February 19 Wrap-Up// March TBR

Hello, hello, hello, how are we all?

Wow, can you believe it is already March? Not only is it the 3rd month of 2019 already, but it is also technically the start of the spring season, which is crazy. I do actually love the change in seasons and seeing nature start to bloom. I just feel like it has come round so quickly, that’s all!

With a new month though comes another monthly wrap-up on my blog. So, how was February? Well life-wise it was pretty fun, as I went to Sapporo!!!!

My friend moved from the UK to Japan 6/7 years ago and has been living in Sapporo for the last couple of years. Although I went to Tokyo with her in 2017 this was my first time seeing her in her home city, and it was so good!! ❤

In Hokkaido it is wintry for almost half the year, so it was super cool seeing this part of Japan. Speaking of super cool, it was certainly an adjustment with the temperatures! The first day was the coldest at -12 degrees Celcius (10.4 degrees Fahrenheit), but it was so cool to see all the snow around 🙂 Plus there were loads of snow festivals, so I had a blast with my best friend. I’ve failed in the past at getting previous travel posts up on this blog, but I definitely want to get one up for this trip for you guys in March. Pester me if it doesn’t appear in the next couple of weeks, please!

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The rest of the month life-wise was a bit stressful- mainly because I had a lot of work to try and finish on either side of my break! I still have a fair bit to do, but I’m hoping after next week I will have caught up.

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Of course, now that my summary of my personal life is out the way let’s get to the good bits- the books. How was my reading in February? I have to admit I didn’t read half as much as I thought I was going to while on holiday, so it certainly took a bit of a back seat! Let’s just get stuck in: here is what my blog was like in February 2019!

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Books I Read

In my February TBR I wanted to finish This Cruel Design by Emily Suvada, then read Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian, City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty and Big Bones by Laura Dockrill. I only brought my Kindle with me while on holiday so I couldn’t read some of the physical books I own for 10-12 days, but let’s see how I did!

This February I read:

This Cruel Design by Emily Suvada~ Review TBC
I actually finished this after my last flight into Japan, so after the almost 24 hour journey I was a bit delirious. As such I still need to make my thoughts about this a bit more coherent, but I really enjoyed it! Everything was very dramatic, I really liked how the plot was progressing. I couldn’t stop reading despite my tiredness, and I can’t wait until book 3. Review to come! 🙂

 

 

Big Bones by Laura Dockrill~ ★★★☆☆
I love reading books with weight as a key theme- I’m actually making it my mission to read as many as possible! While this did have some great observations on weight and body positivity, I had some issues connecting with the main character BB. The book was slow until the tragedy in the second half, and I started to get more invested from then on. Oh, but there is a bit of ableism that isn’t fully resolved. In all it is a decent read, but I had some issues that prevented me from loving this one.

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I have started to read The Queen’s Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler. I’m liking the old school fantasy vibe, but so far not a lot has happened yet. I’m only 20% in though, so I’ll keep it going and see how this picks up 🙂

 

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I felt like my holiday definitely slowed down my reading progress; as well as not reading much in Japan it also took me a while to get back into the reading once back in the UK. Here’s hoping March is much more productive!

 

February Blog Posts

January 19 Wrap-Up// February TBR

Holiday!!

Anticipated Releases: February 2019!

Review: Spellslinger

February is a short month anyway, but I still feel like I didn’t get to post as much as I wanted to. I tried to schedule some posts while I was away to keep my regular Monday post date, but I did end up missing one Monday. In my defence I arrived back to the UK on a Monday morning and didn’t have anything scheduled that day, but I couldn’t bring myself to get back into the game and write a full post. It’s actually the first time ever I have missed a Monday- I think- so I’m quite proud all the same haha!

On the plus side I did finally make a review post this month (my first since November) of the fabulous Spellslinger, which I am happy about. Hopefully I’ll keep it up and catch up with my entire review backlog!?

Source: giphy.com

March TBR

As March signals a change in the season I tend to feel a lot more inspired to do more with my hobbies, so I’m hoping this is the month of productive reading 🙂 Does anyone else see a book and associate with a certain month? I don’t have that connection with all my books, but I definitely find that I am drawn to certain stories/covers on a particular month.

So for this month I decided to look over my TBR shelf and pick out a couple of titles that feel like March books to me (I don’t even think I can explain what a “March book” feels like, but something just clicks in my head haha! After finishing The Queen’s Poisoner I’m definitely going to read what I fancy this month to try and get my speed up, but as a guideline, this March I want to read:

1. Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian~ This is making another appearance on my TBR this year. I’ve been wanting to read this story for a while, and as I didn’t get round to it in February I felt it should stay on the list all the same.
2. State of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury~ I keep wanting to read this, but when the time comes I’ve never really been in the mood! For some reason the cover makes me think it is a good March/April title, so it’s definitely made its way on to this list. I know book 2 is coming out in March so if I like it I wont have to wait ages for the sequel 🙂
3. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang~ I’ve been wanting to read this for aaages, but I’ve held off simply because I don’t want to finish the story too quickly. Silly reason I know, but I can honestly read this book in under an hour, and as I don’t own many graphic novels I didn’t want to read this too quickly. But it feels appropriate for this month, so I’ve bitten the bullet and added it to this reading list.

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And there we go, February 2019 is all wrapped up! It flew past, but I had a wonderful holiday so I can’t really ask for anything more ❤ I do love a changing season too, so hopefully March is a wonderful breath of fresh air- and a productive one at that!

How was your February? Did you meet any of your goals? What are you planning on reading this March? How do you feel about Spring approaching? Let me know in the comments! ♥