Dear 2023...

If you’re new here then welcome, if not, welcome back. Last year, 2022, was a busy, chaotic, rewarding year. I undertook new challenges and filled my days with work that enriched me. I didn’t read as many books as I was planning on at the beginning of the year, but I wasn’t planning on having such a busy year.

I finished a total of 28 books in 2022, which I am really happy with considering I was doing my work for World History Encyclopedia, tutoring at a university and volunteering at a museum towards the end of the year. I will never be one of those people who read 100 + books in a year, but I’m okay with that.

2022 Reading stats

Out of the 28 books I read last year, 17 of them were physical (so either hardback or paperback), 3 of them were e-books and 9 were audiobooks. I had an average rating of 4.13 / 5 which tells me I made some good reading decisions last year, and I finally got to some books I have been meaning to read for a long time (The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, Mythos, If We Were Villains). My most read genre of the year, unsurprisingly, was fantasy, and my favourite read of the year were House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper, Vicious by V. E. Schwab, and If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. That being said, the non-fiction I read River Kings by Cat Jarman and Queens of Jerusalem by Katherine Pangonis were both really wonderful books, considering they were outside of my comfort zone I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed them! I also loved diving into The Story of Tutankhamun by Gary Shaw, in celebration of the hundred year anniversary of the discovery of the boy king’s tomb.

2023 reading goals

This year I am going back to university to do my masters in archaeology, and I will be juggling multiple jobs and volunteering commitments so I’m not going to pretend as if I am going to have ample free time to read. I am looking forward to being a student again, although wracked with nerves at the same time! However, I would like to make a conscious decision this year to read rather than watch TV. I would like to keep working my way slowly through my physical tbr, and only purchase a select few anticipated releases (such as The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper and Atalanta by Jennifer Saint).

I have already finished a book this year, The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty, and I am looking forward to finishing the series, as well as finishing The Lord of the Rings trilogy in audiobooks, and Heroes by Stephen Fry that I am in the midst of reading at the moment. I would like to finally read Elektra by Jennifer Saint (considering Ariadne was one of my favourite reads of 2021 I’m not sure why it’s taking me so long to pick this one up), and honestly, I’m looking forward to seeing where my mood reading takes me.

What are your goals for 2023, reading to otherwise? I would love to hear them!

April Wrap Up 2022

The leaves are turning orange, the air in the morning is crisp and the fog is clinging on for longer and longer everyday. Autumn has finally, truly arrived and I am in my element. Autumn is my favourite season, cold nights, and warm days. The changing colours of the trees and the slow transition from dresses to sweaters. Unfortunately, I spent an entire week of this beautiful month in my room with covid, but this month we also added a new member of the family. Our beautiful puppy Maisy is now almost 12 weeks old and I love her with all my heart.

Since I spent so much time locked down with nothing much to do other than read and watch TV, I used the time to work through my every growing pile of books I’m currently reading. This month I finished 5 books, one audiobook and four paperbacks.

★★★★☆

The first book I finished was River Kings by Cat Jarman. I was so lucky to be given a copy of this book for review by Pegasus Books but I ended up going out and buying the paperback version of it before I had finished reading it! River Kings, written by bioarchaeologist Cat Jarman (who is also a field archaeologist who specialises in the Viking Period) takes a small carnelian bead found in the site of Repton and follows what may have been its journey through the Viking world all the way to Baghdad and India. Jarman works with DNA analysis, isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating of the archaeological finds to trace the Vikings from Britain, through Scandinavia and ultimately uncovers greater interaction and movement between the west and the east. This book was so well written and incredibly fascinating. I would recommend it to lovers of trade connections in the ancient world, those who find material culture theory fascinating and all lovers of the Vikings.

★★★☆☆.75

Next, I finished my audiobook of Fire by Kristin Cashore. This young adult series is nothing like I imagined it to be, but I am thoroughly enjoying listening to it. I found it a bit slow for the first few hours but once we were introduced to the other main characters of the story it really picked up the pace. I was initially sceptical of this sequel to Graceling because it follows the character of Fire who is what is known as a monster with red, pink and orange hair and who makes men and women lose their minds around her. She is a new character (as are most of the other characters introduced in this instalment), and we don’t hear anything of the characters from the previous book. It didn’t take long though for me to enjoy this part of the world and these new characters, although I didn’t end up enjoying it quite as much as I enjoyed Katsa’s story in Graceling.

★★★★☆

Book number three that I finished this month was House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas. By this time of the month I had contracted Covid so I had plenty of free time and just enough ability to focus to finish this mammoth book. One thing I MUST mention and that I didn’t realise in my first read of CC1 (because it was an audiobook) is the amount of mythology and ancient history from different cultures Maas has used in these stories. Midgard as the name of their planet, Hel as the dark realm, numerous gods and beings, Vanir, SPQM. I could go on! I loved being back in the world of Bryce, Hunt and Ruhn (especially since we got so much more from interesting side characters like Hypaxia, Ithan and Tharion). There was some great character development and although I knew there was some shady shit going on with the Asteri, this book just kept throwing curveballs that I didn’t see coming. I didn’t enjoy it as much as CC1 which is a bummer, and every now and then I had a ‘huh?’ moment where I feel like Maas’ writing was confusing, almost as if she forgot whose POV she was writing from. And that’s another thing, I love multiple POVs, this book included, but I feel like sometimes she just glided from one perspective to another and didn’t really make it obvious enough for it to not be confusing… if that makes sense?

★★★☆☆.75

You would not believe it but I finally finished Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb, and I have decided that I am going to keep on reading these books despite it taking me over 6 months to finish this book! This final instalment of the Farseer Trilogy was the longest and was oftentimes a bit repetitive and slow which was why it took me so long to finish. But once I got into the really juicy last third of the book I absolutely raced through it. I could not put it down. Robin Hobb’s world-building, character development and general fantasy writing ability is truly unseen anyplace else. Her prose is unique and you just can’t help but want Fitz to be happy and healthy at the end of everything he goes through. Less of a battle and action style fantasy is this a soft, political and intricate fantasy. I truly never saw the ending coming. One other highlight for me in this book is the friendship between the Fool and Fitz, and the companionship of Nighteyes.

★★★☆☆

My final read for this month was meant to be a buddy read but honestly, I had nothing else to do with my time so I just read the whole thing in two days, and that was Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. Despite not loving the Shadow and Bone series (I gave them all 3 or 3.5 ★) I came into this story with high hopes as a dark academia story about secret societies with ghosts set at Yale. However, I was left a little disappointed. This book had such potential, the premise sounds right up my alley but I think a combination of writing style, an unlikable main character and seemingly unnecessary trauma left me not quite satisfied with it. The story itself was interesting, with secret societies at Yale working will all sorts of magic and mystical things under the supervision of Lethe, students specifically chosen to keep the societies in line, but the writing style just wasn’t it for me. Not to mention the main character Alex (short for Galaxy) was unlikeable and flighty. Without a doubt, the supporting characters Darlington and Dawes were interesting and complex characters that I would have loved to learn more about. There are also a lot of trigger warnings needed for this book, and thanks to Samantha at Thoughtsontomes who provided this list on her Goodreads review — rape; murder; child molestation; physical and emotional abuse from partner; grooming; gore; possession; drug abuse; overdose; death of a friend. Please do make sure this book is for you before picking it up because honestly, some of this came out of nowhere. Overall the plot itself kept me interested enough to finish it and to want to read the sequel but it hasn’t become a favourite like I thought it would.

I would love to hear your thoughts on any of the books I read in April! What did you read this month? Any new favourites? Let me know in the comments or over on my Instagram @kell_read ✨

January Wrap Up 2022!

The first month of 2022 is already over, and I managed to read 8 books. This kind of number only happens when I have time off during the month so I definitely don’t expect to enjoy this many books every month. It was a very solid start to my goal of 40 books this year though! I have also decided to change my approach to reviews this year - I think up until December I had reviewed every single book I read, but I don’t think that’s a sustainable goal for this year. I will probably only do a full review of the books that I really loved or had a lot of opinions about and just do mini-reviews of the others on my Instagram, and in my monthly wrap-ups. If there’s ever a review you really want to see, please don’t hesitate to let me know!

This entire series is a ★★★★★ read!

The first books I finished this year (and this month) were my re-reads of The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades and The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. This is the spin off series from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series and finishing these three concluded my re-read of all ten books! I enjoyed my re-read as much as I first enjoyed reading the series many years ago, if not more since now I feel like I get a lot more out of them considering I know more about the ancient world. I definitely appreciated the skill of intertwining so many myths and customs from both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome into the spin off series - this series is genuinely an absolute masterpiece. The House of Hades has always been my favourite of this series, but I think the The Mark of Athena may be equal to it now - I cannot get enough of Percabeth which is why these are absolutely my favourite in the series (they were done so dirty in the final instalment, although getting a Nico POV was such treat). If you’ve read the Percy Jackson books but not the spin off, I implore you to pick them up. They are an absolute treat!

Next, we were all blessed with Part Two of Lynette Noni’s A Very Medoran Kaldoras, something I had made myself believe would never happen. This was a very short e-book, but it answered all of the burning questions I had after finishing the cliffhanger of Part One. In a sense, I was pretty lucky because I only had to wait a couple of months between the two e-books, but I feel so bad for those who waited a super long time. Personally, I really liked Part Two (I know there has been a bit of contention surrounding it). I though it was a lovely way to truly close the door on Alex’s story in the best way possible, but of course, leave the for wide open for potentially more stories in the future? Who knows. I’m just happing knowing that after all Alex went through, she got her closure and her happily every after.

Both have gotten a ★★★☆☆.5 from me!

I finished two audiobooks this month, The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King by Holly Black. The Folk of The Air series is one that had been on my radar for a while, especially since it’s all over bookstagram so I decided it was time to jump in. The narrator on Audible is pretty entertaining, although there have been some really weird edits and volume changes throughout them which have been a bit jarring. After Jude’s mortal parents were murdered, she was taken to live with her parent’s murderer to live in the High Court of Faerie, where its dangerous to be a mortal. Prince Cardan hates her, and the intrigues of the palace just get more and more bloody. Throughout these two books Jude steels herself to what she has to do to claw at the power, and keep it once it’s in her grasp. I am very on the fence about these books. I definitely enjoyed them, but I wasn’t blown away by them. Jude is really annoying and her character just doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me. Her tumultuous relationship with Cardan is frustrating at times, but I also enjoyed parts of their rivalry and tension. I know some people absolutely love these books, but they haven't become my favourite. Maybe I would have enjoyed them more if I read the physical books not listened to the audio - I’m not sure - but overall these books have been good so far, but not outstanding.

★★★★☆.5

This month I finally got to If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. This book was sold to me as The Secret History but with Shakespeare and actors instead of classical history students, and honestly, that is pretty much the vibe I got from this. Set at a prestigious arts academy called Dellecher If We Were Villains follows the seven fourth year Shakespeare students as their lives start to look like the tragedy plays they love so much, their lives intertwine with the plays they are studying, their language is one of their own devising their identities teeter between the world of the living and Shakespeares world. This book was brilliantly written and read like a play in more ways than one. The charters were loveable and despise able and all too real. If you love Shakespeare or The Secret History, stop putting it off and pick up this book!

★★★★☆.5

The final book I finished this month was Mythos by Stephen Fry which was my answer to this prompt Crestfallenpages’ bookclub ‘a book thats been on your TBR for a really long time.’ I have been saying that I will read Mythos for years. I don’t even remember when I got it but I know it was ages and ages ago. I am so glad that I finally got it read! Especially since I really enjoyed it. Fry has such a way of telling stories thousands of years old as if they were new. Although I was familiar with many of the myths in this retelling, I still enjoyed it greatly, and his style of storytelling is hilarious. I laughed and snorted my way through this book with little dignity but tons of amusement. He definitely puts his own flare to these stories, he makes them easy to read, he adds dialogue but doesn’t lose the essence or the heart of these old tales. It would be a wonderful place for someone to start their Greek Mythology journey.

In February I am hoping to finally finish Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb which I have been putting off for months. I am definitely planning on reading Elodie Harper’s The House with the Golden Door, which is my most anticipated read of the year and which I was lucky enough to be given an ARC from Netgalley! I would also LOVE to finish Queens of Jerusalem by Katherine Pangonis and The Queen of Nothing audiobook by Holly Black.