January 2022 Reading Wrap Up

We’ve made it through the first month of the year! Hopefully by now you’ve gotten used to writing or typing 2022 instead of 2021, but if you haven’t there are still 11 more months to get used to it! I had a pretty great month overall, so I’m sad to see this month come to an end, but I do have lots of fun things to discuss in terms of my reading and other bookish related things, so I’m going to stop my rambling and get to the point!

Books Read:

I read 8 books this month! And while, unfortunately, there were no 5 stars this month, there also were no 1 or 2 stars, since I really enjoyed everything I read in January! Not only that, but I feel very accomplished with my reads this past month. Half my reads were NetGalley ARCs, while the other half were physical TBR books that I really wanted to get around to for a while. On top of that I’ve started 2 other books that you’ll hopefully see in my February wrap up, that I’ve been pushing off starting for months now! So this month truly was great in terms of what I read!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I had started Yes, & I Love You back in October and then put it down for unknown (probably slump related) reasons. I finally picked it back up in January and continued enjoying the story through the end!

---

Then there’s Sweetest in the Gale, which was hands down my favorite read this month. It’s a short story collection by Olivia Dade that’s in her There’s Something About Marysburg series, but you can definitely read it as a standalone. I adored each of these 3 stories so very much. They were each so different, but they had me laughing and swooning in the short page count that it took to read each couple’s story! I gave it 4.5 stars, and I would 10/10 recommend it if you’re looking for some short stories focusing on love!

---

As for Lease on Love, I have a review that goes into everything I loved an the one aspect I didn’t, if you want my full thoughts! I actually releases today, on the 1st of the month, so definitely check it out!

---

I finally managed to get to A Lot Like Adios! I picked this book up soon after its release in September and have been meaning to get to it ever since. I really enjoyed this one! I thought Gabe and Michelle were lots of fun together, and I’m curious to see what Alexis Daria puts out next!

---

Next we have an ARC I picked up on a whim. I had a week in January where I was struggling against a reading slump, and this was the book I picked up that managed to break it. So even though it comes out in May, I’m glad I read it now! This is a friends to almost enemies to lovers forced proximity fake engagement book. It has all the tropes and was a lot of fun, and you’ll be getting my full thoughts closer to its release, but it’s definitely one that I recommend keeping your eye out for!

---

Lastly in the 4 star section we have Window Shopping. I have to say, Tessa Bailey’s recent releases have been working for me! This follows a unique spin on a grumpy sunshine pairing mixed with a boss employee relationship, but it really just worked! Plus, I thought that it was really interesting getting to learn about how storefront windows are designed! It Happened One Summer is still my favorite Tessa Bailey, but I think this is my next favorite!

---

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Unfortunately both of my 3 star reads were review copies. I’ve already posted my thoughts on Love & Other Disasters in my review, but in short, I just didn’t love it as much as I hoped I would!

The Suite Spot is a March ARC that I read a bit early, but don’t have much to say about. I read it at the perfect time for me, when I needed something cute but a bit mindless. This is definitely that! It’s a sweet story, but not very memorable. If you’re looking for a run of the mill romance though, this might be perfect for you, just like it was exactly what I needed at the time that I read it.

Books Acquired:

One of the things I was very conscious of this month was how many books I purchased. I set myself a goal of only 60 books a year, which averages out to 5 a month, so I was determined to only buy 5 in January to set the year off on a good note. After all, I didn’t want to purchase a third of the books I’m allowed this year in the very first month of the year! But I’m proud to report that as a result of enormous amounts of self control, I managed to keep to only 5 books purchased!

Purchased:

I honestly first really heard of Something Fabulous around a few weeks ago, but having loved Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, I quickly preordered this queer historical romance! It arrived 2 weeks before its release date on accident, but unfortunately I still haven’t read it yet. But hopefully I’ll get to it soon!

---

I had also pre-ordered Weather Girl months ago, and that finally arrived this month! I can’t wait to read it when I need a cute romance in my life!

---

Then I visited McNally Jackson in Brooklyn for the very first time, and of course I had to buy a book from there, so I purchased Just Roll With It, which is a graphic novel I had my eye on for a while!

---

I purchased Under the Whispering Door on a trip to Barnes && Noble with a friend. I’m proud to report that I only bought one book during that trip, while she purchased three! (So maybe she was planning on getting a few to begin with so she’d have what to read on vacation. And maybe this isn’t even a contest of who bought more or less. Doesn’t matter. Point is, I won!)

---

Then while Barnes & Noble was having 50% off select hardbacks, I caved and purchased Any Way the Wind Blows. I’ve been told I won’t like it, but when you get 50% off a hardcover that you’re unsure about buying, sometimes you just buy it!

NetGalley:

Honestly, while I did amazingly in terms of self-restraint in terms of purchasing books, I may have gone a bit overboard on NetGalley this month and ended up adding 6 new titles to my TBR. Instead of, you know, reducing said TBR. But I can explain! And I will! But first, let’s talk about the 3 titles where I have no one to blame but myself!

First, as you’ve already seen, I accepted the widget I had for The Suite Spot, but that was only because I intended to read it immediately! And I did!

Then I got accepted for Fake It Till You Bake It, which had been pending for a while now, and I’m quite excited for.

But where I really was impulsive was with Maggie Moves On. I had never heard of this book before, but when I read the synopsis and saw it was Read Now for a few more hours only, I just had to have it! And so my NetGalley TBR grew!

---

But now comes the fun part where I get to tell you something really cool that happened to me that also leaves me blameless for the addition of these 3 books to my NetGalley account!

You see, I was really excited for these three titles, and I noticed that Harlequin published them all. So I figured, why not shoot my shot, and send an email to a publicist that once emailed me from Harlequin letting them know how much I wanted these books. Well, imagine my surprise when three days later I got a response from someone, welcoming me as a new Harlequin Trade Publishing influencer! This means that I’m now auto approved on NetGalley for any Harlequin Trade Publishing title, so I immediately got access to these three books and many more! This is the aforementioned reason why my TBR skyrocketed! It’s not every day that you immediately get accepted for 3 new NetGalley titles at once! So until I get through more of my NetGalley TBR titles, I’m trying not to look at all the titles I have available to me so that I don’t get tempted to accept some!

As you’ve seen, I have already read A Proposal They Can’t Refuse, and I’m hoping to get to these other two in the next few months, so expect to see them in the near future in upcoming wrap ups!

Things I Did:

I had vacation for the entire month of January, and even though I didn’t go on any grand vacation or anything, it was wonderful! I got to sleep in, have lots of chill days, and like you’ve seen, read a lot of books! I attended some cool bookish panels, went book shopping lots of times with friends, and started a cool new puzzle! Sure, I had to go on campus a few times to work on some class stuff even though it was vacation, but even that was nice as it provided some structure to my weeks off!

As of February 1st though, I’m starting my very last semester of undergrad and I’m filled with a mix of nerves and excitement. I’m taking 4 classes, and I hope it will be a manageable workload, but I guess we’ll see! For now, I’m excited to be back on campus after being online for so long, and I’m ready to make the final stretch until graduation! Here’s to hoping the second month of 2022 is just as good, if not better, than the first!

How was your January? Did you read any great books? How are you doing on your goals so far?