books Here are the 15 books I read in January. It was a good month of reading. I had a lot of books that had been on my list for a while and it was nice to get some of them crossed off this month.

Check out my various pages for ⭐️ ratings of these books:

I hope you find something that looks interesting to you. Below are a few notes on the books this month.

Total books for the year: 15

  1. 📱 The Holiday Cottage by Sarah Morgan - This was a cute read. It was a little slow to start, but I enjoyed it overall. The story was unique and I liked the characters.
  2. 📱🎧 ADHD Is Awesome by Penn Holderness - This audiobook was read by Penn and his wife and some friends who gave some input in the book. It kind of reminded me of a podcast the way it was presented. I thought there was some good info in there and also a handful of things that didn’t apply. But I thought it was really good info and a fun audiobook.
  3. 🎧 Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon - I knew this was going to be terrible. But I thought the book was so pretty. There were so many parts I was rolling my eyes and it just felt so crazy. It was just kind of comical how silly some of the parts were. Probably won’t read more by Ruby Dixon.
  4. 🎧 Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - I have enjoyed Rainbow Rowell books and this one had been on my list. It was a coming of age book and I can see why it has become one of her more popular books.
  5. 🎧 📖 👩‍👧‍👦 My Life As A Potato by Arianne Costner - This was a book for our middle school book club. My daughter and I read it and then went to book club. It was a cute read and they did a lot of good discussion at book club. The kids all enjoyed the book.
  6. 📱 The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - thought this was a really easy read. I liked the characters and enjoyed the story overall. I know this series has been all over the place and there have been mixed reviews by people, but I will keep reading them.
  7. 🎧 Shift by Hugh Howey - Chuck and I started watching the second season of this show and he told me I should finish the books. This is the second book in the “Wool” series. I have Dust left on my list and will be finishing that soon.
  8. 📱🎧📖 Dear Mothman by Robin Now - I absolutely adored this book. It was done in verse and I read and listened to it. In the actual book, the writing was left-justified when done by one character, right-justified by another and centered when they were talking together. It was such a small thing I wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t have the book, but I LOVED it. The topic was relevant, the cover was stunning. This was just an absolutely wonderful book!
  9. 🎧📱 Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson - This was a booktok book I had been seeing and the audiobook was available. It was an easy read and a cute story mixed with some magic. I really liked it and was glad I picked this one up.
  10. 🎧📖 Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer - This was a cute book that was a twist on The Parent Trap. Twin girls were adopted by two different families and raised with different beliefs and they swap places to learn about the other’s life and their family. Of course there were some mishaps and it was cute and silly. This would be a fun one to read with your kid.
  11. 🎧 The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers - Meh. It was ok. I had DNF’d this one last year then the audiobook was available again. I pushed through because the reviews seemed ok. I thought the premise was cute where they chatted in the pages of a book, and there was some realistic scenes, but I just didn’t love it. I don’t think it was bad and I wanted to love it, but it wasn’t one of my favorites.
  12. 🎧 There Is No Ethan by Anna Akbar - A friend suggested this one to me and it was weird. It was frustrating to read at times and was a bit slow at the beginning. The second half is much faster, but I was still so frustrated through most of it. There was a twist and all of this actually happened, so it was an interesting read.
  13. 🎧📱 The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner - Cute story. Woman gets to do a year over, silly moments, predictable, but a nice mindless, happy-ending read.
  14. 🎧 Somewhere Beyond The Sea by T.J. Klune - I will say that I liked, but didn’t love House In The Cerulean Sea. It had been a long time since I read it so I read a summary before starting this sequel. The narrator of this book was utterly fabulous! The voices for characters that were silly and fit them perfectly were so well done. It really made this book come alive and made the story so so good. The book was timely for all that is going on in the world and I really loved this one.
  15. 🎧 The Inmate by Freida McFadden - I had a few Freida books on hold. I have read a few and thought they were ok. I thought I would try another. This was a slightly different premise and I thought I had guessed the twist early on…..and I did….kind of. There were still most twists, but I don’t know if I would really recommend it to others. I canceled my other holds on the books of her’s I had an may come back to them some other time, but I’m taking a break for now.

It was a good start to 2025 in the world of books. The rest of the counry and world….not so much. Do you have some fun books you are looking forward to reading in 2025? Did you set a new reading goal in 2025 (# of books, minutes read per day, # of pages, etc.)? Happy reading!!

– Book Key –
🎧 - Audiobook
📖 - paperback/hardcover
📱 - ebook
👩‍👧‍👦 - read with kids

Andi

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