February Wrap Up

Read:
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski
Pop Goes the Weasel by M.J. Arlidge
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
The One by John Marrs
Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre
Into the Black Nowhere by Meg Gardiner
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Stats:
9 books
2,659 pages

Nine book?! I feel like I crushed it this month! I know there are tons of bloggers and bookstagrammers out there that eat nine books for breakfast, but this girl is feeling super accomplished! Special shout out to those books under 300 pages for making me look better in February!

I started off my month making up for missing my Agatha Christie read from January. As I’ve mentioned before, one of my goals for 2018 is to read one Christie a month. This month I read two, FIVE LITTLE PIGS and AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, both of which I had never read before. FIVE LITTLE PIGS was a fun look back at a closed case being reopened by the convicted murderer’s daughter. I loved Agatha’s writing style on this one, where the reader got to sit in on each of the five suspects being interviewed and then read a document submitted by them of their first hand account of events. AND THEN THERE WERE NONE was another fantastic Christie novel (are there any other kind?!). I have heard about this/seen this one everywhere for years and just never picked it up. Shame. This is officially my absolute favorite book of hers!

February was all about taking time to read some of my poor unread books on my shelves versus focusing too much on upcoming releases or new books. I placed a rather large Book Depository order around the holidays in a straight Treat Yo Self moment and snagged SIX STORIES. This amazing book is written as a podcast. I was instantly captivated by the story and the characters. It’s equal coming-of-age story and mystery. Thankfully, I predicted I would be obsessed and ordered the next in the series, HYDRA, in that same order. THE ONE by John Marrs was another novel I found myself pining after that was in my BD order. This novel was recently released in the US (2/20), but it had been getting some major love in the UK and by ARC reviewers, so I naturally tossed it in my cart. THE ONE is about five individuals and there experience with a revolutionary service in the future that connects people to their soul mate through a DNA matching service.

I picked up two reads, BURY YOUR DEAD and INTO THE BLACK NOWHERE, for book club picks this month. BURY YOUR DEAD is the sixth installment of the Louise Penny, Inspector Gamache series. I was thrilled that it picked up quickly after the cliffhanger that book five left me with. INTO THE BLACK NOWHERE is the second book in the UNSUB series. Last year I would easily rank UNSUB as my favorite read and the follow up did not disappoint! Meg Gardiner and this series are pure brilliance!

Speaking of fabulous series reads, POP GOES THE WEASEL was one of my favorites for February! This is the second book in M.J. Arlidge’s Detective Helen Grace series and what a whirlwind of suspense and thrills! I didn’t think it was possible at times to sit any further on the edge of my seat without falling off! The thrills, twists, and turns kept coming in February with BLOOD WEDDING. If you love an unreliable narrator and a confusing thrill ride, this one is for you! I’ve heard wonderful things about Lemaitre’s Camille Verhoeven series, which has been added on to my never-ending TBR! Along the line of confusing…let’s end this wrap up with A CLOCKWORK ORANGE! The slang that Burgess created in this novella through me for a complete loop and distracted me a bit in the beginning. At about a third of the way through I really hit my stride and couldn’t stop reading. This novel was short, but packed a thought-provoking punch!

What did you read in February? Have you read any of these titles? Let’s chat!

Here’s to March! Happy reading!