February is always a hectic month for me, not only does everyone decide to be born in this month but there’s only 28 says and let me cry because I could have finished a whole entire book in those two days! I don’t know about you but I feel cheated.
This month I worked myself out of my slump and read some pretty amazing books, doing the TBR take down certainly helped and motivated me to read more even if I did stray from my set to be read list.
Six Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente – 3.5/5 stars
This wasn’t as amazing as I was hoping. The writing was fantastical and beautiful but also really hard to read, slogging through all the descriptions was hard at times and I don’t think I was in the right mindset. Also this book doesn’t have a good representation of native Americans in my eyes it sat funny with me and I’ll be going into detail on how in my review, there were just a lot of generalisations and stereotypical tropes that have been over done.
A Tragic Kind Of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom
5/5 Stars
A Tragic Kind of Wonderful is exactly what the title states. A story where Mel’s character gripped me from the first chapter, her family sucked me in, the mysterious slow reveals of her old friendship days, her personality and genuine care of other people.
I really loved this book and the cover is beautiful
Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken (Passenger #2)
4/5 stars
After Passanger got ALL the hype last year I couldn’t wait for Wayfarer, if you’re looking for a fast paced fantasy you are out of luck, this book like Passanger is a slow burn, with time and space travel, an evil tyrant, and a darker force coming for the main characters the story is unfolded and revealed slowly with careful thought and precision so the reader gets to know every little bit that’s going on.
Things I should have known by Claire LaZebnik 5/5 stars
After arranging to take Chloe on her date with Ethan she realises his brother is David. The sullen, moody boy from school that always corrects her in english and seems to love to argue with her and call her gross when she’s with her boyfriend. Chloe and David slowly start to know each other and become friends being able to talk about having a sibling with autism and being able to have someone who just gets it.
“this is a story about sisterhood, autism, and first love. Chloe, Ivy, David, and Ethan, who form a quirky and lovable circle, will steal readers’ hearts and remind us all that it’s okay to be a different kind of normal.”
Black by Fleur Ferris – 4/5 stars
This book was my choice has “out of my comfort zone” for a read’a’thon, not that thriller is out of my comfort zone but because I tend to dislike YA thrillers, I always end up yelling at the teenager trying to defeat multiple attackers or solve a crime themselves and want to shake them TO CALL THE DAMN POLICE.
But yay and hallelujah this book was fantastic, the plot was fast, the small town setting surrounded by woods was creepy, the feeling ofeveryone being evil made me unable to guess who was going to be the big reveal. AND our main character Ebony/Black CALLED THE POLICE AND RAN THERE thank you, even though it didn’t really help I appreciate some rational thought!
Noteworthy by Riley Redgate 5/5 stars
Thoughtful, funny, diverse could I ask for more from a book?
Noteworthy is the story of Jordan, an asian american bi sexual teen attending a school for the arts, Jordan is strong, sure of herself, and has great morals. She genuinely kind and thinks all of her actions through and how it affects others.
This book isn’t out until May 2nd BUT IT SO GOOD I already have it on my wishlist to buy because I can’t wait to re-read this awesome book.
A Daughter of Smoke and Bones by Laini Taylor – 4/5 stars
Daughter of Smoke & Bones is something different then what I was expecting and I didn’t really know what to expect.
This book had been on my TBR for SO LONG. I am so happy I finally picked it up. Laini Taylor is an amazing writer and the way she wove the magic into this story was different and beautiful. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series.
Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde 5/5 Stars
This is another amazing early copy I managed to nab from NetGalley and OHMYGOD this book is now one of my all time favourites. Diverse? Nerdy? pop culture references galore? Positive friendships, amazing love stories.
I could just quote this entire book and I basically went nuts with my highlighter while reading it. If there’s one book you ever buy because of a review or blog post please let it be this one.
Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick 4/5 stars
Hilarious from start to finish, I am so happy I listened to the audio book it was like a huge hilarious podcast featuring Anna Kendrick the whole time and who doesn’t love that?
Hearing about how down to earth Anna is and her outlook and fame and her own success was great, the book never felt to over the top and there was so much self-deprecating humor and just hilarity in general it really made me love her as an actress and person even more.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber – 3/5 stars
This book would have been a lot more enjoyable if it wasn’t so over hyped, seriously if your going to compare something to the Night Circus I want more then just a circus in common.
The writing and descriptions just didn’t do it for me and I don’t know if it was because I listened to the audio book but “like chocolate cake drenched in wine” sounds super gross and why are you describing looking at the circus like this?
These two amazing beautiful awesome books! I loved them even more on my re-read seriously if you like your characters kick ass and hilarious then you need some Delilah Bard in your life. I have reviews from my first read here and here.
I am doing project 5 this year so my haul is limited but I am working through my to be read shelf so I’m happy!
As two of these are Audiobooks and one was a free copy I’m not counting these towards my project 5 so yay to cheating.
So that was my month, I read a total of 12 books and I’m really proud of myself for it, I only bought 1 book and I knocked a heap off my to be read list!
What was your fave read of Feb?
My fave book of the month has to be Queens of Geek but seriously I had an awesome reading month and all these books were just so good.
For March I’ll be participating in the All The Short Ones readathon which is a month long challenge to read as many under 300 page books as you can 🙂 Keep an eye out for my ambitious TBR I’ll be posting it soon.
adoptabookaus.com 
YAY! I’m so proud of your buying habits! And I can’t wait to read Queens of Geek, I bet it’ll be AMAZING. Seriously so excited for it. And my Feb fave was definitely Frostblood! ❤
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I’ve heard so many good things about Frostblood but I haven’t even added it to my TBR I don’t know why! I’m proud of my buying habits too, well i did pre-order some books this month but we’ll deal with them when they get here bahaha
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I’m like you – preorders are for future me to worry about ahaha! What did you preorder? Totally add it to your TBR, even if you don’t get to it until September! Second book is out then. 😀
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The ACOWAR box and the pretty Strange the Dreamer 🙂 Also The Hate U Give but that was only like 2 days of pre-order so hopefully it comes soon!
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Oooooh so many pretties! Hopefully Hate U Give does come soon, yes! I can’t wait to read mine too! Book of the month woohoo!
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I think it’s coming this week I ordered from booktopia because book depository had no stock! This book is going to be huge I can’t wait to see how the first week of sales go I’m predicting it to be on my NYT best seller list
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I bet you’re right!!
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Awesome reading month! I really need to get to Frostblood, it looks so good.
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Congratulations on working yourself out of a slump, Casey! I’m feeling somewhat slumpy too so I hope I could follow in your footsteps in March, haha.
I’m so glad to see that you enjoyed Noteworthy! I read it a while back and really, really liked it too – it reminds me somewhat of Pitch Perfect, which I love… and also Anna Kendrick, whose book we’ve both read! I also really enjoyed that one – audio is definitely the best for memoirs. ❤
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I think Noteworthy had me thinking of Anna Kendrick and pitch Perfect so it was an awesome combo the audio was fantasic, I need to re watch the movies now XD
Gah hopefully your slump lifts! I just read a heap of contemporary and it helped a lot and I’m planning on reading some shorter books this month to try and keep my reading motivation up 😀
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Do it! I think I’ve watched both PP and PP2 like 10+ times, haha. I just love them so much.
Thank you, I hope so too! I’ve been skimming a lot of NA/Regency Romance and it’s been helpful, but it’s not yet 100% effective. Shorter books are a great idea though… I suppose we’ll see. 🙂
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So many great books in one month!! I really enjoyed Noteworthy as well. Jordan is so, so funny I really love being in her head ahaha and all the diverse characters & friendship dynamics are just GOLD. I’m sad that I never heard back about my request for Queens of Geek but I’m definitely preordering soon! 😀 I’m also gonna start rereading ADSOM before my copy of ACOL arrives! Have a wonderful March ❤
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I’m nearly finished ACOL and it lives up to all my expectations gah I love these books! Noteworthy is just so happy making and it deals with so many issues in a way that just flowed, it felt real being so diverse and all the characters were all so different and awesome 🙂
I can’t say it enough but Queens of Geek is amazing, I’m pre-ordering as well because I need that book on my shelf for all to see XD
Hope you love ADSOM on your re-read and ACOL when it arrives!
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Wow!! That’s a lot of books to read in one month. What an accomplishment.
My favorite February book was The Husband’s Secret. Thoroughly enjoyed it. A great read.
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I know! they were all super short though but I was happy with them 😀 The Husbands secret sounds really interesting just added it to my tbr!
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I was so sad because even though I LOVED Passenger, I really couldn’t get into Wayfarer. IT STILL BREAKS MY HEART.
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It definitely didn’t have the same pull has Passenger, I missed Nic and Ella’s banter I would have liked to see them together for more of the book but I enjoyed Nic on his own, ella annoyed me a bit and I wanted some more from the ending (mainly just nic being confused about tech and 21st century life)
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Scrappy Little Nobody sounds awesome! I’m dying to read it!
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I loved it! Are you going to read the physical copy or audio? I highly recommend the audio if you use them 😀 (also all your comments were marked as spam so I’m sorry for the late reply:( )
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I’m fairly old school when it comes to books so I’ll probably get a physical copy. Don’t worry about the late reply – all good. 🙂
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You had such an excellent reading month! I envy that haha. I think I only read one, maybe two or three books in Feb because uni rotations mean I have no time
They were all good books though!
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Luckily I don’t have to deal with uni and all that goes with it so I had a fair bit of reading time! The books aren’t going any where though so not reading much isn’t that big of a deal 🙂
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12 books in a short month?! Good for you! I also read A Gathering of Shadows this month in preparation for A Conjuring of Light! I read ADSOM last year and wanted to wait until closer to the release of ACOL to read the second book. I was NOT disappointed! Holy crap! It will be bitter sweet to read the conclusion to the series….
Cheers to another big reading month in March!
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AGOS is so good I’d say it’s my fave but ACOL stole that place XD Yes to a good reading month for the both of us! I was proud with feb reading hopefully I can keep it up 🙂
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Great reading month Casey 😍😍 I’m really glad you enjoyed Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Queens of Geek and Black! I can’t wait for Queens of Geek and I really need to read Black. I just finished Noteworthy yesterday and oh my god it was perfect!!! I haven’t read The Night Circus but I have NO IDEA why Caraval was compared to it because even I can tell they’re completely different books.
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How perfect is it! It discusses all the issues so well and the characters are amazing 😀 God the more I think about Caraval the more I dis like it and resent that it’s being compared to the night circus which is one of my faves! I wish books didn’t do the whole “This is the next Hunger games/gone girl etc…” it just sets unrealistic expectations I’m glkad you could tell they were diff books!
I enjoyed Black so much more than I thought I would I can’t wait to read more of the Authors work now 🙂
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Hah! I love your review of Caraval!
Books compared to Night Circus automatically get a spot on my to-read. I have a copy of Caraval waiting to be read but I didn’t buy it for that reason 😛
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Yep, I was kinda interested in it for that reason but also a book club I’m in was reading it so I decided to go for it definitely shouldn’t have been compared to the night circus for me. The Night Circus is so much more then just a magical circus it’s the writing, the characters, the characters magic and creation. A lot of people did like it though so hopefully you’ll enjoy it more then I did!
It did make me want to re-read The Night Circus again though so that’s a plus xD
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I, too, had high hopes for Caraval!
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Caraval wasn’t omg this is garbage fire but it was just so disappointing and I expected a lot more from the hype around it
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Ooh, you had a fantastic reading month! Pretty much all of those books I’ve read or really want to read!
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