Saturday, January 31, 2015

January 2015 Wrap-Up

January was a wonderful month.  It felt like a brand new start for me in terms of reading, blogging and booktubing. I'm really pleased with what I've accomplished this month and I hope that future months in 2015 will be as productive.




The highlight of the month has to be making the long-list for the UKYA blogger awards.  That will always make me happy! I also celebrated my 9th blogging anniversary and my 1st full year of booktubing on my own channel. Thank you for all of your support and encouragement over the years. Couldn't have done it with you all!

I also ran a giveaway to win all 4 books in the Night School series by CJ Daugherty and I'm pleased to announce ... as the winner! Congrats ... I will be contacting you shortly.


Books read in January:

1. I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios (4 stars)
2. Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (4 stars)
3. Love Hurts edited by Malorie Blackman (4 stars)
4. Game Changer by Tim Bowler (4 stars)
5. The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury (4 stars)
6. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith (4 stars)
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (5 stars)
8. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (5 stars)
9. How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan (4 stars)
10. Jessica's Ghost by Andrew Norriss (5 stars)
11. Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth (4 stars)
12. My True Love Gave To Me edited by Stephanie Perkins (4 stars)
13. All the Rage by Courtney Summers (5 stars)
14. Break by Hannah Moskowitz (4 stars)


Total for January: 14

Total for 2015: 14

I've read some amazing books in January.  I'm thrilled that all 14 of them ended up being 4 and 5 star reads, how brilliant. I'm sure the rest of the year won't hold up quite so well. Looking at this list I can definitely see clear themes. The first four books were all read via Netgalley as I wanted to start the year with the highest Netgalley percentage ratio as I could (which has happened!) then I went back and forth between reading review books and challenge books. Before rounding out the month with some books just-for-fun.


January Book of the month:



All the Rage by Courtney Summers

I've very much loved all of the books I've read this month but so few authors compare to Courtney Summers. This book isn't being published until April I believe. But wow. It made me angry, sad, uncomfortable, hopeful and ... well, mostly angry while I was reading it.  It's a book about rape culture and the consequences of that and I think it's incredible. Powerful, moving and definitely rage-inducing. Look out for it! 



British Books Challenge and UKYA in 2015:

British Books Challenge: Link Your January Reviews

UKYA in January 2015
LGBT UKYA in 2015
#NightSchoolWebSeries + Giveaway
Disabled Characters in YA
Stockholm Syndrome in YA



Author Spotlights

Sally Gardner
Vanessa Curtis

What do you guys think of this new feature? Worth continuing?  I've really enjoyed looking into different authors so far and will (at the very least) post two more for my February spotlights before assessing the worth of them throughout the rest of the year...


Books reviewed in January:

Rogue Wave by Jennifer Donnelly
Sleepless by Lou Morgan and Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell
Vendetta by Catherine Doyle
Mini-reviews: The Devil's Angel by Kevin Brooks and Blindside by Aidan Chambers
Best Kind of Broken by Chelsea Fine
I Was Here by Gayle Forman
There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake
I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios
The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell
Love Hurts edited by Malorie Blackman
Captive by AJ Grainger
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Most of these reviews were read previously in 2014. Lots of great books though, I'm really excited for more people to read them. Especially The Last Leaves Falling, All the Bright Places and There Will Be Lies.


Other posts in January:

LGBT Challenge 2015
Cover reveal: A Whisper of Wolves by Kris Humphrey
Top Ten 2014 releases I didn't get around to reading
Blog Tour: Vendetta by Catherine Doyle - Character Advice
YA books about suicide

New Year's Resolutions
Shakespeare retellings
I love you, guys
Fluttering Butterflies is 9 + Giveaway

Most of my blog posts throughout the year will undoubtedly have a UKYA focus but I will continue to write other posts that I feel might interest you, my lovely blog readers! Any suggestions are always welcome.


Booktube videos in January:

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan | Review
Bookish Resolutions 2015
Anticipated 2015 releases | T5W
List of Shame
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith | Review
Anniversary Giveaway
British Books Challenge 2015 | January

Michelle talks LGBT YA
Michelle recommends Lucy Christopher

The thing I love about doing these monthly wrap-ups is that it seems easier to see from just one blog post actually how much goes into creating content for my book blog and two YouTube channels! Lots and lots of work!  It was really fun to booktube last year.  I'm going to continue to provide reviews and discussion videos on both channels throughout the year. Again, if there is any particular topic or video you'd like to see me do, do let me know!


Progress in my reading challenges

LGBT Challenge in 2015:

1. Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
2. Love Hurts edited by Malorie Blackman
3. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
4. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
5. How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan

Total for January: 5
Total for 2015: 5

I'm supremely excited to continue reading books for this challenge. I feel like I'm going to surpass my target (10) fairly quickly seeing as I've already 5 LGBT books this month alone. And it's only January!

I really enjoyed each and every one of these books so far. I've already reviewed Love Hurts and Grasshopper Jungle but reviews coming soon for the other three! And *rubs hands together excitedly* my TBR pile for this challenge looks amazing...



British Books Challenge 2015:

1. Love Hurts edited by Malorie Blackman
2. Game Changer by Tim Bowler
3. The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
4. Jessica's Ghost by Andrew Norriss
5. Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth

Total for January: 5
Today for 2015: 5



I've found that hosting a challenge is very different than just participating. I'm finding it much more compelling to read books in the LGBT challenge than in reading books for this challenge!  We'll see if that trend continues throughout the year, however. Hope not. There are some amazing sounding books both on my TBR and being published this year... We shall see.

Totally enjoyed each of the books I've for this challenge this month. Also, what do you think of me uploading a video every month of the books I read for this challenge? Worth doing? I got the idea from Julianne!


What was your favourite book(s) read in January?

7 comments:

  1. Great recap. Congrats on making the long-list for the UKYA blogger awards! That's awesome. I have the ARC for All the Rage, but I haven't read it yet. I am excited about it though.

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    1. Thanks Cynthia! And I know it's not published until April but I just couldn't wait any longer to read All the Rage. So very good, I hope you enjoy it too.

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  2. Congratulations for the UKYA book Blogger awards, you deserve it.

    My favourite book I read in January was Breathe by Sarah Crossan, she's an awesome author (maybe you could do a feature on her?), plus I liked it so much I recommended it to someone else and she also loved it: I think I made a new friend because of that book :)

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    1. THANK YOU!

      And yes, I love Sarah Crossan. I was intending on writing something about her last December as she was my favourite new-to-me discovery of 2014 but I didn't get around to it. Soon! And what a great way to make a friend :)

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  3. Impressive amount of books and many awesome ones on that list! =) x

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  4. Impressive amount of books and many awesome ones on that list! =) x

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