Right
off the bat, I have to admit that I went into reading the first book/novella in
the Calendar Girl series, January, with very low expectations for
both this book/novella, and the series as a whole. After actually reading January, I have to say that January is definitely a book that
utterly baffles me, because there are definitely a lot of things about Carlan’s
writing for January that come across
as being bad or problematic writing. Sometimes I would describe Carlan’s
writing as being both bad and problematic at the same time; that being said,
there are also times throughout January
where Carlan does come across as being a decent writer. For that reason, I’m
very hesitant to say that I think that Audrey Carlan is a truly bad writer.
One
thing that really bothered me about this book is that it was very difficult for
me to get good read on the protagonist of the series, Mia Sanders, in terms of
her personality. When Mia is talking about the four guys that she had dated and
thought that she had fallen in love with at the beginning of the book, she
comes across as having a very bitter and jaded attitude towards men. She also comes
across as really giving off a bit of a tough girl vibe at times throughout the
book, and yet when she was talking about the first guy that she thought had
found true love with, whose name was Taylor, she mentions that he had a small
penis, but she referred to his penis as being a “winky the size of a circus
peanut”. Mia saying that really made her come across as being immature, and if
you ask me, Mia referring to a guy’s penis as a “winky” really contradicts the
idea that she’s supposed to be a tough girl; which seems to be what Carlan was going
for at times throughout the book. To be fair, it’s kind of understandable that Mia
has a very bitter and jaded attitude towards men at the beginning of the book, given
her history with the men she has dated prior to the events that take place in January; but it didn’t make her seem
very likable in the first chapter.
Even
though I didn’t think that Mia was a very likable character in the first
chapter, and I thought that she was kind of annoying at times throughout the
book, she never got to the point where I thought that she was an extremely
unlikable and annoying character. While Mia can be annoying at times, she’s
definitely not the most annoying and unlikable character that I’ve ever
encountered in a book. (The award for the most annoying character that I’ve
ever encountered in a book would definitely go to Ana Steele from E.L. James’ Fifty Shades trilogy.) However, as the
plot of January progressed, I feel
like Mia came across as being a fairly likable person for the most part, who
enjoys giving people advice and helping them with their problems. I thought
that was especially the case whenever she was talking to Jen, who was the wife
of a guy that Wes works with.
