February Wrap-up/March TBR:

Well, February sure flew by fast. Its been a pretty hectic month as I am in the busiest part of my spring semester and I am honestly surprised that I managed to finish all of the books that I planned on reading this month. With Spring break so close, I’ve felt that I’ve been in a sort of a rut lately because I’ve had so much going on, I haven’t really had time to slow down and catch a break.

March is going to be just as busy, but I think things will slow down a little bit. Spring break starts next Friday for me and I only have one class that day instead of two like I normally would so that is different. I am driving down to my grandparents for the week but I’ll be at my aunts and uncle’s house since my grandparents will have a full house of company. I’m going to have to take work off that week but other than that I don’t think I’ll have any plans other than working on a major paper that is due the week we come back and lots of reading and sleeping.

 

 

February Wrap-up

I think this month has been the first month in a long while that I have managed to stick to my TBR and read all of the books on there with the exception of one that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to. The beginning of February was honestly so busy that I wasn’t sure if I was going to even get through three books, but I did and I am really glad to have some of these off my shelf. Even though I managed to read quite a few books there was really only one I fully enjoyed and all of the others were either 3.5-3 stars and even one 2 star. They weren’t bad books, I just didn’t enjoy them as much. I kind of had low expectations for this month with it being a busy time, but I am pretty happy with the amount of progress I made. I’ve also been trying to work my way through a few challenges on Goodreads that I have been working on for the last two years and my goal this year is to finish at least two of them.

So far,  I’ve managed to read 7 books for both January and February, and the amount of pages are very close to each other with January having a few more pages read.

 

1. Only lies remain by Val Collins – This was an ARC sent to my by BookSirens which I just discovered in January I think. It came out on February 19, 2020 and I’ll have my Goodreads review linked to it as well. It was okay. I liked the story and writing style of the author, but there was a little bit too much drama between the characters than I liked. I’m okay with some family drama in books like these but the conversations between the ex-husband and main character got a bit repetitive after a while (3.5 stars).
2. The invited by Jennifer McMahon – So this was one of my anticipated books of the first half of the year and one of my 5 star predictions. Sadly this one was not one of my top favorites. I thought itI  was interesting at first, and I really loved the history part of the story. The only thing that I couldn’t get into was the characters. I couldn’t connect to any of them and that made it hard to get through the rest of the story. The major reveal at the end also didn’t make much sense. I think my expectations were set a little too high for this one and it left me feeling a bit dissapointed that I didn’t enjoy it like I wanted to (3 stars).
3. Sleeping Giants (#1) by Sylvain Neuvel – This one was a complete surprise. I remember when it came out and I was a bit skeptical so I never picked it up. While it wasn’t a five star read for me, it was still very interesting and the science just enough to where I could get into it without feeling lost. I also liked the format which was a collection of interviews and thoughts of the main characters. I’m also super curious by who the main person behind this whole project was. I’m debating about picking up the second one in March but I haven’t figured out my full TBR yet so it might be one that I get to on a whim. This is one I would definitely recommend.
4. Sinner (#4) by Maggie Stiefvater – This was one of those that I’ve tried countless times to read over the last couple of years and it was always one of those that kept getting taken back to the library because I’d run out of time in reading it. This month was apparently the month that I chose to read it and once I got into it I really wasn’t a huge fan of it. I think if I had read it closer to it release date I might have enjoyed it more. I was a fan of Cole throughout the wolves of mercy falls trilogy, but I am not sure if this one was really needed (2 stars).
5. You think it, I’ll say it by Curtis Sittenfeld – This one was actually a DNF for me and my first DNF of the year so far. I think this was the case of “its not you its me,” or it could just be one those books where I was not the target audience. I thought it was be interesting, but after the third or fourth short story it started blurring together and that was when I decided to put it down. This was a new author for me, though starting off with their analogies might not have been the best idea. I might try their works later but right now I am not sure if I would enjoy them or not (2.5 stars).
6. Grim Tuesday (#2) by Garth Nix – I picked up this series a few months ago, and its alright so far. I think if I had picked this series up when I was in high school I might have enjoyed it more, but now it just seems like the author tried to pack to many things into such a short novel. I do plan to finish the entire series since I am reading it for a challenge that I am trying to finish, but I am not sure if I would have picked it up otherwise. I would definitely recommend it for someone just starting out in the fantasy genre though (3 stars).
7. You’re still the one (#1) by Rachel Harris – This one is definitely not something I would pick up on a regular basis, but I figured since it was February I could read a contemporary novel and I did need an extra “Y” title so it worked out. I also really liked that it focused on music along with the romance. I also didn’t feel like the romance overtook the story too much like it does in some books that I have read before. Overall, it was a fast read and a nice break from all of the mystery and Sci-fi books that I have been reading so far. Rachel Harris is also a new author for me and I will be interested in picking up more novels by her.

 

Overall February was a good month of reading and I was surprised by how much I was able to read in between all of the papers I had to write this month. I’m hoping that in March I will be able to a few more books with Spring break coming up, but we’ll have to see where it goes.

 

March TBR

March is going to be an interesting month. It’s either going to be busier than February or I might not have as much to do at least in a couple of my classes. We also have Spring break starting next Friday which I will hopefully be able to knock out some reading then. I do have a few major projects to do but at least I won’t have class which will be nice. I have an overly ambitious TBR this month but since I am a mood reader, I wanted to give myself a larger TBR this month than February and January. For this month I will mostly be focusing on books that I currently own but there are a couple of library books that I want to get as well.

Ebooks 

1. A million worlds with you (#3) by Claudia Gray – I randomly picked this one up when I saw it available on my Overdrive and wasn’t sure when I would get another chance to read it. I’m not a big fan of this trilogy so it will be nice to finish my second series of the year since this year I really want to focus more on some of my backlist books.
2. You were made for this by Michelle Sacks – I’m not sure about this novel yet, but I am going through a mystery phase right now so I thought I would try it.
3. Always Emily by Michaela MacColl – A fun fact, I’ve never read any of the Bronte sister’s novels…I don’t get to read classics very often but this one seems interesting and I definitely need a short novel in between all of the 400+ sci-fi books that I have planned for the month.

 

Books I own 

1. Scythe (#1) by Neal Shusterman – I tried to read this one last year I believe, and it just wasn’t the right time for me to pick it up. I finally got a copy from bookoutlet so I thought I would try it especially since it’s gotten a lot of hype over the last couple of months.
2. The good girls (#2) by Sara Shepard – This book has been sitting on my Goodreads TBR for the last four years and I have no idea why I haven’t picked it up yet. I have to reread The perfectionists but I am hoping to get to this one once Spring Break starts.
3. The mime order (#2) by Samantha Shannon – I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed The bone season that I decided to order this one off bookoutlet. I’ve been wanting to start it for the last couple of weeks but I have been holding off until spring break since I’ve had to focus on other things.
4. Plague (#4) by Michael Grant – This is another book that has been sitting on my shelf for four years and I finally ordered a copy of it. I read the third book last summer so my plan is to finish the rest of the series this year.
5. Blood of elves (#1) by Andrzej Sapkowski – I loved the first two novellas of this series and the first couple of episodes of The Witcher on Netflix but I am terrible at continuing series even though I own the first three and still haven’t really picked this one up. I am not sure if I will be able to pick it up in March but I added it just in case I had extra time and read more than I plan to.

 

Library books

These are books that I am hoping to get at the library but I won’t be able to pick them up until Friday.

1. The perfectionists (#1) by Sara Shepard – I read this a couple of years ago after finishing the Pretty little liars series and thought it was really good. It’s been ages since I have been able to get to the second book but I finally have a copy of it, so it is a priority this month to finish both books.
2. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire – This book has gotten a lot of hype on Booktube lately and I am interested to see where I land on the spectrum of either really liking it or not liking it. I’m predicting that I will enjoy it since I am going through a Sci-fi phase right now.
3. You slay me (#1) by Katie MacAlister – This is yet another book that has been sitting on my shelf since 2015 and I just never got around to it. I figured that this would be the year that I would either read it or take it off my shelf.
4. Four weeks, five people by Jennifer Yu – This sounds like an interesting novel so I thought I would go ahead and pick it up in between all of the Sci-fi and mystery books that I am reading right now.
5. Lock every door or Final girls by Riley Sager – I haven’t figured out which novel I want to read yet, but I have heard a lot about these novels so I thought I would try it I also realized that I might not be able to get Lock every door from my library so I will probably pick up final girls.

 

So this is what I have planned for March. I also have some goals that I want to accomplish during Spring break along with all of the reading and homework that I will have, but I will know more once I start break next week.

I hope you guys are having a great weekend and have a great start to the new week.

Marybeth