Today a book review video dropped on the YouTube channel. I’ll embed that video at the end for you. Here’s your insider look at more information about those 5 books!

Statistics

Age Categories: 1 YA, 4 Adult

Second five in a row with these exact same stats. Oops

Author’s Gender: 3 Female, 1 Male, 1 Various Authors (Compilation)

Again, this means I’ll be really skewed overall. 

Genres: 2 Contemporary, 1 Mystery/Thriller, 1 Romance, 1 Historical Fiction

Look, no fantasy. Shocked? I was.

Indie Authors: Nope

For January as a whole I think 50% of what I read was independently published. It just happened that these 5 were all traditionally published books. 

Total Pages Read: 1776

Average Length Per Book: 355.2, which is pretty typical

Ratings: 1 2-star and 4 4-star

Good five books, overall.

Publication Dates: 2001, 2008, 2015, 2015, 2018

Sort of dug into my back list for this five. The oldest one is 19 years old and nothing published in the last year. 

Book Notes that Didn’t Make the Video

Songs of the Humpback Whale

• I listened to this one as an audiobook from the library. 
• The audiobook used different voice actors for each major character, which was pretty cool. I wasn’t a fan of the way Rebecca’s voice made her sound SO MUCH YOUNGER. 
• Grab yourself a copy of the book here.

The Nightingale 

• I borrowed this hardcover from the library. It was a big week for the library, I guess. Which, actually, may explain the lack of independently published books this time around. 
• I was so shocked to see some pretty scathing reviews on this one. I guess this is a good time to mention that my reviews are my opinion of the book, not the author. At least, I try to just review a book. I didn’t do any research into the writing of this book or the author before or after reading this book. 
• Grab yourself a copy of the book here.

The Lucky One 

• I listened to this one as an audiobook from the library, too. 
• I actually haven’t seen the movie. Not sure I want to know that I’ve read it. 
• This one low key reminded me of Bridge to Terabithia. Is that weird? That’s weird. 
• Anyway, grab yourself a copy here.

 Violent Ends

• I grabbed this one as a hardcover from the library, too. 
• I devoured this entire book in less than 24 hours. It’s incredibly well written. 
• Tom Leveen is one of my favorite authors. I wondered if I would be able to pick his writing style out of the 17. I was able to. I identified his story before I had finished the second page of the one he wrote. Turned out to be my favorite story in the anthology too. 
• I was also able to pick out Neal Shusterman’s story. I actually hadn’t noticed he wrote one of the stories. I was a page or two in before I had to check the list of authors again because I thought it sounded like him. It was. 
• Grab yourself a copy of this book here.

The Chalk Man

• Also an audiobook from the library. 
• This one was on another BookTubers recommended mystery/thriller list. I don’t remember which one, honestly. But I added it to my list because of that recommendation. 
• I actually went back to the library after starting this one and picked up the hardcover as well because I didn’t want to stop reading. I finished it alternating between the audio (when I was driving) and the hard cover. That ending just cooks right along. 
• Grab yourself a copy here.

Need a Review?

Remember, if you have a recommendation based on something you read here or saw on the video drop the title in the comments. 

If you want me to review something you had a part in bringing into the world (either as an author or a publisher) you can submit that title here.

The Video

Thanks for being here. Here’s that video I kept alluding to.