What I Read: February

For most people, not just readers, February isn't the most productive month of the year. The problem with February is that it's just such a short month. You start the month with high hopes and before you know it, you're welcoming in March wondering just where February went. As a reader I always find this month is my least productive reading month but surprisngly I've managed to fly through a ton of books this month.

To start the month I read The Night Country by Melissa Albert. This is the sequel to The Hazel Wood which I read last year. It follows a young girl called Alice who's spent her life running from the omnipresent bad luck that's followed her and her mother Ella for their entire lives. The Night Country picks up where The Hazel Wood leaves off and follows Alice as her and Ella attempt to settle down and have a normal life. Yet when Alice's fellow Stories start being gruesomely murdered and all fingers point at Alice, it's up to her to find out the real culprit without falling down the dark rabbit hole that's threatening to swallow her up. I enjoyed The Night Country more than I did The Hazel Wood but for me it was still missing that little something that made it a rememorable book. It's obvious that Melissa Albert's writing style has matured since she wrote The Hazel Wood but both books had this slightly rushed feeling towards the end. If you liked The Hazel Wood's dark, creepy style then you'll love the darker feel The Night Country has.

Another sequel I read this month was The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson. This is the second book in the Truly Devious Series and by god it was a fantastic book. I found Truly Devious very hard to get into but I literally flew through The Vanishing Stair. Picking up from the end of the first book, this follows Stevie as she returns to Ellington Academy to solve the infamous Ellingham kidnap/murder case as well as the death of her fellow student. I could not put this book down, it was fantastic. Each chapter had a new twist, a new clue, a new revelation that ended on an amazing cliff hanger that's left me anticipating the third and final book in this series. If you haven't already read this series, I recommend you do, you won't regret it.

A book I didn't think I was going to love as I did was The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I rad Circe by her last year and whilst I enjoyed it, I found it very hard to stay focused on. The Song Of Achilles on the other hand I flew through and thoroughly enjoyed. It tells the tragic tale of Achilles from his upbringing as a young boy through his growth into Greece's greatest solider until he's defeat and death during the Battle Of Troy. And it's all told through from the perspective of his sworn companion and lover Patroclus. This book had me hooked from their upbringing as young boys, learning what their love for each other meant to both of their untimely ends during one of Greece's most infamous battles. If you like yourself a bit of Greek Mythology then Madeline Miller's novels will be right up your street. I'm hoping she releases another soon because her writing style is phenomenal.

Onto book four, yes I said book four. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake is a book that's been on my radar for a while but I only brought it last month. After finishing The Song Of Achilles, I wanted something a little dark to continue with and this seemed perfect. I was starting to get a little disheartened that only two books I'd read so far this year were five star books but this opening book in the series has restored my faith. This follows a new generation of queens who are born as triplets but kept apart from each other for sixteen years until it's time to coronate a new queen. And decide who is to take that mantle, the triplets must spend a year planning, scheming and honing their powers so they can successfully kill their two sisters. This book is dark and I love it. It had so many twists, so many schemes and a setting that gave me major Golden Compass vibes. I thought maybe I'd find it easy to work out which sister would come out on top but as the book progresses, I found that I couldn't choose and just wanted each sister to at least finish this first book alive.

Then I finished Tales Of The Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green. I owned this book as a child and loved it but unfortunately lost it so I decided to repurchase and reread it. This is an anthology of sorts that depicts the tales of the might Greek Gods and Heroes of Greek Mythology. It's a little more dramalized than the actual events but it still has the facts that are depicted in every book of Greek Mythology. Sadly I did not enjoy this book as much as I did when I was a kid. I picked it up thinking it would be a quick read over a weekend but it took nearly a week to read because I found it to be very slow and hard to get lost in. I think after reading books such as Circe and The Song Of Achilles, my perspective of what good Greek Mythology retellings has grown and this book fell just short of that. It certainly wasn't as good as I remember it being and for nostalgic reasons, it makes me just that little bit sad.

Book six, I can't believe I'm saying book six but the sixth book I read this month was The Last Of August by Brittany Cavallaro. This is the second installment in the Charlotte Holmes quartet. It picks up exactly after the events of A Study In Charlotte and sees Holmes and Watson travel to Europe, investigating an underground art forgery ring to find Charlotte's missing uncle Leander. It also sees them join forced with August Moriarty; a figure from Holmes past, who's loyalties lie on the fence. I devoured this book like I did the first one but I found this one to be lacking towards the end. It was good, the mystery was good, Holmes and Watson's relationship development was good but the ending lacked something to me. It felt a little rushed and left a couple of unanswered questions in the air but it's set up for book three perfectly and I hope that these unanswered questions I have are answered in the next book.