Week of January 19, 2026

It snowed most of last weekend, which was fun. It’s always pretty to have some snow on the ground and to stay in and watch football and cook comfort food and read by the fire. I enjoy that. But now I’ve had that and I’m done. It was 2 degrees out when I woke up this morning and that was just offensive, and now they’re saying we’re due for more snow this weekend. So instead of rolling out of bed, I looked up last minute escapes to an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. And I was *this close* to clicking “book” on my phone when Ross reminded me that his passport was expired. Are you kidding me?? And this, folks, is why it’s imperative to keep your passports current. Because there will inevitably be a day when you literally want to escape within 24 hours to somewhere, anywhere, and you NEED to be able to do it. So now I’m grumpy and stuck in the cold. 🥶 (Maybe I should have booked a trip for just me, huh?? After all, I remembered to renew my passport on time…)

I started a John Grisham book this week, The Widow. Legal thrillers used to be my go-to genre, and Grisham was a favorite of mine. Every now and then I pick up something other than a romance, but I find I keep putting it down. It doesn’t hold my interest the same way. Is it lacking in anything in a literary sense? Definitely not. It’s probably just that I’m not getting the same hit of dopamine or purpose that I get from reading the romance books. I think at this stage in my own life, I seek out the emotional connection that I get from the characters in romance books and when I don’t find that right away, the book feels hollow or less compelling. I’m going to stick with this Grisham book because it does look like a good story. But it’s not a “read it in a day” book for me. But books like this prove to me, once again, that reading is the one place in adulthood that we really are allowed to seek out what truly brings us nothing but joy and dive deep and wallow around in it. And how glorious is that!? Never apologize for reading what you like! It’s something that I need to continually remind myself that I’m allowed to do.

1. Common Goal, by Rachel Reid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2. Goodbye Note, by J.R. Gray ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

3. Persistent, by Michele Lenard ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

With only 3 books this week, I feel like I don’t have a lot to draw from in terms of what to talk about. All of these books were romance, all were MM, and all were bi-awakening in their theme, though that was coincidental rather than on purpose. I was really enjoying Goodbye Note until about two thirds of the way into the book when it seemed like there was a very simple falling out between Arik and Varian and all of a sudden they didn’t talk for seventeen (!) years. I’m sorry, but that instantly bumped my rating down a notch - that’s a lot of distance for a “sort of” falling out. I feel like the author got a little lost with how to wrap up their story and this one got away a little bit. And then in Persistent, I loved the over-the-top attraction that Axel felt towards Lennon, especially since he had never felt that towards a man before. But all things considered, it almost felt too easy for them both to accept this and just move forward together. Does that really happen? I have no idea, but it seemed to happen without a moment’s hesitation or soul searching on Axel’s part, which doesn’t seem remotely realistic. Maybe that’s just my cynicism kicking in. Anyway, after last week’s excessive amount of reading, I was due for a light week, so that’s all we’ve got this week!

That’s it for this week! As always, you can keep up with all of my reading on my Goodreads if you want to. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12921106-karen

Love, Karen