The start of a new year and a new reading challenge! This year I’ve set my challenge at 100 books again and so far, so good! January has been an excellent reading month, mostly I’ve read shorter books because I just haven’t been able to concentrate on anything too long. I’ve also started to fall back in love with audiobooks! A positive start!

I was sent a copy of The Sad Ghost Club so that I could take part in the blog tour last week (take a read here) and it was a great book to read after the stress of 2020 and the gloom of another lockdown. I highly recommend and gave it 4 stars. Next up was a collection of poetry I picked up in the Waterstones sale Poems To Save The World With was a tricky one to review. I absolutely adored the illustrations and it’s a beautiful book, but I wasn’t that enamoured with the quite a few of the poems included, but that’s just down to personal preference!

I was also sent Here The Whole Time by Vitor Martins by the team at Bkmrk , a translated novel about two teenage guys who get to know each other more over the summer after one of them has had a crush for years. This was really sweet and I flew through it, I don’t know how anyone could read it and not fall in love with Filipe. A 4.5 star read for me.

There was definitely a gentle romance vibe with these two. Next up I read The Falling In Love Montage by Ciara Smith. It had been on my radar for ages and on my bookcase for a while and I really loved this book. I loved the characters, I loved the plot being focused around coming to terms with illness and family as well as romance and the ending was perfect. It was also my first 5 star read of the year!

I was sent a copy of Gut Feelings by C.G Moore and invited to the virtual book launch in January. Not only is Chris a lovely human but he’s written a spectacular book about invisible illness, going through medical trauma in your teens and early twenties, love, sex and working out who you are when your body isn’t the norm. It’s also written in verse with a fantastic layout. Another 5 star read!

Next up was another Waterstones sale purchase and I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful the cover is. This is an exploration of a life through books in a relatable way, Dear Reader was the comfort I needed. It’s also a book full of different kinds or reads rather than just a load of classics, which collections of this kind normally are. Also, I reached out to Cathy to thank her for such a wonderful book that gave me hope and she was so kind to reply back. I finished this one and immediately ordered her previous book.

My first audiobook of the year was Seven Kinds Of People You Find In Bookshops by Shaun Bythell. It was only 2 hours long but felt longer. This one really wasn’t for me, the use of latin, the judgments of people just didn’t sit right with me and seemed a little snobby. This was a 2 star read.

Last, but certainly not least, is The Last Act of Love also by Cathy Rentzenbrink. This is the story of Cathy and her brother, Matty who was hit by a car at 16 and sustained a brain injury which lead to him being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). We go from meeting Cathy and Matty before the accident and seeing their relationship to the hope the family has after the accident, through Matty’s care and ultimately when he passes. This book will touch your heart and make you want to cuddle your loved ones close. Cathy did a fantastic job putting everything into words. 5 stars, without a doubt.

What did you read in January?

Let me know in the comments below!