Everything I Read This Month: January 2024

Everything I Read in January 2024

Welcome to my first reading journal of 2024! In all, this series will be pretty similar to last year’s, except I’ve decided to rate the books I read this year with a 5 star scale. In January, I’ve read a lot of great books, and a few not-so-great books, as you’ll see below. I also included a couple books that spanned the last few days of December but didn’t make it into my last reading journal post.

So, without further ado, here’s what I read this month:

P.S. to track my reading, I started using the StoryGraph website and app. This reading tracker is really cool and gives you all kinds of interesting stats about your reading style. Plus, the app gives great recommendations based on books you’ve previously read and loved. Check out everything I’m currently reading and add me on the app here!

January 2024 In Books

The Brother’s Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (The Inheritance Games #4)

4/5 Stars

After the first three books in this series, The Brother’s Hawthorne moves away from heiress Avery Grambs’ perspective and focuses more on the Hawthorne boys (hence the title). This book covers a lot of story, which isn’t surprising considering how detailed books 1-3 were. However, I felt like the two primary stories could have merited their own novels. Jumping back and forth between Grayson Hawthorne’s family drama to Jameson Hawthorne’s high-stakes gambling play was a little disorienting. In all, not my favorite of the series, but still very entertaining.

The Brother’s Hawthorne is available from Amazon here.

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez (Secrets of the Nile #1)

5/5 Stars

Described as a story where “The Mummy meets Death on the Nile,” What the River Knows is a gripping nineteenth century mystery novel that starts out in Buenos Aires and makes its way to thrilling archeology digs in Egypt. A must-read for fans of duologies like those of Rebecca Ross (see, e.g., the Letters of Enchantment series and Elements of Cadence series, both referenced below), What the River Knows shows off Ibañez’s beautiful writing style and thorough character development. No character is quite what meets the eye, and there are so many twists and turns that I did not see coming. Be aware that it is book one of two (you can pre-order book two here), so expect the story not to wrap up cleanly here.

What the River Knows is available on Amazon here.

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey (Bellinger Sisters #1)

5/5 Stars

My first Tessa Bailey novel, It Happened One Summer was as cute and entertaining as I hoped it would be. A lighthearted rom com of a book, this one follows Piper Bellinger, a wild child it-girl who finds herself exiled to a small fishing town after she throws a huge party and gets into some legal trouble. There are a lot of Alexis Rose vibes to Piper, and the story follows her growth and personal development as she finds she actually likes the quiet life.

It Happened One Summer is available on Amazon here.

Hook, Line, & Sinker by Tessa Bailey (Bellinger Sisters #2)

5/5 Stars

The sequel to It Happened One Summer, Hook, Line, & Sinker picks up Piper’s younger sister’s love story after book 1 ends. While neither of these books’ heroines are particularly relatable, Hannah Ballinger is definitely more down-to-earth than party girl Piper. I liked Hannah more as a character, which helped me overcome some frustrations with the plot to give this 5/5 stars. It’s cute, entertaining, and a whole act three break up could have been avoided if characters just talked to each other but…such is fiction. Either way, it’s a great bookend to It Happened One Summer.

Hook, Line, & Sinker is available on Amazon here.

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross (Letters of Enchantment #2)

5/5 Stars

The highly anticipated sequel to Divine Rivals, Ruthless Vows was everything I hoped for and more. It took me a while to read this book, only because I didn’t want it to end. Rebecca Ross’ writing is just gorgeous, and getting more details about Iris and Roman as they work to undermine the malicious god Dacre was worth the wait. There were some parts of the story that confused me (Iris forgives her brother a bit too quickly for splitting her and Roman up at the end of book one…) but I got over it thanks to the strengths of the rest of the book.

Ruthless Vows is available on Amazon here.

A Woman of Influence: The Spectacular Rise of Alice Spencer in Tudor England by Vanessa Wilkie

5/5 Stars

A fascinating look into the life of a remarkable woman! Vanessa Wilkie’s writing was approachable and informative, all at once. This book read like fiction, and flowed through the various chapters of Alice Spencer’s life and society. I would recommend this to any history lover!

A Woman of Influence by Vanessa Wilkie is available on Amazon here.

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

5/5 Stars

I read this book in one sitting — I could not put it down! Inspired by the legend of Xishi, a famous beauty of Ancient China, this dramatic historical novel follows our heroine as she seeks revenge against the neighboring Wu kingdom for the murder of her sister. That is, of course, an oversimplification of the plot, but I don’t want to give anything away! Ann Liang’s writing pulled me in from the start and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the harrowing story. The end felt a little rushed, but perhaps that was the point of it all. Overall, though, the writing style was lyrical and engaging and the story will surely stay with me for some time.

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang is available for preorder from Amazon here.

Check & Mate by Ali Hazlewood

5/5 Stars

I picked up Check & Mate by Ali Hazlewood on a whim over the holidays and I am so glad I did! I don’t know what I expected from a rivals-to-lovers romance set amongst high stakes chess tournaments, but it held me enthralled from start to finish. Mallory Greenleaf is a chess prodigy who has turned away from the game for good, partially in order to take care of her ailing mother and two younger sisters. She’s pulled back into the competitive world of chess after inadvertently beating the world champion Nolan Sawyer at a charity tournament. Family drama, romance, and comedy ensues.

Check & Mate is available on Amazon here.

A Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross (Elements of Cadence #2)

5/5 Stars

Rebecca Ross is the queen of duology writing. Between this Elements of Cadence series and the Letters of Enchantment mentioned above, I am left in awe of how she creates a world of characters in two fluid volumes. I listened to the audiobook of the first novel in this series, A River Enchanted, in December and absolutely loved the Scottish-inspired folklore. In this second installment, Rebecca Ross dives deeper into the folklore, the characters, and the conflict between the warring clans that we met in book one. There’s love, loss, and a whole range of human emotions between the two as the characters we met in A River Enchanted seek to cure the Isle of Cadence from a spreading sickness. I could not put this one down!

A Fire Endless is available on Amazon here.

Stars and Shadows Series by Holly Renee

3/5 Stars

I’m grouping this *super spicy* series together because I read it during the weird limbo time of Christmas and New Year’s and didn’t manage to get it into my December reading journal that went out earlier this month. Basically, these are some serious guilty pleasure books. They are quick reads that will keep your attention throughout, for sure. There are four books in the series; three follow one main couple and the fourth covers a separate love story entirely. Think of them as ACOTAR-lite. Not a lot of plot beyond the superficial girl-betrothed-to-prince trope, and not a lot of world building to explain why this is the case. There were a lot of common themes and characters with some of the big booktok/bookstagram fan favorites, without the depth. In all, the series is very entertaining, but could have benefitted from some editing.

The Stars and Shadows series is available on Amazon here.

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey (Vine Mess #1)

2/5 Stars

After enjoying Tessa Bailey’s Bellinger Sisters series, I had high hopes for this one. If you don’t want spoilers, maybe just skip ahead. Secretly Yours fell super flat for me. The book follows Hallie Welch, a wine country florist who meets her teenage crush again as adults. Said crush — Julian Vos, now a strait-laced professor — is home at his family’s vineyard while writing a novel and definitely does not have time for romance. This is reiterated many times. Hallie, the flighty girl that she is, gets drunk and decides to leave him a secret admirer note. And then does it again. And again. Even though they’re already dating at this point. Then she freaks out because she assumes he’ll hate her if he finds out she’s the one writing the notes and they kind of break up (but don’t really break up?). Anyway, I pushed through to finish it because I felt like I had committed too much time to it at this point, but I won’t bother with the second book of this two-part series.

Secretly Yours is available on Amazon here.

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson

3/5 Stars

To be honest, I wasn’t really into this book at first, though I did find the second half more engaging than the first. There was a lot of heavy-handed writing about an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and student at an elite girls’ school in Massachusetts. There’s a lot of suspension of disbelief asked of the reader, even before the vampires show up (at that point, the novel becomes more engaging). With an enigmatic teacher who is supposedly brilliant and who takes two of her students under her wing under the guise of furthering their literary education, the whole thing just kind of left me uncomfortable and indifferent about the characters.

An Education in Malice is available for pre-order here.

American Royals by Katherine McGee (American Royals #1)

5/5 Stars

I had heard about American Royals when it came out in 2020, but hadn’t thought much of it. I decided to give it a try when it came up on my StoryGraph as a suggested read, and I’m so glad I did. The audiobook was really well read and I found myself listening to it every chance I had! The premise is interesting: set in an alternate contemporary America where the country has a royal family, the novel follows the royal Washington children as eldest daughter Beatrice prepares to ascend the throne as America’s first queen regnant. In this novel, what could easily be a very silly premise is quite well thought out and extremely well written. It’s a love story and rom com at many points, but very poignant at others. Katherine McGee crafts a robust cast of characters and carries their eccentricities throughout the whole story. I can’t wait to start on book two!

American Royals is available on Amazon here.

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (It Ends With Us #1)

5/5 Stars

Trigger Warning: this series deals with issues of domestic and intimate partner violence (IPV). If you or a loved one needs help with a domestic violence situation, please visit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence here.

I had long wanted to read Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us but hadn’t actually picked it up until I saw it at a bookstore pop up at my favorite brewery here in Tampa. I bought both books in this duology and devoured them over the holiday break (they didn’t make it into my December reading journal, so I’m adding them here). The titles are confusing, but they make sense after you read the books. It Ends With Us tells the story of what, from the outside, looks like a perfect romance between Lily and Ryle. In reality, though, the relationship is volatile and dangerous, and grows more so as Ryle becomes more and more possessive of Lily after she resurrects a sort of friendship with an old boyfriend, Atlas. A moving and heart-wrenching depiction of intimate partner violence, Colleen Hoover doesn’t gloss over the darkness at the heart of the story. She writes a compelling narrative where the reader sees and understands why Lily doesn’t leave right away — thus combating the common IPV narrative of “if it was so bad, why didn’t she leave?”

It Ends With Us is available on Amazon here.

It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover (It Ends With Us #2)

5/5 Stars

Trigger Warning: this series deals with issues of domestic and intimate partner violence (IPV). If you or a loved one needs help with a domestic violence situation, please visit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence here.

Written in response to reader requests, It Starts With Us gives Lily and Atlas a chance at happiness after the end of book one. This volume picks up after Lily and Ryle have established a civil coparenting rhythm post-divorce. Time has passed and Lily and Atlas actually have a chance to try again. Without focusing too much on Ryle and the IPV of book one, It Starts With Us shows the reality of living with the realities of a jealous ex-husband while also taking on the story of Atlas’ own past.

It Starts With Us is available on Amazon here.

Shop the Books Featured Here

What have you been reading lately?
Share your favorites in the comments so I can add them to my TBR pile!

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Still searching for your next favorite read?
Check out my top reads from 2023 here; there are plenty of great reads to add to your TBR!

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*Some of the novels featured here were gifted to me as part of various book review programs that Cats & Coffee is a part of. I was not required to post about the novel in exchange for getting a copy to read. All thoughts and opinions are my honest own.