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!

I really enjoyed this book. There were so many different kinds of stories. There was magic, fantasy, sci-fi, and just plain weirdness. It reminded me of Neil Gaiman in a time when w need to replace Gaiman. Olivie Blake is almost ready for that. There was a story or two that I didn't follow or understand but most of them were pretty great.
I received an ARC of the audio book and I really enjoyed listening to the book. There were a variety of narrators that matched the narrators that truly brought the books to life and I would advise listening to the book.

Listening on 2x speed, I had no issues with any of the narration.

This just did not work for me. The first story or two was.... fine? But then they just progressively become harder for me to care about. I know that short stories make it difficult to build any connection with characters,. It was hard to maintain interest, and even afterwards, I can't really recall any of the stories.

Overall: 2 stars (it was ok)

**Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the free ALC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advance listening copy in exchange for an honest review!

There’s something about Olivie Blake’s writing that makes me insane, and I don’t know how to describe it. She’s who I turn to when I want to read something that is just Vibing, and maybe I can get a little no thoughts head empty about it but I simply do not care!!!!

Olivie Blake is at her best, imo, when she is writing standalones and short stories, and for me, every one of these was a banger. Some were stronger than others, as you’d expect from a short story collection, but I liked the way they were organized and I thought they felt well-balanced in terms of order/content/etc. I appreciate that she’s not afraid to get a little strange and weird with the content and I love that she can put a bunch of emotions into a cauldron and it works. I love the whimsy and melancholy. Opening with “The Wish Bridge” and closing with “A Year in January” felt like the right move and the illustrations are so lovely.

I liked the audio for this a lot, and it was neat to have a multi-cast narration. Each story is pretty different from each other, but having a change in narrator between stories definitely helped keep things separate. I don’t necessarily know if I feel like the cast as a collective worked for me, but I enjoyed it on the whole.

I'll admit, I am usually apprehensive about story collections, but I'm happy to say I was wrong about this one. From paranormal fables about vampires and revenants, to bittersweet fairytales about starcrossed lovers and unavoidable fates, this collection completely captivated me. Olivie Blake has become an absolute mainstay in the adult/new adult fantasy genre because of her ability to capture readers with both brilliant premise and prose. Incredibly enjoyable.

I do not typically read short stories. I always want to, I figure it would be easy to read something quick here and there, but it never works out that way. I feel a lack of connection to the stories I think which keeps me from progressing too far in the book.

However, when I learned that Olivie Blake was releasing a short story collection I knew an exception would have to be made.

Overall I think Januaries is a very successful collection. I like how it is separated into seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, with about 3-4 stories in each season.

While I think, each season has some standouts, the season with the best, in my opinion, is Autumn. I look back at that set of stories and I think it's the one that varied the most in terms of being serious and funny and a little chaotic.

Probably my favorite story of the bunch was The Animation Games featured in Summer and dealt with a pair of lovers who challenged each other equally in their love and hate for one another.

As far as the audiobook is concerned, I liked that there were various narrators throughout. Each of them did great with their respective stories. However, special shout-out to the narrator of Monsterlove for the supreme level of commitment to the character/story.

While not necessarily a short story collection convert, Januaries certainly provided enough to keep me interested and I appreciated the varied genres and subjects along with shorter stories mixed in with the longer. If you're someone who is interested in reading Olivie Blake but maybe don't know where to start Januaries gives a great snippet of her overall work.

Note: I listened to the audiobook and I think they used AI for the titles in the chapter names (eg The Wish Branch instead of The Wish Bridge, which I verified in the sample available free on Amazon) so apologies if I got these names wrong. Maybe they actually really did mean Sentual instead of Sensual.

stories with '*' are ones I liked and were worth the read

*The Wish Bridge*--
A story about the woman (god? entity?) who has to grant people wishes who manage to find her bridge, and the adorably unordinary man who finds her repeatedly.

This was light and cute and funny, very dissimilar to the denser, more pretentious fare I'm used to from this author. I think I'll keep thinking about this one and will smile every time.

The Audit--
Wild how I immediately recognized this as the narrator of Tristan in The Atlas Six lmao. He's got a significantly higher speed than most narrators, so ymmv.

Hmm. This is a story about a man who has recently come into a lot of money, suffers from analysis paralysis over what to do with it, and maybe falls in love with an agoraphobic man?

Not gonna lie, I didn't quite understand this one.

*Sucker for Pain*--
Witches and vampires and toxic relationships, oh my! A poor, young mortal girl becomes the pet of a cruel, witch family. Explores themes of love and trauma and freedom.

I actually quite liked this one and think that, so far, it's the one I could most easily pick out as Olivie Blake's.

*The Animation Games*--
A premature death with a supernatural twist allows an engaged couple to haunt and take turns killing each other for eternity.

A very Olivie Blake take on life and death and fate and love. Kinda fun, though.

The House--
Not even a story, it's only 5m long. I kinda feel like it's a metaphor someone would use as a toast at a wedding?

To Make a Man--
A Cassandra retelling that's very obviously a Cassandra retelling.

What I least liked about it is that it's a short story already, but it first says everything from his POV, then repeats the WHOLE story from her POV. My memory is good enough to remember 15min ago, I didn't need it repeated word for word.

Preexisting Condition--
A resurrected man grapples with his love, then hate, then devotion to the one who brought him back.

The voice is a little quirky and a little naive, but I'm trying to write reviews as I go and it took a good deal to jog my memory even though I only read 2 additional stories after finishing this one, so I can't say it's very memorable or engaging.

Monster Love--
This one's weird. Real weird. And repetitive. Repetitive af. It would probably behoove me to repeat at least one more time. Because it says the same thing. Over and over again, it's the same.

I'm sure there's a reason, I just don't know what that reason is.

How to Dispel Friends and Curse People--
This one's kinda quirky, an entity who's smitten with a witch. It could be charming if there was something more to it, but it also kinda feels like like the voice of a simple computer program? idk.

Fates and Consequences--
So the premise of this was pretty fun: guy who is destined to experience tragedy and turn that pain into a cult + becoming a serial killer dies before that destiny is realized. He was generally a decent, good guy but was destined to go to hell, so that's where he ends up anyway.

But the actual story itself? Lacking. There's a sort of inevitability of fate tone, but also no real development of character or setting or plot that I can really sink my teeth into. Hades and Persephone are there, but it's not really a retelling.

Sous-vide--
I don't get it. I don't even get it enough to synopsis and I don't want to read it again. I think the narration called her a whore/slut a lot?

Meh.

Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasures--
This is the third Greek myth retelling (or at least with the flavor and cameos of Greek figures) in this anthology. This time is Noctus.

It has the feeling of fated love but no real characterization between the leads, so I both don't know who they are nor what they see in each other, so it's pretty meaningless to me.

*Chaos Theory*--
The longest story in here by a wide margin.

This one has so many POVs and they all get introduced in a rather random manner before the plot kicks in. I was really confused and considering DNFing until it finally started the plot, and then I was very into it. This is a multi-verse story with a lot of different versions of one person (including one that's a cat) who have to kill someone in their lives because an assassin version of them killed him in her universe.

Fun, weird, sometimes pretty melancholy, sometimes silly.

A Year in January--
This was extra confusing because the first person character talks about having a clitoris and searching for only AFAB roommates but is also voiced by a male voice actor? No mentions of the character being trans that I noted.

The story of a roommate who's kinda alien and doesn't understand humans and having to teach her things.

This was my first Olivie Blake book and it definitely will not be my last. There wasn't a single story that I didn't escape into or adore in this collection. 4.5 stars for the whole collection. Highly recommend!
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

I received the audiobook as an Arc from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley!!

Prior to reading this anthology, I had a love/hate relationship with Olivie Blake. I really enjoyed Master of Death and I have two of her other books on my TBR but I DNF’ed The Atlas Six after I reached a point in the book where I just could not go on. For this anthology, it’s a thumbs up! The stories are varied with some being whimsical and almost fairytale like with magical creatures. Then you turn the page and end up reading wedding vows. This was surprising for me and I’m glad I gave Olivie Blake another shot.

Overall, I’m giving it a 3.5.

I guess that it's a good editorial decision to put the strongest stories first but the result is that this gets progressively more boring and by the end I was like ehhh

Little late, but I was NOT going to listen to this with my family in the vehicle. Dodging that awkwardness Olivie! But "Januaries: Stories of Love, Magic, and Betrayal" from Olivie Blake is out now.

This collection of short stories run the gambit of sweet and sad to hey let's kill each other and see what powers we get for a couple of decades. Fans of her work will have a great time, new readers who might want to ruin a toxic ex or kill a pesky bird will find a story they love.

Narrated by Alexandra Palting, Daniel Henning, David Monteith, Ferdelle Capistrano, Olivie Blake, Stephanie Németh-Parker, and Steve West. Wonderful hearing from you all again as you murder/die your way through this collection.

Reasons to read:
-"I bring peeeeeeeeeeeace." Chills, so good
-Can we try that economic strategy?
-Seeing the oncoming pain because you, somehow still, know all the Greek myths
-Amazing performances for wildly different characters that pulled me into different slices of worlds
-Gotta clip you in every reality

Cons:
-I know your work and it is not safe to listen to when I am driving my little cousins!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillian audio for the audiobook!
I enjoyed this anthology more than I initially thought I would! I was so excited to see more by Olivie Blake and loved the idea of a fantasy anthology as a good starting dip into her writing. I am so glad I picked up this audiobook because it ended up being a fantastic read. I loved the theming of death and revenge; every story bring a new twist to the classic romance plotlines we all love from the young lovers to undying love. The Animation Games stood out as my favorite of the short stories as it was such an interesting perspective on how love is twisted by fate and time. My one note is I think a different story would have been a better opener than The Wish Bridge. That is not to say I didn't like the story, I actually did end up liking it but I think it gives a slightly different vibe than the rest of the anthology. I ended up expecting a different overall vibe based on the opener but after a few more stories I got a better picture of the theming (pleasant surprise because I liked the actual theming better).

WOW. Just wow. I loved this collection so incredibly much. It made me feel so many emotions, in particular “A Year in January” made me cry multiple times - and as someone who guards their emotions even to themselves that in itself is a feat, but I also felt so much joy, awe, anger, suspense, excitement, shocked shock, questioning of life etc. Literally whatever emotion you can think of.

Reading this felt like coming back to an old friend, as I got to reconnect with some of my favorite stories from Olivie’s self-published Fairytale Collections. These stories really never left my brain, but getting to experience them again in this version of myself was incredible. “To Make a Man” was even more incredible this time around than before. I knew I loved it but I don’t think I truly appreciated it the first time. Like- that story is a MASTERPIECE. I’m still so happy Olivie somehow heard all my manifesting about “Sucker for Pain” being in this collection. “Sensual Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasures” to me is the most fairytaleesque of all the stories and I just love how dreamy the atmosphere is, I was still so entranced by it. And can never forget the OTPs that are Nile and Lila from “The Wish Bridge”, Rhosyn and Bran from “The Animation Games, and The Poet and the Village Witch from “How to Dispel Friends and Curse People”.

I found some new stories that will live in my head and heart forever too. “A Year in January” is probably the one nearest and dearest to my heart from the collection. It meant a lot to me and I cried multiple times. It’s up there with AWYITE as stories that truly touched my soul to its core. Additionally I fell in love with “Preexisting Condition” I literally have not stopped thinking about it-THE ENDING GUYS UGH INCREDIBLE. “Chaos Theory” is another favorite. Which if you know anything about me how could I not love a rival assassin’s meant to be together in every timeline but can’t type of story? The angst was so real but it was so good. I am dying to talk to people about the ending of “Sous Vide”. I don’t have kids, but as someone who tries desperately to act like everything is fine all of the time until they break down “Monsterlove” me cry. If you didn’t listen to the audio of this story in particular you are missing out. It was an entire experience in itself.

I highly recommend the audiobook in general. It's a cast and it’s INCREDIBLE. So well done-it really made me appreciate some of the stories even more.

One of my favorite reads of the year (this comes as a shock to no one I’m sure).

If you haven’t already, GO BUY THIS BOOK!!! You are bound to find a story that calls to your soul (and come back and tell me your favorites!)

Thank you to Macmillan audio, Tor Books, and Netgalley for providing me with an audio arc in exchange for an honest review.