February Round Up

February, the shortest month! But the one in which I have had to read so many books to get all my March reviews sorted. Here’s how the month has gone in books:

I will hopefully have my post about this up soon, but I did read a couple of challenge books this month:

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli – YA fantasy with dragons! Loved the dragons, wasn’t super into the rest of the book. Review when I get my backlog of ARCs out of the way

Roar by Cora Carmack – this was for a buddy read and sadly, it didn’t do much for me. I liked the buddy read, though!

Sadly, I didn’t get through as many backlist books as I’d hoped this month, mostly due to the aforementioned ARC overload. However, I did finish:

Trans Liberty Riot Brigade by LM Pierce – from NetGalley, but already published (review coming soon), gritty dystopian fiction

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon – an incredible SF novel with a diverse cast. I would specifically recommend the audiobook

Roar by Cora Carmack

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon – lovely #ownvoices YA about an Indian-American girl trying work out where she wants to be in the world, and maybe falling in love on the way

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli

Mounting Evidence by Karis Walsh – decent lesbian romance novel with a horse-related sub-plot

I have read so many ARCs this month! Somehow, I ended up with a ton of books from Netgalley which were due to be published in March, and I wanted to try and get them all read and reviewed before their publication dates. Reviews for most of these will be out in March or April.

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan – lovely memoir about childhood reading

Just For Show by Jae – brilliant lesbian romance that takes on the ‘fake relationship’ trope, one of my favourites!

Women by Chloe Caldwell – a somewhat frustrating novella about a woman falling in love with another woman for the first time

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin – brilliant literary fiction with elements of magical realism, about four siblings who are told the dates of their deaths by a psychic

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz – frustrating dystopian fiction that, in my opinion, missed out on a lot of opportunities to examine some major social issues

Written on the Body, edited by Lexie Bean – a moving collection of letters written by trans and non-binary survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence

The Lost by Mari Hannah – first in a new crime/thriller series, with a pretty cool female lead, but a slightly frustrating pacing

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily XR Pan – incredible, beautiful, captivating YA magical realism about a girl trying to learn about her family’s past, whilst coming to terms with her mother’s recent suicide

Nothing But Sky by Amy Trueblood – super fun historical YA about wing walking in the period between WWI and WWII

Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman – another amazing YA novel about a girl who goes to the west coast for the summer to escape her mother and abusive uncle, and tries to find her own path through the world from there

What Should be Wild by Julia Fine – this is a fantasy novel about a young woman who kills everything she touches, and discovers that her father has been less than truthful about her family’s history

Valley Girls by Sarah Nicole Lemon – an awesome contemporary YA novel set in Yosemite, all about big wall climbing (which, like wing walking, is just as scary to read about as it is to watch!)

Ponti by Sharlene Teo – an atmospheric debut work of literary fiction set in Singapore, about a girl, her teenage friend, and her mother, a one-time horror movie star

I’ve published a fair number of reviews in February – some YA, some queer romance, and some memoir:

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton – awesome #ownvoices YA fantasy

Hearts Like Hers by Melissa Brayden – sweet, funny lesbian romance

A Heart to Call Home by Jeannie Levig – lesbian romance about overcoming your past

Just For Show by Jae

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan

The Devil’s Poetry by Louise Cole – I participated in the blog tour for this YA SF novel set in the UK

I also read The Fandom by Anna Day for the #CroneBloggers first book club. It was…interesting.

I’ve got three books on the go at the moment, as I try get on top of all the reviews that ought to be out while I’m away next month:

I need to shout out Evelina’s New Bloggers 101 posts – she’s been sharing excellent posts (along with some guest bloggers) with some of the basics of blogging, covering things like how to be organised and how to create a good NetGalley profile. They’re great posts full of super useful information and definitely worth checking out if you’re want some tips on blogging.

Apparently I’ve read twenty books this month?! It doesn’t feel like that many, but it’s basically a book every other day, which does seem a little ridiculous. No idea if I’ll be able to keep this up in March, but equally I don’t have such a vast quantity of ARCs to read next month, so there’s not so much pressure.

How has your February been? Have you read as many books as you’d hoped to?

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