Jan 2020 Wrap Up

#januarywrapup #january2020books #booknerd #newyearnewbooks #myyearinbooks

 

I am absolutely mind blown that Today is the last day of January. It’s been a quick month full of positivity and struggles, but I survived and it can only get better from here. I’ll just keep repeating my new favorite mantra, Read Books and Be Happy! Speaking of reading books and being happy, I am very happy that this was a successful reading month for me. As of Today I have read a total of 13 books, which is my lucky number. I only read 1 five star book, 9 four star books and 3 three star books. I’ll list they out by rating below, and I’ll provide my review for the 5 star read. 🙂 My 4 star reads are books that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to all, and my 3 star reads just didn’t appeal to me/or were good but not amazing.

 

5 Star Read

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

Description – Be careful of the dark, dark wood…

Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, shows us why.

 

My Review –  I absolutely LOVED this book in every way possible! It ate me up heart and soul. I thought the setting in the mountains played a huge factor to the witchy, spooky woods vibe. I was so enthralled with the stories of the walkers in Nora’s family, and kept wondering why she said she didn’t have powers. I’d even love to see a novella of all the history of past walkers and their spells, I think it’d be a great addition to the book. The relationship that Nora had with the trees in the woods was magical, and something I always wanted as a little kid growing up on acres of land. I couldn’t get enough of the relationship between Nora and Oliver, it felt very fresh and almost like a young star-crossed lover type. It was almost as if Nora knew something subconsciously without actually having learned it, and to watch the plot progress that feeling kept getting stronger and stronger for me until the plot twist happened. I never saw that coming! I have ranted and raved about this book to all my friends in the book community, and I can’t tell you enough how magical this book is! This is the perfect witchy, spooky book for anyone who loves a light fantasy standalone.

 

4 Star Reads

• Husband Material by Emily Belden (blog tour read)
• Wolfhunter River (Stillhouse Lake #3) by Rachel Caine
• The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebbeca Raisin (blog tour read)
• A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen (blog tour read)
• The Night Country (Hazel Wood #2) by Melissa Albert (NetGalley ARC review)
• Home (Binti #2) by Nnedi Okorafor
• The Night Masquerade (Binti #3) by Nnedi Okorafor
• The Cerulean by Amy Ewing
• The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

 

3 Star Reads

• Cari Mora by Thomas Harris
• The Girl from the Other Side Vol 1 by Nagabe
• They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

 

I am about halfway through Bitter Falls (Stillhouse Lake #4) by Rachel Caine, and might finish it before midnight but might not, so that is all she wrote. LOL! So that is my month in books, I’d love to hear about what you read, or if you read any of the books I’ve listed and want to tell me your thoughts on them. Feel free to leave a comment, I love to get to know my readers better! 🙂

 

One thing that I am going to try and get better at doing is keeping up with my Bullet Journal and starting with back filling my January 2020 pages. So, while I nurse the rest of this monster migraine I’m going to go play with my pens and find some funs spreads for the pages of my bullet journal. Stay tuned for reviews and bujo posts!! If there is anything else you’d love to see in my posts please let me know, I’m open to suggestions.

 

Positive vibes my friends. Happy Reading!