January 2025 Book Favourites

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New year, same reading habits! Here were my favourite books of the month.


Canadian author alert! Jolene, who is Iranian-Canadian, is depressed and hates her job and coworkers, but when the new HR guy makes a tech mistake, she can suddenly see everyone's emails and messages. She decides to use her spying abilities to keep her job, and chaos ensues. Perfectly portrays the highs and mostly lows of corporate work, where you have to spend most of your days in close proximity with people you don't like! It's critical of the corporate world and the systems within it, but is more optimistic than most typical "sad girl lit fic" I've read. It's clever and funny and I adored it.



Douglas is a middle-aged man about to travel Europe with his wife and teen son, when his wife announces she's thinking of leaving him after the trip. Douglas is intent on changing her mind, but of course the trip goes off the rails. The stories of cis white men usually don't compel me, so tell me why this one had me all up in my feels?! I haven't had such an emotional reaction as I had with this book in possibly years. Regardless, I love how this author examines relationships and love and family. I've been thinking about the ending non-stop. Plus there are lots of fun European settings! 


A YA fantasy where a practical baker with a bit of magic gets pulled into a quest, which leads her to Prince Hapless, who has a reputation for being silly and clumsy. It's a fairly standard YA fantasy in terms of plot and world-building, but I thought it really shone in its characters. Prince Hapless is clumsy but well-meaning, fighting against his reputation as unintelligent and flighty. And I loved Aurelie's practicality. Read if you can relate with a MC who thinks "I might have a crush on this handsome prince, but that's silly, so... I'm just gonna back to work." 100% would be me. I loved them and their travelling companions, as well as the cozy-adjacent vibes.


Ulcetha is a disgraced scholar writing fake provenances for artifacts when his best friend Mara dies in an airship crash. Mara has left him a clue that leads him to the discovery of a long-lost artifact and a dead body. While I don't think this is the author's best work, I was just excited to be back in the world of The Goblin Emperor, one of my favourite books of all time, and had a great time with this fantasy/mystery novella.

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