Monthly Reads: January 2020

Posted February 4, 2020 by Rowena in Features | 9 Comments

It’s a new month so we’re back with a list of our Monthly Reads to share with each of you. This is where you’ll see what each of us has read and what our favorite books and our least favorite books of the month are. Check it out.

Casee

I killed it in January. Considering that last month I read, like, three books, the fact that I read/listened to twelve is a Christmas miracle. I’m hoping that I will continue to read this much. Fingers crossed.

For You by Kristen Ashley | 4 out of 5
The Fall of Legend by Meghan March (audio) | 3 out of 5
You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley | 2.5 out of 5
Wife by Penelope Sky (audio) | 3 out of 5
House of Scarlett by Meghan March (audio) | 3 out of 5
At Peace by Kristen Ashley | 4 out of 5
Dirty Girl by Meghan March (audio) | 4 out of 5
Dirty Love by Meghan March (audio) | 4 out of 5
The Fight for Forever by Meghan March (audio) | 3.5 out of 5
Vendetta Road by Christine Feehan | 4 out of 5
Bound Together by Christine Feehan (reread) | 4.5 out of 5
The Thing About Trouble by Juliana Stone | 4 out of 5

My favorite book of the month was my reread of Bound Together. If I had to pick another favorite it would be At Peace by Kristen Ashley. It’s typical Ashley fare. It’s a train wreck but you can’t stop reading it. The hero was a real butthead, but it all worked out.

My least favorite book of the month was You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley. I just can’t with this book. It was awful.

Holly

I’m glad Casee and Rowena are reading, because I’m not. I finished 4 books in January, and one was a novella.

Beauty and the Clockwork Beast (Proper Romance #1) by Nancy Campbell Allen (audio) | 4.25 out of 5
Kiss of the Spindle (Proper Romance #2) by Nancy Campbell Allen (Audio) | 3.75 out of 5
Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1) by Christina C. Jones | 4 out of 5
Sweep with Me (Innkeeper Chronicles #4.5) by Ilona Andrews | 4.25 out of 5

My favorite read of the month was Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen. It was a total mishmash of Steampunk, PNR, Fantasy and Gothic, but it really worked. I highly recommend it. My least favorite was Kiss of the Spindle by the author. I didn’t dislike it, but it wasn’t as good as the first.

Rowena

2020 is off to a fantastic start for me. I’m hoping that this energy that I seem to have found stays with me for the rest of the year because I have hella books that I plan on reading and I don’t need pesky little reading slumps to get in the way of that. In the month of January, I read 14 books and I read some really great books and some not so great books. Here’s a rundown of what I read last month.

Grumpy Jake by Melissa Blue (eBook) | 4 out of 5
Grand Theft N.Y.E. (Heist Holidays #1) by Katrina Jackson (eBook) | 4 out of 5
The One for You (The Ones Who Got Away #4) by Roni Loren (eARC) | 5 out of 5
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn (eBook) | 3.75 out of 5
Headliners (London Celebrities #5) by Lucy Parker (eARC) | 4 out of 5
The Rebel King (All the Kings Men #2) by Kennedy Ryan (eBook) | 4.25 out of 5
Heartland (True North #7) by Sarina Bowen (eARC) | 4.25 out of 5
The Witness by Nora Roberts (eBook) | 4.25 out of 5
Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1) by Christina C. Jones (eBook) | 4 out of 5
The Kissing Game by Marie Harte (eARC) | 2 out of 5
I Wish You Were Mine (Oxford #2) by Lauren Layne (Audio) (Re-read) | 4.25 out of 5
The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa (eARC) | 3.5 out of 5
Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #7) by Lisa Kleypas (eARC) | 4.25 out of 5
Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed (eARC) | 4 out of 5

My favorite read of the month goes to The One for You by Roni Loren. It’s the final book in The Ones Who Got Away series by Roni Loren and I thought it was the perfect way for that series to end. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know both Ash and Kincaid, seeing their history blend into their present and I thought Loren did such a great job of pulling in the characters from the other books into this one, having them be apart of the story without stealing Ash and Kincaid’s thunder. I loved seeing the girls be there for Kincaid, the way that Kincaid has been there for her. Their support for each other made me so happy and seeing Ash and Kincaid stumble toward their happy ending was just the best. I cried, I laughed, and I rejoiced in how far each of these characters has come throughout this series. So much goodness here and I’m so glad that I read this series.

My least favorite read of the month goes to The Kissing Game by Marie Harte. I went into this book because the synopsis sounded like a light and fluffy but cute read but I’m sorry to report that this book just wasn’t that cute to me. I struggled with the way that the hero saw himself, the way the romance is portrayed and there was something about the heroine that just seemed off to me. She was black but it read like what a white person thought a black person was like and the whole race thing didn’t work for me and I kept waiting for the writing style to grow on me and it never did so yeah, not my favorite read of any month.

Giveaway Alert

Three lucky winners will choose their prize (one book) from any of the books we logged this month. If you want to be entered to win, leave a comment on this post telling us what your favorite – and least favorite – reads of the month were.

Monthly Reads: January 2020

So…what was your favorite read of the month? And your least favorite? Use the Gleam Widget to enter! Good luck!


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9 responses to “Monthly Reads: January 2020

  1. Sharlene Wegner

    My favorite book read in January was Say No to the Duke by Eloisa James. I didn’t dislike any that I read, because I tend to put books down if I don’t like them.

  2. Kareni

    One of my favorite books in January was Strange Love: An Alien Abduction romance by Ann Aguirre. I don’t have a least favorite as I tend to not finish books that do not speak to me.

  3. LSUReader

    I read 11 books in January. Of those, Mia Vincy’s “A Wicked Kind of Husband” was my favorite. I liked all of the books I read. If I have to choose one as my least favorite, it will be Andrew Grant’s “Close to Home,” which dragged a bit. Thanks for the giveaway.

  4. Glenda M

    I binged on Tawna Fenske’s Ponderosa Ranch series last month and also read How to Run with a Naked Werewolf. They were all lots of fun. No really bad books last month

  5. bn100

    one of the worst books I’ve come across: A Holiday Code for Love by Jacki Delecki
    The Dressmaker’s Gift was interesting

  6. DiscoDollyDeb

    (Just a hunch, but I think the comment immediately above this is spam. Lol)

    I read 17 books in January, of which my favorite was Molly O’Keefe’s WEDDING AT THE RIVERVIEW INN, an angsty second-chance romance. My least favorite was Tori Carrington’s OBSESSION, which is a Harlequin Blaze published in 2005. I’d seen Carrington recommended somewhere and gave it a shot, but I didn’t like it much at all (especially the sexy-times, which didn’t seem sexy at all).

    And I think I’ve asked this before, but @LSUReader: do you attend or teach at LSU in Baton Rouge? Just curious because two of my kids go there.

  7. JenM

    Favorite books this month were Strange Love by Ann Aguirre, and Inside Track by Tamsen Parker. Least favorite was Sexpiry by Tori Turnbull because I didn’t click with its humor.

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