Hello, everyone! It’s time today for my monthly favourites and disappointments post for February. I read a lot during the month, and it was also a pretty great reading month for me in general, so I only have one disappointment to talk about and three favourites. So with that said, let’s jump right into it.
Favourites
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
I knew going into this book that it wouldn’t be easy going. This a memoir about Trethewey’s mother’s murder when she was 19. I also lost my mum when I was 19, though due to terminal illness rather than violence. Still, this book resonated with me in terms of grief, a sense of survivor’s guilt and both a regret and desire to forget. This is stunningly written and at times it completely took my breath away. And of course, it made me cry a lot but it’s one of those books that you don’t truly realise how much it’s affected you until you’re finished and suddenly its 3pm on a Friday and you’re sobbing into your cat’s fur. Don’t let the fact that this book ruined me discourage you from reading—it’s a beautiful, haunting and important book that is less about abuse and murder and more about grief and love. I have a feeling this will stay a favourite throughout the year. You can see me talk about this a little more in this vlog that I did as part of the Mid-Month Book Bash.
Naked In Death by J.D Robb
You know those books you just know aren’t going to be your thing? The ones that you pick up thinking that you probably won’t make it more than a few pages in? That was Naked In Death for me and yet here we are. I have a complicated relationship with crime books in that I very rarely like them, but I bought this one fully intending to use it as part of a project. I gave up on the project, read this and it ended up spurring me to do the project anyway. Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. Here’s the thing about this one; it’s just so good out of nowhere. There’s absolutely nothing about this book that I should enjoy it and yet there I was staying up way too late just so I could finish this. I loved the characters and their banter and I didn’t even pick the twist! I’ve ordered the next few books in this series already and I’ll definitely be reading book two in the next few weeks.
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
I try my best not to talk about rereads in this post, because usually if I loved it once then I’ll love it again but I can never pass up the chance to speak about Monday’s Not Coming and Tiffany D. Jackson in general. Seriously, if I ever have the opportunity to scream about this book and I don’t then you know there’s something wrong. So yes, this is one of my favourite books of all-time and honestly, I only got more out of rereading it. This is such a multi-layered, complex story filled with so many discussions on things like family, friends, society, high school and of course, a lot of darker subjects too. I highly recommend looking on Goodreads for trigger warnings if you do decide to go into this one because it really is quite haunting and triggering. I’ve only read this and Allegedly, but in general, I’d recommend that for any of Jackson’s books. Besides that, Jackson is an incredible writer. She will blow you away with her characters, her plots and with every twist and turn. I can’t ever see this coming off my favourites list.
Disappointments
To Wed A Scandalous Spy by Celeste Bradley
I’ve said time and time again about how I very rarely dislike historical romance. There have definitely been a couple, but on the whole I tend to at least enjoy them. This was not the case with To Wed A Scandalous Spy. I bought this on a complete whim over Better World Books last February and finally got around to it this month as I needed a few books to add to an order I was making from there again. I’m glad I didn’t end up ordering them before I got to this one. I thought the story was incredibly dull—I thought it would be way more exciting, I mean it follows spies! Doesn’t that sound like something that might be kind of fast-paced and fun? Instead, it just made kind of vague mentions to things to the point where I had no idea what the aforementioned ‘spy’ was supposed to be doing. I didn’t really like either of the characters to the point that it’s been a few days as I’m writing this section and I honestly cannot remember their names. So, at least that’s a series I don’t have to finish!
That’s it for today! What books did you love this month and which ones disappointed you?
Earl Grey Books 