February Reads!

An unlucky 13 books read this month! I blame baseball. Spring training games began this past weekend meaning I neglected to finish the book I'm in the middle of listening to and it went back to the library. The good news is, I'm twenty-fifth in line last check so it won't take too long to get back to me *Fingers crossed*

Let's take a look at what I did finish this month. If you haven't already done so, head over to Over halfway through February . . . (cjroark.com) for reviews of the first half of the month reads. And without further ado . . . the second half of February :

As expected, I didn't read quite as much during the second half of the month, but what I did read was Gooooooood!!! The second-half star ratings average 4.29 stars, compared to 3.92 in the first half of the month. Plus the second half saw my first 5-star read of the year. If you know me, I'm stingy with my stars . . . it may very well end up being the only 5-star read.

Powerless by Elsie Silver saw me breaking the first of my resolutions. I decided if I wanted to get through the backlog of some of these newly favorite authors, I can't limit myself to one book a month by them. I'm far from disappointed by my decision. Powerless was awesome. My favorite of the three so far. My only complaint is it left me worrying about Beau, and Elsie is making us wait for his story.

The Icepick Surgeon was good. Not Disappearing Spoon great, but I did enjoy it. The Disappearing Spoon is hard to surpass. It's high on my top ten favorite non-fiction books. My husband's book club did it this month, and it was received quite favorably.

I'm so glad I got through Stacy's story in Well Played in January. If I hadn't I would have missed out on April and Mitch in Well Matched. It's by far my favorite so far. I absolutely love a reverse age-gap romance.

Now for the 5-Star read . . . ugh, just thinking about it is making me emotional. I read something else by Jewel E. Ann last year. It was perfectly forgettable. I think the MFC had a pet emu? Because of this, I was hesitant to pick up Before Us. Add to that, the blurb just screamed ANGST! Something, I'm not always in the mood for. However, this must have been the right book at the right time, because . . . Oh. My. God.

Does anyone else have a book-best friend? They're quite necessary. Mine checked in on me daily, sending me hand-holding gifs, letting me know they were there for me. They supported me while I sat, openly in public, balling my eyes out.

I honestly can't say enough about the book. It was a beautiful story. And it was beautifully written. I will definitely be reading more of her backlist (minus the emu story).

If you've seen my previous posts, you know I'm a fan of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club. If you, too, also enjoy the escapades of seniors solving mysteries Killers of a Certain Age is your next must read. My only fear is fantasticfiction.net lists it as being standalone and I want more!

Rounded out the month by discovering a new favorite author. Elizabeth O'Rourke's Deal With The Devil is the definition of slow burn. One of the downsides of reading ebooks is watching that percentage read marker tick closer to the 80% mark. You know the one . . . where the couple ultimately breaks up due to miscommunication or something else stupid . . . In this book, the couple just got together at 80%. Talk about stressful!

If anyone else is a statistics nerd like myself . . .

	January	February
Pages Read	5765	4719
Average Star Rating	3.55	4.1

In writing news -

Sadie & Declan's story is still going through a rigorous editing process. Looking at an April release.

The idea I was plagued with earlier in the month is actually starting to take shape. I'm 15k into a first draft. Given that (at the moment) this is looking like a standalone, I don't have any type of outline to follow (ie. I'm pantsing it just like the old days). As usual, this means the characters are not as cooperative. For example, yesterday Character C decided to proclaim his undying love for Character A. After pounding out the scene, all I could do was sit back and say 'well, fuck, that wasn't supposed to happen.' It will be fun to see where it goes.

March promises to be a pretty slow read month. For once, I'm not reading anything (unless you count the book I'm waiting for the library to send back to me). Baseball will slow things down, and I have big plans for the end of the month . . . although ten hours on a plane could mean a lot of reading time . . .

Cheers,

CJ