Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I haven't read any of the Atlas Six books (despite them being absolutely everywhere at the moment) so I went into this with no real expectations of the writing.

Januaries is a collection of short stories and as with any book of short stories, some appealed to me more than others. The first story, The Wish Bridge, really captured my attention as did many of the stories. There's a real variety of different tales being told and I enjoyed reading this book. Blake's writing style drew me into the different worlds and I'd probably give her novels a go in future.

Januaries is so quintessentially and outrageously Olivie Blake. Each story in this collection just oozes her exact brand of gorgeous prose. More than any other author I’ve ever read, I just feel like she has a window into my brain and manages to put into words feelings I’ve never been able to articulate. As is always the case with a collection of different stories, there are some I prefer to others, but each one had at least one like that took my breath away.
If you already love her writing, then this anthology is a must-read.

My favourites:
The Animation Games
The Wish Bridge
Monsterlove
Chaos Theory

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC. All opinions are my own.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

I say often that Olivie Blake is one of my favourite authors. And reflecting on that, I think she is, despite me not loving *all* her work. I have loved her stand-alones, and I loved this anthology of short stories. I feel like this is where she thrives, where is can be weird and whimsical and sad and joyous and none of it really has to make sense.

Not every story appealed to me, but enough of them did that I flew through this. They all had that unique Olivie Blake flare I’ve come to love.
The Wish Bridge is a very strong opener. The Animation Games were insane. The multiverse story came together in the most satisfying way. And A Year in January is the perfect closer.

If, like me, you’ve enjoyed Olivie’s writing more for the vibes than the plot, this is for you.

4.5⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Olivie Blake books are always a big hit or miss for me, I either really love them or I don’t really understand what she meant with it and it falls a bit flat for me.

This was a bit of a miss. Some of the short stories I really liked and could have been longer for me and others I felt needed more pages to better understand them. I didn’t really see a general theme or something connecting the stories with each other. Which made me lose interest at some parts.

Overall I get wat was attempted but in my opinion it was not successfully executed.

I'm a big Olivie Blake fan since she was self published - she is an excellent writer! Unfortunately this was a little flat at times - I couldn't quite understand what the overarching theme was tying everything together, though the prose was great, if a little sparse at times. Some stories popped more than others (the wishing bridge! & to make a man!!), whereas some felt convoluted (sucker for pain - though it was still a fave of mine of them all). A little more cohesion was needed but it wouldn't put me off buying anything else she put out

Januaries is an anthology of short stories spanning themes of love, revenge, mental health, motherhood, betrayel, retellings and so much more! This was the first book I had ever read by Olivie Blake and I was blown away by some of her writing in this anthology!

The stories themselves are similar in length for the most part but they are different in every way. The pacing worked well for most of the stories, and a lot of them had me wishing for more.

Don't get me wrong, I do wish some of the stories were more developed than others as some felt disjointed to read: but perhaps that was me just not getting the message behind the stories.

Overall I enjoyed each story, and several I could see being expanded on in a full novel.

My favourites were;
- The Wish Bridge
- The Audit
- The Animation Games
- The House
- Chaos Theory
- A Year in January

I have rated this 4 Stars because there were some I obviously didn't enjoy but it is still a great anthology of stories, and I know the ones I did not like, someone else will like them instead. I will have to check out more of Olivie's work!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the e-arc in exchange for a free, voluntary review.

4.5 stars for most of the book, 2 stars for the last few stories.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the arc.
I’ve realised that I very much have a love-hate relationship with Olivie Blake’s works depending on where on the overwritten, pretentiousness scale her writing falls at any point. I loved the first 2 volumes of the Atlas trilogy, thoroughly enjoyed Masters of Death but basically wanted to prise my own eyeballs out with a wooden spoon whilst reading Alone With You in The Ether and Atlas 3 as they were SO tiresomely full of their own perceived cleverness. This new volume of short stories by Blake is a frustrating mix of these two extremes. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed around the first 70% of the book. The stories were beautifully crafted, inventive, haunting and so tightly written that I thought that yes, here is a genre that keeps Blake’s writing contained (to its advantage) and curbs her excesses. Then we got to the last section, Winter, and oh dear. The last few stories are rambling, self-indulgent, too long, over-written, and frankly boring. It was such a shame to end what was otherwise a fantastic read on such a dud note.

Short story collections are most often hit or miss, and I’m disappointed to say that Januaries was a miss for me.

The first thing I’d like to say, which has nothing to do with Olivie Blake and everything to do with the publisher, is that it annoys me to no end that they marketed this collection as ‘iconic’ before it was even published. You don’t get to decide that something is going to be iconic, especially when this collection has nothing iconic. It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not a literary masterpiece, it’s not even daring or particularly original. It’s not a bad collection, but it’s not a good one either. For the most part, it’s just unremarkable.

Most of the short stories had a lot of potential, but that potential was almost never correctly exploited. I always felt like Olivie Blake was trying too hard to be quirky, trying too hard to be exceptional and iconic, and the result was that it was merely an okay collection, underwhelming and fairly boring. I also had the impression that the technique of short stories wasn’t fully mastered. For a short story to be good, you have to quickly hook the reader, and deliver a fantastic ending. While the initial hook was there, the ending was sometimes only mid and left me indifferent.

In short, while this wasn’t a bad collection, it wasn’t good either, and as someone who loved the Atlas Series and especially enjoyed Olivie Blake’s style in that series, that was a huge disappointment.

Thank you to Netgalley and PanMacmillan for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Olivie Blake/publisher for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Januaries” is a collection of short stories split into the four seasons that range in themes and genres. From love to betrayal this collection had something for all and I loved it! Some stories I connected with more than others, which you’ll find in a collection of short stories but overall I was impressed with the range of tales Olivie wrote. She is amazing at seamlessly switching genres and themes with her astounding way of writing. You’ll find classic tales reworked, multiverse adventures, what it means to be human and so much more within this book.

Some of my favorites include
-The Wish Bridge
-The House
-A Year in January
-Fates and Consequences

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions

I really enjoy Olivia Blake's writing style. I think it's (in a way) very different from what I usually read and very captivating. Although I'm not a big fan of short stories I really enjoyed reading this small collection of stories.

Yknow what this is? Literally a bedtime storybook for adults AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

Most of the stories have ambiguous endings that make you reflect and question reality/choices in life. Ngl it’s quite astounding to see how many genres and concepts Olivie Blake can actually write-so many have the potential to be full blown books. Special shout out to one of the stories: Wish Bridge! I really hope there’s more to this bc the concept of star-crossed lovers in that context is french kiss👌🏻

I must admit I wasn’t a huge fan of Blake’s writing but I’ve always believed in second chances and I’m glad I took a leap of faith in Januaries bc I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My only question: idg why the book title is called Januaries. First of many? Many firsts?

Thank you Pac Macmillan and NetGalley for this arc!

I loved The Wish Bridge 5*, enjoyed Fates and Consequences 4*, Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasure 4* and Chaos Theory 4*. If you are looking for a quick read, without tying yourself to a full book, this is ideal.

I usually don't read short story collections, but I thought that it would be nice to make an exception for Olivie Blake since I already read a few of her books and I'm quite familiar with her by now. I really like the author's writing style, which I find charming and easy to follow which is also the case when it comes to Januaries. The collection is split in four parts according to the seasons - we start with Spring, continue with Summer and Autumn and finish with Winter. Some stories are very short, barely a few pages, but some are more intricate and include more development. The topics are also quite different, although all of them contain some kind of fantasy elements and a lot of them explore some kind of relationship - romantic, familial, friendship or relationship with your own self. I have to say, that I wasn't able to connect to all of them and only some made me reflect more than the others. I'd say that my favorites were The Wishing Bridge (very interesting concept and so fun), The Audit (reminded me of Black Mirror although not as dark), Sucker for Pain (quite dark, but delicious), The Animation Games (totally bonkers when you think about it, but very enjoyable), Fates and Consequences (made me think quite a bit about predetermined behavior), Sous Vide (I liked the connection between meals and the memories), Chaos Theory (interesting take on the multiverse and critique on the concept of the corporate ladder). Honestly, other stories were quite good as well, but the ones I mentioned will probably stay with me for longer, unfortunately others didn't take that effect on me. Overall, this is a great collection of stories, although I hoped that they will be more interconnected, but I don't see that as an issue at all, I still very much enjoyed reading all of them.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!

I do love an Olivie Blake short story collection and in Januaries, we saw some older stories and some new ones. There was some I loved - Chaos Theory 💞 and The Animation Games and then some I skipped entirely after reading a few pages - Monsterlove and How To Dispel Friends and Curse People (really not my vibe). So it was a real mixed bag but overall I enjoyed the majority of these stories.

I had really high hopes for this and I adored the first story however the rest did not grasp me a fraction as much and I dnf at 65% which is frustrating. The first story was perfectly written and I found it whimsical but not the others and really had to push to get as far through as I did.

Other people may like this but this was not for me

I enjoyed this, overall some stories were really good, others were a little confusing or maybe just over my head! But I do enjoy Blake's writing

From time to time I really enjoy reading short stories, so I was more than excited when Netgalley and Pan Macmillan offered me an arc!

I always struggle with rating anthologies because, of course, I like some stories more than others.
Blake‘s book is divided into four parts (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) and I liked the stories in Autumn the most.
Overall my favorite stories are:
Sucker for Pain (Witches and Vampires)
The Animation Games (mutual murder as a love language)
Fates and Consequences (Hades, Persephone & Guy)
Sous Vide (Cooking for Demons)

An additional shout out to the artist who created the stunning pictures at the beginning of each part!
I gave the book 3,75 stars because I enjoyed most stories, but I feel like Blake‘s often difficult, unlikable or morally grey characters speak more to me when they have more time to shine as in her other books.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection! While some stories captivated me completely and others left me less enthused, the overall experience was highly satisfying. The collection showcases the author's remarkable imagination, presenting a diverse array of narratives that range from reimagined classic fairy tales and exciting contemporary heists to multiverse adventures and profound explorations of human nature. The author's spellbinding, evocative, and lyrical prose is a delight to encounter once again. Additionally, I remain impressed by her skill in blending various genres and themes, resulting in a truly fantastic compilation.

This might shock some people but this was my first Olivie Blake. I know her work is very popular but I haven’t read any of her previous work so far and down the line, I think it was actually the best introduction there is! I’m actually glad that I discovered her this way. Januaries is a collection of new and iconic short stories and novellas from the bestselling author.

I loved the beginning of this anthology. The whole Spring part was amazing and every stories in it spoke to me. While I liked the second part as well (Summer) I sadly didn’t vibe with the third one (Autumn) which is a bummer since it’s my favorite season but luckily, the last (Winter) was the perfect way to end this journey. Blake’s writing is really good and immersive which is why I’m looking forward to pick up Masters of Death as well as One For My Enemy (I only heard great things about those). I actually started Masters of Death last year but didn’t read much because I wasn’t in the right mood (totally my fault, it had nothing to do with the book itself, you know how it is for mood readers!) but it sounds right up my alley.

Each tale takes you where you don’t expect them to and end with the perfect conclusion. My favorites are the later :
- The Audit (I think this one will stick with me a while, loved the concept and morals!)
- The Wish Bridge (Lila and Nile are the cutest)
- Sucker for Pain (You go Nora, get what you want from life - or the living that is)
- The Animation Games (That one was wild, what a plot!)
- Fates and consequences (Who doesn’t love stories in the underworld!)
- Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasures (Damn that castle).

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the e-arc!

Thank you NetGalley and PanMacmillian for providing me with the opportunity to review Januaries by Olivie Blake.

I must say, I think this may be my favourite Olivie Blake's book or rather a collection of tales, each quite unique not only in form (e.g., short story, poem, journal entry) but also feelings they evoke. Some of them were more accessible than others - I'm talking here about easier writing/diction - and some were more "flowery", written in a "typical" Olivie Blake fashion. I genuinely enjoyed both but I'm glad it was a mix. Generally speaking, each tale had an amazing build up to a rewarding conclusion and some sort of life lesson regarding relationships (mind you this is a HUGE generalisation of Januaries as it also includes stories, for example, of pathetic men, life after death, longing and the idea of multiverse) everything sprinkled with bits and pieces of magic. For me, the main realisation was that pain and love exist on the same fabric and those feelings are just two sides of the same coin. What I also liked is that Blake included an insight into the thoughts of a person with mood disorder and although I can't relate to it, I'm happy I have a deeper understanding of it.

My favourite tales are:
- To make a man
- Monsterlove
- Fates and consequences (this one was super funny as well!!)
- Sous Vide
- Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasures
- A year in January