I finished five books this month in between classes, and real life! Which is much more than I expected. I thought it would be more like… two books. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been on here, and it will probably continue to be sporadic for me. As always, my reads are romances because I am a closet romantic, and certified softie, but don’t tell anyone.
January 2021 Reads:
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (am actually half-way through this on audible for the second read!)
Corrupt by Penelope Douglas (not pictured above since it was on Kindle Unlimited)
The Dating Plan by Sara Desai
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Thoughts Below:
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Unfortunately, I just don’t have the mental capacity to properly tell you just how much I adored this novel. Truly. It’s a comfort item to me. Hello, this is my emotional support novel. I love it, and there are so many pages tabbed in my copy that it is honestly just absurd. 5/5
Corrupt by Penelope Douglas
This was a pick of mine for book club with my two friends. None of us finished this book, but I did skim through. I found that I liked some of the more graphic scenes, and even the romance between Rika and Michael later on, but I don’t think I could have rooted for them if I’d actually read the first 100 pages.
It’s also possible that maybe it just wasn’t for me! I also can’t rate it considering I didn’t finish it.
The Dating Plan by Sara Desai
This was my January book of the month pick, and unfortunately, I flat out didn’t like it after the first 100 pages. But I stuck it out because I hate to DNF.
I don’t like to leave negative comments on books, so we’ll just leave it at that. 2.5/5
Beach Read by Emily Henry
This is a romance I do fuck with. I love everything about it. Two authors falling in love. 5/5.
Will read again during the summer when I totally don’t go to a beach because I live in Oklahoma.
Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
This book is the absolute shining jewel of my haul this month. I loved the romance, I truly did but the best part was the growth of these two halves of one relationship. They grow individually and together. They have their flaws, and their hang-ups, but there is so much acceptance.
The representation is excellent. Please, please read this book. I can’t put it into words. 5/5.
What did you read this month?
My January haul post will probably get posted tomorrow, and again, I have bought more books than I realized and have to put myself on a strict no book buying stint until March. I made an Instagram too in case you want to follow along there where it’s easier to post frequently! It’s @ hashtagkelseyreads
I should probably tell you that I’ve been reading all my life (I have) or something whimsical about how I learned to love reading (I mean, I guess I could) but that seems a little fake to me, so I’ll do something else. And if this is long (it will be), that’s because I never shut up.
Hi, I’m Kelsey. I created this blog with two of my very best friends who also love to read, and while I don’t think anything I have to say is too important, I hope you’ll stick around anyway! I’ve loved to read since elementary school, which was definitely a side effect of me not having friends, and after high school, I stopped reading altogether. That changed this year though, and I couldn’t be happier for it.
What I like to read: I still love reading Young Adult, and I guess I probably always will. I love reading adult romances, and will almost always seek out a romantic element to any book I pick up. But a good book is a good book, and I’ll give most things a try. I love a good historical romance, or a cowboy romance, and most recently, circuses!
Favorite tropes: enemies to lovers until the day I die, oh-no-one-of-the-characters-needs-a-bodyguard, any type of story where they’re talking to one another without knowing who the person is, and any story that resembles a Hallmark movie plot. (But for the love of everything, can we get some diversity?)
Books I always re-read: Along for the Ride & Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen. In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren (most recent read that has landed on my favorites list!). Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. I’ve added the Caraval series to my favorites and this list is beginning to grow more and more!
My Reading Wishlist for 2021: While it’s my hope I can actually go outside again next year, I’ve got my doubts. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab. Book club and I have decided to read this and I can’t wait to relish every word. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas. Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin. I’m reading From Ash and Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout too! And I’m finally going to catch up with Sabaa Tahir’s series!
Reading Goals for 2021: I’m starting university in January so I’m going to try and keep my goals very simple since this is a hobby. I want to read 40 books next year, but the most important thing I want to do is read more books by POC creators. Nearly every book I see in the shop here, or have been recommended to me is not by a POC, and I want to change that as soon as possible. So, if you have any recommendations for that, please send them to me!
Five Facts About Me:
I really couldn’t read when I was supposed to be able to, and my librarian let me sit on the floor for lunch while I practiced.
In January 2021, I’m starting my program for my bachelors degree! My major is in Forensic Psychology. Can my textbooks count as books read?
I’m writing a YA novel. It’s slow going, and may never see anything outside my computer, but it’s been the most enjoyable twenty thousand words I’ve ever written.
I have the uncanny ability to put my foot in my mouth around any attractive person, ever. It never fails.
I have a stutter! It’s not a fun fact, but I figure they can’t all be fun.
“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my like guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.”
There may be a typo up there, but I’ve already drafted it so enjoy my mistake until I fix it.
It’s the end of the first week here at this blog, though technically it’s only the second day that we’ve been live. On Sundays, I’ll be posting weekly wrap-ups with what I’ve been reading all week, my thoughts, and hopefully a graphic that I’ve spent too much time on. At least that’s the idea. School may not allow for blogging much, but I’ll wing it when I get there.
In case the graphic doesn’t load, everything is mentioned down here again so there’s nothing to miss! Keep in mind, there will be spoilers for titles mentioned below the line, and also please do not spoil me if I’ve mentioned that I’ve not finished it yet. :)
This week I read...
In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (in progress)
In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
Rating: 5/5
Warnings: no hard warnings. This is a very light read.
Thoughts about this book
I picked this book as part of my December box for Book of the Month Club and I almost didn’t read it this month at all. After finishing Serpent & Dove though, I decided that I really wanted some holiday cheer since I didn’t have any. It’s a good thing I did because this ended up being my favorite read of the year, and right at the final buzzer too.
Our protagonist, Mae, ends up in a time loop when she makes a stray wish to the universe: Show me what will make me happy. I had my doubts about whether I would like the plot since it seems a little silly, and I wanted something with some substance. Pleased to admit that I was wrong about all of my thoughts at the beginning. Thing is, this book is silly. In fact, it’s downright hilarious and I laughed out loud so many times I lost track. It’s also serious in the right spots, but really it’s a tender story about getting your one true love. However, it’s not only a love story.
It takes a while for Mae to throw caution to the wind. Approximately two return trips to the plane (with a courtesy whack to her brother’s face, actually) in, Maelyn Jones decides that none of this matters because she’s just going to start over anyway. In a fantastic outburst, she barks at her dad not to eat the cookie (he’s going to break his tooth on it), and a slew of other orders because she’s so fed up with it all. Then we see this woman start living when she hasn’t been, and to be completely honest, you don’t even realize it’s happening at first.
She doesn’t realize it either.
Andrew Hollis is the older brother of Theo (and Theo’s been carrying a torch for Mae, it seems) and also the brother Mae has spent years of her life pining after. They’re wicked close, wondrously hilarious together, and by the end of the book - No. By the time I was a quarter of the way through, I was pretty sure I was going to be in love with him too. Half-way in, I knew I was.
I could go on and on about this book, but I’m going to spare you because a) I need to learn to be more concise with reviews and b) I really want you to read it and see if you love it as much as I did.
The Funniest Moment for Me:
I simply cannot pick one moment, but if I have to, I plucked the one out of my head that I thought of first.
When they were kids, Mae painted their initials on the bottom of a mug. The full thing of MJ + AH and it’s adorable. Later, Mae admits it to Andrew, and he holds it up to the light in an equally adorable way and realizes that he can still see it, even though it’s been painted over.
Favorite Scenes
I’d like to say the entire book, just for the record, but I can’t. Or can I? I kind of make the rules for my own posts, don’t I?
Every single moment spent in the boathouse, even the ones that made my eyes water. They’re so perfect together, and I just love this couple, and this story so much I can hardly begin to explain it.
What I learned from this story:
Mae is stuck in a rut. In a job she doesn’t love, living with her parents, and without the love life that she wants. The shift in her is a dramatic one, and you have to root for her. I know I did because I saw too much of my own traits in her. A job I don’t love anymore, a position in life I don’t want anymore, the list goes on.
Mae didn’t need the great love of her life to change everything, but she starts knocking down walls, and starts taking everything she wants. She tells the truth (that she has feelings for this man, that she hates her job,) and she tells Andrew. She quits her job in the twenty seconds of bravery that she’s always had, but has just unlocked.
So, if there is something to take away from this, it’s that you’ve just gotta go for it.
This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens
Rating: 3/5
Warnings: Therapist Sessions, Mention of Miscarriage, A Garbage Parent, Depression, and Anxiety. Please mind that these warnings are for mentions inside the novel as well, and not necessarily something that happens to either of the leads.
Thoughts:
This one was part of my November box for Book of the Month Club! I decided to read this since NYE is right around the corner, and bam, this one happens to open on NYE.
I enjoyed this book. It was a fun romance, but it was more than that too. Minnie Cooper believes in a New Years jinx that started the night she was born, when her mother helps another woman through labor and delivery, and this woman wins a prize for the first baby born. Not only that, this woman takes what was meant to be Minnie’s name: Quinn.
Listen, the joke Minnie Cooper was funny for about twenty pages before I really began to hate it. The book is over 300 pages. It’s one of those things I could deal with, but never really got past because it annoyed me so much. Moving on!
A chance encounter leads to the meeting of Quinn and Minnie at a birthday party on NYE. As you can guess, it’s a party for Quinn. There are several encounters between these two through the book, and each one of them left me wanting to get to the next one.
The main storyline is told in a linear fashion, but there are flashbacks from both characters too. At first, you may not realize that these two have met before. Or maybe you do realize it and I’m just so oblivious it hurts. Probably that one.
I liked the romance, but what really caught my eye was the issues raised within the book. One character regularly attends therapist sessions in an effort to help themselves, in an effort to get better. The terrible issue of miscarriage is brought up (but this does not happen to either of our leads, but is still important!) and then we are living through a year in the life of these characters as they try to find what makes them happy.
I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. It ranked as a ⅗ for me for a few reasons. I wanted more development. The romance felt a little lacking in some spaces, and I’m not sure if that’s because I had just finished In A Holidaze the day before, but it felt lukewarm to me.
I appreciated the issues raised, and mostly enjoyed the way they were handled, but I wish some of them had been expanded on. I wasn’t a fan of brief time skips (where they could be a few months at a time) because it felt like a hole in the plot.
Minnie Cooper. It’s hard to get into a story where I dislike the name so much.
I just did not enjoy a part of the book that involved Minnie, her best friend Leila, and the proposal for Leila from her boyfriend that Minnie helped plan. It was meant to be funny, but it was more cheesy and it fell flat for me.
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin
Rating: 5/5
Warnings: Misogyny, violence in parts, religious zealots (in case that’s something that makes you uncomfortable like it did me), derogatory slurs toward women.
This one has been on my TBR for a long time, and I finally dug into it. From the first day of reading, I was not sure I was going to finish it. Religion plays a central focal point to the plot of the first book, and one of my friends told me to press on, because it’s not as prevalent in book two. I don’t know about that yet, because I haven’t read it.
I have so many pages marked in this book for how much I loved it. Truly. Lou is witty, quick to snap, and Reid’s character development is something I’ve marveled at. Going in, I knew there would be a forced marriage, but I wasn’t at all sure how it would come into play. I have to admit, it was a pretty creative way to go about it.
Watching these two characters orbit each other, with each of their harsher exteriors beginning to come down has to be my favorite part, and the main reason I pressed through the parts that creeped me out.
Reading Reid say the word fuck was a highlight for me. I have so much to say about this one, but I’m planning to write a proper review, and to show my annotations, so I’ll save that for another day!
Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard
Warnings: None that I’ve seen yet.
Rating: too soon to tell
This is a book club read for my friends and I. It’s taken a bit for me to get into, but these are some of my notes up to where I was last night at page 93.
It’s quite interesting, and books set in a dystopian world have never held my attention well. So, I’ve been struggling to really sink into it versus how well I fell into Caraval.
The main character is beginning to grow on me more, and I’m curious to learn more about Cal and Maven. I’m certain that Cal is going to break my heart (don’t tell me if he’s going to) and also what will happen with Kilorn now that Mare will no longer be living in Stilts.
I’ll finish it in the next couple of days, so hopefully I’ll have really grown to like it by next week’s post.
What about you? What have you been reading this week? Sorry this is so long too. Eventually I’ll learn how to be more the point because nearly two thousand words is kind of embarrassing.
Not quite sure how far she’d already fallen, she imagined loving him would be like falling in love with darkness, frightening and consuming, yet utterly beautiful when the stars came out.
