I read 7 books in January. I'm so proud of myself that I stayed focused and tried to read everyday. There were a couple books that I did have to put down, but I'm happy I did. Leaving books that aren't working for me is something I promised to do in 2017 and obviously with 7 books read it's working. 

I read;

Breathless by Beverly Jenkins                    4 stars

Man on the Run by Carl Weber                   4 stars

The Score by Kiki Swanson                         3 stars

The Mark by Kiki Swanson                          3 stars

Copycat by Kimberly Lawson Roby             3 stars

A Note Yet Unsung by Tamera Alexander   3 stars

Luxury & Larceny by Ty Marshall                2 stars

It was a good month and in February I'm expecting to read more and hopefully read more 5 and 4 star reads.

January has been a good month for me reading wise. I read 9 books!! (NOT including my re-reads - more on that later). Otherwise it has been pretty much like this:

Technically its storm season in QLD and we continuously get storm warnings, for the last two weeks they have been warning us today is the day! and yet nothing..... we might get a shower for 20 minutes, some lighting and thunder but no actual storm.... and because there hasn't been a sufficient amount of rain its HUMID AS FUCK. When I say humid I mean we can sit of our asses and be soaking wet -_- not something I particularly enjoy. Its currently midnight and still 26C with 89% Humidity (which according to my phone makes it feel more like 28C, at MIDNIGHT!!!) This time last year we had hail storms and floods << not something I'm hoping for but I just want this miserable weather to be over with, then we have these crazy people who actually enjoy this heat!!!

Anyways onto more important things. I read a surprisingly large amount of books this month, I can't even recall the last time i managed to fit in this many books! (looks like being jobless isn't all bad).

Top 3 books of January
This month I had quite a few exceptional reading experiences. Starting off with...

In the Hand of the Goddess

✮✮✮✮ 1/2
This book was fantastic and beyond anything i could have hoped for. I can't thank Shera enough more for pushing my to read this series. Tamora and this series in particular has been something I've been meaning to read for years, and I'm so glad I finally have. Alanna is such an exceptional MC, and a fantastic role model for the younger generations (though I would choose someone else *cough cough, George*  for her romantic interest instead, lol)

Updating Pritkin

✮✮✮✮✮
This is a short story based in the Cassie Palmer world (book 5.5)
UP was an excellent example of why I love Cassie so much! Even though under the circumstances she should have been crazy with grief and fear, instead she was having the time of her life kicking demon ass while waiting for the rest of the 'badass' to catch up!! On top of that its a free short story - oh how Chance spoils us so!! gotta love it! (^_*)


✮✮✮✮✮
Have I ever told you how much I love Kate Daniels and this series!? No?

To help you understand it is ^^that^^ good and made me do things like this

So good I wont even sum it up in words, just show off handy Gifs. Really what you need to do is run out and go check it out for yourself. Then we can have our minds blown together.
And this book was no less exceptional than all the rest, it has intense action/fighting scene's, some very serious life and death scene's where i constantly found myself holding my breath due to all the anticipation and drama, good laughs and some cute touching scenes. It had it all trust me.

Enjoyable Reads

✮✮✮✮

✮✮✮✮

✮✮✮ .5

✮✮✮ .5

✮✮✮.5

Re-Reads

Cause they are AMAZING!!

Worst Book


Why is this even a book? it was truly atrocious. It had no redeeming characters, the name makes zero sense in connection with the actual story, and the story line was just blah and don't even get me started on the writing!. It could have been so good, the bases it there!! but it just goes so wrong

DNF

Nope. Just no.

Currently Reading

The First two of which I am contemplating DNFing. -_- sigh.
Besides my current reads overall a very successful reading month. I am quite happy with it!!

Well Goodbye January Hello February and hopefully cooler weather!!

Highly anticipating Deadpool

January was a stellar month for reading. I finished a lot of fine books this month (but didn't necessarily read every page of every one of these in January). Here's the list:

Puppet Graveyard, by Tim Curran - This novella is quick and nasty, with great imagery. It was leavened with humor. And, of course, it had creepy puppets. Who doesn't love creepy puppets?

Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination, by Edogawa Rampo - This was an impulse buy. I got it on the cheap from Amazon mainly because I liked the cover. While reading the introduction, I thought the book was some sort of hoax when it claimed the author's pen name was basically a phonetic spelling of the name 'Edgar Allen Poe' spoken with a Japanese accent. I immediately looked the dude up and found out that he was the real deal and very influential in Japanese mystery fiction. Sorry, Japan. I did not know. And, man, I'm sure glad I know about this author now. His story "The Human Chair," which kicks off this collection, is simply fantastic. The remainder of the tales were very good, too, surreal and mysterious. I'll be reading more from Rampo.

The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain - I listened to the audiobook version of this classic noir tale, read by Stanley Tucci. Highly recommended.

Click-Clack the Rattlebag, by Neil Gaiman - This was a short freebie I downloaded long ago. If you downloaded it from Audible, a donation went to charity. It was a pleasant enough little horror story, but Gaiman's narration is a bit too treacly for my taste. (Note: This doesn't appear to still be available from Audible.)

Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories, by China Miéville - This was an excellent collection. After reading Miéville's first collection, Looking for Jake, I thought that perhaps he just wasn't a short story guy. This one proved me wrong though. I love Miéville for his imagination, his original ideas, and the way he's able to communicate some of the craziest concepts so effectively through prose. This book won't be for everyone. Some of these stories are experimental, many are abstruse, and many more are like wonderful unresolved mysteries. 

You Shall Never Know Security, by J.R. Hamantaschen - This is the second collection I've read by Hamantaschen in two months, which should tell you something. I enjoy the author's unique voice and the unrelenting hopelessness of his tales. They are so bleak that you have to throw up your hands and surrender with bewildered and uncomfortable laughter. I think of his stuff as being a sort of cross between Sam Pink and Laird Barron.

Flesh and Coin, by Craig Saunders - I am envious of Saunders's Spartan prose. It's always efficient and often poetic. I'll be reading all his stuff. Oh, the story? Yeah, yeah, that was good, too.

Come, by E. Lorn - A vicious little piece of viscous, passive-aggressive nastiness. 

Hell House, by Richard Matheson - I've been meaning to read this one for years. I shouldn't have put it off. Was it scary? Not really. But I  didn't expect it to be. Nor did I expect it to be so fantastically lurid; I was pleasantly surprised. 

My pick for Book-of-the-Month? It's exceedingly hard to decide, but I'll have to go with Miéville's Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories. It wins by the sheer brute force of imagination on display. 

I don't like reading slumps. I've been in once sing December and while I've read a few books, it's not at a normal rate. I read three books in January. Three! I'm embarrassed. I think February will be a good reading month, I've finished a book already and am....1/4 into another book that I will mention later.

Even though, I'm late with this, I'm still doing this before Valentines Day. (Which I don't celebrate so...)

Moving on!!

The first book I finished was My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick which I already have a full thoughts/review on it which you can check out here. In short though, I did it enjoy it for the most part. I connected with Samantha and her and Jace's relationship was adorable. There was one small issue I had at the end but it wasn't that big of a problem.

After that I read Prodigy by Marie Lu and that took me two weeks. It was such a good sequel and I think I liked it more than Legend which is saying something because I loved Legend. This book was so good. The romance in this book was so much better than in Legend-especially that one bathroom scene! Hello that was a bit steamy. I also liked how visual this one was-despite my lack of imagination-and how descriptive Marie Lu was with in this one and how expansive the world became. I also really liked how June was struggling with trying to not revert back to how she used to act. There were certain things she would say that came off insensitive because Day grew up poor and June didn't. She would catch herself and I appreciated that because other authors wouldn't think of that (or at least that I've read anyway.)

The whole time though I was hoping that Anden wouldn't be killed or turn into a dbag and while that didn't happen-thankfully-THE ACTUAL PLOT TWIST WAS SO GOOD. I was actually surprised I didn't see it coming as normally I would.

I actually spoiled the ending of Champion for myself but I was hoping I was wrong. And then the ending happened. Marie Lu, why you gotta play me like that?

Then the last book I powered through was The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black. I will be doing a full review on this book because it has me torn. On one hand, I liked it. I like Holly Black's way of writing. On the other, there was just something that didn't sit right with me. I think it's because I don't like Faerie books. Normally they just confuse the crap out of me. 

The books I read weren't bad but that slump was getting to me. It's kicking my butt!

February seems to be looking better. I read Landline by Rainbow Rowell and I'm currently reading Stolen Songbird by Danielle L Jensen. I think I'm going to pick up Crown of Midnight once I'm done with Stolen Songbird and Sentinel after that.

Hopefully I stick to those books though!