Stories By Mina Khan: January Reads Recap and My Favorite Book

This year I got ambitious and decided to read 100 books for my Goodreads challenge (I usually read about 50 or so) and January ended with 10 books read. Woot! I like that pace, according to the handy little widget I'm 2 books ahead of schedule.

So here are the books I read in January, with my favorite being:

Dust and Light: A Sanctuary Novel

It was an awesome fantasy read. Given the genre, the pace was slower than the romances I usually read, but the world building and premise made up for it.

Here's the premise: an artist can reveal truths through his art and he's given the job of painting portraits of dead people, some of whom are murder victims. Chilling and totally hooked me!

Then Carol Berg pulls me in deeper with a mystery at the heart of the story (why are the children being murdered and who's behind the killings) and the hero's character arc -- He has to learn to see the truth in his own work and himself. He has to let go of what he believed to be true all his life and understand the new truth he's discovered. Strong external story plot and strong internal story growth.

End result: Loved Dust and Light: A Sanctuary Novel and I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

Other January reads:

The Weiser Book of Horror and the Occult: Hidden Magic, Occult Truths, and the Stories That Started It All