January Reading Wrap-Up
January was a good month for me, reading-wise! I made it through everything I planned to read except one, which you'll see in a moment.
I also started a TikTok BookTok account! My first video is up already. Honestly, it's more just for fun, so I don't know how often I'll update it. If you want to follow me there, great!
On to the reads!
The Way of Kings,
Brandon Sanderson
Goodreads Amazon
From the back cover:
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.
Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.
Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.
The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.
Speak again the ancient oaths:
Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.
and return to men the Shards they once bore.
The Knights Radiant must stand again.
My rating: ?
I did not read this book 😅 When it came time for me to sit down with it, I just felt so overwhelmed by how big it was and feeling like I needed to finish it before the month was up. Since I wasn't really vibing, I decided to leave it for another time.
Elvish, S.G. Prince
Goodreads Amazon
From the back cover:
It's against the law for elves and humans to fall in love. But laws can be broken.
When Venick is caught wandering the elflands, he knows the penalty is death. Desperate, he lies about his identity in hopes the elves will spare his life.
Ellina doesn't trust the human, and not merely because he speaks the language of men. Men lie. In elvish, however, lying is impossible. In a moment of intuition, Ellina decides to give Venick a chance: learn elvish, reveal his truths, and she will set him free.
That is not, of course, what happens.
As Ellina and Venick grow to know one another, their feelings start to shift. Then Venick uncovers a dark secret, and suddenly the fate of the elflands seems to rest in his hands. But every choice comes with consequences, and Venick must decide if it's worth risking his life to protect a race that hates him, all to save an elf he's not allowed to love.
Magic, love and fate collide in this fantasy adventure from S.G. Prince. For readers who love fast-paced action with a side of romance, Elvish is the first novel in the Elvish Trilogy.
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I really, really liked this book! I devoured it pretty early in the month and looked at the rest of the series to buy. The second book is already released, with the third and final coming out this summer. Because of that, I decided to wait to read the next one, since I didn't feel like I needed to know IMMEDIATELY what was going to happen. And even if I did, I was going to have to wait until at least this summer to find out completely 😂
Of course, after doing all that, the second book magically appeared on my Kindle. I freaked out, wondering how on earth I'd managed to get it without paying. After searching and almost messaging the author, I discovered that Amazon had lent me a copy because I am a Prime member. Crisis averted, and, hey! Free books.
A Court of Thorns and Roses eBook Bundle: A 4 Book Bundle, Sarah J. Mass
Goodreads Amazon
From the back cover:
Passionate, violent, sexy and daring ... A true page-turner - USA TODAY on A Court of Thorns and Roses
Feyre is a huntress. The skin of a wolf would bring enough gold to feed her sisters for a month. But the life of a magical creature comes at a steep price, and Feyre has just killed the wrong wolf ...
Follow Feyre's journey into the dangerous, alluring world of the Fae, where she will lose her heart, face her demons, and learn what she is truly capable of.
This four-ebook bundle of the #1 New York Times bestselling series by Sarah J. Maas includes A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, and the companion tale A Court of Frost and Starlight.
My rating (A Court of Thorns and Roses): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As I said in my TBR post for this month, I was only planning on reading A Court of Thorns and Roses, which I did. I read it in one night, but it didn't really feel like other books that I've read in one night. This time I felt like I was just waiting for something to happen. That's not to say I didn't like it, I just found it a bit floaty in terms of how fast the plot moved. I am happy with how things turned out, but overall I think I'll give this book alone 4 stars. Beautiful world-building too!
Twin Star Exorcists, Yoshiaki Sukeno
Goodreads Shonen Jump
About the manga:
Exorcists Rokuro and Benio unleash serious supernatural action while purifying the world of monsters.
The “Twin Star Exorcists” are fated to produce the child prophesied to end the war with the monstrous Kegare… But can Rokuro and Benio get along for five minutes, let alone save the world?
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I finished volumes three and four at the beginning of the month. I've enjoyed reading the story, but since I'm still getting into the meat of it, I'm keeping my rating at four stars for now. I'm enjoying it, but I don't know enough of the story to adequately judge it, you know?
I read this chapter by chapter through Shonen Jump, through a phone app and a desktop version. It costs $1.99 a month to access their entire library, which includes over 10,000 chapters of popular mangas like Bleach, Death Note, My Hero Academia, and so on. In my opinion, it has been well worth the money and I plan on reading a lot of what they have to offer. You can download the app through your AppStore or visit the Shonen Jump website to sign up.
