Monthly Wrap Up – January 2020

It is hard to believe that the first month of the new year is already over. I spent a lot of time reading this month, some of it helped by two snow days, when I had nothing else better to do then stay home in front of the fire with my book. In total I read 16 books and 4 novellas. Unfortunately only one of the books was on my official January TBR . Not sure why that happened, but will talk more about that in my February TBR post.

January Books

I am putting these in the order that I read them.

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The Queen of Nothing was the first book I finished this year. Loved it and loved the way the series ended. I ended up liking Cardan in the end, which I didn’t think was possible.

Hunted is the sixth book in the series and maybe my favorite. Atticus and Granuaile are chased across Europe by Athena and Diana, and meet other enemies and creatures along the way. Loved the seamless way the author brought so many pantheons together.

I Can Make This Promise was one of only two middle grades I read this month. It was a good own voices story about local tribes here in the Pacific Northwest.

The Diviners was a reread for me. The last book is finally coming out this month after three very long years. I wanted the story fresh in my mind before I tackled the new one. I had forgotten how long these books were.

Rebel was the only book on my TBR that I got around to reading. I really enjoyed it. I made me want to reread the original series again.

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Shattered is the seventh book in the series and I really enjoyed it. In this one Atticus and Granuaile are joined by Own, another druid, who has been trapped on a time island and missed 2,000 years. It was fun seeing the world through his eyes.

Layoverland was the first ARC I read and I really enjoyed it. Having purgatory be an airport was perfect and I enjoyed the characters as well.

The Pretenders was the sequel to The Similars which I enjoyed. Unfortunately this story was a bit of a mess and the ending was just weird.

The Queen’s Assassin was another ARC and was pretty good. I did have some issues with it, but I will probably pick up the next book.

Staked book eight in the Iron Druid Chronicles. In this one Atticus finally takes care of that pesky Vampire problem, with some tragic results.

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The Forgotten Girl is a really good middle grade ghost story. Lots of scary moments which my students will love. I will have the review up tomorrow.

The Shadows Between Us was so wickedly good. I thoroughly enjoyed how wicked the characters all were. I will definitely be picking up this authors other books. I should have the review posted soon.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder was another great read. I read it practically in one day. So hard to put down.

Scourged is the ninth and final book in the series. It was hard to let go of this amazing series. I wasn’t totally ok with how it ended but I was thrilled that Atticus didn’t die, which I was a little worried was going to happen.

Lair of Dreams is the second book in the Diviners series. This one is just as amazing and riveting as the first with even more scary ghosts and dreams that can kill you.

Novellas and More

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Yes you guessed it. These all have to do with the Iron Druid Chronicles. There are lots of Novellas and Short stories that tell other parts of the main 9 books. Do you have to read them to enjoy the series, no, but it does help.

Besieged is a collection of short stories that take place between books. The ones that took place between books 4 and 5 I actually read last month. Then I finished the collection this month. All of them were great and very entertaining.

Both Three Slices and Death and Honey contain one novella in the Iron Druid world, but they also have novellas by other authors. I haven’t read those yet. The first one has the novella, A Prelude to War, which was very interesting. The Buzz Kill, in Death and Honey, was another novella with Oberon as the narrator and was a mystery set in Tasmania after the events in book 9.

The Purloined Poodle was probably my favorite of the novellas. I loved the Sherlock references and the mystery was awesome as well. The three novellas told through Oberon’s point of view were just a hoot and ones I highly recommend you read.

First Dangle was a novella about Owen and his murder sloth Slomo. Yep, a murder sloth. You have to read the story just to find out about that right? Owen was a character that sort of grew on me over the course of the books. I ended up really liking him.

So that was my reading month. How was yours? Anything you want to tell me about?