February is always a bad month for me and this year was no exception. My mental health was at a pretty low point at the beginning of the month and then, just when that was improving, my physical health became the issue. Blogging just wasn't even on my mind, but thankfully I did still manage to read a bit. I didn't read quite as much as I would have liked, mainly because I was so exhausted when I was ill that I couldn't concentrate to read more than a sentence or two. Novellas and shorter books were my friends in February and I managed to read 8 books.
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevado -
This was given so much hype last year, and won the YA fiction category of the Goodreads awards, so I had been putting it off a little as I was scared I wouldn't love it as much as everyone else. This is a novel written in verse following two sisters, one living in the Dominican Republic and the other living in New York City, who only discover the existence of the other after their father dies in a plane crash. I am very new to novels written in verse, I have only read one other, so that took me a little time to adjust to. However, once I had I ended up really loving the way this book was written. I listened to the audio book while reading it physically and found the narration to be perfect. The story itself was incredibly powerful. We are introduced to these two very different sisters, living very different lives as they come to terms with the tragedy that brings them together. The relationships within this book, both the relationship they have with each other and those they have with others, are what makes this such a beautiful story. I loved getting to know these sisters and watching them grow and develop on their journey throughout this book. It was just really beautiful and I highly recommend it. I only wish I had read this at a different time, I really feel like I would have rated this higher had I been in a different mindset, as I can't really think of much I disliked.
Rating: 4/5
Higher Love by Alexandria House -
This is one I picked up at random because the audiobook was pretty short and I just wanted something quick and fun. It is a romance following a travel blogger who discovers her fiance is engaged to another woman via facebook while she is at a music festival as part of a work trip. She decides to throw herself into the festival fun to forget about her heartbreak, which ends in a bit of fun with a mysterious handsome man. When a business deal brings them back together, they decide to give things a go. I really loved the first half of this book. I loved the festival fun, the beginning of the relationship and seeing the characters develop in the beginning. I also really enjoyed how they were brought back together and how they handled the situation they found themselves in. However, there were a lot of things about the latter half of the book I did not enjoy. I hated the jealous ex trope in here and couldn't deal with just how crazy things got with Derek's ex. The drama that ensued and how over the top the conflict was just got too much for me.
Rating: 3/5
Set by Alexandria House -
Since I really enjoyed the writing in Higher Love, just not quite how the story played out, I decided to give Alexandria House another go. Set is the first novella in a series following three brothers. The first book deals with a friends with benefits arrangement between two former school classmates who meet again as adults. This was super steamy and a lot of fun. Once again, I really loved the majority of this but the ending really let me down. I was so ready to love this, but Set just became far too overbearing and possessive for my liking. He was making decisions on Kareema's behalf without even a conversation, and she would just go along with whatever he said. I was really disappointed that I didn't end up loving this as much as I thought I was going to.
Rating: 3/5
Eleanor & Grey by Brittainy C Cherry -
This is easily my favourite book I have read in 2021 so far! I have heard so many amazing things about Brittainy C Cherry so decided it was finally time to pick up one of her books. Eleanor & Grey follows our main characters as they first develop a relationship in high school as they bond over similar tragedies in their lives, before they are separated for a number of years. The two later find themselves back in each others lives as adults, but circumstances are very different than they used to be. This is an emotional read. It deals with topics such as cancer and loss of a loved one, so be aware going into it that these feature heavily. I adored this book! I loved watching their relationship develop as teenagers and how they helped each other through their difficulties. It was such a pure love story and I just completely fell in love with both characters in the first part. The second part was hard to read. Yes, the first part deals with difficult topics, but the second part broke me. Grey is broken, and the difference in his character from the first part is just heart-breaking. The way Eleanor came back into his life was perfect. I loved the relationships she formed with his children as their nanny. I love children in books and I completely fell in love with these ones. I basically just loved this book and I still can't form coherent thoughts about it so I will stop before I just gush about it forever.
Rating: 5/5
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory -
From a new favourite to a disappointment, unfortunately. I have owned this ebook for years and finally got around to picking it up. It follows two strangers who get stuck in an elevator together, during which time Alexa agrees to be Drew's fake girlfriend at his ex-girlfriend's wedding. I love fake dating, I love books about weddings, this should be my ideal book, right? Sadly, all the things I love that feature in this book were over within the first quarter of the book. This couple fake dated for a whole weekend! After that I had another 200 pages of weekend trips back and forth, bad communication and a whole lot of inaccurate medical stuff. If you're going to make your hero a paediatric surgeon, at least know what the job actually involves and get the basic medical facts correct! I could have gotten over the medical inaccuracies if the plot had been interesting (I am a Grey's Anatomy fan after all) but it just wasn't for me. I really thought I would love this one, I'm so sad I didn't.
Rating: 2/5
Worship by Jack Harbon -
After having success with my first Brittainy C Cherry book, I decided to pick up something from another author recommended by Bree from In Love And Words. I had heard her raving about this novella from Jack Harbon, so I gave it a go. This follows two former classmates who reunite at their ten year high school reunion and things get steamy. This is really short but absolutely adorable. It is childhood friends to lovers, small town, and is the definition of a hero worshipping the ground the heroine walks on. I absolutely adored this relationship and really loved Jack Harbon's writing. My only complaint, as is often the case with novella's, is that I wish it was longer. I would happily have read a full length novel about these characters.
Rating: 4/5
The Babysitter by Jack Harbon -
Of course, after enjoying my first Jack Harbon novella so much I had to pick up another. This one is even shorter and is a M/M romance between a babysitter and the father of the child he looks after. This is super steamy with a bit of an age-gap to make it even more taboo than just the boss-employee relationship. I really liked this for the most part. However, I haven't read a lot of age-gap romances and I'm not entirely sure they are for me. I just wasn't a fan of the age gap, although that may have been more to do with the image I had in my head of Victor, the father. I just can't picture a 'Victor' that is not a super old guy! I did really like the ending though and I enjoy Jack Harbon's writing a lot.
Rating: 3/5
Year Of Yes by Shonda Rhimes -
So technically I finished this one on March 1st but we're counting it for February because I make the rules here. This was my non-fiction book for the month and once again I think I accidentally picked the perfect book that gave me exactly what I needed to hear and think about at that specific moment in time. I picked this up because I adore Shonda Rhimes. I think she is an incredibly talented human being and I wanted to know more about her personally. This book follows her journey on the year in which she said yes to all the things that scared her. This was exactly what I needed to be reading about and thinking about at that time! I really enjoyed this book. It not only gave me more of an insight into who Shonda Rhimes is as a person and how she manages to her success, it was an inspiring read about breaking out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself to do what scares you the most. As a very introverted person, I could relate to so much of what she had to say and it has really helped me to see that someone who struggles with some of the same things I do managed to so the things that scared her the most and is still here to tell us all about it. Another really great non-fiction read.
Rating: 4/5
Those were all 8 of the books I read in February. I wasn't at all focused on my goals this month, but I'm still interested to see how I did. You can see all of my yearly goals here.
I, for some reason, decided it would be a good idea to up my Goodreads goal for the first time ever and challenge myself to read 100 books in 2021. This will most likely go back down to 50 when I realise I am never going to manage that. For now though, I am one book ahead of schedule.
I did managed to read February's Buzzword, which was a colour, with Eleanor & Grey.
I didn't read any books from my physical TBR in February, but I am going to make more of an effort to do that in March.
The Black Author Readathon took place over the month of February to celebrate Black History Month, meaning every book I read in the month was by a Black or mixed race author.
I did try reading something new to me, which was a sci-fi novella that I ended up having to DNF as it just wasn't for me. I would consider a novel written in verse to be pretty new to me, as well as an age-gap romance.
I don't think I am doing too badly with my 2021 goals, although I am definitely make some more of a priority than others. It will be interesting to see if this continues throughout the year.
Did you discover any new favourite books in February?
Sophie :)
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