January reading wrap up is here! I honestly can’t believe I read 9 books this month. January felt like it went on forever, but also felt like a faster January than usual. It’s been unseasonably cold where I live, and I’ll admit I used Libby to get so many of these read. Without further ado, here’s my thoughts on all of these books. I’ll be linking search results from Pangobooks in case you’re interested in getting one of these for your own library. (If you’ve never ordered from Pango before, you can use my code “NERDYBOOKBABE” for $5 off any order of $10 or more).

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown – 5 stars: I got this through Book of the Month a little while back, and one of my reading goals for this year is to catch up on all the BOTM books I have backlogged (I think I have 7 or so). I actually ended up listening to this one on audiobook through Libby/library while painting closets. Exciting times, I know – but honestly, this book transported me. I enjoyed the writing style (and the narrator was very good for the audiobook too). This story is a woman reflecting on her life in 1997 when she escapes from the small, off-the-grid life she has with her father, to try to find out more about what happened to her mother. Through it, there is a bit of mystery as well as a solid coming of age story. This explores the dynamics between a father and daughter, especially when the daughter realizes maybe everything her father taught her growing up is a very niche perspective on life. I especially enjoyed the nostalgia for life when the internet was brand new, and the similarities between San Francisco in the age of the internet to what’s going on now with AI were interesting too. Highly recommend this one!

An Ocean Apart by Jill Tew – 4 stars – Also listened on audiobook through Libby. Originally I had requested a copy of this from NetGalley, but I got very behind on my arcs last year, so I’m playing catch up where possible (same is true for Heartsick, The Cuffing Game, and Eight Heartbreaks), and leaning on the finished audiobook copies as a crutch to get me there. This is a dystopian YA novel where water is at a premium – the rich have more water than they know what to do with and live on massive ships while the poor are scraping away to survive on the small bits of land remaining, just trying to survive. Our FMC lives in the marshes, and learns there is going to be a dating competition to find a suitor for the heir to the mega-water-corporation. She finagles her way into the competition, with the intention of breaking his heart, but ends up learning a lot along the way. This gave me the same feelings as when I read Divergent and Hunger Games for the first time. Definitely YA, but also solid representation and good world-building.

Heartsick by Kristina Forest – 4 stars – A bright girl has an internship with a pharmaceutical company that has created a pill you can take to get over heartbreak quickly. Her ex boyfriend walks into the clinic one day, and she is sad to think he might want to take the pill to erase memory of her. However, she overhears some of the company executives talking in a backroom about some shady things, and there have been articles about people experiencing headaches after the pill. This kickstarts a search with the FMC and her ex across the country to figure out exactly what is going on. This is fun, short, and has some light twists and turns.

High Achiever by Tiffany Jenkins – 3.5 stars – I ended up listening to this on audiobook. I don’t even remember how I heard about this, but I was interested in learning about a former cheerleader/had everything going for her, turning into an addict to prescription pain pills. It’s narrated by the author, and though a lot of dark and terrible things happen, the author’s style has a levity and humor to it that made this interesting. I didn’t realize that she’s apparently very popular on social media now.

Is This a Cry for Help? by Emily Austin – 3.75 stars – This just came out on January 13 and I read the arc provided by NetGalley. FMC is recovering from a mental breakdown she had after learning some sad news about an ex-boyfriend. FMC is a librarian in Canada and now married to her wife who binds books/restores old books. I really enjoyed this book – the writing style makes it feel like flashbulb memories in a way. Though the chapters are long, they are broken up in lots of mini sections. It’s interesting seeing the FMC grapple with the guilt she feels around the ex-boyfriend’s situation, as well as some of the discourse around libraries and how they fit into our communities/the purpose they serve beyond books. This was one that I read the digital copy and I felt like it read pretty quickly overall. I’d check out something else by Emily Austin in the future.

The Cuffing Game by Lyla Lee – 3 stars – I listened to this one on audiobook at 2.0 or 2.5 times speed, and I think I kind of zoned out a few times, but it was fine – I didn’t really miss a lot. Premise is there is a girl who is in film school and she wants to make documentary style tv and movies. There is a rival in her classes who is also kind of social media famous, and he always gives her a hard time. The girl has an idea for a reality dating type of show, but wants to do it from the lens of a documentary more than pop culture. Her roommate has a massive crush on her rival, and the premise is to have crushes live together and “cuff” with one another becoming “cuffles”. It has a sort of Bachelor in Paradise feel, but also only the perfect amount of contestants for couples are there, and it’s over 1 week. I liked the dual perspectives (even though the audiobook is read by one female narrator so the perspectives often seemed similar to each other – wish they had cast a male counterpart to help differentiate more), the Asian American representation, the dating show aspect, the mention of a character who doesn’t like physical touch. This ends up exactly like you think it will, and has low stakes drama.

Room to Breathe by Kasie West – 3 stars – A goody-two-shoes, smart girl, has something happen in her life that causes her to have a massive falling out with her friend group and kind of go down a “bad” path. One evening at school, after detention, the main character gets stuck in the faculty bathroom. And she gets locked in there with her ex-best-friend who she used to call “her person”. The story bounces back and forth between present day (locked in the bathroom) and vignettes of what happened in the past year leading up to today. This is one where miscommunication trope is at an all time high (so if you don’t like that, stay away). However, for YA I understand why miscommunication might happen. I liked the characters and thought this one felt a little different from most stories on the market currently. Great palette cleanser.

The Eight Heartbreaks of Hannukah by Jean Metzler – 2.5 stars – I really wanted to like this book because I liked one of Jean Metzler’s other books a lot. It had promise – Jewish representation, high powered female TV producer, sort of a reimagining of A Christmas Carol. However, I did not feel the chemistry between the two main characters (who reunite a few years after their divorce). I like a good second chance romance, but this one felt more like they got divorced for a reason and should have stayed divorced. It almost felt like the only thing they had in common was their sex drives. I thought he was boring, she was high maintenance, and it just didn’t work for me. However, I did like the migraine/chronic health representation, the NY at the holidays setting, and the concept of the eight heartbreaks.

Scavengers by Kathleen Boland – 2 stars – My least favorite of the month. I wanted to like this one because the cover looked very literary fiction and the premise seemed intriguing. An analyst in NY who is very good at her job, makes a career-ending mistake and decides to go visit her mom in Salt Lake City, UT. Her mom is kind of a flight-of-fancy, never takes responsibility, here for a good time, not a long time kind of person. Mom has been on an internet forum trying to chase a treasure based on a poem. Daughter and mother go on a road trip to find the treasure while daughter tries to hide she’s out of work. All of the characters in this book (except for a single side character) are pretty rotten humans. The pacing is off and the writing style makes it slow to read. I liked the first 10% and last 10% the best – everything in the middle is a whole lot of nothing, and it’s not really worth it for the ending. I’m not mad I read this, but I also wouldn’t really recommend it either.