How are we ready for the first wrap up post of 2018? This is craziness, I honestly cannot believe January over. It’s been a month completely taken over by the death of my nan. I know it happened last month, but this is the month of organising things and holding her funeral. There is still plenty to be sorted out but I do feel I had a small amount of resolution from having her funeral. What else was the focus of January? Well, I vowed to not let things get me down, no more pressure and all about enjoying myself. I’ve blogged less but I’ve found myself enjoying reading more so really I think I did the right things.
Can’t Stop Listening
Zombie – The Cranberries
Happy Hour – Weezer
Not as much music this month guys (unless you want me weeping because I listened to Nat King Cole’s Smile a lot this month as that was one of the songs we had the funeral). I have been listening to a lot of Weezer, though, I forgot how amazing they are (except when they had a couple of less awesome albums).
January Reads
5 Stars
4.5 Stars
4 Stars
DNF
New format for the books, rather than listing my favourite I figure breaking it down by star rating might work better, we’ll see how much I enjoy formatting like this. But it’s nice seeing how much I’ve enjoyed books (and no more trying to select just a few favourites).
January Posts
As yu can see, there was less blogging this month but I am totally cool with that. I’ve discovered Sunday posts ad wrap ups are the posts are feel I have to write (but in a good way). The rest are posts I enjoyed writing and figures crossed I can carry on writing more good ones.
January Links
Avalinah’s Books #NewBloggers 101 Posts
Lisa’s Most Anticipated 2018 Releases (In case you need some romance reads like me)
2018 YA Titles I’m Willing To Go Broke For (In case you haven’t read enough rec posts to add to your TBR list yet)
Taking My Love For Books To The Next Level (Guys Karen is planning to open a book shop, we have to offer support!)
Challenge & Goal Progress
I am still trying to buy fewer books and request fewer ARCs. I am having decent progress, although my buy numbers are higher than my read numbers currently. I have successfully stopped apologising so much, though! Embrace not being ashamed and instead celebrating when I’m doing other stuff. And I may not be blogging as much but I’m liking what I’m posting. Hopefully, this will summarise 2018 for me.
2018 Discussion Challenge
1 Post up but something is better than nothing (go me)
Monthly Motif
Does it count when you DNF the book which you were counting towards this challenge? A Change of Heart was an Indian romance which I just couldn’t get into but I tried until 25%!
Romance Roundabout
- Paranormal Romance
- Urban Fantasy
- Young Adult (fantasy or contemporary both qualify)
- New Adult
- Erotic Romance
- Sci-Fi (can be romance or straight sci-fi)
Historical RomanceThe Duchess Deal – Tessa Dare- Steampunk
- Contemporary Romance
- Romantic Suspense
- LGBT Romance
- Fantasy (not to be confused with paranormal romance!)
- Mystery (not romance focused, can be cosy mystery or thrillers)
One genre down and only a few more to go! I will conquer this challenge.
Beat The Backlist
I am totally rocking this challenge (although I need to go update with this weeks backlist books). All but one of the books I’ve read this month are pre-2018 reads (The Duchess Deal doesn't count because it publishes in the UK this year). I am so good at this challenge!
Personal Shelf Love
- A book I bought because of Nick.
- A book I bought because of Danya.
A book I bought because of a Smart Bitches podcast.The Devil in Winter (also because of Nick for the entire Wallflowers series)- A book I bought (and avoided) due to the hype.
- A book I bought for the author.
- A book I bought for the cover.
- A book from a subscription box which I’ve not read.
- A highly anticipated book I’ve just not read.
- A book I was excited to read until a bad review put me off.
A sequel to a book I’ve loved but not read as I want to reread the first book.Blood for Blood- A physical book with an ugly cover.
- An ebook with an ugly/embarrassing cover.
- A big ass physical book I’ve put off reading as I don’t want to carry it about.
- A book I bought because an author mentioned it.
- Any book off of my last chance pile (those books which get one more chance before they go to the charity pile).
I’m doing pretty damn well with my own books as well, I think. I mean, two of my prompts are already conquered and I am being lenient as I could have crossed over another goal but I’m saving them for next month.
How has your January been? What posts have you loved and books have you adored? And how goes your goals for the year?
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