Shelf Life: Episode 1

I've toned down the number of reviews I've been posting in my reader group and on my social media pages. Some months I read nonstop and others it's only once every couple of weeks. This led to inconsistency in my review posting and ultimately clogged up my social feeds with reviews that my readers weren't interacting with. In order to solve this problem, I'm starting a new series on this blog.

Shelf Life will be a monthly episode posted at the end of each month. It will contain all the books I reviewed during the month and links to them for interested readers. I'll also include my "Now-Next-Later", where I'll list the three books I have lined up to read.

My reading goal for 2023 is 150 books. In January I read a total of 8 books, most of which were YA, as I am attempting to consume more YA, New Adult, and Juvenile books this year. I'll be reading way fewer adult books in order to reconnect with my target audience. Being a YA and middle-grade author, I have to stay up on trends in those age levels. Reading adult books has been counterproductive and, honestly, I don't enjoy them as much as I enjoy YA and New Adult. I'm not a fan of unneeded steam.

I'm going to use a table to lay out my monthly reviews. The basic format will be: Title/author, Month read, Genre, Age Level, Fromat Read, Rating, and Review. This could eventually change, but doing it this way will help me remain organized as I can input the books into the table as I read them.

January's Reviews:

Something Fabulous (Alexis Hall)	January	Historical Romance, LGBTQIA+, Romantic Comedy	18+	Audio Book, Ebook	5/5	I don’t know where to begin. This book was chaos. It was silliness set in the time of Pride and Prejudice. It was one big chase that ended with a tooth-rotting sweet ending. I loved it. No. I adored it. I ended up Listening to the audiobook edition, though I started reading it as an ebook. The narrator’s voice was like honey and the flowery language was almost too distracting for me to read myself, but I loved closing my eyes as I listened to this novel wash over me. Then, about halfway through the book, I was presently surprised to discover that one of my favorite characters was just like me. There aren’t enough accurate representations of demisexuality in literature. This is only the second book I’ve found where I am honest about his felt seen. Alexis Hall shows us that love, in all forms, is beautiful and worth fighting for in this tale. I kind of hope there is a sequel because I want to see someone happy ever after and another someone finds theirs.
A Coffee Shop Romance (Amber Kestner)	January	Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA+	YA+	Ebook	4/5	Okay, I have a new favorite book by Kestner. This book was perfect. It's a clean, LGBTQ romance between two girls who are asexual/demisexual. It focuses heavily on the friendship aspect of a relationship instead of the romantic parts. This book is a new style for Kestner. It's cleaner and the formatting is excellent. I'm very impressed with this story and the character development that happens for both Juliet and Ashlyn. If you haven't read any of Kestner's works, I would recommend starting with this one.
Loose Ends: Badlands Series (Morgan Brice)	January	Paranormal Crime, LGBTQIA, Paranormal Romance	18+	Ebook	5/5	This installment focused more on the cop side of things than the magic. It had vengeful ex-lovers, cursed ghosts, and moments that made my heart stop.
The Mistletoe Clause: A Clause for Christmas Series (E.S. McMillan)	January	Holiday Romance, Contemporary Romance	YA	Ebook	4/5	This was a second-chance romance with Christmas vibes. A father realizes he may have messed up his son’s life when he made him choose between life and work. He sets out to right his wrongs by hiring the woman to work for him and arranging for her and his son to meet.
The Love Hypothesis (Ali Hazelwood)	January	Contemporary Romance	New Adult	Audio Book, Hardcover	5/5	If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. I’ve recently accidentally discovered books with characters that make me feel seen. Like, truly and deeply seen. Olive is one such character. Olive's demi/asexuality almost made me cry because there aren't enough books representing this type of relationship. Despite the lies told by both Olive and Adam to their friends and coworkers, they have the healthiest relationship I've seen portrayed in modern literature. Not to mention, the best-friend relationships shown are spectacular. Where's my Ahn, Malcolm, and Holden? I want friends like them. I want to crawl inside this book and live in its world.
Scattered Showers (Rainbow Rowell)	January	Short Stories, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary Romance, Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling	YA	Hardcover	4/5	I'm not going to lie, I primarily picked this book up for the Simon and Baz moments. However, I had previously read three of the stories in this collection and found a new one that I adore. Winter Songs for Summer was my favorite story here. Rowell used it to talk about how music has an impact on our emotions and how it can connect us together. The main guy in it wasn't her usual type. Instead of being tall and lanky with a boyish smile, he was bulky and broody. I loved him. This is a great collection to read if you are new to Rowell and want to get an idea of her writing style, or if you're a fan of her Simon Snow series and Fangirl.
A Cupid Christmas, Megan Kuykendall	January	Urban Fantasy, Contemporary Romance, Holiday Romance	YA	Ebook	5/5	A Cupid Christmas has both Christmas and Valentine vibes to it. The main character is Eros, the god of love, and Cupid himself. He's cursed to never find true love, despite being responsible for providing it for others. When he falls in love with one of his targets, he struggles to accept that he has to give her up for her to be happy. This story is all about love, in all its forms. It talks about the love of friends, lust, the love of parents, soulmates, and more. It's a wonderful romance to read during the winter months.
The Golden Clover, Megan Kuykendall	January	Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance	YA	ARC/EBOOK	4/5	The Golden Clover is a story about grief. Kuykendall takes paranormal and urban fantasy elements, with a St. Patrick's twist and uses them to explore how hard it can be to move past the death of a loved one. I cried. It was so good, and the Leprechaun had a unique vibe to him. He wasn't your stereotypical leprechaun but was modernized. This is a short story that can be read in under two hours. It has enough of an open ending that Kuykendall could expand on the world with a sequel or a longer work if she wanted.