! After the End was ten times better than I was anticipating it to be and it was such an easy read because I couldn’t put the damn thing down. This is all about a post-apocalyptic world set after WWIII and the main character, Juneau, lives with a handful of other survivors in a sort of nomadic lifestyle. Except WWIII never happened, *dramatic music*. If that doesn’t have you hooked then I don’t know what will.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

This book blew my mind. In every way possible. I’d been putting off reading it for so long because I knew that people were grumbling about the ending and I didn’t want to ruin what had seemingly been an amazing series. I don’t know why I waited so long. I thoroughly enjoyed Allegiant, and, although I’m devastatingly heart-broken, I’m so glad I read it. I won’t go too much into my thoughts on it because it is the third and final book in a series so, spoilers.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

What else did I blog about this month?

I completed the Cinderella Book Tag and you see my answers for that HERE.
I participated in Bout of Books read-a-thon and you can see my updates HERE and my wrap-up HERE.
I participated in RYBSAT round 7 and LOVED it – you can see my wrap-up HERE.
I reviewed several books:
I participated in Guest of the Month and you can see Michael’s top five books to read in 2016 HERE.
I hauled volume five of the YA Chronicles subscription box HERE.
I hauled a few things from RedBubble HERE.
I showed off my mug collection HERE.
I did a belated Christmas book haul HERE.
I talked about the world of Narnia HERE.
I did my year in review for 2015 HERE.

The Statistics

Genres Read:

Pages Read:

Total: 3,459

What about me?

January has been a really relaxed month for me. I’m still on holidays for uni and I don’t go back until the end of February, yay!

I’ve finally replaced my phone and now I have an Iphone (I used to have a Samsung) so that’s all shiny and new. I’ve slowly been building up my Audible collection (audiobooks) for when I go to England in July!

I have also been on a bit of a movie rampage, revisiting some of the slightly older movies on the suggestion of a good family friend. I have two favourites so far, What Women Want, and, You’ve Got Mail (because yes, I had not seen either of those before).

I may have also found out about a second hand bookstore that I didn’t know existed . . . uh oh. It’s called ‘Pulp Fiction’ – how great is that?