Welcome to my January 2026 Favorite Books post! This monthly post is where I share the 5 star books I’ve read so far each month. You can see the first half of my January reading here and I will share the rest of my January reads next week. If I have further 5 star reads after writing this post, they will be shared in that post as well. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.
And – I am now a co-host of the Share Your Shelf link up along with Joanne, so next week’s post will be on Thursday, instead of Friday, and you can link up your bookish posts with us there!
Title: The Wedding Ringer
Author: Kerry Rea
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Berkley, 11/9/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 5 Stars
I’m hitting backlist hard at the moment and I picked up The Wedding Ringer by Kerry Rea. This is about Willa, whose fiancé cheats on her with her best friend, leaving her with her life falling apart. She meets Maisie, who begs her to say they’re friends, and later hires her as her bridesmaid. Through Maisie, Willa meets Liam, the best man in the same wedding, who was also the same man that laughed at Willa when she was dressed up as a princess for a child’s birthday party. So they start out as enemies, become friends, and then more.
“Once upon a time, Willa Callister was a successful blogger with a good credit score, actual hobbies, and legs that she shaved more than once a month. But after finding her fiancé in bed with her best friend, she now spends her days performing at children’s birthday parties in a ball gown that makes her look like a walking bottle of Pepto Bismol. Willa dreams of starting fresh, where no one knows who she used to be, but first she needs to save up enough money to make it happen. Maisie Mitchell needs something too: another bridesmaid for her wedding. After a chance encounter at a coffee shop, Maisie offers to pay Willa to be in her bridal party. Willa wants nothing to do with weddings—or Maisie—but the money will give her the freedom to start the new life she so badly desires. Willa’s bridesmaid duties thrust her into Maisie’s high-energy world and into the path of hotshot doctor Liam Rafferty. But as Willa and Maisie form a real friendship, and Liam’s annoyingly irresistible smile makes her reconsider her mantra that all men are trash, Willa’s exit strategy becomes way more complicated. And when a secret from Maisie’s past threatens to derail the wedding, Willa must consider whether friendship—and romance—are worth sticking around for.”
I really enjoyed the friends Willa found and the way she supported Maisie, who had secrets from her past. Willa’s growth was lovely to see and I enjoyed both the funny and sweet parts in this book!
Title: Phoenix
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Dial Books, 3/3/26
Source: Storygram Book Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
Phoenix by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is about Harper, whose parents have just split up. Harper and her mom move to a small house in a new town, far away from her father and her best friend Cat. The new house is on the grounds of a horse farm where Harper curiously watches kids having riding lessons. Then one day an ill horse is dumped at the farm and Harper claims him as her own. Rescuing Phoenix helps Harper heal and find her way to new friends.
“Harper’s life has just exploded. Her parents are getting a divorce. And she suspects her best friend, Cat, may have known the reason for it long before she did. Now Harper and her mom are starting over in a cramped house, in a new town, where everything feels unfamiliar, including the riding barn next door. Harper’s never been around horses before. And no, she does not want to learn to ride. Then with no warning, a truck dumps a starved and neglected horse right in Harper’s yard. She has no idea what to do with a live horse let alone a nearly dead one. But one look at the horse’s huge eyes and his skinny body, and something inside Harper unlocks. The horse is named Phoenix, she decides. And she will not give up on him. Neither, it turns out, will Phoenix give up on her. She doesn’t know it yet, but this is Harper’s first step—toward new friends, new challenges, new adventures. Toward riding.”
I thought this book had believable emotions, sweet friends, and a nice variety of diverse characters. This is the first in a series and I will definitely look forward to reading more!
Title: The Moon Without Stars
Author: Chanel Miller
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Philomel Books, 1/13/26
Source: Storygram Book Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
The Moon Without Stars by Chanel Miller was a highly anticipated read for me and it lived up to my expectations. It is about Luna, a middle school student dealing with all the things middle school students do. It is full of friends, amusing antics, bullies, puberty, family issues, and much more.
“At the beginning of seventh grade, Luna knows who she is: an observant, quiet girl who loves writing and making zines with her best friend, Scott. But when one of their zines takes off, Luna is somehow swept up into the popular group and learns just how much of herself she’s going to have to compromise to stay there. Will she give up her writing? Her best friend? What about her own beliefs about who she is and what she stands for?”
Luna begins the book as a “book doctor,” as when kids have a problem, she prescribes them a book. Next, she and her best friend Scott begin making their own booklets called zines which help others with their feelings. The popular group brings her in, and she ends up ditching Scott. But then the group turns on her too, and true friends are revealed. The writing is so poetic and perfect. I wish I had this book in middle school.
Title: The Bright Side of Disaster
Author: Katherine Center
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Ballantine Books, 6/26/07
Source: Publisher and Author
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors. Recently I was able to replace my old copies of Get Lucky and The Lost Husband with their new covers thanks to the publisher. A few years ago, they sent me a copy of The Bright Side of Disaster, but it was not the floral cover. Katherine herself was kind enough to send me this one and it is even autographed! I had previously read it in 2009, and I reread it this month.
“Very pregnant and not quite married, Jenny Harris doesn’t mind that she and her live-in fiancé, Dean, accidentally started their family a little earlier than planned. But Dean is acting distant, and the night he runs out for cigarettes and doesn’t come back, he demotes himself from future husband to sperm donor. And the very next day, Jenny goes into labor. In the months that follow, Jenny plunges into a life she never anticipated: single motherhood. At least with the sleep deprivation, sore boobs, and fits of crying (both hers and the baby’s), there’s not much time to dwell on her broken heart. And things are looking up: Jenny learns how to do everything one-handed, makes friends in a mommy group, and even gets to know a handsome, helpful neighbor. But Dean is never far from Jenny’s thoughts or, it turns out, her doorstep, and in the end she must choose between the old life she thought she wanted and the new life she’s been lucky to find.”
This is about Jenny, whose boyfriend leaves her just before she goes into labor and has her first baby. This really brought me back to being a new mom, taking care of a baby, non stop nursing, etc. Luckily I didn’t have to do it on my own! Jenny has the support of her mom and her neighbor, Gardner. But then Dean comes home and Jenny is torn on whether to take him back. I loved Jenny and was cheering for her to do the right thing!
Title: Before I Forget
Author: Tory Henwood Hoen
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, 12/2/25
Source: Book of the Month
Why I Read It: Book of the Month pick
My Rating: 5 Stars
Before I Forget by Tory Henwood Hoen was my December Book of the Month pick. It is about Cricket, who moves in with her father as his caretaker, as he has Alzheimer’s disease. While her father is losing his memories, Cricket is thrown into hers, as they are staying where she stayed as a teenager, and she hasn’t been back since. Although her father is losing his memories, he has wisdom about him and Cricket finds a way for both of them to find meaning in his remaining days.
“Call it inertia. Call it a quarter-life crisis. Whatever you call it, Cricket Campbell is stuck. Despite working at a zeitgeisty wellness company, the 26-year-old feels anything but well. Still adrift after a tragedy that upended her world a decade ago, she has entered early adulthood under the weight of a new burden: her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. When Cricket’s older sister Nina announces it is time to move Arthur from his beloved Adirondack lake house into a memory-care facility, Cricket has a better idea. In returning home to become her father’s caretaker, she hopes to repair their strained relationship and shake herself out of her perma-funk. But even deeply familiar places can hold surprises. As Cricket settles back into the family house at Catwood Pond―a place she once loved, but hasn’t visited since she was a teenager―she discovers that her father possesses a rare gift: as he loses his grasp of the past, he is increasingly able to predict the future. Before long, Arthur cements his reputation as an unlikely oracle, but for Cricket, believing in her father’s prophecies might also mean facing the most painful parts of her history. As she begins to remember who she once was, she uncovers a vital truth: the path forward often starts by going back.”
While there have been some mixed reviews for this one, I loved it and it did hit home for me, its descriptions of Alzheimer’s especially. “Alzheimer’s is not funny, except when it is, which is often. It has the capacity to be both devastating and hilarious, and those who witness it learn to live in limbo, because there’s nowhere else to live.” “Everyone talks about Alzheimer’s as a decline, but that’s not quite accurate. It’s not a slope, but a spiral, like water circling a drain. Topics are trod over and over; questions are repeated; stories are retold.” I enjoyed Cricket’s relationship with her father, as well as the friends she made while caring for him.
Title: And Then There Was You
Author: Sophie Cousens
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: GP Putnam’s Sons, 11/18/25
Source: Gift
Why I Read It: Love her books
My Rating: 5 Stars
And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens is another book with mixed reviews. It seems that some people DNF’d immediately after realizing there is an AI theme in the story. But that isn’t the whole story – and she does address the issues with AI as well. Anyway, this is about Chloe, who is nervous to attend her college reunion without a date or direction in her life. She turns to a dating service to find a date to bring, and she is matched with her so-called perfect man.
“Stuck in a Production Assistant job and living at home with her parents after a painful breakup, thirty-one-year-old Chloe Fairway isn’t where she wants to be in life. The last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her ‘most likely to succeed’ at her upcoming ten-year college reunion. And she definitely doesn’t want to see her former best friend, Sean Adler, who is now a hotshot film director living the life Chloe dreamed of. Desperate to make a splash—and to save face in front of the man who might be the one that got away—she turns to a mysterious dating service. Enter Rob, her handsome, well-read, and charming match, the perfect plus-one to take to her reunion. The more she gets to know him, the more perfect he appears to be. Could it be that this dating service knows her better than she knows herself? And can she overlook the one big catch? As Chloe reconnects with old friends, she begins to question everything she thought she wanted. Maybe, just maybe, revisiting the past is exactly what she needs to move forward.”
I enjoyed the way that the reunion helped Chloe to figure out her life, and to realize that not everyone else has everything going for them either. I don’t love a love triangle, but I did enjoy the unexpected reunion love interest. This one did not put me off of Sophie Cousens at all!
Title: Welcome Back, Maple Mehta-Cohen
Author: Kate McGovern
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Candlewick Press, 10/12/21
Source: PJ Our Way
Why I Read It: Have the sequel
My Rating: 5 Stars
I received the sequel to Welcome Back, Maple Mehta-Cohen by Kate McGovern, and as I had this one waiting to read, I picked it up first. It is about Maple, who is held back in 5th grade due to characteristics of dyslexia. She loves books and stories, but has hidden that she struggles with reading. Being held back means not being with her two best friends, and she is embarrassed about why she is held back, so she lies to her new 5th grade friends.
“Maple Mehta-Cohen has a secret: she can’t read very well. She has an impressive vocabulary and loves dictating stories into her recorder—especially the adventures of a daring sleuth who’s half Indian and half Jewish like Maple herself—but words on the page just don’t seem to make sense to her. Despite all Maple’s clever tricks, her teacher is on to her, and now Maple has to repeat fifth grade. Maple is devastated—what will her friends think? So she uses her storytelling skills to convince her classmates that she’s staying back as a special teacher’s assistant. But as Maple navigates the loss of old friendships, the possibility of new ones, and her reading challenges head-on, her deception becomes harder to keep up. Can Maple begin to recognize her own strengths and love herself—and her brain—just the way she is? In a paperback edition with an eye-catching cover and a dyslexia-friendly font, this heartwarming story and its bright, creative heroine will have special appeal to readers who have faced their own trials with school and friendships.”
I loved how Maple embraced her identity as a biracial Hin-Jew – half Hindi and half Jewish. She composes stories into her voice recorder featuring a character with that same identity. But when she tries to find a famous Hin-Jew for a report, she comes up short. She has to use another aspect of her identity to find someone famous to identify with, and to learn to love that part of herself as well. This was a wonderful portrayal of someone with dyslexia, and even if someone struggles to read, they can still be smart and a lot of fun too. I will be reading the sequel shortly, so stay tuned for that review!
Come back next week for the rest of my January reads and the Share Your Shelf link up!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read this month?
