Hello Readers! I had a surprisingly good reading month (for me) in February. Especially since one of the the books I read was 800 pages. Most of the books I read this month were also from my backlist, which made me very happy. I know it’s only two months in, but so far my ARC situation is under control. 😃 And February was my birthday month, as well. I received some lovely bookish items, which is always fun. I received an embossing and book stamp kit from my husband and a bookish t-shirt from my sister-in-law! They know me so well! 😍

If you take a look back at My February TBR, you’ll see I managed to read all the books except for one, but I picked up two others that weren’t planned, bringing my total number of pages read to 3,161. I also crossed several books off My Winter TBR and My Popsugar Reading Challenge. I’ll be combining my wrap-up and haul for this month, since my haul was finally not too extravagant.

Let’s see what I read and what I added to my TBR!

Be sure to check out The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction!

(Link to synopsis on Goodreads through the book title.)

February Wrap-Up

I started the month finally picking up the second book in the Brown Sisters series, Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert, and this rarely happens, but I enjoyed it more than the first book! Zaf was a cinnamon roll, and now I’m convinced every man should read romance novels.

My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Popsugar Challenge Prompt – A book with a color in the title

Next I picked up one of the few ARCs I’d planned for the month, Off the Map by Trish Doller, the third book in the Beck Sisters series. This romance set in Ireland was fun, sweet, and adventurous!

My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Review
Expected on March 7, 2023

After a two-year wait, I was excited to return to the Shadowhunter universe with the final installment in The Last Hours series, Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare. While I had some issues with this one, overall I loved all the characters and being back in the world.

My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Popsugar Challenge Advanced Prompt – The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list
My Review
Published January 31, 2023

One of my unplanned reads was The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. This book was penciled in for a Popsugar prompt, and when I saw it was the book selected for the Popsugar February group read on Goodreads, I decided to read along and participate in the discussion. There was a planned reading schedule, and I mostly stuck to it, except for when I couldn’t put it down closer to the end. 😉 I thought this one was well-done. I was impressed with how the author set it over one day, and I enjoyed the NY setting since I was just there in December. I also watched the film adaptation and enjoyed it, as well!

My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Popsugar Challenge Advanced Prompt – A book that takes place entirely in one day

I was hoping to read this time loop book set entirely on Valentine’s Day over February 14th, but I was late to pick up The Do-Over by Lynn Painter thanks to the beastly Chain of Thorns. This one was cute, like a mash-up of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Groundhog Day. This was the signed book that arrived in my last Book Hookup box!

My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Popsugar Challenge Advanced Prompt – A book about a holiday that’s not Christmas

Also included in that last Book Hookup box was an ARC of The Love Match. This one was nowhere on my radar, but I adored it! I can’t recommend it enough. Charming, diverse, this debut was almost perfect!

My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Popsugar Challenge Advanced Prompt – A book that features two languages
Review to come
Published on January 3, 2023

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts is a book that has appeared on several of my TBRs recently, so much so that I didn’t include it on February’s. It was starting to feel like if I placed it on a TBR, I wouldn’t get to it. 😆 I finally did, and overall I enjoyed it. It’s well-written, with a lovely setting, but the characters were often infuriating. I still need to watch the adaptation with Harry Styles.

My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Popsugar Challenge Prompt – A book about a forbidden romance

Another book that appeared on several of my TBRs is Greywaren, the final book in the Dreamer Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater. It’s also the final book she has planned in The Raven Cycle universe. I didn’t love this one as much as I’d hoped. It’s still well-written, but felt rushed. Much like Chain of Thorns, it felt like the author just wanted to be done, which made me sad.

My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Popsugar Challenge Prompt – A book with mythical creatures

February Book Haul

I added a few new books to my physical and digital shelves this month, including a few vintage books, a preorder, and one very anticipated romance!

My eARC

I was very surprised when I was approved for an ARC of Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood! Especially when I’d just been rejected for my most anticipated book of the year by a lesser known author. There really is no rhyme or reason to ARCs. 🤷‍♀️

Synopsis:

Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain.

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

Expected June 13, 2023

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Preorder Purchase

My preorder copy of Chain of Thorns from Target was a little late to arrive thanks to some icy weather here, but it finally showed up in all its (cover) glory.

New-to-Me Used Books

• If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin – This is a paperbackswap request that became available from my wishlist.
• The Anything Box by Zenna Henderson – This vintage copy, which is also a paperbackswap wishlist request, has the red page edges, which is always cool!
• The Goonies by James Kahn – I’ve been keeping an eye out for this hard to find vintage novelization of The Goonies film that usually costs more than I want to spend, and I was happy to find it online for a great price!

Free Books

I picked up two ebooks for free this month: Kiss and Tell (Creekville Kisses, #3) by Melanie Jacobson and Elements of Chemistry (Hypothesis, #1-3) by Penny Reid, both of which appeared on my recent TTT post: Are These Free Romances Worth My Time?

Amazon First Reads

My Amazon First Reads choice for the month was Good for You by Camille Pagán, a romance about Aly who retreats to the beach house her recently passed brother left her, only to discover his best friend is already there. This one has some glowing reviews!

Published on March 1, 2023

How was your reading month? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!