It’s time for a look at my February reading life!

It’s time for another wrap-up/haul post — and we’re bringing back stats and the emoji key!

If you’ve been around here a while, you’ll probably remember that I used to include stats every month and rely on an emoji key in my wrap-ups to give a little more context for each book read. I’ve been missing that element in my wrap-up posts, so I decided to bring them back!

Also, I have to give a big shout-out to Ellyn for encouraging me to bring back stats AND for showing me that you can make pie charts in Canva that are a million times prettier than the ones in Google Sheets. 😂

(In less exciting but equally important-for-this-post news, I’ve ditched sorting books by star rating and have gone back to sorting them by the order I read them in.)

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The month at a glance: books read: 18 average rating: 4.14 best book: Frozen Charlotte worst book: Slip	PAGES READ PER DAY:

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What I read:

(each title link will direct you to my review for more thoughts!)

emoji key:
✨ review copy → 💞 buddy/group read → 🔁 re-read → 🎧 audiobook → 🍰 graphic novel/manga
😻 Devour Your TBR theme
💫 half-star

• Don’t Turn on the Lights // Cassandra Khaw: 🎧 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → We always stan a terrifying retelling of a favorite old urban legend.
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built // Becky Chambers: ✨💞 + ⭐⭐⭐ → I wanted so badly to love my first Becky Chambers experience, but this wasn’t great.
• Eat the Rich #1 // Sarah Gailey: 🍰😻 + ⭐⭐ → Meh. Sarah’s work is so hit-and-miss for me.
• Ten Days in a Mad-House: A Graphic Adaptation // Nellie Bly: ✨🍰 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I’ve never read the original, but really liked this adaptation.
• Slip // Marika McCoola: ✨🍰😻 + ⭐⭐ → BLAH. Blah. So many things that didn’t sit well with me here!

• Organizing for the Rest of Us // Dana K. White: ✨🎧 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐ → VERY solid decluttering motivation/guide, and def my favorite of Dana’s books.
• The Wall of Winnipeg and Me // Mariana Zapata: 💞😻 + ⭐⭐💫 → MZ’s writing is so fun, but I couldn’t get into the couple and was bothered by how a lot of tough topics were handled.
• The Black Flamingo // Dean Atta: 😻 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → This was so lovely and worth every ounce of the hype.
• Reception // Kenzie Jennings: ✨🎧😻 + ⭐⭐⭐💫 → A little slow to start, but very fun and violent in the end!
• Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 3 // James Tynion IV: 🍰 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I love this series so damn much, even though it hurts me every single time.

• Elle(s), Vol. 1 // Kid Toussaint: 🍰😻 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I’m still a little undecided on the plot, but I LOVED the art and the artistic choices made to differentiate between the “Elles”.
• Shades of Magic, Vol. 1: The Steel Prince // V.E. Schwab: 🍰 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I miss Red London and I loved this glimpse into Maxim’s life before he became the King.
• Shades of Magic, Vol. 2: Night of Knives // V.E. Schwab: 🍰 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Shades of Magic, Vol. 3: The Rebel Army // V.E. Schwab: 🍰 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• We Can Never Leave This Place // Eric LaRocca: ✨😻 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I seem to be trash for everything Eric writes, and that’s okay. So dark, so sad, and so odd.

• Nine Moons in a River of Stars: Phase One // Xen: ✨😻 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → Another author I’m always trash for: Xen (AKA Cole McCade) could write just about anything and I’d devour it. This is the perfect intersection of horror and romance.
• Lamella // Max Halper: ✨😻 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 → Do I have any idea what happened? No. Am I mad about it? Also no.
• Frozen Charlotte // Alex Bell: 💞😻 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I did not predict a YA horror about spooky historical dolls being one of my favorite reads of the year so far, but I was so freaking enraptured and creeped out by this book and loved it so much!

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And now, for some of my favorite recent hauls:

• The Love Hypothesis // Ali Hazelwood (purchase; adult contemporary romance)
  
• Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology // Vince A. Liaguno (review copy; adult horror anthology)
• Fat Chance, Charlie Vega // Crystal Maldonaldo (purchase; YA contemporary)
• Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow // Jessica Townsend (purchase; MG fantasy)
• Just Like Magic // Sarah Hogle (review copy; adult contemporary romance)

• Legends & Lattes // Travis Baldree (purchase; adult cozy fantasy)
• John Carpenter’s Night Terrors: SOUR CANDY // Kealan Patrick Burke (purchase; adult horror graphic novel) (READ)
• Our Last Echoes // Kate Alice Marshall (purchase; YA thriller)
• Stinetinglers // R.L. Stine (review copy; MG horror short story collection)
• The Last Sun // K.D. Edwards (purchase; adult fantasy/romance)

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And finally, a little life update:

February was… a month? It flew by and I honestly feel like I don’t even remember much of what happened. I think that’s probably due to the terrible anxiety flare-up I had during the second half of the month, wheeee~ 😅 But hey, I read a good bit, I took a little time off work, my spouse had a week off so we had a lot of extra family gaming time which was awesome, and I played a ton of Fortnite (there’s a sentence pre-2021 me never thought I’d say). I also got back into a solid bookstagram routine, which has been a really fun outlet to return to! So, despite the anxiety and the month going by way too freaking fast, I think February had more ups than downs. ♥

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How was your month? What was your favorite book you read or hauled, or what was something nice that happened in your life?

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— destiny ♥

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