January 2020 Wrap-Up

Posted On February 8, 2020

Better late than never, right? Here I am with my January wrap-up. Yesterday, I posted a (very long) review of Rebel by Marie Lu, which I read in January, so I’m not going to be talking about that book in this post, besides the mention here at the beginning. If you would like to hear my thoughts on it, you can click here to go read that (the first part is non-spoiler).

Anyway, aside from Rebel, I read four books in January. Let’s get started!

1. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.

This was, of course, a reread for me. It was the first book I read this year—which maybe wasn’t a great idea, since it’s really long, meaning that I didn’t finish any books until halfway through January. It’s also one of my favorite Brandon Sanderson books (which is saying a lot, since he’s my favorite author), though, so from that point of view, it was a fantastic decision. And I did thoroughly enjoy my reread.

I intend to reread both Words of Radiance and Oathbringer between now and the fourth book’s release in November, and then, ideally, I’ll be reading that fourth book when it comes out, so expect lots of Brandon Sanderson-related content in the coming months. (As if I don’t already have enough of that.)

2. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Another reread, this time one I actually started back in 2019, but didn’t finish until after I was done with The Way of Kings. The month of January was mostly just a Brandon Sanderson readathon, though I did read two books that weren’t by him. I loved this book, of course. I might end up rereading the rest of the trilogy at some point, but I’m really trying to branch out a little bit more (though the book I’m currently reading is also by Brandon Sanderson—but I swear after that, I’m going to read others.)

3. The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

This was not a reread for me. I’d been meaning to read it for a while, but I had never actually gotten around to it. This month, I finally did, and now, I think I’ve read all of the Cosmere novels currently available. 

I can’t really say much about this book because not only is it the third book in its own series, it’s the third book in a sequel/companion series to the original Mistborn trilogy, set a few hundred years after the events of The Hero of Ages. What I can say is that I loved it. Brandon Sanderson hasn’t let me down yet, and he didn’t let me down with this one.

With that being said, though, I have to admit that this isn’t my favorite series by him. It’s good, because all of his books are good, but it’s not mind-blowingly awesome in the same way the original Mistborn trilogy or the Stormlight Archive. The story is smaller in scope and has a different sort of focus, which isn’t a bad thing.

After The Bands of Mourning, I read Rebel, and then I moved on to my last book of January.

4. Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake

Oh, would you look at that. It’s not a Brandon Sanderson book. It is, however, another book that I had been meaning to get around to reading for a very long time. Honestly, I’m pretty proud of my reading this month. Yes, I ended up reading two books that I had already read a million times before, but I also knocked three books off of my backlist, which I’m pretty okay with.

If you don’t know what this book is, it’s the fourth and final book in the Three Dark Crowns series, so I can’t really say much about it without spoiling the whole thing.

Predictably, the first book in the series is called Three Dark Crowns. It’s set on an island called Fennbirn where, every generation, the queen gives birth to three triplets. Each of these three queens are born with a different magical ability, and not long after their birth, they are separated and sent to live with one of the major magical families on the island, where they are raised and trained to use their powers. When they come of age, they compete to the death against their other two sisters to become the Queen Crowned.

I love this series so much. The world of this island is interesting  and rich, and the characters are great. Now that all four of the books are out, now is the perfect opportunity to marathon the whole series.

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Those are all the books I read in January! I’m really happy with my reading year so far. Hopefully the rest of February will be just as great—and the rest of the year, too.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I’ll see you soon!
-Ariel