Treating Myself with My Goals In Mind

And my latest book obsession...

Don’t tell my son, but I secretly love it when he misses his bus, and I have to drive him to school in the morning. Okay, I should caveat. I don’t like what it takes to wake him from his teenage stooper at 6:50 am because he was up until 2 am making his third dinner of the night—the nagging, the yelling, the empty threats that he’ll have to walk to school if he doesn’t “get up right now!” But once he is vertical and can form a sentence, I love the 30 minutes I get to hang out with him, laughing at our inside jokes while he DJs our favorite country songs.

Selfishly, or not so selfishly, it also gives me 30 minutes of uninterrupted time on the drive home to listen to my current Audible book (does anyone else still have to fight saying “Book on Tape”?). If it’s early enough, I might even grab a coffee and take the long way home because those minutes are so precious.

I am not one for New Year’s resolutions, but I do believe in treating myself with my personal goals in mind, and reading has become a treat for me. So, to marry those two, my 2024 goal is to read or listen to a minimum of 60 books, matching my 2023 count—a figure well above the total number of books I read in my previous 49 years combined.

Unless, of course, you count the 100+ times I read Robert Munch’s The Paper Bag Princess to my daughter—a story about a princess who slays the dragon and rescues the prince only to be rejected in the end by the prince for her disheveled appearance. At the end of every one of my passionate readings, I always took the opportunity to remind my daughter that, “If the guy is not grateful for you, he’s not your guy.” But I digress. 

Back to my reading challenge . . . This year, I am continuing my intentional focus on genres I wouldn’t usually choose. My current read (read: obsession)—Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros— is a prime example. I resisted this highly praised series for the last year simply because it was ‘fantasy.’ But then my reading litmus tester, Coco, read it and convinced me that it was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ must-read. Her review: “It’s like a sex’d up Harry Potter.”

Even with her glowing endorsement, I was reluctant, but she hadn’t steered me wrong yet, so I downloaded it on Audible and pressed Play. A minute and a half in, I was hooked, and now, with only 10% left, it’s like a piece of my favorite cream cheese-frosted carrot cake; Complex and I don’t want it to end. It’s so much more than a story about war cadets and bonding with dragons. There is mother-daughter tension, sister love, a woman’s journey to self-actualization, suspense, betrayal, romance with an extra side of spicy—it’s got everything I love in a great story—it just happens to be set in the imaginary world of Basgiath War College.

Here is the inside jacket cover:

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else, and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

I am as shocked as you are at how much I am thoroughly enjoying this book. It is definitely a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me. I’m so hooked that you may even spot me one morning sporting my new Fourth Wing hoodie, grabbing a coffee, and readying myself to listen to the next book in the series—Iron Flame. Don’t judge. I’m simply treating myself with my goals in mind. Thanks for the recommendation, Coco!

What are your goals for 2024? What are your current must-read? I’m always looking to add to my never-ending “Want to Read” stack on Goodreads. Bonus points if it’s historical fiction, my next untapped genre.

xo Melissa