February 2020: Reading Wrap Up

February went by in a flash, even with the extra day. Since I’m already a little late with this post, let’s dive in and talk about what I read in February.

Outbox

You may remember from my January wrap-up post, that my in-progress book at the start of February was Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. This was such a fun book, and totally different than anything else I’ve been reading recently. While I really enjoyed the characters and the mystery aspect of the plot, I did have a lot of questions about the world-building. For the most part, those questions didn’t interfere with my overall enjoyment of the book because I was too absorbed in Gideon. I really loved her character and voice. Gideon was my hook into this series, but book two appears to pivoting to Harrow’s perspective. So, I’m not as interested in reading it right away.

Since it took me most of the first week of February to finish Gideon the Ninth, I only had a small window to read something short before Tome Topple started. In other words, the perfect opportunity to dip back into the Innkeeper series by Ilona Andrews with book two, Sweep in Peace. I pretty much devoured this book in two days. Even though I have the next two books in the series already on my Kindle, I resisted the urge to jump right into book three. I’m trying to pace myself on this series because I really love the characters and the world, and I’m worried that it will all be over too soon.

If you read my Tome Topple TBR post, you’ll already be familiar with my rather realistic plans for Tome Topple. Everything kicked off according to plan. I started reading Poseidon’s Wake by Alastair Reynolds on Kindle and Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab on audiobook. I made steady progress on both, but neither were sucking me in or making me eager to return to them. By the time Tome Topple officially ended, I hadn’t finished either of them. In the days after, I completely lost motivation and just didn’t really feel like reading anything. So, I decided I needed the reading equivalent of a “palate cleanser.”

I scrolled through my Kindle TBR and landed on Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins. It’s a short contemporary YA romance about a girl who does a study abroad in Scotland for her senior year of high school and ends up falling for a princess. It’s a cute, fast read with great queer representation, a f/f love story with the familiar and beloved “oops, I fell for a Royal” tropes (one of my favorite tropes). I read it in two days and enjoyed it. It refreshed me and pushed me out of my reading slump enough to at least go finish Our Dark Duet.

I’m sad to report that I didn’t like Our Dark Duet nearly as much as I loved This Savage Song. For some reason, this book seemed to be much more gore-filled and violent than the first book. Possibly because all the graphic descriptions seemed to just be there for atmosphere building purposes and not really necessary to drive the plot or character arcs. And it was repetitive. There were so many scenes where nothing important happened to move to plot or characters forward. I thought the new monster was cool, but completely unexplained and almost entirely unnecessary to the plot (except as a device to bring Kate back to Verity). I’m glad I read it, but I almost think This Savage Song would have been better as a stand alone. Overall, this one was kind of a disappointment and left me in a bit of a slump.

Inbox

I didn’t buy or borrow any books this month, and my Fairy Loot box is delayed. So, I guess I’ll have to wait until next month to share what I got…

Currently Reading

I still want to finish reading Poseidon’s Wake. I’m really happy to be returning to the world of Poseidon’s Children, but the story starts slowly, and I’ve forgotten a lot of what happened in the first two books because it’s been so long. Plus, I’m finding it difficult to stay engaged in a long, meaty sci-fi story right now because I have a lot of other things going on in my life at the moment that are causing no end of distractions. So, I may set it aside and read some more short, fun books that don’t require as much of a time investment. I definitely need something to get me back into the reading groove.

I’ve been thinking about switching things up and putting down my Kindle to read a hardcover book. I’ve got A River of Royal Blood and Eight Will Fall in hardcover, and both of those sound like they’ll be good. Or maybe I need some sci-fi in my life (Spaceside or Ignite the Stars)? Or maybe I should finish the Queens of Renthia series and read The Queen of Sorrow?