Hi and welcome to my first wrap up of 2017!

January has been pretty busy reading and blogging wise, so I hope you’re ready for a looong post 🙂 I have read 12 books, 3 of which were re-reads and I think that’s been one of my best reading months EVER, so yay for me! I entered my first readathon of the year and actually did okay. I’ve slowly but surely been discovering some new music. AND I’ve fallen in love with some new tv and movies. So let’s get into it!

What I read

DAReadAThon Wrap Up

The DaReadAThon ran for the first two weeks of January and focused on reading diverse books. You can find all the challenges and my TBR here. I managed to finish 5 of the 7 challenges and collected 200,2 points for Team Hufflepuff! The books I read for this readathon specifically are indicated with a * below.

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey WHaley *

I couldn’t have started my 2017 reading year with a better book. This story, about a 16 year old agoraphobe and the ambitious girl who tries to ‘fix’ him in order to get into a top psychiatry program, was amazing and completely worth the hype! Great mental health representation, a lovable main protagonist, lots of adorkably nerdy references and a big focus on friendship all worked together to give this story a place in my heart.
Rating: 4,5 stars | Check out my full review here.

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst *

So much YES to an actual fantasy where the heroine falls in love with the princess instead of the prince because we greatly need more f/f fantasy books! The romance in this is super sweet and swoon-worthy and even though I had some mixed feelings on the character development, I did highly enjoy this book overall! I’d recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for a cute f/f romance, with a lot of horses, a dash of magic and a hint of murder mystery.
Rating: 3,5 stars | Check out my full review here.

The Rose and the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh *

I did it! I finally stopped procrastinating and read the final part in the The Wrath and the Dawn duology! And it was quite a (magical carpet) ride! With gorgeously rich writing, wonderfully vivid characters, a romance that will make your heart sing and lots of action, adventure, magic, shock, heartbreak and swoons, The Rose and the Dagger is a great and satisfying ending.
Rating: 4 stars | Check out my full review here.

I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson *

HELLO NEW FAVORITE! I’ll Give You The Sun was amazing and wonderful and has cemented its place in my Hall Of Faves. I ADORED this book. It pushed all the right buttons and managed to inspire me immensely. It made me feel pretty much every emotion on the spectrum and moved me so much. This book is a masterpiece: a story of family, tragedy, growing apart and coming together, love and loss, endings and new beginnings. And art. A whole lot of gorgeous, breath-taking, life-changing art.
Rating: 5 stars | Check out my full review here.

A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard *

A Quiet Kind of Thunder is a super sweet contemporary about a girl who’s a selective mute and a boy who’s deaf. It’s amazingly diverse, has accurate mental health representation, positive female friendships, realistic family dynamics and a romance that is unbelievably cute and adorable.
Rating: 4 stars | Check out my full review here.

The Summer Palace by C.S. Pacat

OMG, this Captive Prince novella/epilogue was everything I ever needed. The year couldn’t have started any better than with Damen/Laurent fluff. Though it’s been a year since I read the series (which I adored and is one of my all time favorites), I was immediately sucked back into the story and guess what? I missed these characters. So much. I’ve never wanted to drop anything I’m reading this much to go back and re-read the entire series. Seriously, if you loved this series, this short story / epilogue is a must. It has fluff. It has flowers stuck in hair. It has wrestling. It has bathing. It has naked shenanigans. It has Laurent laughing. So much love… But be warned: this series (and this novella) is very smutty and not for a younger audience!
Rating: 5 stars

Crystal STorm by Morgan Rhodes

I love this series, even though it definitely has its flaws. I mean, the writing is not always on point, the dialogues can be pretty cheesy and there is more drama than in a daytime soap opera. BUT I LOVE EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF IT! The characters are just too morally grey and amazing and it’s just super addictive, okay? But that cliffhanger ending will make the wait for the final book pretty rough.
Rating: 4 stars | Check out my full review here.

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

OH HI, ANOTHER NEW FAVORITE! Adam Silvera is a genius. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2017 and it outdid all of my expectations. Going into this book, you know it’s going to deal with some tough issues as it deals with loss and grief. It’s a very character-driven story and I felt pretty much every emotion on the spectrum while reading and I fell in love with every single one of these characters. Overall, I just can’t recommend this book enough. It’s a very sad book, but it balances it nicely with a lot of humor, lovable characters, nerdy references, happy memories and a hopeful outlook. Just like More Happy Than Not, it will stick with you for a long time after reading. It’s beautiful, it’s moving, it’s real and it’s raw and I will be singing its praises for a long time still.
Rating: 5 stars | Check out my full review here.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

After my heart was left hurting by History Is All You Left Me, I desperately needed something to make it smile again. And what better than a re-read of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda? I sat down on a Sunday morning with some Oreos at my side, and read the whole thing in one sitting. Have I mentioned how happy this book makes me? A few hundred times already? Ok, but you know, this book just makes me happy, guys!
Rating: 5 stars | Check out my full review here. 

If The Dress Fits by Carla De Guzman

I recently featured this book in my post on books that sound amazing to me but that didn’t have anybody talking about them. It sounded like such a fun, diverse book that focuses on body positivity and had my favorite trope: the fake date that’s not that fake after all. But… this was a big disappointment for me. Though it had its good points, the writing was full of mistakes and I just could not connect with any of the characters or the romance.
Rating: 2,5 stars

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I did it guys! I finally started my long-procrastinated Percy Jackson and the Olympians re-read and in doing so I am slowly but surely working on my 2017 goals. Are you proud of me? I am proud of me 😉 As expected, I still love this book. It was a little weird getting into it again at first, since it’s been ten years since I last read it, but I was lost in the world of demigods soon enough and I think it will be easy tearing through the rest of this series.
Rating: 5 stars

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Well, I thought I would re-read one PJO book a month, but… it turned out a little different because once I was back in the world of Percy Jackson, I didn’t want to quit. I remembered that I liked The Sea of Monsters the least of all PJO books when I first read them, but upon re-read I actually really enjoyed this one. Also, I forgot just how funny these books were but OMG, they are hilarious!
Rating: 5 stars

Other blog features

Top Ten Tuesday

• 31 January 2017: Let’s Art! — Favorite Fan Artists
• 24 January 2017: We Live and Breathe Words – Favorite Book Quotes
• 17 January 2017: Ten Books That Sound Amazing But (Almost) Nobody’s Talking About?
• 10 January 2017: Behold My Failure! (AKA Ten 2016 Releases I STILL Need To Read. And I Will)
• 03 January 2017: Top Ten 2017 Debuts I’m Excited For

Waiting on Wednesday

• The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King (read)
• Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo (read)
• Long May She Reign by Rhiannon Thomas (read)
• The Alchemists of Loom by Elise Kova (read)

Tag Thursday

• The Emoji Book Tag (read)

Other

• My 2017 Bookish Resolutions (read)
• Lindsey Reads Turns One! Blogoversay Give-Away (give-away has now ended) (read)

What I listened to

In 2017 I’m determined to keep loving music and discover some new bands or artists. So my playlist actually has quite a few bands that are new to me, mixed in with a few old favorites.

The highlight for me for January has definitely been the return of ED SHEERAN, who released not one, but two new songs! I love them both but Castle On The Hill is definitely my favorite. It has that wonderful nostalgic/friendship vibe about it, which I love. I really hope I’ll still be able to see him live someday. He’s coming to Belgium in April, but I tried for 2,5 hours to get tickets online and couldn’t get through before it was sold out so alas… I’m pretty bummed.

Also, I have been really loving the new album by ONE OK ROCK, called Ambitions. I knew about them before, but didn’t actively listen to them though. But this album has won me over completely and I’m sure I will slowly but surely check out their older music as well.

What I Watched

TV

Yuri On Ice

Yes, this little show was also in my December wrap up. You see, that was the FIRST time I watched the season. In January however, I watched it a SECOND and a THIRD time. I may be a little obsessed. I may also be in the process of creating my own Yuri On Ice Book Tag. I have no regrets.

Re: Zero

After Yuri On Ice, I was getting super intested in anime again. So I’ve been looking for other shows to watch and Re: Zero was one of those shows that aired this year that was pretty popular. It’s about this guy called Natsuki Subaru, who suddenly finds himself transported to another world. There he meets a girl with silver hair who is in trouble and he decides to help her. However, life in this other world is pretty dangerous and he soon finds out he has the power to return to a previous point in time every time he dies. I really like this show, it’s a perfect mix of funny, adorable, action-packed, fantastic and a little creepy.

Death Note

Another highly popular anime that I’ve started watching is Death Note. Now, this one is COMPLETELY different from both Yuri On Ice and Re: Zero because it is super dark, violent and creepy. And yet, I really love it as well. (Thanks Prabhleen for the recommendation!). It’s about a super smart high school student called Light Yagami, who one day finds a Death Note lying on the ground, along with the instructions for it. Write any name in the Death Note while picturing the face of that person, and they will die. So Light starts using this Death Note as a way to rid the world of criminals. Soon the police is on the case and they are working with a super intelligent young detective called L in order to catch the person responsible for all these mysterious deaths.

Sherlock

I’m actually pretty lucky because I only really got into this series last month, which means I didn’t actually have to wait two years for this season. It has become one of my all-time favorite tv shows and I really enjoyed season 4 as well. I loved all three of the episodes of season 4 and was on the edge of my seat during the last one especially. Though it worked nicely as a possible series finale, I do hope we will get at least one more season because I love the Sherlock-John bromance way too much to already say goodbye to it.

Teen Wolf

I’ve been a fan of this show since the very beginning and though it definitely has its flaws, I have loved every single season since. So I’m sad that this is now the final season and I’m not yet ready to say goodbye. That said, I am enjoying this season so far and am really intrigued by the Wild Hunt storyline.

Shadowhunters

Honestly, this series is a pretty big guilty pleasure watch for me. It’s nowhere near as good as the books and the acting can be a little iffy at times, but I still can’t get enough. There are a lot of good things about it though: I adore the character of Simon, I love Magnus (though the Malec relationship so far was better in the books), I love the Jace/Alec parabatai bond, I love Raphael, I love Izzy and I love Alec.

Movies

Your Name / Kimi No Na Wa

In line with my descent into anime madness, I watched this highly praised movie and let me tell you: IT IS WORTH ALL THE HYPE! Your Name (or Kimo No Na Wa) is an anime romantic drama fantasy about two high school students who find themselves suddenly switching bodies. That’s all I can say without spoiling anything, but know that the story goes way beyond that. It’s a beautiful story that is gorgeously animated and will have you feeling all the emotions.

Stuck In Love

Stuck in Love is one of my all-time favorite movies and I was especially compelled to rewatch it this month after finishing I’ll Give You The Sun. Why? Because for me, the story of I’ll Give You The Sun and the story of Stuck in Love remind me of eachother and I love them both. We have the complex family dynamics, a brother-sister dynamic, adorable but flawed romances and an entire family who is passionate about something (In IGYTS it is art, in SIL it is writing). Both stories are incredibly inspiring to me. Plus, Stuck in Love has an Elliott Smith reference which reminded me of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, so LOVE ALL AROUND!

Underworld: Blood Wars

I went to watch this in in the cinema because I used to love the first movie. However, I didn’t remember anything of the other movies in the series so I was just a little lost at times. I liked the movie fine overall, though I had trouble with not comparing the actors to their most well-known roles. For me it was Four (Divergent) running around with Kate Beckinsale, with Black Jack Randall (Outlander) and Irene Adler (Sherlock) as the bad guys.

Life update

Life in January has been pretty much the same as in December. I’m still looking for a new job and my anxiety has been at its highest since my college days, while my confidence is pretty much at an all-time low. But I’ve been enjoying having some more time to spend on the blog, reading so many amazing books and getting sucked into anime. There is a silver lining somewhere and I am determined to find it 🙂

How was your January? What did you read? What did you listen to and what did you watch? And what are your plans for February?