I clearly got a little bit too arrogant with my amazing reading progress in January and completely dived this month. In contrast with the 10 books last month, I only finished reading 6 books and DNF’d 2! February over in the UK was LGBT History Month and although I had lots of optimistic TBR goals I barely read any LGBT History Books or attended any events as we had a few unexpected life events happen. Where did the month go?!
Currently Reading
Read
-> The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin ★★★★ – Review Here
(F/F Historical Fiction > Murder Mystery)
-> The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness ★★★★★ – Review Here
(YA Contemporary/Fantasy)
-> Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff ★★★★★ – Review Here
(YA Science Fiction > Dystopia)
-> Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg ★★★★ – RTC
(Non-Fiction > LGBT History)
-> Skullsworn by Brian Staveley ★★★★ – RTC
(Fantasy)
-> The Inexplicable Logic of my Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz ★★★★★ – Review Here
(YA Contemporary > LGBT)
DNF
I took a chance with both of these eARCs on Netgalley as I thought they might be good choices for LGBT History Month. Unfortunately, I didn’t get along with either of them and DNF’d both pretty quickly. You can find my review of Ibuki here, my review for TLRB here and a related post discussing it’s problematic elements here.
Book Haul
I exercised an impressive amount of restraint this month and only acquired two books! The beautiful collector’s edition of Wuthering Heights (with gold leaf pages) was found by my partner after it had been left outside in its search for a new owner and which was left on my pillow for when I woke up in the morning ❤
I also found a lovely hardback copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children for £2. I read the ebook a few years ago and really loved it, but the ebook format didn’t display the photographs very well. The hardback copy really makes the pictures stand out though and the book underneath the actual cover is beautiful too!
As I mentioned above, I haven’t been able to do a lot of reading or blogging this month as a few life stuff cropped up. The first being that our landlord has decided he wants to sell the flat we currently rent so we’ve had to meet with our estate agent to get an estimated time for moving and how we proceed from here.
(CN: pet illness/potential death)
The other, much sadder, news is that our old Syrian hamster Faolan is currently unwell. Sadly we noticed he had a growth on his chest earlier in the month and took him to the vets. As he is almost 3 years old the vet advised against performing a biopsy of the mass and surgically removing it due to his age. The best we could do for him was to get some medication to manage his pain and keep him as comfortable as possible. However, last week we noticed that the mass has grown further onto his leg and is now impacting his ability to get around and keep himself clean. We’ve made the very difficult decision to start making steps towards putting him to sleep as we feel it’s the kindest thing for him at this point. Although he doesn’t seem to be in any pain, small animals hide their pain very well and he isn’t really able to live his little hamster life comfortably anymore. It’s very upsetting to think about so I haven’t been spending as much time as usual with reading and blogging. We’re looking at taking him to the vets next Monday to say goodbye.
In happier news, we have had some very unexpected snow over here and it’s freaked everyone out. We’re not used to snow, especially not right before March, and the entire country is grinding to a halt. Luckily I was at home today so had fun with our dog, Achilles out in the snow!
Top 10 Tuesday
Book Tags
Book Lists and Organising Things
Miscellaneous
- Discussion | Ownvoice versus non-ownvoice authors?
- Valentine’s Day | Fictional Crushes
- The Belles Book Review
- A Mental Health Interlude
- 2018 Bullet Journal | February Spread
Red Rocket Panda 
I’m happy to see you loved The Rest of Us Just Live Here! I’ve heard so many mixed things about, but I’m really excited to read it – it has such an interesting concept. I really enjoyed Planetfall, it was so mysterious and compelling to read 🙂
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Ooh I didn’t know you read Planetfall? I’m on chapter 12 now I think, after the new guy wants Ren to sort him out a new house. It’s been really exciting so far and I’m really intrigued by this plot… I want to know what this big secret is going to be!
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That edition of Wuthering Heights is so pretty.
Sorry to hear about your hamster. I had the same happen with my 3 year old hamster a few years ago and put him to sleep. It is a hard decision to make, but often for the better. Wishing you all the best and strength for next week.
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Thanks so much Annamieke! I’ve never had to put an animal to sleep before, and all of my hamsters in the past have passed away in their sleep so I haven’t had to make the decision myself.
It is pretty isn’t it! I can’t believe someone didn’t want it.
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Amazing wrap up, love! And… cutest pupper! Also, seeing Skullsworn on a friend’s blog… I swear, I tear up every time. I hope you have an amazing March, Avery! 💘xx
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I’m soooo glad I read it and actually gave it a chance as it’s not something I would’ve picked up otherwise. I can’t wait to actually read the rest of the series
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That was super nice of your partner to pick up the copy of Wurthering Heights to surprise you with!!!
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I know ❤ He's very good like that and he said as soon as he saw it he knew he would have to bring it home for me! Hopefully I'll find time to read it soon as it's so beautiful and I've never read it before!
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Wonderful wrap-up and such a great mix of books! I read Illuminae (finally) in Feb too and loved it!
I am with you on the DNFing books – I DNFd 3 in February and can’t wait to dive into some really anticipated books for March.
P.S. Tell Achilles that he is adorable 🙂
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Thank youuuuu. I will tell him, he is currently under a blanket mountain though so I will tell him when he emerges lol.
It is always feels nice to read a good spread of books. If I read too many books of the same genre at the same time I end up feeling like I’ve fallen into a genre hole and it all ends up feeling like the same book over and over again :’)
Thanks for following me by the way!
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I struggled with my reading in February, too! It was just an overall rough month… I hope spring and summer come soon. But 6 books is still pretty dang good! 🙂
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6 books is still pretty good! Tbh I blame those 2 books I had to DNF because it really put a dent in the middle of the month and put me in a bit of a funk so… it’s totally their fault 😉 Hope we both have better March’s!
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I was so stoked that I read so many books in January and I have no idea what happened this month, haha. I really liked The Rest of Us Just Live Here, but at times I thought it was so weird and strange at times. I love Patrick Ness though! Everyone loves Illuminae and I’m so sad that I didn’t.
So sorry to hear about your hamster Faolan. It’s always hard losing a pet. I miss snow. I haven’t seen snow in YEARS since I moved back to Florida. Last time was my freshman year in high school, which was forever ago haha.
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Haha I know. Even though 6 books is still really good for me it looks like such a drop in comparison to everything I read in January :’)
It’s a shame you didn’t like Illuminae. That’s okay though! There are some books that people seem to love but I just didn’t get on with them, it happens!
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