Hi everybody, and welcome to my February wrap up!
As I mention below, February has been a bit wobbly to me and that’s why I haven’t read all that much (but what I did read was great!) and also why I’m super behind on commenting and posting. I’m trying to catch up, which is why I’m not doing a Top Ten Tuesday or Quote It Wednesday post this week – so I can focus on catching up with all of you and with my own blogging schedule.
In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to in February!
Heartsong (Green Creek #3) by T.J. Klune
Heartsong continues the well-beloved Green Creek story from the POV of Robbie Fontaine. Robbie joined the pack in Wolfsong and he’s always been this loveable goof, but also a little bit of an enigma – we were never quite 100% sure if we could trust him. And let me tell you, this story will bring even more confusion. Bear with it, because the confusion is intentional and quite honestly GENIUS STORYWRITING. This book packs gut punch after gut punch when everything starts sliding into place, and your emotions will go on a roller-coaster ride. Once again, this is a beautiful story of forgiveness, acceptance and belonging and the romance was sweet and heartwrenching. Also, this installment has ace rep and it was so thoughtfully written!
Rating: 5 stars | Read my Green Creek series review here
Brothersong (Green Creek #4) by T.J. Klune
The final installment in this awesome and underrated little series is Brothersong. It is told from the POV of eldest Bennett brother Carter and is the culmination of the overarching storyline of the entire series. Though I have to be honest and say this was probably my least favorite in the entire series, it was still a solid and great read. I think it was for me just an issue of not connecting with Carter as much as I did with Ox, Gordo or Robbie. But beside that little thing, the story once more delivered on every single aspect I love so much about this series: the romance, the found family, the humor and the emotions. I know now already that this will be a series I’ll re-read on a regular basis. It’ll be a comfort read for me and I will also probably not be shutting up about it any time soon!
Rating: 4 stars | Read my Green Creek series review here
Forever Wild (Wild # 2.5) by K.A. Tucker
Honestly, I’m not usually one for novellas and the book I really wanted to listen to was Running Wild, the new full-length novel in the Wild series. But that wasn’t available in audiobook yet, and this novella about Calla and Jonah was free, so I thought why not and just dove into this one. And I was so happy I did, because I loved the return to Alaska and reuniting with Calla and Jonah. This novella brought back all favorite characters and made me want to just re-read everything all over again. I’ll need to be a bit more patient before I can read Marie’s story (at least until the audiobook is available), but I’m very glad I got to enjoy this little interlude in the meantime.
Rating: 4 stars
Top Ten Tuesday
Books I Loved with Character Names In the Titles
12 Romance Books Releasing In 2022 To Put On Your Radar
The 4-Star Curse: Why Do I Hardly Ever Review 4-Star Reads? (& 11 Recent 4-Star Reads That Deserve The Love)
Dynamic Duos: Eight Duologies On My TBR
Can’t Wait Wednesday
So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens {Can’t Wait Wednesday}
Book of Night by Holly Black {Can’t Wait Wednesday}
Quote It Wednesday
I think my February has been pretty diverse in terms of music, EVEN IF half of it was Ed Sheeran *no regrets*.
MY FAVORITE: As It Is – I Miss 2003
My rock/emo/pop punk music tastes have been experiencing a major revival this year so far, and this song perfectly captures the nostalgia for the EMO-highlight that was 2003. Plus, I love all the lyrical nods to all the classics 🙂
Ed Sheeran ft Taylor Swift – The Joker And The Queen
I already loved this song when it was just Ed Sheeran, but now the collab with Taylor Swift is just a whole other level.
Ed Sheeran ft Bring Me The Horizon – Bad Habits
Jung Kook – Stay Alive (Produced by Suga)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 7
I started my Buffy The Vampire Slayer rewatch in March 2021 and I’m ending it in February/March 2022 (only 2 more episodes to go) so it took me a year to do this rewatch but can I just say BEST IDEA EVER. What do I even do now? Do I just start all over? Though I’ve never really LOVED season 7 in itself, I do LOVE this show so much.
February has been a bit wobbly. As you can see, I didn’t read nor watch a whole lot. Part of that is because my health wasn’t 100% (nothing serious, mostly just some headaches and stomachaches) and I spent a lot of evenings just sleeping it off (also the cause for the delays in commenting and such, so sorry about that, I’ll try to catch up quickly!)
I also started work at the office again and honestly, it’s so tiring to get used to again after months of working from home. The time spent commuting feels like forever now and the evenings feel so short. I’m not gonna complain, I realize I’m lucky to be able to do that, but I do want to say that the adjustment is kicking my ass a little bit.
And of course, the situation worldwide is tough and occupying my mind quite a bit.
But let’s try and focus on the positive things:
Things that made me happy this month:
- My husband and I had our 13-year dating anniversary! We celebrated with sushi because we both love it enormously 🙂
- I’m doing a buddy-read with the BFF of House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. I’m a little over halfway and loving it so far.
- My husband and I decided to get a Nintendo Switch. I may have been distracted by it quite a bit so far, mostly with the original (remastered) Spyro trilogy and this fun game called Hollow Knight. I also just caved and got Pokémon Shining Pearl. I have no regrets, but my TBR is looking at my a little angrily…
- The days are getting noticeably longer! We have daylight now until about 18h30 and I am living for it! As much as I like to joke about being a vampire who can’t stand the sun, I am always immensely relieved when the days finally get longer again as the long winter days really work on my mood.
THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:
- The start of spring!
- The release of The War of Two Queens by JLA on March 15th!
- Stray Kids comeback!
How was your February? What did you read? What did you listen to and what did you watch? What are you looking forward to in March?
Yeah when people talk about T.J Klune they don’t tend to mention the Green Greek series. I’ll have to see if I can find the ebooks.
Exactly – I love Cerulean Sea and Whispering Door a lot too, but the Green Creek series may have just won the spot of my favorite TJ Klune books (so far). Hope you’ll love them too if you decide to try them!
Buffy season 7 has its issues but I do love that shot of Buffy smiling at the end!
It’s indeed such a perfect shot to end the series with!
Happy 13th Anniversary! My husband and I celebrated our 15th in February. It looks like you had a great reading month, too. I’m so happy you enjoyed Running Wild. I loved that one. Oh, and that Ed Sheeran/Taylor Swift collab is so good! I liked it before as well, but this took it to another level. Did you know his brother is a composer and did the music for it?
Thanks and congrats to you and your husband too!
Running Wild was so much fun, I kind of want to start all over and re-read The Simple Wild now, ha 🙂
Oh, I didn’t know Ed Sheeran’s brother is a composer! That is so nice though, it must have been fun to be able to work together on this.
Ugh, going back to work after being able to work from home for so long isn’t fun! You forget about all the time you spent doing things like commuting. I’m loving the longer days, too, and am looking forward to better weather.
Exactly! It feels like so much time wasted when we now know it’s perfectly possible to do it from home and gain all that time for other things. But on the bright side, it means (hopefully) the end of COVID 🙂
I’ve been so tired lately, and going to sleep early most nights so yeah, I feel like I’m often behind. Ready for longer days though and more sun because it does make me happy (until it’s summer and TOO hot haha).
Lauren @ http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
I so relate! Hope you’ll feel less tired soon. And yes, so ready for longer days!
I’ve heard good things about Forever Wild. And happy anniversary!! 🙂
It is hard to go back after working at home. I prefer WFH big time!
Thanks! Forever Wild was definitely a fun read 🙂
It’s indeed pretty hard to go back to the office after WFH – I definitely prefer it over the office too!
I’m so sorry to hear you haven’t been feeling well. I hope you’re feeling better now. Happy 13th Dating Anniversary to you and your hubby. I think it’s really sweet that you celebrate when you started dating. 🙂
Thanks, Suzanne! I’m definitely feeling better lately. And haha yes, we figured any reason to celebrate is a good one 😀
Me and my partner have been together 13 years as of the end of February, that’s really close! I’ve been very tempted on a Buffy rewatch lately.
Oh that’s awesome, congrats on your 13-year anniversary too! I’d definitely recommend a Buffy rewatch, I’m already tempted to start all over again myself haha 🙂