Hey, everyone! I’m sharing my January wrap-up with you today and I wish I could say that I’ve had a great start to the year but that is sadly not the case. I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life that’s prevented me from reading as much, so I only read three books in January and I’ve already had my first DNF. The positive side is that I mostly liked the books I read so I guess it was successful in terms of enjoyment. Here’s what I read:
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman: I’ve had a copy of this since the paperback was released and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read it. I thought it was a really fun read and the characters were still just as loveable. The mystery was even better than the first book and I loved that we got to find out more about Elizabeth and her mysterious past. The only thing that annoyed me was Joyce’s diary entries. I noticed that when a particular scene happened, for example, all the characters are gathered together discussing their theories, Joyce’s diary would then repeat everything that happened in that scene. It really annoyed me. When I eventually get round to reading the third book, I think I’ll take a break before reading her diary entries and treat them as a recap of what’s just happened. Hopefully that will avoid me getting annoyed with Joyce because I do really like her quirky personality.
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean: I was expecting so much more from this book. It sounded so unique and interesting with the Book Eater families. However, it just ended up turning into a typical adult fantasy book, which left me feeling disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the story but maybe my expectations and what I wanted from it were too high. Also, the romance felt very rushed and I’m not sure why it was included since it didn’t add anything to the story. Maybe if the story was a bit longer and more developed – possibly a duology? – I wouldn’t have been left feeling underwhelmed by the end of it. Also, think the hype around it probably didn’t help as it was all over Twitter for weeks and I was very excited to get an Illumicrate edition of it as a result. I’ll probably read more from this author but lower my expectations.
The Tip of the Iceberg by David Jarvis: I am really enjoying political thrillers and that’s something I never thought I’d say. I am not a fan of politics in real life but in books it’s much more enjoyable. This provided another interesting and thought-provoking scenario that revolved around the supposed discovery of oil in Antartica and the ensuing chaos it causes. I thought it dragged in the middle but the beginning and ending were good and it had a great cast of characters.
The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew (Did not finish): Sadly, I’ve already had my first DNF this year. I’m gutted I didn’t like this because Illumicrate gave us such a stunning edition and it just sounded like one I’d enjoy. It’s about parallel worlds! I normally love books that explore parallel universes. My reason for not finishing it is because I found it really confusing and hard to follow what was happening. There was random flashbacks to a past event that led to the two main characters not talking to each other but it wasn’t clear at all what exactly had happened and what powers(?) Delaney had. I normally try not to DNF books but I didn’t care at all about these characters and I have so many other books I want to read instead.
So that’s my tiny January wrap-up! Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? I hope you enjoyed this post and thank you so much for reading!
Divine World of Books 