Oh, February was an interesting month. I was very busy at work, bringing a lot of it home, so my usual commute was filled with work instead of novels. My during the week reading fell back on audiobooks with my physical TBR languishing. However, I seemed to be about to read like wild fire during the weekends, which allowed me to devour some really great books.
WRAP-UP STATS
BOOKS: 8 (+ DNF 2)
PAGES: 3,105
(Page count includes Audiobook page numbers)
GENRES:
It was a Fantasy heavy month, reading 5 books from that genre. I suspect that this will be the norm for most months. I did go out of my comfort zone as part of the Too Old for this Shit Book Club and read a historical fiction – an experiment that did not go well, and I made room for a little sci-fi and mystery in there too.
AUDIENCE:
It was a YA month, I just find reach for YA in very busy months, there are fewer YA Epic Tomes so they just seem more attractive when I can devour a book in a day or too.
FORMAT:
Like I mentioned above audiobooks were my saviour in this busy month. So was my library with all three of the audiobooks being obtained from there. Unfortunately, I DNF’d two books both of which were ARCs. I usually give myself 100 pages to get into a book but they just were not for me at this time.
RATINGS:
5 Stars: 1
4.5 Stars: 1
4 Stars: 1
3.5 Stars: 2
3 Stars: 2
1 Stars: 1
DNF: 2
WHAT I READ FROM MY TBR –
BOOK CLUB
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
Mark Sullivan
1 Star
ESCAPE: 12
I have to admit I was very very close to DNFing this book. I am just not gelling with the wiritng style and while I want to know the story (as is a fictionalised memoir of a young italian man’s deeds during WW2) I just struggled with how the writer choose to convey the story. I have a very brief review here. It seems like this wasn’t well received by a lot of the club so I am looking forward to the live show discussion (date not set yet).
ARC
Enchantee
Gita Trelease
3 Star
ESCAPE: 33
I have a full review of this book, here, but it was a fun read that just didn’t give all that was promised on the blurb. The magic system was interesting at first but fizzled out, the romance was sweet but filled with miscommunication and the revolution aspects didn’t materialise. However, the writing was beautiful and the story was inventive with strong characters. While not a 5 star for me, I could see others loving it.
#SERIESTF2019
Shadow and Bone
Leigh Bardugo
3.5 Star
ESCAPE: 39
I have a full review of my thoughts here, but this one was so close to being a four star and while it wasn’t a run away hit for me I can see why people love this series. I am looking forward to continuing on with the series.
#SERIESTF2019 and LIBRARY
Timekeeper
Tara Sim
4.5 Star
ESCAPE: 48
My full review of this delightful steampunk feeling, romantic, mysterious fantasy was actually my very low key 100th post and I am so glad it was. I read this half in audio/ half in ebook both from the library. This was such a fun read that I dived straight into the 2nd in the series.
Chainbreaker
Tara Sim
4 Star
ESCAPE: 45
While I did not adore this as much as the first, I still really enjoyed the read and flew through it again in the audio/ebook combination – thanks to my library. I will have a full review to follow soon, but this books took some great perspective switches and a very interesting twists. You can rest assured that the 3rd and final book shall be making its way on to my Sequel-athon TBR in March!
Unearthed
Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner
3 Star
When I heard this compared to a sort of Tombraider/Indy in space and it showed up as available to borrow in audiobook I just had to check it out. It was a fun story but I personally would have liked a lot more puzzles and actual tomb-raiding but it has some great twists. I will hopefully be reading the concluding book in this duology soon.
FREE CHOICE
Two Can Keep a Secret
Karen M. McManus
3.5 Star
ESCAPE: 39
This was so close to a four star book that I wavered over my rating just to give it the four stars. I really enjoyed One of us is lying, and while not related Two can Keep a Secret holds the same high quality story construction with a great mystery to try and solve. However, occasionally it just lacked some drama to make it a run-away success for me. My full review will be following soon.
In an Absent Dream
Seanan McGuire
5 Star
ESCAPE: 52
This series just keeps getting better for me. I loved this book, and it might be my favourite of the series so far. Then again, a high logic world where we get to know Lundy’s back story was always going to appeal to me. I will have my review to you in the next few days!
DNF –
EARC
The Last
Hanna Jameson
The Outcast Hours
Various
Neither of these books were bad books they were just not what i was looking for at the time. I am a firm believer in just moving on if I am just not in the mood for the book. These were unfortunately ARCs. But I would rather do justice to the authors and state that they are just not right for me right now than give them bad reviews as I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to continue. I may pick these back up. The outcast hours would be great around Halloween for those into Horror. But life is too short and there are too many books out their I want to try and read to forge ahead on books I just couldn’t get into.
TBR BOOKS I DIDN’T HAVE TIME FOR:
I am going to try a new thing and to encourage me to return to the TBR books I didn’t get to in the Month of February I will be asking you, dear reader, which one I should prioritise.
Here are the books I didn’t get to in February:
The Orphanage of Gods – Helena Coggan
Master of Sorrows – Justin Call
The Vanishing Stair – Maureen Johnson
Circle of Shadows – Evelyn Skye
What one should I read in February? Please vote in the comments!
How did your February reading go?
I would love to chat about these books or any others in the comments on Goodreads or Twitter!
Happy Reading!
Fi's Bibliofiles 