10 Romance Books I Want to Read

Over the past year I have been more and more interested in the romance genre. I've alway mixed some romance into my reading, but 2020 really increased my desire for Happily Ever Afters. Romance has always been a fun was to tear through books and make myself happy without too much stress. Therefore, there are more romance books on my TBR than ever before. These are just 10 I've been interested in because of romance booktubers (something I've recently discovered) as well as recommendations and scouring my library's collection online. 

I'm a little late for Valentine's Day, but we read romance year round!

  

    

Series Review: Whyborne and Griffin by Jordan L. Hawk

Series: Whyborne and Griffin

Genre: Paranormal Romance/Historical

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: Purchased

Published: 2012-2019

Add it // Buy it 

Overall Rating: 4/5

Trigger Warnings for the series: Internalized homophobia, societal homophobia, family rejection, PTSD, flashbacks to trauma, night terrors, sexism, murder, sexual assault on and off screen. 

At the beginning of August I innocently started Widdershins, the first book in this series, on whim. I quickly devoured the first eight books and enjoyed every second of this historical fiction paranormal series. What I found was a delightful cast of characters who grow and change over the course of the series as well as a dark and harrowing story of how they try to save the world. 

The world building is excellent over the course of the series. The first few books follow a "monster of the week" format, but the world opened up and a larger undercurrent to the story became apparent. Throughout we encounter a variety of monsters and creatures and eventually uncover a deeper plot that could cause the end of the world. 

Hawke's writing also improves over the course of the series. Even though I was delighted by the first few books, I enjoyed seeing the improvements in pacing, plotting and general skill over the course of seven years of writing. It has darker undertones than most of the urban fantasy I've read and there are serious consequences for characters. Hawke makes the characters work for any wins they achieve. 

Overall this series impressed me with the character development as well. I took a short break between books ten and eleven due to a reading slump. When I returned to the world, I ended up appreciating this even more. Whyborne and Grffin go from budding romantics who just met to one of the most realistic long term couples I've seen in a series like this. Over the course of the series they develop a found family and each minor character's growth is also evident. 

In short, this series was a delight and I recommend it highly. 

2020 Reading Stats

 Last year was a strange year for the entire planet. It was also a strange year in my reading life. After reading over 125 things in 2019, I expected to hit that again in 2020. Ha! Instead my entire job changed and COVID hit in March. After spending a month working at home, I was back in the office in entirely new environment. Like so many of us, it really affected my mental health and the way I read throughout the year.

So, I made a video about my reading statistics in 2020. 

Of course, I tracked a few more things than what I talked about in the video and I didn't actually compare any of my 2019 to 2020 reading before starting the video. It was interesting to see what I did compare the two years, many of my percentages were close to 2019. This surprised me so much because I felt so different about the two years. In 2020 I felt like I struggled to read audiobooks so much and I know I read very few graphic novels. However, when it came down to the actual percentages, there was less than a 5% difference in both! 

Anyway, this is all to say that after comparing 2019 and 2020 I actually feel better about my reading from 2020. I can't wait to see what my reading year looks like in 2021!

Top Ten Tuesday - Anticipated Releases of First Half of 2020

 Happy New Year Friends! Once again it has been an age since I posted on here. I have recently missed blogging very much and want to attempt to integrate it back in my life. I don't want to make promises because it is so easy to slip out of the habit of posting. However, I have missed this in recent weeks unlike I have before. So in true ABBA fashion...here we go again. 

These are ten books released in the first half of 2020 that I'm excited for. I doubt I'll purchase all of them up as I'm trying to reduce my book buying this year. However, I may try to use my library more than I did in 2020 since...they were closed. 

  

  

 Unfortunately, I'm not up to speed on a lot of new releases so I only have six releases to talk about. I intentionally haven't been paying attention to releases 

As always please visit That Artsy Reader Girl for topics and to check out other Top Ten Tuesday Posts. 

Happy Reading!