Recent Reads (01) – January 2021

In a recent ‘Let’s Chat’ discussion post, I talked about how I wanted to make my ratings more subjective and less objective, in terms of not rating right off the bat but properly considering how I felt about a book as a whole. You can read more about my thoughts on that by reading the full post, but I did mention that I wanted to write more reviews and make a note about how I felt whilst reading books, rather than just trying to remember my thoughts after finishing.

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to do some more in-depth reviews over on A Literary Latte and so in addition to my monthly wrap-ups, I’m now going to be posting mini-reviews of the books I read each month! This way I get to revisit some of my faves in more detail without making the monthly recaps crazy long, and hopefully you guys might get some more recommendations?!
^{These will also be spoiler free (unless I include a spoiler tag which you can click on if you’ve read the book!)}
Also sorry this is a little late! I actually wrote this in January but totally forgot to post it oops.

I really loved books 1 and 2 in the Once Upon A Con series (giving Geekerella 3.5 stars and A Princess and the Fangirl 4.5) but unfortunately this one fell short for me? I probably could go to 2.5 stars because it just wasn’t that enjoyable?

I disliked Vance (probably because he was awful in book 2 and I felt like book 3 didn’t give him much of a redemption) and it felt much more like insta-love than the rest of them? It just felt like the pacing was a bit off unfortunately but I would still love to read more from this series because it was really fun overall.

If you’re looking for a light, quick contemporary and can ignore the insta-love then any of the books in the series definitely deliver!

After watching the Netflix series Bridgerton and getting totally swept up in the hype (would still recommend!) I was really intrigued to try the books that the show was based on. Unfortunately though it fell a little flat.
Book 1 I did manage to get through because picturing the show and comparing the two helped me (and that fact that it was a pretty small/quick book was good). I did give it 2 stars though in the end because if it wasn’t for the show I wouldn’t have. It was just boring and not my type of book! There are also a few questionable scenes here. If you like historical fiction romance then you may enjoy this though? Maybe?

Book 2 however I couldn’t get through. I read about 100 or so pages and then had to stop because I just didn’t care about the characters. I’ll probably still watch season 2 of the show though because I did love the whole vibe of it. The soundtrack for season 1 was also incredible and I’ve been listening to that a lot.

After the disappointment of The Duke and I, 10 Blind Dates totally delivered!! It was such a lovely, light contemporary that I absolutely flew through. It was a little predictable (in that I guessed who she would end up with from the get go) but it was still really enjoyable nonetheless.
I loved the large family/friendship relationships in this one and it was such a fun concept too. Sophie’s family basically pick 10 blind dates for her and so it was really fun to see each day out play out.
Would definitely recommend this one and I can see myself rereading in future!

Could anyone really expect anything less than 5 stars for the queen of YA Angie Thomas? This a prequel to The Hate U Give, featuring the backstory of Maverick Carter and I absolutely loved it.
I’d been so excited to get to it since it was announced and it 100% delivered.
I absolutely loved reading more of Maverick and Lisa’s backstory and I flew through this one in one sitting.
If you haven’t read this but loved THUG then please do add this to your immediate tbr because it was brilliant. I’ll definitely be rereading this one!
5 stars all-round and I can’t wait to read more from Angie Thomas.

And that was all of the books I read in January 2021! Even though a couple were a bit of a disappointment, overall it was a pretty good reading month and quite a chill month overall too. I had my mock exams for my A-levels so the first half of the month was just studying, and the second was just relaxing whilst having online classes. It also snowed which was so lovely – there’s just something about the snow that is so calming and peaceful.

Hope you all had a good January and I’ll talk to you in my next post, but for now…

What books did you read in January? Have you read any of the ones I mentioned, and if so what were your thoughts? Should I do more mini-reviews? Have you seen Bridgerton and what other Netflix shows would you recommend?

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