Recent Updates and Currently Reading | January 25

Hello, friends! Tell me about the weather where you are. I'm curious!! Here it is wet and cold which will probably just make for an icy day tomorrow. Schools and work are closed. If we get to keep power, it may just be a much needed rest day!

My reading took a major left turn in the last week or so. Depression had me reading nothing, and I realized I was letting my looming TBR keep me from picking up something that might help so I put the pause on what I was reading and what I was planning to read, and I picked up a couple of Star Wars books.

Posted Last Week

Review | Ironclads by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Journaling Goals for 2026

Review | Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire

Finished Reading

Lost Stars by Claudia Gray ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - on opposite sides of the war, will these friends turned foes find a way to be together, or will duty tear them—and the galaxy—apart.

Currently Reading

Quest for the Hidden City by George Mann - hyperspace prospectors, bold explorers, Jedi peacekeepers and more

Currently Watching

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This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz Book Date’s It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Review | Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire

Source: Spotify audiobook hours. This is a review of my reading experience.

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold is the eleventh book in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire.

After Nancy was cast out of the Halls of the Dead and forced to enroll at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, she never believed she'd find her door again, and when she did, she didn't look back. She disappeared from the school to resume her place in the Halls, never intending to return.

Years have passed. A darkness has descended on the Halls, and the living statues who populate them are dying at the hands of the already dead. The Lord and Lady who rule the land are helpless to stop the slaughter, forcing Nancy to leave the Halls again, this time on purpose, as she attempts to seek much-needed help from her former schoolmates.

But who would volunteer to quest in a world where the dead roam freely?

And why are the dead so intent on adding to their number?

I adore the Wayward Children series, and I look forward to reading the new installment every January. The Wayward Children series follows children who have gone through a fantasy portal into another world that is a better fit for them. Due to circumstances, these children are forced to return to their original world where they must cope with the heartache and loss of losing their new "home".

While Through Gates of Garnet and Gold is the eleventh book in the series, Seanan McGuire does a great job setting up the story for those who decide to jump straight into this series via this installment. I don't recommend starting here, but we are getting pretty far into the series now.

I loved getting to see some old favorite and not so favorite characters in Through the Gates of Garnet and Gold. These books and these worlds and these characters are such a precious thing.

I felt like something was missing in book #10, and I felt it again here in Through Gates of Garnet and Gold. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it's a lack of something truly new? Or things have become repetitive? I say this every time I read a new installment, but I wish this series would last forever. That being said, these are starting to fall into the 3 star range for me.

So, overall, I love this series so much and never want it to end, but I'm also ready for something more.

⭐⭐⭐★★
3/5 stars

Journaling Goals for 2026

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is goals for 2026. My reading goals have been fluctuating heavily recently so I'm going to focus on my journaling goals for 2026.

Weekly Journaling

I've been journaling for years, but I've never had a goal to consistently journal. This year I'd like to journal at least weekly if not daily. I've switched the type of journal that I use, and I'm working on a new style of journaling so it's all very enjoyable at the moment.

Do you journal? What kind of journal do you use? If I reach this goal, I may treat myself to a Hobonichi Weeks next year if that fits the vibe of my journaling by the end of the year.

Stickers

I do have the goal to not be afraid to use up the stickers, but I'm also challenging myself to use my favorite stickers first. I'm not saving them for a better day, better moment, gift for someone else. Use the best ones right here, right now. (I'm loving this one.)

Junk Journaling

I'm still playing in my normal journal, and I'm trying to do more junk journaling in it this year. I'm taking little ephemera and gluing it into my journal. It brings me joy so I'm hoping to be more mindful when I'm out of the home to save little things for my journal. I haven't caught on to this habit yet.

No Work Related Stuff

I'm challenging myself to keep almost all work related stuff out of my journal. It brings me absolutely no joy to come across work things in my journal so I'm working on this. The exception will be things I do outside of working hours while on work trips.

Page Counts

This is a very loose goal as I only want to attempt this one in a way that brings me joy. I'd love to track how many pages I read a day. I don't want an exact page count, but I'd love to see something along the lines of 0-50, 51-100, 101-200, 200+. This is something I'm going to play with this year and see what's possible to track here.

Review | Ironclads by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Source: library borrow. This is a review of my reading experience.

Ironclads is the first novella in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Terrible Worlds: Revolutions series.

Scions have no limits. Scions do not die. And Scions do not disappear.

Sergeant Ted Regan has a problem. A son of one of the great corporate families, a Scion, has gone missing at the front. He should have been protected by his Ironclad – the lethal battle suits that make the Scions masters of war – but something has gone catastrophically wrong.

Now Regan and his men, ill equipped and demoralised, must go behind enemy lines, find the missing Scion, and uncover how his suit failed. Is there a new Ironclad-killer out there? And how are common soldiers lacking the protection afforded the rich supposed to survive the battlefield of tomorrow?

This is going to be a bit of a lackluster review, but I'm challenging myself to review all of the books that I finish this year. 

I consider myself a fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky, but he has written SO MANY books. I was in the mood to pick up something short from my library and Ironclads fit the bill.

As much as I love all of the science fiction I've read from Adrian Tchaikovsky, I'm not the target audience for this. While it's a dystopian scifi, it's also very much a military scifi. I struggled to enjoy this one. Every once in a while something would peak my interest, but I wasn't really pulled into the vibe of this one. If I had cared about the characters more, I think my interest level would have been a bit higher.

I wasn't mad at this book in anyway so this isn't a negative review, but my overall feelings are quite mid. If you love tactical military stuff, this may work out much better for you. 

⭐⭐⭐★★
3/5 stars

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | January 18

Hello! This is a better late than never update post. We had a storm just before last weekend that fried our modem so I had no internet. Then I left for the week on a business trip. I'm back and our internet is back and I am catching up on all of the things!!

Read Last Week

Ironclads by Adrian Tchaikovsky ⭐⭐⭐★★ - Review soon.

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire ⭐⭐⭐★★ - Review soon.

Currently Reading

Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey - Set in the same universe as M.R. Carey's Pandominion duology, Outlaw Planet follows a gunslinger as she saves multiple worlds.

Fire Sword and Sea by Vanessa Riley - The real Pirates of the Caribbean were Black, and women! From Vanessa Riley, acclaimed author of Queen of Exiles, comes a sweeping, immersive saga based on the life of the legendary seventeenth-century pirate Jacquotte Delehaye.

BookTube

Most Anticipated Book Releases of January 2026 | New Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Thrillers

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This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz Book Date’s It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.