Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2023

It’s March now, and spring is imminent, but it also means that February is over. So I’m gonna go over February’s statistics on The StoryGraph!

I didn’t read nearly as many books as I’d hoped, but I also didn’t read any less than I did in January, so I’m going to count that as a win.

Also, post #100 let’s gooo!!

So, uh anyway, now, on to the stats…

February 2023 Reading Stats

😐 Moods: Lots of moods in the books in February, Adventure of course being the biggest one, as per usual. My other moods were Mysterious, Emotional, and Dark, which also checks as every one of those except Emotional usually appears on my little pie chart.

👢 Pace: Most of the books I read are medium-paced, and that still shows here, but there dud read a book that I felt was fast-paced this month.

🔢 Page Number: I read a lot of longer books than I usually do in February, as 3/4 of them were 500+ page books. My preferred length of books is between 300 and 499 pages, and you can still see that a little bit here.

📖 Fiction/Nonfiction: 100% fiction once again. I swear I have a couple of nonfiction books on my TBR. I swear.

🎭 Genres: I upped the genres I read from last month. All of the books I read were Fantasy, which is my favorite genre so it’s absolutely no surprise. Most of them were also YA, which also isn’t a surprise as most fantasy that I read tends to be YA. Oh and Science Fiction! Hi there, second favorite genre! I read a lot less Romance than I expected to, even though all of the books I read technically featured it, to some degree.

📄 Format: All of the books I read last month were paperbacks.

Rating: My average rating for the month of February was 4.0 stars exactly. Not surprising – I gave all of the novels I read 4 stars, lol.

📉 Pages Read Daily: Once again, I was kind of all all over the place with the amount I read. I read more pages closer to the beginning of February, which makes sense, as I was able to read about three books in the first half of the month.

The Books I Read in February

Cress by Marissa Meyer
Cress by Marissa Meyer
Winter by Marissa Meyer
Winter by Marissa Meyer
The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So I didn’t read and review as many books in February that I’d wanted, but hey, I got sick in the last week and a half, and when I’m really not feeling well I just don’t want to read. But I finally finished A Conjuring of Light, and I finally finally finished Cress, which I’m really happy about.

What books did you read in February? What did you think of them? Did we read any of the same books?

Thank you, as always, for reading, and have a marvelous day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 2/6 – 2/12

Weekly Wrap-Up 2/6 - 2/12

It’s Monday again, so, as the start of a new week, it’s time to go over that last one. A weekly wrap-up, you could say.

Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Tuesday 2/7: Cress Review

Last Tuesday, I finally finished Cress!! And I did a review for it. I was so proud of myself – this is something that I’ve been trying to do for literally years. And I finally did it!

If you’re interested and you missed it, you can read my review for it here.

Wednesday 2/8: WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday
WWW Wednesday

On Wednesday, I had intended to do both a Shelf Control and a WWW Wednesday, but because of life, I was only able to do the latter.

WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. If you wanna know what the 3 Ws are and what I’ve been reading lately, you can read my post here.

Saturday 2/11: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Review

Saturday I did another retrospective book review. This one was on a book that I really enjoyed when I first read it. It was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

You can check out my full review here, if you missed it.

Sunday 2/12: Winter Review

On Sunday (yesterday), I actually finished The Lunar Chronicles. I finished up Winter and then proceeded to write up and post a review for it. A fantastic ending to a great series.

If you’re interested in my opinion of the finale to The Lunar Chronicles, you can read it here.

Goals for This Week: 2/13 – 2/19

Unfortunately, last week I didn’t post as much as I wanted. I had intended to do a Shelf Control (as I mentioned briefly above), but I had wanted to post at least one other time. But, you know, sometimes life just happens.

So this week, my goals are:

  • Shelf Control
  • WWW Wednesday
  • First Lines Friday
  • a few book reviews
  • … maaayybe a Majestic Monday

Annnd that’s all for this Weekly Wrap-Up! As I said, I did a lot, and read some books. Had a lot of fun doing it too.

Thanks so much for reading, and have an excellent day/night!

See ya ~Mar

WWW Wednesday #4

I’ve really made a habit of this, haven’t I? It’s a good thing, I hope. WWW Wednesday post number four, here we go!

WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!

The 3 Ws of WWW Wednesday are…

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?


The Thing(s) I’m Currently Reading:

Winter (WWW Wednesday)

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

Current Status: 60% complete!

Current Feels: 😀 (excited)

The #1 New York Times Bestselling Series

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend–the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer’s national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series.

A Conjuring of Light

A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) by V.E. Schwab

Current Status: 44% complete

Current Feels: 🫤 (so-so, apathetic, burned-out) (Taking a break – I will finish this though!)

Witness the fate of beloved heroes – and enemies.

THE BALANCE OF POWER HAS FINALLY TIPPED…

The precarious equilibrium among four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire, leaving a space for another London to rise.

WHO WILL CRUMBLE?
Kell – once assumed to be the last surviving Antari – begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. And in the wake of tragedy, can Arnes survive?

WHO WILL RISE?
Lila Bard, once a commonplace – but never common – thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible.

WHO WILL TAKE CONTROL?
And an ancient enemy returns to claim a crown while a fallen hero tries to save a world in decay.


The Thing I (Most) Recently Finished Reading:

Cress

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer

Star Rating: ★★★★☆ • 4 / 5

Read My Review

The #1 New York Times Bestselling Series

In this third book in Marissa Meyer’s bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and prevent her army from invading Earth.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she’s just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she’d ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.


The Thing I Most Want to Read Next:

The Ballad of Never After

The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart #2) by Stephanie Garber

Now that she’s discovered her own magic, Evangeline believes she can use it to restore the chance at happily ever after that Jacks stole away.

But when a new terrifying curse is revealed, Evangeline finds herself entering into a tenuous partnership with the Prince of Hearts again. Only this time, the rules have changed. Jacks isn’t the only force Evangeline needs to be wary of. In fact, he might be the only one she can trust, despite her desire to despise him.

Instead of a love spell wreaking havoc on Evangeline’s life, a murderous spell has been cast. To break it, Evangeline and Jacks will have to do battle with old friends, new foes, and a magic that plays with heads and hearts. Evangeline has always trusted her heart, but this time she’s not sure she can…


What books have you been reading recently? How’ve you been liking your reads? Any correlation between our lists?

Thank you for reading, and have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar


LINKS: Goodreads | Instagram

“Cress” by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

“Maybe great, epic romances don’t just happen. We have to make them ourselves.”

Rapunzel and the Satellite | Cress by Marissa Meyer [Book Review]

★★★★☆ • 4 / 5 stars

The #1 New York Times Bestselling Series

In this third book in Marissa Meyer’s bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and prevent her army from invading Earth.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she’s just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she’d ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

NOTE: I’ve reviewed the first two books in The Lunar Chronicles. You can read them both here:

Cinder Review | Scarlet Review

The Summary Checks Out

Now that’s a good summary. Does what it’s supposed to. Doesn’t falsely describe the book in any way. It’s a very accurate depiction of what lies in store in the novel. (Unlike some books. Ugh.)

Cress is a 2014 novel written by Marissa Meyer, and is the third book in The Lunar Chronicles. (It’s also published by Feiwel & Friends, and is 552 pages.) This time, it formally introduces sci-fi Rapunzel as a major character, but also continues with the overarching story introduced in Cinder.

The Characters are Once Again the Stars of the Show

“Captain?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think it was destiny that brought us together?”

He squinted and, after a thoughtful moment, shook his head. “No. I’m pretty sure it was Cinder.”

Meyer has a knack for writing likable and interesting characters, and that continues with this book. Funnily enough, all of the major characters in the novel had already been introduced to us in Cinder and Scarlet. Even this novel’s titular protagonist – Cress.

Cress is a character that I was initially not very fond of. She was mildly interesting, but I just didn’t care for her personality at first. She was just too… innocent, I guess. And innocent-type characters tend to hit or miss for me. But she grows and evolves a lot throughout the book, and I really ended up liking the Cress in the last third of the book.

Thorne was introduced in Scarlet, and was also a key character there. We didn’t really know that much about him until this book though, and his character and personality really shine through even more here. He also has a decent amount of character development, which was nice to see.

“Come on, Iko.”

Iko was still hiding, hugging herself self-consciously. “Is he looking?”

Kai raised an eyebrow.

“He’s not looking,” said Cinder.

A hesitation. “Are you sure?”

Cinder gestured exasperatedly at Kai. “You’re not looking.”

He cast his eyes to the ceiling. “Oh, for all the stars.” Crossing his arms, he turned his back on them.

Cinder and Kai were doing their things, which were very similar things, but were doing them thousands of miles apart from one another. (Until they weren’t.) They both had things about themselves and each other that they had to grapple with, but I was pleased with the results.

Iko was a joy to read about as always, but that goes without saying.

Despite being our hot couple from the last book, Wolf and Scarlet really didn’t do much in Cress. Especially Scarlet. She has very few POVs compared to everyone else here, and she doesn’t really do a lot, or appear that often, after the first third of the book.

The Plot was Fun (…Once It Got Going)

“If you honestly believe that,” said Thorne, stowing the gun again, “then you really don’t recognize true value when you see it.”

This book had a much slower start compared to its predecessors. And that made it more difficult to get into. It wasn’t until over a quarter of the way through that things really started happening.

As with the first two, there’s a lot of references to story beats from the original fairytale: Cress escaping from her “tower,” Thorne going blind, Thorne’s name being a reference to how the prince is actually blinded in Rapunzel, wandering through a desert. There’s a lot. And I knew a bunch of it going in, so I was very excited to see it all play out.

I really like how we’re kind of going around the globe in this series. It makes the setting and Meyer’s world building even better to behold. We haven’t seen hardly anything of Luna (Earth’s terraformed moon) yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing more of it in Winter.

Final Thoughts

It always came back to love. More than freedom, more than acceptance—love. True love, like they sang about in the second era. The kind that filled up a person’s soul. The kind that lent itself to dramatic gestures and sacrifices. The kind that was irresistible and all-encompassing.

Cress was something I started reading quite a while ago, after reading it’s two prequels, and even though I’ve had a bit of a tumultuous reading experience with it, I’ve always been determined to finish it. And I’m very happy that I did. It was a fantastic read overall, and I highly recommend fans of the series to continue on with book three.

The Lunar Chronicles is such a fun and interesting series as a whole, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends when I read Winter. And I’ll also maybe read Fairest and Stars Above eventually too sometime. I don’t know yet, though.

Anyway, thanks so much for reading, and have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar


LINKS: Goodreads | Instagram

WWW Wednesday #3

No Shelf Control from me this week, unfortunately, but I’m beginning to run out of books on my bookshelf/Kindle that have been languishing. (Which is probably a good thing.) (No it isn’t.) Anyway, I’m still up for WWW Wednesday, do let’s get started! I’ve really enjoyed it since I started participating in it a couple weeks ago.

WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!

The 3 Ws of WWW Wednesday are…

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?


What I’m Currently Reading:

Cress - WWW Wednesday

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Series: The Lunar Chronicles (Book #3)

Length: 552 pages

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, YA, Fiction

Release Date: February 4, 2014

Book Description:

The #1 New York Times Bestselling Series

In this third book in Marissa Meyer’s bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and prevent her army from invading Earth.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she’s just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she’d ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.


What I Recently Finished Reading:

What Moves the Dead - WWW Wednesday

What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher

Length: 165 pages

Genres: Horror, LGBTQIA+, Fiction

Release Date: July 12, 2022

Book Description:

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.


What I Might Read Next:

Winter - WWW Wednesday

Winter by Marissa Meyer

Series: The Lunar Chronicles (Book #4)

Length: 827 pages

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, YA, Fiction

Release Date: November 10, 2015

Book Description:

The #1 New York Times Bestselling Series

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend–the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer’s national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series.


What are your 3 Ws for this week? How’ve you been enjoying them lately? Have you read any of the books above? What did you think of them, if you have?

Thanks for reading! Tune in next post for more bookish things! (This time, specifically a review of What Moves the Dead.)

See ya ~Mar


LINKS: Goodreads | Instagram

My DNF Books of 2022

So, this year, I was fortunate enough to read a lot of books. Unfortunately, I didn’t like – or, at the very least, couldn’t get into – a few of them enough to finish them. Yes, this is that list. So, here I go.

Note: Though this list is numbered, it isn’t ranked by my enjoyment of the novels. It’s ranked by the order that I attempted to read the books in.

  1. Witchmark (The Kingston Cycle #1) by C.L. Polk: This one is cheating a bit since I technically tried to read it at the very end of last year. I didn’t not like the book – not at all! – I was actually pretty interested in it. The problem was I attempted to read it around the winter holidays last year, and I was incredibly busy – much more so than this year even. I’ll probably give this another try eventually.
  2. Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer: I want to finish The Lunar Chronicles. I really, really want to finish The Lunar Chronicles. But both times that I’ve tried to finish Cress it just doesn’t happen; for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to finish reading this book. I will say that both times I’ve made an attempt, something came up, so I’ll probably try again sometime. I really want to finish this series, after all.
  3. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: Everyone loves this book. I wanted to love this book. But it was just too slow-paced for me, I guess.
  4. Children of Ragnarok (Runestone Saga #1) by Cinda Williams Chima: I was very excited for this release, because I love a lot of Chima’s books. But I just couldn’t get into this one, and I found the characters to be kind of bland and not as likable as from her other novels. That and the repetitively used and (presumably) Norse-based words almost gave me a headache. The plot also took a bit too long to start getting off the ground. I mean, a hundred plus pages? Come on…
  5. The House Witch by Delemhach: This book seemed so cozy and fun. It seemed like it has a bit more plot, and it also seemed a bit more faster paced than Legends & Lattes (which if already DNF-ed at this point), so I had some hopes for it. But alas, I just didn’t care enough about this book to get into it. It also felt under-edited there was some dialogue and naming conventions that took me out of the story.