I usually start the year off pretty good when it comes to reading. Last year I had a tally of 10 books at the end of January. The year before that it was 18 books. In 2020 I managed 6 books which is not bad given that I have had a lot of other stuff on my plate as well.

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My first finish of 2020 was A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole. This is book 2 in a trilogy and I enjoyed both the first one and this one. I have put the third book in my wishlist on Kobo and I guess I’ll pick it up during the year.

The King’s Man – This was an adventure romance set in 13th century England, on the borders of Wales and England. I liked it well enough but I don’t think I’ll pick up the rest of the series any time soon.

When Skies Have Fallen – This reads as more of a documentary if that’s the right word. We see brief but meaningful scenes in the lives of Arty and Jim but it’s not a long narrative with a fixed solution at the end and a HEA so I don’t want to call it a romance. It’s more of a dramatised history of homosexual liberation in Britain. The book starts in WWII and ends in the 60s with the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Of my January books I think this was by far my favourite. Dil or No Dil is a collection of short romance stories and novellas. It was a very enjoyable read, highly – highly – recommended. The short stories are consistently excellent and reading back over the contents of the book I can’t really pick out a favourite. Jessie’s Girl was an awesome riff on Dolly Parton’s Jolene song despite the name of the novel which sent my ideas in a different direction. Top Shelf was brief but excellent. I enjoyed Spin Cycle as well but if I have to pick a favourite, I suppose A Taste of Blessings is it.

A Wicked Kind of Husband – this was a new to me author and I really enjoyed the start of this story. Cassandra has married for convenience and only seen her husband on the wedding night. Which was 2 years ago. When she runs into him in London neither of them knows who the other is and the scene where they meet is hilarious.

A Beastly Kind of Earl – as soon as I finished A Wicked Kind of Husband I wanted to pick up the sequel, but managed to miss it on Kobo by just a few hours. The book was only available on KU and I am not a subscriber. But a kind exchange with the author on Twitter soon saw me with a copy of my own. (Thank you!) This book was not as good as the first in the series, but I think I would have really liked it if I had read them the other way around. Both of them have me very excited for book #3 which is supposed to be released in 2020, I think.

In January I also DNFed two books The Atrocity Archives and Medusa Uploaded. As always I may or may not come back to these at a later date. They just weren’t for me right now.