Hey friends, it’s been a particularly strange and somewhat stressful month for both Fives and me. Just with health things and other stuff, it’s been full of unique challenges that hopefully will pass soon.
With that being said, I’d say the month for reading wasn’t bad overall. I’m moving steadily and had some good reads. Let’s dig into it shall we?
Hi friends! I’m not sure where the time went this month because it felt both short and long at the same time. It’s been a year since I started working from home full-time so time definitely flows kind of funny around me. I hope you are still keeping well and safe. There is hope at the end of the tunnel, we just got to hold on together.
In the meantime, this month has been my best reading month in a while. Full-time work can get so busy, and when I’m not working I’m trying to fill up my extra time connecting with friends and family I haven’t seen in a while. But I managed to read a good number of titles that I will share with you below by rating and the superlative I would give it.
Hi friends! I can’t believe it’s already the end of February, can you? My, does time fly by quickly! Maybe it’s because this month is a shorter month, but month #2 of 2021 has already just gone by.
I hope this month has been at least a mildly good one for you. Even if you’re cooped up inside like I am, at least we always have different worlds to immerse ourselves in through what we read, hmm?
So today, I am posting what I’ve read this last month, and the ones I hope to be getting to really soon.
I would say this is a good month for me in terms of reading numbers. I find it hard to read super fast while juggling full-time work, socializing with people I care about and rest. But I definitely savored and enjoyed a number of these.
Here are the superlatives befitting some of these titles.
Favourite book: Lore by Alexandra Bracken
I never expected to love this book as much as I did. While I like Greek mythologies, they don’t hold any special place in my heart or anything. But the perfect blend of lore (aha, see what I did there?), pacing, characterization and unexpected twists just hit me in all the right places. I could barely put it down (even during my lunch breaks from work)! Review for this will be coming out REALLY soon so stay tuned!
Most surprising book: Influence by Sara Shepard and Lilia Buckingham AND Game Changer by Neal Shusterman
I couldn’t decide on which surprised me more. I thought Influence would be more chick-lit with Sara Shepard style mystery thrown in somewhere, but it’s a story about influencers after all, right? Wrong. It has so much more depth than I gave it initial credit for, with a focus on the dark side of social media fame that oscillate from truth to deception. You can find my review here.
Likewise, I thought Game Changer would be a football story since our protagonist is a football player (not hugely my kind of thing), but Neal Shusterman didn’t disappoint with his usual thought provoking rhetoric asking us to reflect on our own world today and what needs to be changed. If this was his response to 2020, I think he used the lockdown time wisely. For more of my thoughts on this book, you can check it out here.
New author book: The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon
This is my first Rachel Lynn Solomon book and I really liked it. It had a dynamic duo starring in the enemies-to-lovers trope that made it work, and a fun show (aptly named The Ex Talk) that tied everything else together and added that little element of fun/lightheartedness even when the emotions intensified. I don’t read nearly as much adult romances as I probably could, but I know this is a gem in the genre. You can read my full review here.
Not-so-favourite book: You Have a Match by Emma Lord
I don’t like criticizing books as much – mostly because I understand it’s an author’s hard work and I sympathize with that – but I just didn’t love this as much as Emma Lord’s previous debut novel. It’s not a rom-com as the book mostly focuses on the protagonist’s newfound relationship with a sister she never knew she had. It’s about the families you’re born into and the ones you call family. Maybe with a different mindset I could’ve loved this more, but it just didn’t work for me. My review can be found here.
These are the current titles I have from the library I have started on, and the books sitting on my nightstand I probably should read.
These are all big titles, including one that will be our next buddy read here at Down the Rabbit Hole! I have my fingers crossed they will be as good as I hope they will be!
High priority books on my TBR that should hopefully be coming to me in the next few weeks are:
Most of these titles are romantic contemporaries, a slight departure from my heavily-laden fantasy/mystery books. It’s about time I dig into this genre more. I’m also super excited for The Project with its interesting premise written by a fellow Canadian whom I had the pleasure of meeting once in my teen years. It should be exciting next month!
Let me know if you have read or want to read any of these! Or even better, what books have gotten you through this last month while the world is still dealing with a pandemic? Any good recommendations?
Down the Rabbit Hole 