The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: January 2025 Wrap-Up Post and Looking Forward to February

Once again I’m joining up with the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up which is hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight.

January wasn’t as bad a month for me personally as many months last year were. I mean I got an extra week of winter break thanks to snow and frigid temps. So really I only worked about 13 days. My job is the same ridiculousness as always though, me alone with no clerk.

In a way my reading was up, because of the snow days, but I did also fit in a few novellas, so that was more books total, if not necessarily pages/time spent listening. Or maybe that all evens out? I signed up for another challenge on StoryGraph for my COYER, but unlike the TBR one I did, it didn’t seem to be keeping track. So I left that one on StoryGraph.

I got 19 books finished, that’s one more than last month.

Here is my fun monthly wrap-up image I like to make in Canva.

Here are my StoryGraph stats for January in the graphic they now provide. The only thing it’s missing from what I like to share when I get each graph separately is actually the different star ratings and how many of each, it just gives the average. Which is enough I guess!

My January Reviews

Of the 13 specific titles listed last month, I got 10 read and reviewed, and 3 DNFs. I technically didn’t get any Beat the Backlist titles read, but 2 done for my COYER goals, and I did add one of them to BtB.

• [2 Jan] For One Night Only by Jessica James ★★★★★
• [4 Jan] After Life by Gayle Forman ★★★★
• [7 Jan] The Path to Loving Him by Meghan Quinn ★★★★★
• [8 Jan] Build a Girlfriend by Elba Luz ★★★★½
• [10 Jan] Chase Lovett Wants Me by Helena Hunting ★★★★
• [11 Jan] The Queen's Spade by Sarah Raughley ★★★★★
• [13 Jan] Leo Martino Steals Back His Heart by Eric Geron ★★★★
• [15 Jan] Bingsu for Two by Sujin Witherspoon ★★★★★
• [16 Jan] The Song of Orphan's Garden by Nicole M. Hewitt ★★★★★
• [20 Jan] Accidentally Amy by Lynn Painter ★★★★★
• [23 Jan] Wedding Dashers by Heather McBreen ★★★★½
• [27 Jan] If the Ring Fits by Camilla Isley ★★★★½
• [28 Jan] Not Your Biggest Fan by Sara Ney ★★★★
• [29 Jan] On the Edge by Ilona Andrews DNF
• [29 Jan] Zoe Brennan, First Crush by Laura Piper Lee DNF
• [29 Jan] How Do I Tell You? by Nicola May DNF
• [30 Jan] A River Connects Us by Allie Winters ★★★★
• [31 Jan] No Place Left to Hide by Megan Lally ★★★★
• [31 Jan] The Night in Lover's Bay by Liz Alden ★★★½
• [31 Jan] Betting on You by Lynn Painter ★★★★★
• [31 Jan] The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren ★★★★★
• [31 Jan] Lucky Shot by Sarina Bowen ★★★½
• [31 Jan] Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez ★★★★★
• [31 Jan] Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday ★★★★½

Challenge Wrap-Ups

I set my goal to 24 again, and I’m behind already because that would be 2 a month and I really only got 1 done, and it was a COYER book too.

1. Prompt: Tiniest on the TBR – Lucky Shot by Sarina Bowen

My goal for this was 12 books, and I got 2 done.

1. Betting On You by Lynn Painter – audiobook
2. Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday – audiobook

My goal is 10 for the year, a few more than last year. I did get one done this month.

• [18 Jan] Lisa Loves to Discuss #5 – Book Clubs

I think my goal was 12 for this. I got 2 done this month. I set up a challenge on StoryGraph for this one to keep track as well. I only set it for 12, so if I go over that (maybe wishful thinking) not sure if that just adds on or what.

1. The Night in Lover’s Bay by Liz Alden
2. Lucky Shot by Sarina Bowen

I decided to add an ABC challenge this month too. I created my own ABC page, and here is what I have done so far this year!

Once again I am doing the Chapter Break Bingo Challenge for January, and here are my books that fit each spot. I only got 21 squares including the free space. Probably because I don’t think I read anything that was supernatural or paranormal in any way, I did have a ton of diverse reads though!

• Build a Girlfriend – Read a physical book, diverse read
• If the Ring Fits – Orange on the cover
• No Place Left to Hide – Body of water
• A River Connects Us – free book
• The Night in Lover’s Bay – Set in the south
• Chase Lovett Wants Me – book club read
• Canadian Boyfriend – Bravery, goals/resolutions
• Rosie and the Dreamboat – audiobook
• Accidentally Amy – not in a series
• Leo Martino Steals Back His Heart – character is in a club
• The Exception to the Rule – meant to read in 2024
• Betting on You – Library book
• Bingsu for Two – different culture
• Lucky Shot – Shelf Love
• The Queen’s Spade – character is real/famous
• The Path to Loving Him – read an ebook
• Wedding Dashers – celebration
• Not Your Biggest Fan – in a series

I also gave in and joined the 2025 Romance Reading Bingo Challenge hosted by Blodeuedd @ Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell, Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About, and Carole @ Carole Rae’s Random Ramblings

• Non-US/UK Setting: The Night in Lover’s Bay
• LGBTQ+: Leo Martino Steals Back His Heart
• TBR Over 1 year: Worst Wingman Ever
• Audiobook: The Exception to the Rule
• Borrowed from the library: Betting On You
• Any Non-Xmas Holiday Setting: The Path to Loving Him
• Fake Dating: A River Connects Us
• Forced Proximity: Chase Lovett Wants Me
• Non-Romance book with flowers on the cover: The Queen’s Spade
• MC name starts with “M”: Canadian Boyfriend
• Sports: Lucky Shot
• Shirtless Man on cover: Not Your Biggest Fan
• Food on the cover: Bingsu for Two
• Non-US author: maybe? Build a Girlfriend

What to Expected in February 2025

I ended up with a lot more review books scheduled than I actually thought, but February I might have some more time towards the end of the month to get in some TBR books.

Here is my proposed TBR for February

1. All Better Now by Neal Shusterman – an e-galley from the publisher to review on the 3rd
2. Catch & Keep by Erin Hahn – an e-galley I downloaded from Edelweiss last year but forgot to put in my blog calendar, so I’m going to fit it in and hopefully review on the 5th
3. A Rebel Without Claws by Juliette Cross – an ARC from the publisher I should read and post a review on the 8th
4. The Kiss Lottery by Ilsa Madden-Mills – an egalley from the author’s review team. Should post a review on the 11th
5. On Loverose Lane by Samantha Young – an egalley for author’s review team, review on the 20th
6. Hook, Line and Single by Phoebe MacLeod – for a blog tour review on the 22nd
7. Best Friends for Never by Teagan Hunter – maybe an e-galley for a blog tour review. But I didn’t get an e-galley for the last one. If I don’t get it this time, I will be giving up on this author. probably. If I do get it, the review will be on the 25th
8. They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran – an egalley from the publisher, should review on the 26th
9. For audiobooks I’ll probably finish up the last couple novellas in the Improbable Meet Cute series. As well as any others I have on hold through the library that pop up.
10. Hoping to get some more for my Beat the Backlist read. Especially Iron Flame, and I might even be working on finishing up the 3rd book in the Outlander series as well finally. All the Gateway nominees for next year have been decided, they dropped from 15 to 12, so I may start listening to the ones I didn’t get to, or save those for later. We’ll see!

Final Thoughts

So how was your January? Were you like me and had a lot of snow at the beginning? Hopefully if you were near the fires in California you are safe and your home is safe as well. Did you get a good start on your new year goals and challenges? Some I did okay on, not so great my beat the backlist/TBR books, but I hope to do some more this coming month. I’m also supposed to be getting my HELOC finalized this first week of February, so am hopeful to feel like I am finally getting ahead financially. I might be getting a clerk that will actually be in the library part of the time too.

Giveaway

Still have a big ARC pile, because I only had 4 different people enter my giveaway last month! So once again I am going to do more than one winner to get the books I have out of the house. I’ll pick 3 winners who will get to pick 3 books. Of course it still has to be US winners so I can afford to ship. Sorry about that. I try to do other giveaways during the year with international gift cards, but not for this one. There may be a few more books available at the end of the month, and some of these will have been picked by the end of the November wrap-up giveaway. Just fill out the Rafflecopter below the picture.

a Rafflecopter giveaway