Happy New Year!
I can’t believe how quickly this first month went by. Did you do anything to end the year? We just hung out and cleaned up a little in the apartment. We did stay up till midnight! Stephen played some video games, and I was reading.
My reading goal for this year is 80 books. Last year I read 79 books, so I think it’ll be manageable. Originally, the goal was 50 books, then I upped it.
Here’s my Goodreads account if you want to be friends!
Life Update
January 18: I guess these updates have been more about my dad, but today was his last round of chemo! He’ll have some labs done in a few weeks to confirm if he’s cancer free, but everything looks and seems positive!!
As for us, I’ve been watching Ugly Betty. I’m about to finish it, and it’s been so fun and nostalgic! I never really watched it when it aired, just a few episodes, so it’s been fun watching it, although some things didn’t age well.
Stephen is excited that The Last of Us TV show is finally airing. He’s really enjoyed the episodes so far.
Darby is doing well and is happy. He’s a wild, social butterfly. We’ve accepted that we’re living in his world and catering to a 32-pound corgi. We’re perfectly happy about it.
Daily Life
January 1: I want to start taking Darby for a weekly walk somewhere that isn’t at our apartment, as well as go to a dog park once a month. There’s a dog park I really like taking him to. It has a section for big dogs and smaller dogs, so I feel more comfortable going.
For his first walk of the year, we went to this little area near the library! I’m so happy he posed with the statue. It’s really cool, and the light just bounces off of it that it’s a little hard to look at.
We picked up groceries from Kroger and went in to get some sushi and bananas. I tried a new chicken teriyaki bowl. It was good, but I don’t think I’ll get it again since it was doused with shrimp sauce.
January 2: I’ve been buying Colleen Hoover books secondhand from people selling them in the area for my sister to read. I’m a fan of her, though as of late things that have came out make me side-eye her so hard. It left an icky taste in my mouth. Some of her books have been misses for me, and the writing style isn’t the best from an author, but some stories I’ve enjoyed.
Anyway, I went to pick up two books that a girl was selling for $15 total. I bought It Ends With Us and November 9 from the girl. I’ve heard a few problematic things with N9, but I’ll give it a chance. I liked the premise and concept, but I don’t have high expectations for it.
I went through a drive-thru coffee shop, The Ugly Mug, and ordered an iced Sea Salt Caramel Latte. Stephen has tried numerous times to get me one of these to try since The Well’s season iced Salted Caramel Latte has left a void in my heart. The one from The Ugly Mug was okay, but I didn’t think the coffee was the best.
To reference/use later, here is a video of all of my succulents right now. They’re so pretty. 🤩
Let’s see how many I’ll have at the end of the year and at this time next year! I’m going to be more proactive and share a master post of my succulent list. That will be coming in the next couple of months if I can get my act together.
January 4: I tried Dunkin’s Avocado & Roasted Tomato Toast. I liked it! The coffee was disappointing, though.
January 5: I went to the library to pick up some books! They had It Starts With Us as a Lucky Day Collection, so that means IEWU will be my third book of this month. I’m doing so well already!
I stopped at Dunkin’ again because I planned on going to a coffee shop the next day. Darby was driving me a little crazy this day, and I couldn’t focus well when I tried doing some work.
I ordered an iced Caramel Macchiato. I’m probably not going to go to Dunkin’ for a while because this coffee was not good. The coffee has been tasting burnt lately.
January 7: There was a corgi meetup at 12:30 PM. Darby quickly found Birdy’s brother, Goose, and he would follow him everywhere! Birdy was in heat and couldn’t make it, sadly. We’re wondering if the reason why Darby was following Goose around is because Goose smells like Birdy. Either that or it’s a crazy coincidence!
For dinner, we used a DoorDash gift card and ordered from BoomBozz. Stephen was craving a calzone and also ordered some Famous Asiago Cheese Bread. I just got some Tater Kegs (Jumbo tater tots stuffed with bacon & cheddar cheese. Served with your choice of house buttermilk ranch, beer cheese queso, or garlic sour cream) and made some noodles. I know, what a great combo! Haha. They were pretty good! Stephen didn’t like what he ordered, which is strange since he loved the pizza the last time we at here. He also wasn’t crazy about the bread, so that was a bummer for him.
January 12: Darby likes getting on the kids’ playground equipment. He’s so cute. We’ve went down the slide before. I don’t think he knows what to make of it, haha. He always tries to walk up it and is confused why he is unable to.
For lunch, I went to Zaxby’s because the glorious Zensation salad is back!
Oh, how I’ve missed you!
January 13: The tiniest bit of snow! Darby looked adorable in it. I hope it snows a lot just one day so he can play in it.
January 15: Alexis came down to visit! Stephen’s coworker mentioned the Cool Springs Galleria and I’ve never been. Alexis said she had went here once several years ago.
We also stopped by Target to get a few things. I like this area, so we’ll probably go here now when we want to go to the mall or just kill some time.
January 22: Nothing much happened during the week. I did take Darby to PetSmart the previous day to buy birthday gifts for the dog pawty. He marked on the floor, so that was a joy to clean up. I had a bad feeling he was going to do it because it looked like another dog had messed on the floor but the owner didn’t clean it up good enough. He kept sniffing the area, then it happened.
The pawty was at Pins Mechanical Co. I wasn’t sure if Darby would handle the environment well because it’s noisy and hectic, but he saw his furriends and fit right in! The cute pawty was for Birdy, Honey, Sprinkles, and Wilson. We don’t really know Sprinkles’ and Wilson’s pawrents well, but we got them a little something.
I didn’t take a lot of photos because Darby was WILD. He kept pulling and trying to find Birdy or Goose the whole time. Little mister needs to chill out. The food was so cute—and it was all for the dogs, haha. No human food in sight!
It was a fun time, and it was nice to get out of the apartment for a few hours! Now that we know Darby may be okay in this kind of environment, I want to take him more places to get used to it.
Oh, and these were some biscuit treats from Birdy’s pawrents:
Birdy and Goose—how adorable! Goose’s neck broke when the biscuit fell off the counter. 😢
The Three Sisters Barkery is on Etsy; use the code BIRDYGOOSE to receive 10% off your order!
Darby devoured these! We’ll have to order some for him in the future.
January 25: Went to Dunkin’ because they have a mobile offer of a free Bacon, Tomato, and Avocado Sandwich with any purchase.
I ordered my usual iced latte, and the sandwich was really good! I’ll be buying it again. The coffee was really good this time.
January 28: Stephen and I went to the K& Mart to stock up on some noodles and get more kimchi! We bought the huge jar of kimchi that’s a little over 7 pounds. I found these salmon skins and almost passed them up because they were like $10, 😓 but Stephen convinced me to get them. He didn’t care for them, but they are fantastic!! They’re so good. Like I said, I can’t pass up salmon skin. Three days later, they were gone, and so was my red bean mochi. 😢
Think of pork rinds, only these are waaaay more delicious! I will be getting this from now on.
After the Asian market, we ate at Black Dynasty Ramen, a secret ramen house inside the Bearded Iris in Sylvan Park.
The coffee place we went to is called 8th & Roast Coffee Co.
I ordered their iced seasonal drink, ‘Tis the Season, and Stephen ordered his Chai Tea Latte.
Books
January books started out as disappointing reads, but they improved. I am surprised by how much I read this month!
- The Cabin by Natasha Preston
- themes: romance, mystery, thriller, suicide
- rating: 3
- This was an okay read. The ending is left on a cliffhanger and seemed like a huge mess. Essentially, one character is framed; the real culprit died by suicide after some time had passed and the person couldn’t keep the secret any longer. Oh, and another character is in jail for confessing and taking the fall for the real murderer. The innocent character that is framed, I assume, just runs, as one character instructed them to do.
- I liked that I kept guessing and wondering who the killer was. I did guess who the killer was, but not right away.
- The One by John Marrs
- themes: sci-fi, murder, mystery, romance, suspense
- rating: 3
- I was so excited to read this book, so I’m bummed about the rating. The characters were interesting. I didn’t expect a serial killer storyline for one character, but that was fun. One of the murders was described and it was a tad bit gory. I didn’t like that character or their arrogance.
- Mandy’s storyline was sexist, and she had so many twists. Yup, indeed, a male writer wrote this.
- This was a fun story and concept, but there were a few things that I wish had gone differently. Sometimes I couldn’t keep the characters straight from one another, but that went away as I kept reading. I don’t know if I liked how short each POV was, though. It was like each one just had to end on a little cliffhanger.
Sorry for the book rant on this next one.
- It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
- themes: domestic violence, romance, young adult
- rating: 3.5
- Had FOMO, gave this book a try. I liked it more than I thought I would. Domestic abuse is a heavy topic and meaningful message, and this was a personal to Hoover. She included an author’s note at the end about how her mom was in an abusive relationship. So, Lily was inspired by Hoover’s mom.
- The names were a bit ridiculous. Lily Blossom Bloom, Atlas, Allysa, Ryle, now Emerson Dory?? Atlas and Emerson aren’t that bad, but the others were not the greatest.
- My big question is, Was Ryle meant to be likable at first? Any guy who knocks on 29 doors until he finds mine, then begs to have sex with me is a red flag. Not to mention, they established they weren’t on the same page when it came to seeking out a partner, or not. Lily wanted a committed partner; Ryle wanted one-night stands, no attachment. See you, bye. He literally asked Lily for sex just one time, then she’d be out of his system, or whatever. As if she should cater to him without any regard to how she feels about that situation. Nope, Lily was turned on and fell for him.
- Now, they’re together and all that, she learns about his sad, traumatic story, and he mentions going to therapy. That’s cool and great, but legitimately, it’s like he never goes to therapy. He’s almost officially a neurosurgeon, he can work 18+ hours a day and he hangs out with Lily or his sister and her husband, who is his best friend.
- It seemed like there were elements just put in there to check off a box without any further details. Also, did Ryle really not commit enough for someone other woman to see his red flags?
- Allysa’s husband made over 6 million dollars the previous year, yet she wants to work for Lily for free? Oh, but Lily felt bad, so she gives her $10 an hour. I mean, that’s the kind of rich person I’d hope and want to be, but it seems super unrealistic.
- Atlas holds a special place in my heart. I loved him. He was the typical perfect guy Hoover writes about.
- This book may mean more to someone who has experienced domestic abuse because I couldn’t really connect with Lily as she was rationalizing Ryle’s abuse. This quote is an example:
- “I am a strong woman. I’ve been around abusive situations my whole life. I will never become my mother. I believe that a hundred percent. And Ryle will never become my father. I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together.”
- He pushed her down the stairs and she had to get stitches, I think. This event was after he first slapped her.
- Clearly it wasn’t Lily’s fault, and I get that this is showing how victim’s rationalize these situations, but this is where I really felt distant and it’s not something I’ll understand.
- Lily had an amazing support system and resources. She wasn’t trapped and stuck in the marriage to Ryle like real-life women may be.
- The epilogue was super short and lacking, but it’s nice that Hoover wrote the sequel for her fans.
- Overall, I appreciate the message. Atlas is a big reason for the amount of stars I gave. I wish Ryle would’ve been a likable character to me at the beginning, when he and Lily were falling in love, because I would’ve said goodbye to him for doing and acting like that.
This review was longer than I meant for it to be, and I left out a few things, but I guess these were my main points. I promise I will not write a super lengthy review like this again.
- It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover
- themes: domestic violence, romance, young adult
- rating: 4
- This book was to give the fans more Atlas and Lily. It was definitely a lighter book, and I enjoyed reading how they navigated life together. This added some closure since Atlas and Lily’s story wasn’t finished. I like that Atlas got his own storyline. Again, he’s a perfect book boyfriend that does all the right things. I wanted to actually see one disagreement/rough moment between him and Lily. In typical CoHo fashion, the guy the female MC ends up with has zero flaws.
- I liked getting to learn his background. His home life was sad and filled with abuse and neglect.
- I’m glad they got their happy ending. The very end seemed rushed and lacking, but that’s okay.
- When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill
- themes: historical fiction, Canada, LGBT, feminism, queer
- rating: 4
- For some reason, a metaphor and simile after almost every paragraph got on my nerves with this one. The novel was dark and gritty, and I didn’t care for Marie and Sadie that much, but I was still curious to see how it ended.
- Feminism is a heavy theme, but from what I got, the moral of the novel is the decision of a man decided the class/status between two women. I appreciated the feminist aspect, though the I would say the two MCs were not feminists and caring toward other women. They just cared about each other while using, hurting, and exploiting other people, especially women.
- The Last Invitation by Darby Kane
- themes: mystery, suspense, thriller, psychological thriller
- rating: 3.5
- Book needed better editing. Two MCs: Jessa and Gabby. Not super likable characters. Were friends in college, then had some fallout not really explained. Sometimes one name would be used instead of another. One scene had Jessa’s name when it should’ve been Gabby’s.
- Feminist novel, although I don’t think this was well done. It was an okay read, but I would not read again.
- Before I Do by Sophie Cousens
- themes: romance, chick lit
- rating: 4
- Least favorite novel by Cousens so far. Interesting concept, and so many rough events that occurred on Audrey and Josh’s wedding day. It was obvious who she was going to chose, between Josh, the man she was marrying, and Fred, someone she had a wild connection with and went on one date, then mysteriously didn’t show up for their following planned date.
- I wanted it to go another way. They both seemed like decent guys. I did think the bad occurrences that happened at the wedding rehearsal and the day of the wedding were OTT and were beyond realistic. I wanted some of it to be a least natural.
- Also, how Fred was around Audrey so much was forced. No one else knew that he and Audrey had had a brief romance. He was Josh’s sister Miranda’s date, who she just met and barely knew, yet Miranda switched around the seating chart to have Fred sit beside Audrey because they were so alike. That would never actually happen.
- The one natural, seemingly real moments are when Clara talks about how marriage isn’t perfect, and she confesses the hardships she and her husband Jay are going through, though they love each other deeply.
- Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
- themes: thriller, mystery, suspense, crime, psychological thriller, cult, abuse
- rating: 3.5
- Well, this novel was way longer than I felt it needed to be. Honestly, it was about to be a DNF, but I was super curious about Andy’s mom, Laura, and what she was hiding. I think I kept reading to find out about Laura because I really didn’t care about the book at first.
- I know Andy was confused and shocked, especially having no idea who her mother really was, but the way she couldn’t even form a sentence, but Paula being so curt and angry put a bad taste in my mouth.
- I don’t know if I really liked Andy. Her conversation with Paula really annoyed me for some reason. I think it was the way the writing style was. It would be written like Andy said, “I—,” then Paula would say Andy couldn’t even finish a sentence, which was true. The way the text looked, though, it was as if Paula was interrupting Andy. I’d rather ellipses be used because it’d then read as if Andy was trailing off instead of being cut off.
- Laura’s story is wild and fun. At the beginning chapters of introducing Laura’s backstory and hidden life during the ’80s, I didn’t really care. After getting more information and seeing the plot come together, I was more interested.
- Girl, Forgotten by Karin Slaughter
- themes: thriller, mystery, suspense, crime, psychological thriller, cult, teenage pregnancy
- trigger warnings: abuse, rape, underage drug use, misogyny, homophobia
- rating: 4
- I enjoyed this novel more than PoH, and it held my attention right away. I didn’t feel fully satisfied with how things turned out, but it was a decent read.
- Andrea was still a little bland in personality, and she still had trouble forming a sentence, but she was more bearable and mature this time.
- Being a pregnant teen in the ’80s sounds like one of the worst things to happen. People were so cruel when they found out Emily was pregnant. Most characters reacted grossly toward her. It was sad.
- The ending is kind of a letdown. I feel like there were some loose strings, and they were important things. We never find out what happens with the parole situation.
- The Stranger Inside by Laura Benedict
- themes: psychological thriller, suspense, mystery
- rating: 2
- I don’t mind it when a MC is horrible, usually, but I found it difficult to feel sorry for Kimber. She’s terrible in both timelines. The timelines alternate from 199_ with Michelle, Kimber’s sister, to the present day, which is when Kimber is 38 years old. In Michelle’s timeline, Kimber is like 14.
- Kimber is selfish, manipulative, and just not very kind in general.
- Book was a bit of a letdown. Lots of twists, but I just wanted to get it read and returned.
- The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
- themes: chick lit, STEM romance
- rating: 4
- A good book to break up my mystery/thriller book binge that I’ve been on lately, and a fast read to make this book my 11th read!
- Some elements that I felt meh about: it’s an enemies-/fake dating-to-lovers trope, Jess’ mom substory line made me wish Jess would stand up to her and cut her off before giving her money a second time, and (spoiler) an important score wasn’t revealed.
- I’m not a fan of enemies-to-lovers tropes, and I don’t think this one convinced me to like it any more. Jess sees River at a coffee shop every day at the exact same time. She decides to not like him because he didn’t smile or talk to anyone. Literally, that’s the reason. She thinks he’s stuck up because of this.
- Jess’ mom was like an irresponsible child. I get Jess wanting to be nothing like her mom, and I think that would’ve been obvious without her popping back up a few times in the story.
- The most important detail had a twist, yet the truth wasn’t revealed. I get that it may not matter to them, but as a reader, I cared deeply to know.
- Decent book overall. Not my favorite Christina Lauren book, but I enjoyed it.
My January reads were a success! I’ve definitely padded in some books to be ahead of schedule because I know I won’t be able to read this many books every month. I have so many books checked out for February that I’m excited about.
Orders
January 9: I ordered a succulent from a seller on Etsy, and it arrived! It was on sale for like $5, and I couldn’t resist what a good deal that is! This lovely little chubby succulent is called a Pachyphytum Cuicatecanum.
It has such a thick farina, and the chonkiest leaves!! Absolutely beautiful.
January 11: This was the largest succulent order I have ever placed. They were being sold at such an amazing price! I actually didn’t jump at the chance to buy the Lauii when placing my order; instead, I waited until the sale was over before asking about it. The larger one wasn’t sold, so I took this as a sign. 😜
- Succulents in this order:
- Echeveria Cream Tea
- Echeveria Jade Glow
- Echeveria Lauii (round leaf)
- Echeveria Orange Monroe
- Echeveria Trumso
- Variegated Cotyledon Orbiculata
January 13: A girl I follow on Instagram crochets, and she made this lovely book cover! It’s only big enough for a paperback, not hardback, but I’ll probably use it for my Kindle as well.
January 20: I have been scouring the Internet to find some cute corduroy overalls, and I have finally found some! They’re from a small business in North Carolina called The Urban Nomad Boutique. It’s ran by a girl around my age.
I am in love with them!! They’re so cute, and they’re not too long for me.
They were a small splurge, but I got them when they were on sale (rarely do I buy something with a high price tag and it not be on sale), and I’m paying through Paypal Pay in 4 so it’s not one big expense to make me feel better, haha. They’ll last me for years (hopefully!) so I think they were worth it.
ICYMI
Sharing some recent Instagram posts in case you missed them.
That’s All For January!
If you had time to kill and read all of this post, you’re the best. I hope to figure out a way to thank you for sticking around! I have a pattern of starting things and somewhat stopping halfway. Not this year!
How was your first month of 2023?
