A New Year, A New Reading Goal

Every year I set up a new reading goal and I have been doing this for the last 6 years or so, using Goodreads to track the books I have read. This is something I absolutely love doing each year.

I've seen people discuss the idea of setting reading goals on social media and like most things is met with mixed opinions, which is not unexpected. For me, setting a reading goal is a challenge and a way to keep me reading every year. It is not meant to be serious thing - I never expect to meet my goal - and ultimately it is just for fun. If I meet my goal or surpass it, then that's great, but if I don't then, I don't worry about it.

I generally use how many books I did read to set my goal for the following year. For example, in 2024 I just about met my goal of 52 books (thinking I could easily read the equivalent to one book a week) so for 2025, I set the goal the same. Then I, somehow, managed to read 62 books last year so made the probably silly decision to set my goal at 70 this year, thinking 'I can definitely fit in another eight books' especially as my friend and I started our book club between us this year.

As we are now just over half way through the year and I am only sitting at 24 books, I may go for a less ambitious goal next year. Still, there is still time for me to catch up on the 16 books I need to read to get back on track. I'm off work for the summer holidays at the moment so maybe August is the month where I finally see seventy books as achievable.

For this section of my blog, Monthly Reads, I will be posting monthly run downs of the books I have read and briefly my thoughts on each. Any books that cross over with book club reads will have links to the appropriate blog posts.

So, let's get started with January!

I started 2026 with some Christmas books. I always like to start Christmas early in November with Christmas films, but for some reason never feel ready then to start on the Christmas books, yet December (and also January) I feel particularly Christmassy. It is my favourite time of year so I like to extend the festive season as much as I can, even if the decorations aren't up around the house anymore.

Let's have a look back at the books I read to kick off 2026!

Title: The Holiday Swap

Author: Maggie Knox

Rating: 5/5

Started: 03/01/26

Finished: 04/01/26

Thoughts: I LOVED this book! The romance; the drama and complications that comes with twins swapping lives and of course the main theme, Christmas - it has it all. It read exactly like a Hallmark Christmas movie and I will keep praying it will become one, one day.

Title: Through the Snow Globe

Author: Annie Rains

Rating: 5/5

Started: 04/01/26

Finished: 05/01/26

Thoughts: Another five stars for me! It's a Christmas novel that meets Groundhog Day. I love the whole Groundhog Day theme (as it usually ensues comedic elements) but in this book, it includes an emotional tether as Diana, the main character, relives the day her husband was in an accident as she tries to change his fate.

Again, this could easily be a film. There's Christmas, emotion, drama and family at the heart of it - what more could you want?

Title: Snowflakes on Silver Cove

Author: Holly Martin

Rating: 4/5

Started: 06/01/26

Finished: 07/01/26

Thoughts: It focuses on two friends helping each other out - George wants to get back on the dating scene after a divorce and Libby needs inspiration for her next book, so they set up some "dates" between them as practise for George.

I love Holly Martin's books (the ones I've read) so I knew I had to give this a go. I definitely fell in love with George - I spent practically the entire book thinking, "I need a George in my life". There's romance, dates that are not dates (but definitely are even if the characters don't realise that) and of course, the main reason I picked this up, Christmas!

Title: Christmas at Mistletoe Cove

Author: Holly Martin

Rating: 4/5

Started: 10/01/26

Finished: 11/01/26

Thoughts: This centres on two friends, one in love with other and the other not knowing. The main character, Eden, despite her skepticism, makes three wishes following the rules of a legend from her town.

I always love a Christmas book (or film) where there are wishes involved. I feel like it is very much a Christmas thing - if the plot or title has the word wish in it, I'll probably read it or watch it. If you need a cosy, wintery, easy Christmas escape, with a load of romance thrown in, then this should probably be on the list.

Cover made with Canva

Title: Just One Damned Thing After Another

Author: Jodi Taylor (narrated by cast)

Rating: 4/5

Started: 29/11/25

Finished: 14/01/26

Thoughts: I love this series of books, that follows a team of historians, exploring and finding out what really happened through time travel. I usually don't go for the history theme, but because of the time travel element, I was sold.

This is an adaption of the first book in the series. I went for this one as there was a cast of actors for the characters which for me, I prefer when listening to an audiobook. I did enjoy the audio book - there were some really funny parts; the actors all did a great job and the sound effects really set the scene, but I do feel if you haven't read the original series, you may be a bit lost during some of the story. As this is an adaptation, a lot of the written description from the book is not there and some of the dialogue is different. So, if you've read the series, then I think you'll enjoy this audio adaptation; if not I would highly recommend reading the book first so you have the general gist of the story.

January Stats

Books reads: 5

Pages read: 1,350

Hours listened to: 7h 10m

And that's a wrap on January 2026!

Have you read any of these books? What books did you read in January?