Welcome to another year of my Goodreads Reading Challenge! I have set a goal of 50 books in 2024. That’s a reasonable goal, considering I read, like, 65 last year, two of them after I’d stopped counting.

Anyway, if you’ve been following for a while, you know the drill. If you’re new here, it’s very simple: each month, I’ll list the books I read with my rating and a (very) brief…review? Well, not exactly a review. More an explanation of my rating. I always invite my followers to tell me what they’re currently reading and to recommend books they think I’d enjoy. (Hint: I’m a huge sucker for horror! And, more recently, I’ve discovered a love for cozy mysteries.)

So here are the books I have read thus far in 2024.

For You and Only You (Caroline Kepnes)

Rating: 2/5

Okay, I wanted to like this book. I really did. But at this point, it’s basically the same story we’ve been through three other times! Not to mention Wonder was just…unlikable. I mean, I wasn’t Mary Kay’s biggest fan, but sheesh. For You and Only You spends a lot of time waxing poetic about being a writer while no one is actually writing. The kills are lackluster, as if Joe’s heart isn’t even in it anymore, and – spoiler alert! – the person who figures him out this time is kind of a fangirl. This is the last of the Joe Goldberg series, in theory, and I, for one, am glad. He’s made too many mistakes at this point and is no longer the suave serial killer we all adored after reading You.

Paper and Fire (Rachel Caine)

Rating: 4/5

I gave Paper and Fire a solid rating because I love Rachel Caine’s writing style and her characters. However, as much as I find myself entertained by this series so far, I’m still not sure there’s going to be a definitive point. The story seems to be moving forward, I suppose, but it feels a little aimless. To be fair, this is only the second book in The Great Library series. I will be diving into the third novel soon, and I hope it carries me somewhere gripping!

Peppermint Cookie Murder (Trixie Silvertale)

Rating: 2/5

Know how I said I love cozy mysteries? Well, I thought this one would be a homerun, as it’s a “paranormal” cozy mystery. Needless to say, I was wrong. It’s a cutesy idea. Peppermint Cookie Murder centers around Cindy Claus, the daughter of – you guessed it – Santa! Instead of following in her father’s footsteps, she decides to go to the human world and open a bakery. But when her neighbor is murdered, Cindy becomes the top suspect and has to solve the crime before she goes down for it. Not a terrible plot, right? The thing is, Cindy was annoying. She was too much of a goody-two-shoes. (I know, I know. Santa’s daughter! But come on.) Not only that, I couldn’t stand how little she knew about the human world. Again, Santa’s daughter. You’re telling me that Santa shipped his daughter off to the human world with his adviser (a talking arctic fox, by the way) and not a single lesson on how life in that other world works? Nope. Not buying it.

The Lost Girls: Get It Started/After Hours/Last Call (Morgan Burke)

Rating: 2/5

This was a trilogy – and shouldn’t have been. It’s not so much that the story was bad, it’s just that it could have been wrapped up much sooner. Lost Girls is a teen melodrama/murder mystery, heavy on the teen melodrama. The main character does a lot of dumb stuff and “falls in love” with every guy she speaks to. It’s rather ridiculous. Plus, if you put even an ounce of brain power into it, you can figure out who the killer is pretty quickly.

The Ritual (Shantel Tessier)

Rating: 1/5 (only because I can’t give it a zero on Goodreads)

Y’all. This book was so bad. My best friend recommended it, telling me only that it was a spicy read. (Apparently, it was trending on TikTok, but I don’t have one, so…) The Ritual is categorized as a dark college romance, whatever the hell that is, and it came with a list of trigger warnings from those on social media. I didn’t find anything triggering, the story just sucked. The characters weren’t likable: Ryat was too controlling, and Blakely was a whiny brat who was into being dominated and didn’t insist on Ryat respecting her limits (not that there was much discussion of limits, or safe words, or anything, really). The sex scenes were repetitive, the descriptions nearly identical each time. Oh, and there were all these big “twists” that the characters were aware of – everyone but Blakely, for the most part – but that were never alluded to until BAM, it conveniently moved the story along. No explanations of how the characters knew these things; there would just be the big dramatic moment when someone decided to drop the knowledge. The writing was awful, the editing even worse, and it was over 600 pages long. This one almost landed on my DNF list, but I am truly stubborn. Lol.

Horror Circus

Rating: 1/5 (again, only because there’s no way to put zero)

The nicest thing I can say about Horror Circus is at least it was short. There was a plot, kind of, but it was a struggle to get to it. Basically, the circus visits the town of Darkside each year, and half the residents want it shut down because bad things always happen when it arrives, while the other half – mostly business owners – welcome the increased cash flow. Farkas then goes on to explain each terrible incident that has occurred during the circus’s time in Darkside. The novella concludes with a group of townspeople attempting to destroy the circus, and those who support the circus going to stop them. The writing was bad and often redundant, and though I know there wasn’t a focus on character development, all of the characters were just…lame. I would not recommend Horror Circus to anyone, but hey, it’s only 62 pages if you wanna give it a try!

***

I am currently reading Caraval (Stephanie Garber) and Gone to See the River Man (Kristopher Triana). Here’s hoping they are better than what I’ve made it through so far!

Progress: 6/50