It's the first reading roundup for 2022! As exciting as that sounds, January definitely stalled out about halfway through thanks to good ol' Covid. I had a pretty big dose of the brain fog, which made reading anything new very difficult for about a week and a half. I reread some of my favorites from the last few years until my brain felt clear again.

The Frozen Crown & The Seventh Queen (Warrior Witch duology)

Author: Greta Kelly

This duology was the perfect way to start off a new year of reading. It had a sort of Lord of the Rings vibe, and I absolutely loved the main female character, Askia. Askia is the heir of Seravesh but her country has been invaded by a neighboring empire. Askia has a small but dedicated army behind her, and she's seeking aid from the country of her birth, Vishir. To secure an alliance, Askia must become one of the Vishir emperor's wives. To win the war, she must embrace her death magic.

Power and Pentad Part 2 (Shade and Shadows series)

Author: Amanda McClure

This installation of what's become one of my favorite series did not disappoint. After splitting up in an effort to keep Shade safe from the Elorsins' megalomaniac uncle, Shade and Pax are finally reunited with the other three members of their Pentad. It takes a lot to get them all in the same place, though. That's really all I can give you plot-wise without spoiling it. I'm not sure when the next book comes out, but there are six more in the series! So I'll be reading on this one for awhile.

Author: Jack O’Connell

This book was really weird. Sweeney is a pharmacist who's son, Danny, is stuck in a coma after falling down a flight of stairs. Danny has been transferred to the Peck Clinic, where doctors have been successful in waking similar patients, but the cure for Danny could lie in a comic book world known as Limbo. The only way for Sweeney to access this magical land and find his son, who has taken on the persona of one of the freaks who are the main characters, is a special drug concocted by a gang of sorts that moves from town to town based solely on coma patients. In the 'real world,' the doctors who run the Peck Clinic are shady as all get out, so there's definitely conflict with that. There's a lot of switching back-and-forth between the Limbo world and reality. Like I said, super weird.

Radical (Clandestine Magic book 2)

Author: Colleen Cowley

This was a nice continuation of the series. There was a lot more action, and we really got to know the characters better. There was also a killer twist that the author set up so subtly I forgot to see it coming.

Beatrix and her best friend have started a whisper campaign to not only spread the knowledge that women can do magic but also to teach them how to wield it. It's Beatrix's Plan B for keeping her sister safe from the wizards who are trying to kill her, and the one thing Peter, the wizard to whom she's magically tied, has asked her not to do.

Rival (Briarcliff Secret Society book 1)

Author: Ketley Alison

Y'all know I love a good academy series, and this one has not one but two secret societies. Callie's stepfather and his new wife enroll her in Briarcliff Academy for her senior year of high school in the hopes it will get her back on the right track in the wake of her biological mother's death. But Briarcliff is full of secrets, and Callie's roommate is at the center of the biggest one. When her roommate winds up dead, Callie is determined to learn the truth behind her death, which means working closely with Chase, the most popular boy at school and who has a ton of secrets of his own.