What I read in January 2026

January is always a long month, but this year, it felt like it was never going to end! But here we are, finally.

I read ten books, mostly on the topics of death and/or magic (as well as doing my first ever beta read, which, for obvious reasons, I can’t say much about!), and wrote a teeny tiny bit (though I am currently feeling quite inspired by the author who set the exercise…).

The Everlasting, by Alix E. Harrow - 4*

Atmosphere: A Love Story, by Taylor Jenkins Reid - this gave me ALL THE FEELS. 5*

Lessons in Magic and Disaster, by Charlie Jane Anders - 4*

Under the Whispering Door, by TJ Klune - 4.5*

The Hope, by Paul E. Hardisty - 3.5*

Katabasis, by R.F. Kuang - I can accept the premise of magically travelling to Hell to retrieve a dead thesis supervisor, but that’s a mighty American-looking PhD you’re doing at Cambridge, and Oxford Brookes having university status as early as 1985? C’mon. 4*, even so.

The Harlequin, by Nina Allan - 4*

System Collapse, by Martha Wells - 4*

The Seven Daughters of Dupree, by Nikesha Elise Williams - 4.5*

A Flock of Shadows, edited by Claire Houguez and Rebecca Parfitt - 3.5*

Looking ahead…

Lots of lovely reading to look forward to, as ever. I really loved The Polite Act of Drowning, by Charleen Hurtubise a couple of years ago, so I jumped at the chance to be on the blog tour for her new novel, Saoirse.

The Silver Wind is one of a vanishingly small number of Nina Allan’s works I have yet to read at this point. However, as one door closes, another one opens, and I plan to continue making inroads into TJ Klune’s extensive back catalogue with The Bones Beneath My Skin.