We’ve reached the third Monday of 2025 already. That means I’m back to recap more January reading I’ve gotten done. This week I was pressed up against a deadline for some work projects, but still managed to sneak some good reading time in. I’ve now gotten everything submitted, and even moved all my bookish TikTok videos to my new YouTube channel. (After this weekend, I have no idea what’s going to happen with TikTok in the US. I wanted a platform with less guesswork.)

This week, I finished a series I started back in September, and then breezed through the first half of an eARC!

1. Looking Glass – Christina Henry

CW: Graphic Violence/Gore, SA, Child Abuse/Neglect, Abandonment, Death, Codependency

This is the third and final installment of The Alice Chronicles series. Usually I space out the books in a series over a long period of time – often years. I read the first book in this one as recently as September. I actually covered it in my very first reading recap post. The next month, I read the second book. The series presents a dark and gritty retelling of the beloved Lewis Carroll story of Alice in Wonderland. I’ve loved getting lost in the rich world that the author created and all her morally-gray-at-best characters.

I had not realized ahead of time that the third book was not a novel in the same way that the first two were. Instead, it’s a collection of four novellas. At first this discovery was a mild disappointment, but after actually diving in, I saw why the author chose to switch up the format. In truth, the bulk of the narrative was already complete. There were very few ends left to tie up, so the primary motivation for the reader to continue is simply to spend more time in that world. The change in format allowed the author to use new additional POVs to tell parts of the story that had been missed by filling in character backstories or providing additional context to events.

There was almost no remaining plot from the prior books that needed to move along. The shorter stories made for some lovely character development and gave the reader time to explore the world. That’s really what I wanted the third book to do, so the novellas turned out to be a more beneficial change than I expected. Overall, I really enjoyed the way Henry ended the series, and I loved the series as a whole.

2. The Elf Witch – Jacquelyn Gilmore

CW: Graphic Violence/Gore, SA, Self-Mutilation (list will likely be expanded in next week’s post)

I don’t have a purchase link for this one yet. It won’t be officially published until March 11th. I was lucky enough to get an advance reader copy of the ebook. The synopsis got me excited enough to apply, and I actually squealed when the email showed up in my inbox. I want to give a very big thank you to The Nerd Fam for the gifted eARC!

At this point, I’m about halfway through the book. It is a lot of fun so far, and it feels like it’s still building up. I will say that the first few chapters gave me a bit of whiplash, so I wasn’t immediately convinced I would like it. The author plunges you directly into a world full of magic, and at first it’s tricky to keep up. Events begin to happen quickly before the reader has a firm grasp on either the world or characters. I would urge readers to not make snap judgements too soon on this one. Partway through chapter five was where I realized I was hooked.

This is a debut novel, and there have been a handful of moments where it has been noticeable. A couple metaphors have felt clunky or unnatural. There were sentences where it was unclear which character a pronoun referred to. Small errors like these can pull the reader out of a story, but writers tend to grow out of them quickly. Plus the magic system and the plot are fascinating enough that odd metaphors become easy to overlook. I fully expect subsequent books in this series will have fewer similar issues if any.

I’m still finding out where this is going, but I’m loving the ride. I’ll give another update on it next week to give my final review!

More January Still to Come

I’ll have one more January post for you next week before we get to the first Monday of February. I’m excited to bring you my full review of The Elf Witch, and I already decided which book I’ll be tackling after that. This week I should have more reading time than I’ve had over the last few weeks, and I’m planning to take good advantage of that. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I haven’t just jinxed it!

If you’re interested in following along more closely with my reading, I’ve started tracking this year’s activity on StoryGraph. It’s not what I’m using to track page progression, nor do I track my audiobooks or anything I read to my daughter in a single sitting. There’s a chance that will change in the future, but I remain undecided. You’re welcome to follow!

As always, I want to hear from you! What have you been reading lately? Are you having fun with it? Have you read any of these titles, and if so, what did you think of them? Tell me everything, and follow along for more!