JANUARY WRAP UP | Much less books but an incredible start to the year!

Raise your hand if you’re not used to writing 2021.

*raises right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot*

I know everyone has said this but let me reiterate: I can’t believe that we are finally in 2021, the situation is still *gradually* getting better and I’m so thankful and excited for how this year will (hopefully) improve. How has everyone been?

For me, the start of the year means a start of the endless workload and thus I have been appearing and posting sporadically during this month, but your support nonetheless means a million! This month, I have read significantly less books than my crazy amount in December and yet I’m still enjoying my reading, as it feels more relaxed and each good story lasts longer.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

My Rating: ★★★ || Genre(s): Fantasy || Age Group: YA || My Review

I was really excited for this read because it had 2 of my favourite elements in it: Mulan retelling and Chinese author/culture, which gels well with my goal of reading more books by Asian authors, and thus chose Spin the Dawn to start 2021, after hearing so many bloggers gush about it.

And I totally understand all the love! Maia is such an innocent yet passionate and brave female lead who is still vulnerable to the brutality of the world, and I loved that realistic “flaw” of hers. And ahhh this is one of the books that has brought out the hopeless romantic in me.

Naturally, I was trying to spot the elements of Chinese culture in the book. I do understand that this is a fantastical world, but I thought there was a lot of missed opportunity in embedding Chinese culture into the setting and society to serve as plot points. All I read pertaining to that was random food, saying “baba” and having an imperial palace with an emperor. But I do applaud Spin the Dawn for subtly referencing a Chinese myth!

Overall though, I felt that the story was lacking a bit of depth with certain trials seemingly too easy, and many action scenes falling flat. However, I will be continuing with the series because I cannot endure cliffhangers!

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These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

My Rating: ★★★★½ || Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Fantasy || Age Group: YA || My Review

Guys, I loved this one so desperately on the other hand.

Juliette was such a compelling main character, the parallelism and contrasts between her and Roma was incredible, and the writing simply stunning.

But most importantly, this book became an instant favourite because of the Chinese culture and how much I managed to resonate with it. These Violent Delights was set in 1920s Shanghai, and was uniquely set up, gangs and Communists and Westerners, vibrant and tense. The commentary on Western colonisation got me emotional, and how much I could feel the Chinese atmosphere with not only the physical aspects, but also the values ingrained into the plots and characters were so familiar to me and I simply adored their involvement.

Do note that the gore level in this one is quite high and I myself did feel uncomfortable at times, but despite that, I felt my Chinese identity being represented by this book, and everything else was simply stunning!

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On the Tips of Her Fingers by Bibiana Kerpcar

My Rating: ★★★ || Genre(s): Fantasy || Age Group: YA || My Review

I did my very first blog tour this month!

On the Tips of Her Fingers was such a whimsical and fairytale-like book that included so many cliches which did not make me roll my eyes, but instead smile warmly and be flooded with so much nostalgia. Like this book is 100% quotable!

The pacing and random side characters did affect my enjoyment of the book quite a bit, but ultimately it was such a beautiful story of hope and courage weaved through different timelines.

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A Druid’s Tale by A.J. Thornton

My Rating: ★★★½ || Genre(s): Fantasy || Age Group: YA || My Review

I just finished this one so my thoughts are in a bit of an incoherent mess, I’ll be posting a full review soon! In short, I did enjoy this one a lot, the world was richly imagined and it certainly sets up so well for an whole series, and I’m really excited to see where it will be heading, especially with so many themes of ethics of killing, power which this book just grazed the surface of and I hope will be explored more in later books!

My only problem was that for the first 50% of the book, the characters were just wandering in the forest and I was frustrated because I couldn’t see where the book was heading. However, once the pace picked up and the “mission” became clear, it was glorious!

As mentioned above, I was sadly not as active in blogging due to my busy schedule and envision it to be the case in February as well. Nevertheless, I did read quite a couple of incredible posts that I’ll be highlighting!

• Karla @ Another Bookworm published such a well-written and thoughtful discussion post on giving bad reviews on ARCs. I don’t get many ARCs myself but definitely could see how this would resonate with many of you all, and Karla does so well at addressing the dilemma!
• Abby @ Beyond the Read is back with her Yearly Wrap Up of her 2020 Faves and 2021 Resolutions, go there for both incredible books and musical recommendations!
• Eryn @ Love Your Shelf is Back from her Hiatus and I’m thrilled, go show her some love!
• Katie @ Whispering Pages shared What Makes Her Add a Book to her TBR, and I was there nodding and smiling and also sighing at my endless one!
• Phoenix @ Books With Wings lists 21 Books she wants to read in 2021, my tbr is blowing up!

And that was my start of the year! I have a feeling I would be even busier in February so pardon me if I disappear for a while again. Thank you for reading!

How was your January? What was your first read of 2021?

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