Congratulations, friends! We made it! We made it to the end of the longest month of the year and isn’t it just lovely that spring is quietly starting to show us it’s on it’s way? I ventured out into the garden earlier today trying to figure out where to plant my herbs and vegetables this year and I could already smell spring in the air! It’s lovely š Anyway, it’s time to do a quick January Reading Wrap Up for 2021. I promised myself that I would be taking it slow this year and as it turns out, I started the year doing just that.
In January I read 4 books in total, which is 4 less compared to this time last year. Although I do have a few on the go at the moment I’m determined to complete in February.
My favourite, and the only 5 star read in January, was Half a World Away by Mike Gayle. Honestly, couldn’t recommend it enough!
I read a total of 1421 pages, and out of the four books I completed three were backlist titles and all four books were either gifted or borrowed! January’s go to age range was adult fiction. (No surprise there!)
The average rating for January 2021 is 4/5, which is slightly higher than January 2020. I’m glad that I seem to at least somewhat enjoy the books I own when I actually get around to them.
What I Did by Kate Bradley
I read this as part of a blog tour and had a great time! It’s fast-paced, edge of your seat thriller and well worth a read!
Blurb:
Lisa is running.
She has taken her child, Jack, and she has run from his father.
Lisa thinks sheās safe. Sheās found a remote house where no one will be able to find them. Lisa is about to wake up in her worst nightmare. And now she must face what sheās tried to escape. Risking everything to protect her little boy, Lisa knows that in order to survive she will have to fight, but itās hard to face someone you loved, especially someone you still love, who knows who you really are ā and what you are really capable of.
Family is everything. What would you do to protect it?
Half a World Away by Mike Gayle
My first, but definitely not last, book by this author. Half a World Away isĀ honest, raw and moving story about finding oneās self, about family and about unconditional love and sacrifice. Itāll go on the āread againā shelf for when I feel I need the warm hug of a family when Iām unable to be with my own.
Blurb:
Kerry Hayes is a single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past.
Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose hill. Adopted as a young child, Noah never looks back.
When Kerry contacts Noah, the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will change both of their lives forever.
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
This was sent to me by Anna (@girlswhoreadadround on Instagram); and overall it was okay; it read a little too young for me, but I was never the intended audience for it to begin with.
Blurb:
In this delightful novel death is a beginning, a new start. Liz is killed in a hit a run accident and her ālifeā takes a very unexpected turn. At nearly sixteen she knows she will never get married, never have children, and perhaps never fall in love. But in Elsewhere all things carry on almost as they did on earth except that the inhabitants get younger, dogs and humans can communicate (at last) new relationships are formed and old ones sadly interrupted on earth are renewed. Full of the most ingenious detail and woven around the most touching and charming relationships this is a novel of hope, of redemption and re-birth. It is a novel that tells of sadness with heart-breaking honesty and of love and happiness with uplifting brilliance.
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
I read this as part of the 2021 Thriller Book Club, run by Erren (@abookloversdiary). It was a bit of a letdown, and I’ve already returned the audio book to the library..
Blurb:
In a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather for New Year.
The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider
The victim.
Not an accident ā a murder among friends.
How was your January? Did you read anything you think will make it to the top 10 of favourite reads this year?
