After a slower year of reading in 2024 (due to taking classes + work stress), I am hoping to read more this year. Here are the four books I read and finished in January:

Spark of the Everflame, by Penn Cole

Published 2024.

This is a fantasy romance book that I’d call it a “popcorn” book: fun to read, interesting magic system, plot-focused, fairly two-dimensional characters, not necessarily a book future generations will read. I enjoyed it, but I do not anticipate revisiting it. An entertaining story, but nothing profound. That is ok—I needed something light hearted while I had a lot of feelings around quitting my job of the past fourteen years. 

Our protagonist, Diem, is a young woman who lives in a world where there are Mortals and Descended, who are magic-wielders. The Descended rule over the mortals, and try to protect their bloodline and therefore their magic and power. Diem has grown up as a scrappy mortal who works both as a healer and also knows fighting tactics because this is a fantasy adventure book. Her mother warned her against the Descended, but after her mother disappears, Diem helps as a palace healer and meets a handsome broody prince (which could be tricky since she has a childhood sweetheart…), and Mortal/Descended fighting shenanigans ensue. 

The magic and world building structure was interesting and kept me reading even when I rolled my eyes a little bit at the love triangle and some of the pretty obvious plot points. 

The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien

Published 1954.

This is also a fantasy book, but is very different in style and tone! I read for my 50 Classics challenge, which I’m basically resurrecting this year, as I didn’t read many classics last year (well, except I read a bunch of Agatha Christie books in the fall–those are definitely classic mysteries, so…partial credit to me). It will get its own post. 

Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon

Published 2012.

This little book is full of encouragement and good advice for being creative. It is specifically geared toward people who are artists and/or identify as “creative,” but really, it’s excellent advice for everyone (the author agrees and says there are many ways of being creative, many of which are not explicitly labeled as such). 

I really appreciated the advice about not necessarily making art a job, especially when starting out. Obviously, I support anyone who wants to be a full-time artist! But for many of us, that is putting too high a burden on our creativity, and having a job to pay the bills and allow creative outlets on the side is a good way to balance our lives (she says while currently on a sabbatical…but my plan is to find a day job eventually once I’ve caught my breath, recovered, and figured out what I want to do next). 

Glow of the Everflame, by Penn Cole

Published 2024.

Book two of the Everflame series (quadrilogy? I’m not convinced that’s a word but it’s a four-book series). 

It’s hard to review a subsequent book without spoilers for the first book, but the journey of our plucky heroine continues. In book one, she was completely on the side of the mortals, but in book two, she meets more of the descended and realizes that they are also people who do not deserve to die. Many of them just don’t know about the misery of the mortals, and they aren’t all evil, just sheltered. 

The love triangle continues to be annoying, mostly because it’s pretty clear that Diem likes one more than the other, and also that guy is committed to protecting her, while the other guy is pretty flaky. But the author committed to the triangle, so the drama continues. 

I want to find out what happens and learn more about the other realms and their magic, so I plan to continue the series, but I’m much less invested in the romantic plot than the world building.