January 2025 has officially come and gone and I managed to read 6 books this month.

I started January exploring Tao Te Ching. One of my reading goals for the year was to read more genre’s that I normally shy away from – philosophy being one of them. I didn’t write up a review for this book as it was the first philosophy book I’ve read and I’m not as educated in philosophy so it didn’t seem right for me to end up writing a review once I had finished it. I also probably won’t write up any reviews for philosophy books in the future as well until I grasp more of the teachings and understanding of them. It was a fast read for me and as I didn’t have anything else to compare it to, I just gave it a 3/5 ⭐️ rating.

My next read – well I should say listen was Book Lovers. This was my first audiobook of the year and another of my reading goals for the year. I wanted to listen to more audiobooks this year in my free time as sometimes I want to play a game on my Nintendo Switch and can do that while listening to an audiobook. This was my first Emily Henry book and I really enjoyed it. I loved the characters depth as well as development. I do plan to read more Emily Henry books this year and hopefully have read her other books by the time her new book comes out later this year. I gave this a 4/5 ⭐️ rating.

For my third read of the year, I did a reread of Fourth Wing before Onyx Storm came out. My rating of 5/5 ⭐️ did not change from the first time I had read it. I normally shy away from fantasy as I get slightly confused when I forget where locations are and certain characters but this one was really well done. I found it easy to keep track of characters and places in the world and I loved the dragons. I managed to binge read this the first time in 2 days and instantly needed to start Iron Flame that night. This time around I took my time reading Fourth Wing as I wanted to see if I had missed anything in the book the first time around. I still loved it this time around. I did not get around to rereading Iron Flame by the time Onyx Storm came out however I have started Onyx Storm but have not read it completely yet. I wanted to take my time as the fourth book in the series will be a while before it comes out. I still have to write out my full review for Fourth Wing to post here but I plan to do that as well as the rest of the books in the Empyrean series this month.

My fourth read of the year was Faking it with the Billionaire. Now this was advertised all over my Facebook and as it’s a sports romance, I figured I would give it a read as I’m a sucker for this genre. Let me just say that I did not enjoy reading this. It was a relatively fast read for me and by the time I had finished it I wanted my time back. This book had way to many tropes put into one single standalone novel. The writing was ok but if the author had stuck to maybe just a few tropes instead of the many she had done, I think it could have been a lot more enjoyable. I don’t currently plan to finish reading the rest of the series though I do have them purchased and ready to read as part of a sale on the authors website. I gave this one a 1/5 ⭐️ rating.

My fifth read of the year was That One Night. It was a steamy novella about two characters who meet at a bar in a hotel lobby and have a one night stand. Now it is a prequel for the first book in the Jacksonville Rays hockey series by Emily Rath. I did want to give it a go as it’s a sports romance and as said before, I’m a sucker for anything sports romance related. Now as it was a prequel novella it did give me a brief story into some of the characters in the first book in the series and it made me want to start off the series. I have not started the rest of the series yet but this was a very quick read. I gave this one a 3/5 ⭐️ rating.

My last read for January and sixth for the year was Spiral, the second instalment in the Off The Ice series. This one was one of my anticipated reads for 2025 and I read it the day after it came out! It was such a quick read for me and I loved it. I loved the characters Sage & Elias and the dynamic between them. I loved the found family trope that Sage gets, her character really deserved it after her upbringing. My third sports romance novel for the year and most likely won’t be the last one I’ll read this year. Especially as Bal Khabra announced Revolve – the third book in the series to be coming out later this year. I gave this one a 4/5 ⭐️️ rating.

-Rachelle

I’m on Instagram at @rachellesbookshelf