January Wrap-Up & February TBR

The first month of 2020 has come and gone, and I feel like I should be more changed than I am??

🧚 fairy blessing: I’m back to blogging!
🧚 fairy blessing: I am officially out of my reading slump!
🧙 stepmother’s curse: This month has felt longggggggggggg.

EMOJI KEY
🌈 = LGBTQ+ rep
🌱 = Mental Health rep
🌻 = POC rep
✨ = Disability, LD, Chronic Condition rep

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
Popsugar Reading Challenge & Audiobook Challenge
Emoji Key: 🌈
This book was weird. I enjoyed, but I still don’t know quite what I enjoyed? I just feel like it was all sorts of surreal. Interesting, but I don’t think it was worth the hype.

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All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Popsugar Reading Challenge
Emoji Key: 🌈 🌻
I’m not a nonfiction fan at all, but for me not really enjoying the genre, I was quite interested in this read. Johnson has a great voice and continuously made insightful points while sharing his own story with honesty and more. A great coming of age memoir manifesto.

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Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Popsugar Reading Challenge
Emoji Key:
Sepetys confirmed my suspicions that she really is a master of historical fiction. This book showcased the horrors of human nature  while also giving a bit of hope. There were two main elements that kept me from loving this, but an incredible read, for sure.

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Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Reading Challenge: n/a
Emoji Key: 🌱
This is totally my first truly amazing read of the year. Wow, this book blew me away. The psychology and characterization and intensity and incredible writing floored me. If not for the ending and one other small thing, this would easily be a favorite.

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Dead Voices by Katherine Arden
Complete a Series or Two Challenge
Emoji Key:
The first novel of this series was just an okay read, but this one really picked it up. It was oddly like The Shining meets the Upside Down for middle grade, but it really worked. There were still a few bumps, but this was far better than the first and a good read.

The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury
Popsugar Reading Challenge
Emoji Key:
This book had one of the most inventive worlds and magic systems  certainly bringing the whimsical middle grade vibes. However, I found it to be bit boring and couldn’t settle on a genre, which normally wouldn’t be a problem, except they were way too different.

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Stargazing by Jen Wang
YARC
Emoji Key: ✨🌻
I loved Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker, but this wasn’t as great. Still the same amazing art, but I felt the plot was decently lackluster, and I felt bored/couldn’t connect. It was still a good middle grade graphic novel, but eh?

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All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace
Popsugar Reading Challenge
Emoji Key:
Ugh, I wanted to love this so much. I thought the magic system was so great, and it gave me so many Little Mermaid vibes. However, there were just so many tropes and cliches that I couldn’t enjoy the novel and just got quite bored.

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Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells
YARC 
Emoji Key: 🌈
I wanted to love this book so much, but it was just so dry – and lackluster. I felt like our protag just wanders around, therefore, I was off wandering around. At least there was dragons? I’m not even a fan of dragons that much???

👸 We took a hiatus for much of December and our first few weeks of January. For amount of that time, I was not doing anything – literally, I think my mind went on vacation. I threw out my back, binge watched quite a few shows (including all like 50 episodes of Nailed It), read absolutely nothing (which was ironic since I legit read zero books in the Short-a-Thon I was supposed to be participating in), and did no blogging. However, I did have some enjoyment and while I’m still slowly coming back to it all, I’m feeling pretty over my slumps although I’m still working through a few things.

👸 I’m also right in the middle of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I’m beginning to realize is, yes, very worth the hype. Abe and Rose are my lovesssssssssss. I’m doing decently well sailing through this, so I’m really going to have to investigate what I want to binge watch next.

👸 Sha was still off on holidays for most of this month, and honestly, I really didn’t have too much to add. Personal life has been quite quiet this month, and I think I’m still getting over the holiday depression. I didn’t make any big grand New Years’ resolutions, but I did decide to join Weight Watchers to help me lose weight healthily, so yes, I’m a New Years’ cliche.

👸 I also joined a million reading challenges. I’ve added them in this new format of the wrap-up post for each book I read to keep track of them all. In the midst of my reading slump, I decided this would be the foolproof way to keep myself going since I love a good competition with myself. And as always, I overshot and now have landed with 6 or 7 reading challenges that I signed myself up for as well as the readathons I will end up doing. Dear gosh, me.

👸 I will probably be going on a mini hiatus of sorts in the beginning of Feb. – I have some intense work coming up, so I might be MIA.

• King of Crows by Libba Bray (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
• Rebelwing by Andrea Tang
• Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
• The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett
• A Phoenix First Must Burn by Patrice Caldwell
• Wicked Fox by Kat Cho

These are the books that I want to it for sure this month, but I really don’t have a solid plan. I’m going to try to get to a few more audiobooks and try to knock down my physical TBR. I’m going to let my mood decide this month – let’s hope it doesn’t lead me wrong??

What do you think? How was your January reading go? What do you plan on reading in February? Let’s discuss in the comments below!