January Reading Wrap-Up

Books Read

(1/8) What Have You Done? by Shari Lapena (★★★★☆ – audiobook, Libby, 2024) – a domestic thriller trying to solve the murder of a teenaged girl in a small town

(1/8) What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown (★★★★☆ – print, Book of the Month, 2025) – a girl who has lived with her survivalist father her whole life finds a new way of life when she escapes Montana for California

(1/8) Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone (★★★★★ – print, Book of the Month, 2025) – a slow-burn romance with themes of grief, friendship, and moving forward after loss

(1/16) Shark Heart by Emily Habeck (★★★★☆ – print, indie bookstore, 2023) – a stunning piece of literary fiction where a woman’s husband begins to turn into a great white shark (trust me, it’s not as weird as it seems!)

(1/17) Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao (★★★★★ – e-book, Amazon, 2024) – a sweet queer romance about a trans woman and a butch lesbian falling in love

(1/19) The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie (★★★★☆ – print, indie bookstore, 1936) – someone is murdering people and leaving the ABC Railway Guide at each dead body

(1/20) In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America’s Child by Kim Cross (★★★★☆ – audiobook, Spotify, 2023) – a true crime book that delves into all of the details of Polly Klaas’s kidnapping and subsequent search in 1993

(1/25) Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison (★★★★★ – print, indie bookstore, 2021) – a cozy, friends-to-lovers romance with all of the holiday vibes

(1/28) I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney (★★★☆☆ – audiobook, Hoopla, 2025) – an obituary writer accidentally pens his own (fake) obituary and in the process learns the true meaning of life

(1/30) State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny (★★★☆☆ – print, library book sale, 2021) – an intense political thriller about a novice Secretary of State and a major conspiracy plot that she’s trying to solve

(1/31) One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin (★★★★☆ – e-book, Libby, 2024) – Rob wrote a one-star review of Natalie’s book, Rob and Natalie have to learn to get along since their best friends are married to each other… what could go wrong?

Book Stats

• # of books read: 11
• # of pages read: 4,134 pages
• Genre breakdown: romance (4), fiction (3), mystery/thriller (3), nonfiction (1)
• Format breakdown: print (6), audiobook (3), and ebook (2)
• Fastest read: The ABC Murders (3 days)
• Slowest read: State of Terror (11 days)
• Star average: 4.1

Superlatives

• The best book I read in January: Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
• My least favorite book in January: I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney
• The book I didn’t expect to love as much as I did: Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
• The book that lived up to the hype: What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
• The book with the strongest sense of place: Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison

Reading Miscellaneous

Unread Shelf Project | January prompt: A book that starts with the same letter as your name: I chose Shark Heart for this prompt, which is a book I bought at my favorite local indie (Tombolo Books) with Birchie when she was in town in February 2025. I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover! (Books it beat out: Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi, Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent, and Sipsworth by Simone van Booy.)

Where I traveled this month: I spent most of my time in the United States, visiting NYC, Montana, California, Washington DC, Vermont, Texas, and Maryland. I took a short jaunt over the pond to the UK.

DNFs: Only one DNF in January, which was an audiobook. I started reading A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo since I had loved her other novel (Last Night at the Telegraph Club), but it did not have the same magic. It was a little too YA for my tastes and I didn’t love the way she talked about queer people. (I believe Engie told me this book was bad; I should have listened.)

Something I learned from my reading: I learned the very specific process of embalming, from the moment a mortician receives a body from the hospital to the final stages. Not something I thought I would ever learn, but there we go.

What’s Coming Up in February

Here are some of the books on my upcoming TBR for this month:

• Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum – You’ll hear my thoughts on this book next week. So far, I am loving it so much!
• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton – I’m reading this for the Cool Bloggers Book Club, but I’m really struggling with the language.
• Heart the Lover by Lily King – So much buzz about this book! I hope I love it as much as everyone else.
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – This book will fulfill my goal of reading four books from the Zero to Well-Read podcast.
• Wild Eyes by Elsie Silver – I loved the first book in her Rose Hill series, so I hope I enjoy this book just as much.
• Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston – This will be a reread, but it’s one I’ve been wanting to reread for a really long time.

What was the best book you read in January?