What Deanna Read #103: January 2025

I'm in catch up mode here, so you guys are getting two "What Deanna Read" posts in one sitting. Yay!! Right?? The funny this is - I made a mistake when I was prepping December 2024's reads and actually did January 2025 first. Then I went, oh crap, I made a mistake. And then I ran out of steam and that was the end of that.

So here I am, the end of February, exhausted, sleep deprived, and trying very hard to catch it. It's also almost one in the morning (as in VERY LATE AT NIGHT) so I could be slightly delirious as well. Onwards...

Here's what I read in the last month.

Thawed Gladiator: Varro

A Curse in Darkness

The Serpent and the Wings of Night 🎧

Shadows of the Bottle

Adrian: Bonus Material for A Touch of Crimson

Dirty Deal

The Wraith King

When The Farmer Met The City Girl (reread)

Shattering Dawn

A Court of Thorns and Roses - Part 2 of 2 Dramatized Adaptation 🎧Graphic Audio 📘Kindle eBook

Talking Dirty With The Billionaire Boss

A Simple Life

The Hero She Loves

Steele

Wrapped In My Wife

Protecting Freedom

Reckoning 🎧 Audiobook 📘Kindle eBook

One Foot In The Grave Dramatized Adaptation 🎧Graphic Audio 📘Kindle eBook

A surprisingly small reading month with some duds and one major disappointment from an author I used to enjoy. The new book I tried of hers just didn't have the same oomph of what I loved from her older books. Sadness!

Aside from that, I was delighted that Cassie Mint had a new book out and it was a longer one. But again, I'm sad that she's not releasing as many books and taking longer between books. I've gotten spoiled, I guess. She is my go-to reward read of her new release when I was done with a major piece of work and hit a deadline. Yes, I read for my day job and I also read for fun. I'm wild like that. So yeah, Dirty Deal was a delight.

A bit more audio this month because it meant I could listen to some books while doing other chores and there were a lot of chores. I actually got through a lot of chores. It's been busy. And you know what? I had to force myself to finish A Court of Thorns and Roses because yeah, I still hated Feyre and while I kind of felt a bit sorry for her towards the end, she was, in reality, pretty useless, whiney, and self-absorbed, and I just got royally fed up listening to her moan about her fate. Her internal monologue, of which there was a lot, was annoying as all heck and made me want to smack her, then tell her to get the eff over herself and grow a pair.

On the flipsdie, One Foot In The Grave was AMAZING in the Graphic Audio Dramatized Adaptation and such an entertaining read. I fell madly in love with Bones all over again. I'm pretty sure that's going to happen every time I listen to a new book. The guy who does Bones's voice is just delicious. The voice, I mean. I am trying to go slow on these because there aren't many and I don't want to blow through all of them too fast.

What else? I dipped back into some old Alexa Riley, one of which was still lurking in the black hole I call my Kindle library. I recently noticed some of her old books that are still on Amazon go on sale, so I grabbed a few of them. But I think you can buy her books from her website now? I haven't read any of her new stuff in a long time.

Hang tight! If I'm being organized and if I have a handle on my time management, February 2025's "What Deanna Read" might come out in a timely manner.

One final thought... a long time ago when I first started blogging and reviewing (my book/reading/publishing career has changed drastically since the early days), I was very cognizant of the fact that consistency was key. Your (my) audience would expect something every particular day of the week/month, etc., at a regular frequency. I think I did talk about it in an article back in the day. And in today's world, if you're a content creator of any sort, consistency and regular frequency is key. I still know this. The thing is, my life and my career, most importantly my blogging/content creating days are vastly different now. My focus is different. This is my way of saying, I can't (try as I may) go back to a regular posting schedule. I will publish when I can because these days, my time is taken up by my author clients releasing on schedule and my life is a lot of editing and publishing release deadlines. I'm celebrating 300 books with my author clients soon. It's very exciting and I **LOVE** my job now. All that said, "What Deanna Read" will continue because it's a popular post and I still love sharing what I've read. I'm very fortunate that I get to read not only for fun, but also for my job.

How did you go with your reading? Read any good books last month?


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