Ready, Set, Read!: January Wrap Up!

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog!! I hope everyone had a great start to their new year. Personally, things have been good for me. My first semester of senior has finished, and because of snow and exams I was exempt from, I had almost two weeks off from school.

Reading-wise, I am off to a pretty great start. All the time off from school allowed me to just relax, hang out with my friends, and also read.

Here are all the books I read to kick off this new year! All of these are in order from date read.

1) The Substitute by Denise Grover Swank
I had such a weird reading experience with The Substitute. I wasn't liking the first half, and I was actually thinking about DNF-ing it. Then, the book picked up and I really started to like it. I don't know if I'll read another adult romance by Swank, but it wasn't bad!

2) The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

The Valiant was such a solid read. I did have a couple issues, but they were few and far between. I loved the characters and all the kickass females. I really appreciated how there were no knights in shining armor in this book!

3) Spellcaster by Claudia Gray
Spellcaster is the first book in Gray's witch trilogy. the only other book I've read by Gray was A Thousand Pieces of You, which I did enjoy. I would say though that I liked Spellcaster more, but I'm more excited for the sequel of A Thousand Pieces of You. Though the ending opened some new doors for the series, it didn't make me want to pick up the next book right away.

4) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for my AP English Lit class, which is unfortunately over now that the semester wrapped up. I would say that this is probably my favorite classic that we read this year, with Brave New World, Hamlet, and 1984 being up there as well. I personally loved the story and I know I'll want to re-read it in the future.

5) The List by Clare James

If I had two words to sum up this book, it would be average and fun. It was a classic freebie romance with a new adult feel to it, even though the main character was 29. My main issue was the main character and the voice of her. I couldn't relate to her at all and she seemed so immature for being almost 30.

6) Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Guys. I struggled with Throne of Glass. I wrote a whole discussion post on why it was such a huge disappointment for me. o be honest, I don't even want to talk about it that much anymore. I will be continuing on with the series though!

7) Daughter of Alvar by Silver Reins

Duagher of Alvar is the sequel to Bride of Alvar, which I reviewed in December. I gave the first book in the series 3 out of 5 stars, and I did the same with this book. I liked the book, but I was thrown off that it wasn't a full completed story. Bride of Alvar was its own story, with Daughter of Alvar being a companion book. I thought it would be the same thing for this book, but it was not. However, I still liked the book, but I had a couple issues here and there.

8) Stealing Candy by Stewart Lewis

I initially gave this book 3.5 stars, but I think I'm lowering it to 3.25. We'll see in my review, which should be coming later this week! Candy, the protagonist, was pretty annoying and kept on complaining about how her life was so hard. I just became apathetic to her. However, the book was a fun little adventure.

9) Seven Days of You by Ceclia Vinesse