I know you're tired of me saying it, but this year has been off to a rough start, and that has impacted my reading. January was tough for a lot of different reasons, then came the hog show in February, which took up almost all of my free time. In short, not only did I have less time to read, I had little desire to read anything new. As a result, I only finished ten never-before-read books, but I did reread two series in full, accounting for eleven books between them.
Since rereading my favorites is a big part of my reading personality, I've decided to start including those at the bottom of each seasonal reading roundup post. I figure if they're good enough for me to keep coming back to again and again, they deserve a spot on the list.
Here's a look at what I've read since the start of the year.
Author: Annie Mare
This book hooked me from the very first chapter. It made me laugh out loud more than once and threatened tears a few times. If you couldn't guess from the title, it's about the multiverse, specifically two timelines colliding in a way that feels an awful lot like fate.
Tressa Fay -- runs a famous hair salon
Meryl -- water engineer, disappears mysteriously, somehow manages to text TF five months in the future (it's May for her, October for TF)
lots of parallel universe moments woven in from different characters' pov's, feels random at first but slowly starts to make sense
eventually the timelines converge (or something) and everything corrects itself -- not just TF and M, but their relationships with other people in their lives including TF and her dad and Meryl and her sister
Author: Grady Hendrix
I wanted to read this one because I loved The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. It's always nice to find books in your favorite genres that feel fresh, new, and even unconventional, and I think this author does that really well. This novel is set in 1970 at a maternity home somewhere in Florida. The main character, 15-year-old Neva/Fern, has been brought there by her disappointed father to have her baby in secret. The baby will then be adopted, and Fern will return home where everyone will act like it never happened. Of course, it won't be that simple. At the home, Fern makes three friends: Rose, Zinnia, and Holly. When they learn the true circumstances of how Holly ended up at the Home, the girls vow to help her escape. Enter the witches. Once the girls complete their first working, everything changes, and not always for the better.
This is going to be a bit of a longer review than I normally do for these roundups, but this book, for me, deserves the extra space. First, I want to be honest about how I read this one. It was meant to be my first book of the year, but I had another library hold come available at the same time, so I was kind of flipping between them. Cosmic Love ended up being what I needed at that time, so I put this one to the side for a few days while I read that one cover to cover. Then I was in the right headspace to read this much more serious book. I don't read the author's note very often, but this one is worth reading -- at least the first part where Mr. Hendrix explains where the idea from the book came from. Maternity homes were a very real thing, although finding actual history about them is tough, so while this book was absolutely a work of fiction, there's quite a bit of historical truth worked into it.
Author: Lisa Jewell
What a ride! This book, y'all. Wow. I'm not a big true crime reader or watcher or listener. I enjoy these types of stories occasionally, but they are not going to be my top choice. This one kept me glued to the pages...as much as I could be around jury duty anyway. It took me a full week to read it, but had my schedule not been in a constant state of upheaval, it would have taken much less time. Anyway, this is about a podcaster, Alex, who runs into a rather odd woman on her birthday. Turns out, she and Josie share a birthday, and Josie manages to convince Alex to center her next podcast around her. But Josie is definitely not what she seems. She has latched onto Alex as her next best thing and will stop at nothing to remove all obstacles in her path.
Fated in Blood (Nocturne Vampire Clan series)
Author: L.A. McGinnis
I'll be honest. I don't really remember this one, but I must have enjoyed it since I downloaded the second book in the series. Evie is a slayer who's been exiled from her infamous family. While trying to rescue her sister from a vampire overlord, she's turned into a vampire herself against her will.
Author: Sara Blaydes
My January book pick was not what I expected, but in a good way. It is a dual timeline story set primarily during World War II, specifically the fall of 1940, with the present day timeline serving as a tool to fill in some missing pieces of the story. Irene Clarke is young and naive and feels like an outcast from her family, so when James, a charming British RAF pilot, shows her attention, it doesn't take much for him to convince her to run away with him to be married. Turns out, he's selling secrets to Germany. Irene is coerced into helping MI5 catch James, then disappears one night during the Blitz, assumed to have fled England with James, leaving her family to believe her a traitor. You can read my full, in-dept review here.
Author: Barbara O'Neal
Y'all already know this is one of my favorite authors, and she did not disappoint with my February book club pick. This is the story of Mariah, a former Olympic skier whose career was ended unexpectedly in a tragic accident. Struggling with her recovery, she decides to finish her recently-passed mother's final book. She hires Veronica, a recently-divorced middle-aged woman who's trying to figure out what's next for her in life, to accompany her on the trip. Veronica will not only help Mariah with the physical demands of traveling but also with the research aspects attached to the book. This is a book of healing, and it was beautifully written. Read my full review here.
Author: Benjamin Stevenson
This was one of those books that I had to make myself stop reading so I could get some sleep. This book begins with a set of rules for detective stories, which our narrator, Ernest, references throughout his retelling of the story. If you read this as an ebook, you'll have to backtrack to get to them, but I recommend bookmarking them so you'll know what he's talking about when he does refer to them. So basically, Ernest's family is having a reunion at a ski resort to welcome home his brother, Michael, who's just been released from prison for murder. Ernest is who turned Michael in, so he's sort of the black sheep of the family. It's already destined to be an eventful weekend, then bodies start dropping thanks to a serial killer who's crashed the reunion.
Author: Tate James
I really enjoy this author, but I kind of got away from her books when she kept releasing books that were mostly featuring gang-like groups. This is kind of in that same morally gray area, but instead of a gang, it's about a secret society. It's also got the stepbrother and enemies to lovers trope going on. It's college age, so they're all over 18, which I appreciate. Basically, Ashley is selected to participate in the Devil's Backbone Society -- against her will -- and discovers a conspiracy that's tied to countless deaths and disappearances.
And now for the series that I reread in January and February. I'll go in order.
Author: Kathryn Moon
It had been several years since I read this one, so luckily I didn't remember a lot of the plot. It was almost like reading it for the first time again. Johanna gets a job working at the library on Canderfey University, the top school for training witches in the nation. She believes she doesn't have any magic until she accidentally unleashes an ancient God onto the campus simply by tracing the words written in a book. Turns out, she's a Scrivens, a type of witch that uses the written word to cast their spells. Now, she's joining a coven, finding true love, learning her magic, reuniting a people, and preventing a war. All over the course of four books.
Gamer Girls series
Author: Auryn Hadley and Kitty Cox
This is one of my absolute favorite series. I usually reread it every year, but it's been about two since I last did a full read through of all seven books. The overarching plot line is that an online hate group is doing everything in its power to prevent women from having success of any kind in the gaming industry, whether that's designing them or playing them professionally. And when I say anything, I really mean anything. The character development in these is so on point, y'all. The romantic relationships are all healthy, even if they aren't all conventional. It's just a damn good story. Book 5 is my favorite.
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