This could be my favorite book of 2024. I love a collection of bizarre and thought provoking stories. I was hooked from the first story to the last. You know it's a good one when you call your husband just to talk about the plot and premise. The first one was probably my favorite with the bridge and the romance. I did like the second one too because it made me think. A few of the stories were strange and I don't know if I understood them as well as I could have. Overall, I highly recommend this collection as one that will make you think!

Love, assassinations, revenge, motherhood, weird roommates, monsters, gods, humans - everything you could want in a novel is found in at least one of the gems in this collection. The range of genres is truly astounding!

Most of these stories I would read as full on novels!

I want to crawl inside this book. I dont understand how Blake creates different voices and writing styles for all these different stories, but its truly magical. I want to gift this to everyone I know.

This is a great short story collection. I liked pretty much every story in this collection. It's neat to see the author try and do a bunch of different things and really shows her versatility.

My favorite stories in this collection were:
The Wish Bridge which felt very Neil Gaiman-ish in it's story telling and how the character's interacted.
There was one about a fairy roommate that was a lot of fun.

I highly recommend checking out the audio version of this book as all of the narrators killed their stories.
Alexandra Palting; Daniel Henning; David Monteith; Ferdelle Capistrano; Olivie Blake; Stephanie Németh-Parker; Steve West

I'm glad I gave this one a shot I think I really enjoy Olivie Blake's work outside of the Atlas books which kind of fell off for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this book early. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

I am absolutely enthralled by this book! I love a good short story and will read anything Olivie Blake writes. The first story is something I find myself constantly looking back on and it was so beautifully told that I could picture every single scene on the bridge. Each story ended in a way that left interpretations up to the reader and I actually enjoyed that a lot because it made me think more about the characters and their flaws. Such a good book, will definitely keep recommending this author.

Thank you to Netgallet, the publishers and author for this ARC in exchange for and honest review.

Great book and narration! I have throughly been enjoying Blake’s works this year.

Olivie Blake does it again. I loved this collection of magical short stories so much more than I thought I would - to be truthful, I’m not the biggest fan of short story collections - but I AM a fan of Olivie Blake and therefore had no problem wanting to pick this up. They were spectacular.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this Audio ARC Copy!

All in all I really enjoyed this anthology series. Each and every tale was fun and and really reflected the quality writing that we always see from Olivie Blake. Usually with anthologies I like some of most of the stories but in this case I loved every single one.

This may be my new favorite Olivie Blake book.
It is a collection of stories and they vary from whimsical to gothic to science fiction. The voice actors were all impeccable. Every story was superb. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Januraries is a fantastically creative collection. It's very well-written, just delicious prose, and it was helped massively by the set of narrators who told it. It's love and magic and betrayal. There's soul mates who keep coming back to kill each other. There's a wishing bridge, crewed by a magical being who's being pursued by a cute guy, against the odds. A mysterious, non-human being becomes a pretty good roommate. Across the dimensions, rivals must assassinate each version of each other. This is a collection I'd keep coming back to, for inspiration, both in the breadth of ideas and creativity, and for the prose. And in some cases, the poetry. There's one fantastical poem about the challenges of motherhood that enchanted me. This one is very worth a read.

I enjoy Olivie Blake's writing and this collection of short stories did not disappoint It has a little bit of everything throughout. There is a little something for everyone. If you enjoy adult fairy tales be sure to read this. The narration on this was excellent and kept me engaged. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ALC.
4 Star

I love Olivie Blake's writing so I just had to read Januaries. I absolutely loved this anthology! All of the stories were amazing. Each one grabbed my attention from the first line and never let go. I really liked how attached I could get to these characters in such a short amount of time. These stories were all so different but still felt so natural to read all together. This is a must read if you like whimsical fantasy and lyrical prose.

The audiobook narration was wonderful. Each narrator did an amazing job bringing the characters to life.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Knowing going into this that it is a short story collection means that I was in fact anticipating some to be winners and some to be flops. That’s what this came down to for me; some of it worked and some of it didn’t. I’ve loved Olivie Blake’s novels and I think she has two definite strengths in her storytelling- infusing her narrative style with whimsy, and developing strong characters. Adapting to short story concepts she still does both these things well… just sometimes it’s poignant and sometimes it’s not. Still overall a very enjoyable read

As much as I liked the narrator, I think this book wasn't for me, or possibly didn't work for me as an audiobook. I didn't feel like I could get into any of the stories, and didn't really care about the characters, which is odd, as I very much enjoyed Blake's other writing. But I think this is a me issue rather than a book issue. Not all books are for everyone, and that's definitely okay! This one wasn't for me, but I know that other individuals will likely enjoy it more. The narration was excellent, just not the right stories for me.

These short stories are so great. This is my first Olivie Blake book (though I have others on my TBR) and I loved all the various stories. The opening story about the bridge stole my heart right at the beginning. Some of my favorite stories are: The Wish Bridge, Sucker for Pain, and The Animation Games. These stories are unique looks at life, death, love, and revenge.
I also really enjoyed the various narrators in the audiobook -it helps all the stories come to life.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advance audiobook- all opinions are my own. Sorry it took me a bit to get to this review as I work through my backlog!

I love a good collection of short stories so when I saw this one on Netgalley I knew I wanted to try it out. As always, there will be a few you love and a few you really don't enjoy. I've never read this author before even though I know she has written some popular books, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. As far as writing goes, I enjoyed the stories in this book for their creativity. There were a couple that just weren't my sort of thing but there were a few that I absolutely loved!

My favorites:
The Wish Bridge
Chaos Theory
To Make a Man
The House

Overall, great collection of short stories that span all four seasons and genres/themes/topics. Part of me wishes I could re-read this collection again for the first time because a few of these stories are just so darn good!!

Januaries by Olivie Blake was such an interesting read—definitely one of the more unique anthologies I’ve picked up. It’s full of magic, love, betrayal, and even a bit of poetry, blending fairy tales, heists, and surreal moments where anything feels possible.

Honestly, though, my feelings were all over the place. Some stories completely pulled me in—they were funny, emotional, and beautifully written. Others? Not so much. A lot of them felt too short, like they were just getting good and then… bam, it was over. I kept thinking, “Wait, that’s it?” It left me wanting more, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that a few of these stories would’ve worked better as full novels.

That said, Olivie Blake’s writing is stunning. It’s poetic, layered, and full of depth, and I loved how every story had a touch of fantasy. I also really liked how the book was divided by seasons—it gave the whole collection a nice structure. My favorite was The Wish Bridge, but overall, it felt like a bit of a mixed bag for me.

I listened to the audiobook, and while I enjoyed it, I think the format might’ve added to the abruptness.

If you’re already a fan of Olivie Blake, I think you’ll find a lot to love here. If you’re new to her work, though, this might not be the best place to start. For me, it made me curious to try one of her full-length books next—I feel like her writing might really shine with more room to breathe.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to review the audiobook.

Olivie Blake is delivering some of the best sci/fantasy today and this collection is a perfect example of that. Her stories hit that perfect balance of world building, excitement, action and romance. If you like sci fi fantasy at all, this is a great book to pick up because of its mix of shorter and longer stories. Highly recommend. Also, the audiobook is so well done!

I thought this was a really interesting and fun set of fantasy short stories. My favorites were Sucker for Pain where the servant of a witch becomes a vampire and gains her own power, The Animation Games where two betrothed take advantage of their resurrected afterlife to hunt one another now, and Chaos Theory, the longest story in the collection, where the actions of two individuals in one universe have ripple effects across their lives in four other alternative universes. I become a bigger and bigger fan of Olivie Blake with everything I read.

I appreciated that each short story had a different narrator, which made it easier to remember which story I was listening to as I paused and unpaused the audiobook.

I really enjoy audiobooks, and I've just recently discovered Olivie Blake. I'm beginning to love the way she writes and the emotion she can make a reader feel. Januaries is a book that the multi-cast narration brings to life for the reader. Each story was written so well, and short stories are one of the most difficult for a writer in my opinion. The writer has to pack a full story arch into just a few pages. There's no room for fluff, and the reader has to stay engaged. Blake excelled at the short form. I was hooked from the very first story. I was left wanting to know more about these characters and hear more stories with them in it. Again, I'm new to Olivie Blake, so I still have a lot to discover. There was so much imagination and storytelling here, it was an enjoyable read.

I think it was a smart move on the part of whoever decided how to set up the audio to have different narrators for each story. While the reader can tell all the stories are from the mind of the same author, having a narrator tailored to each story was much more effective than trying to make a narrator's style fit all of the stories. Pacing and tenor was all done really well by the various narrators. If the reader pays attention, they may even hear the author narrate one of their own stories which was a cool little Easter egg. Listening to the audiobook version of this, my opinion is that it brings the book to life and gives the reader a different perspective of the novel. I recommend listening to the audiobook, it is so well done.
 
Please be advised I received an Advance Reader Copy of the audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this short story collection! I had a good feeling that I'd like it, but I ended up loving it. The mix of mythology and original worldbuilding throughout the stories kept me engaged and always listening for the twists on familiar tales. The narrators gave great performances and were well matched to their stories. I highly encourage you to put this on your winter TBR!