Shelved: January 2018

I didn’t have much of a plan for reading when the year started, but now I think I’m going to attempt to do themed months. January, by default, was M/M.

For the latter half of 2017, I was mostly looking forward to the second book in Santino Hassell’s Barons series, Down by Contact, which was slated to be released mid-January. It did not disappoint. Book three won’t be out until the fall. I’m looking at it as something of a challenge because I’m interested to see if Hassell can convince me that one of the MCs deserves to be forgiven after what he did in book two.

The rest of January saw a few new-to-me authors. Names I’ve seen, but had yet to try. I wish I could say that I didn’t encounter anything that begged to be banned and burned, but that was not the case. Kindle Alexander’s Reservations was surprisingly terrible–I tried, but I had to drop it. The writing style was okay, but the story and characters were appalling. And I do not say that lightly. I did start writing a review for it, though it was more like post-print line editing and sensitivity reading, but there was so much wrong with it, I just couldn’t take it. I would rather help authors than drag them. I’ve done both in the past, but helping is much more productive and keeps my conscience clear.

Leaving that, when I look at some of the titles now, I’m at a loss when I try to recall what they were about. I got out of them what I could when I was reading them, so that’s fine.

If I was ranking this month’s reads, Hassell’s Down by Contact would come in first and Felix and the Prince would take second place. It was sweet and fun and I really liked how the MCs’ individual lives/backgrounds/interests were fleshed out. The first book in the series was cool, but this one is one I might read again. Also, I liked the covers. Overall, it wasn’t a bad month.

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So, that’s all for now. February’s theme is Black–authors, characters, and concerns of the community. See you in March!