February Wrap-Up (2018)

Hey everyone, Victoria here! And today I'm so excited to share with you my wrap-up for the month of February! This month, I completed 4 books, which I am pretty pleased with since February is the shortest month of the year. So, let's just hop right into my thoughts and ratings.



1.) Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️  ⭐️ .5 / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (3.5/5)



This was a really fun and enjoyable read for me! Though it did take me like half of February to read, I really did thoroughly enjoy it! I have a full non-spoiler review up on this blog; you can see my full thoughts on Nice Try, Jane Sinner HERE.



2.) Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (4/5)



I really really adored this book! I had seen a lot of buzz surrounding this book on Booktube as well as Goodreads, and the author actually came to my school and gave a lecture, so I thought I'd give this one a try. At first, the plot didn't really interest me, but I wanted to try it anyway. But boy was I wrong! This read so quickly that I think I read it in 2 or 3 days! I really loved Corey and Kira's relationship and the mysterious aspect surrounding Kira's death. The dynamic of their hometown, Lost, was so eerie and creepy it made me cringe in confusion but also revel in its ambiguity. The only thing that I didn't really like were the flashbacks to when Kira was alive. While I thought they did add details to the story, they weren't really weaved into the story that effectively in my opinion. Overall, this was a really enjoyable read and I am interested to read some of Marieke Nijkamp's other books.



3.) Teeny Little Grief Machines by Linda Oatman High
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ .5 / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (2.5/5)



Ok, so this definitely wasn't the best thing that I've ever read. I picked this one up on a whim since it's written in verse and I was looking for something quick to read. The reviews on Goodreads sounded promising so I had hope for this book. However, it fell short. My feeling on books written in verse is that they either turn out really bad and leave me wanting more or really tell the story well. Clearly, this one didn't work for me. It wasn't that the story was bad, but I felt that all the events were sped up and everything was resolved in the end which didn't make a lot of sense. I did like the mental health aspect/representation mentioned in this book, but I wish these aspects would have been explored more. So, the story was average but the book as a whole just didn't click with me.



4.) Glitter by Aprilynne Pike
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️  ⭐️  / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (3/5)



I have some mixed feelings on this one. Overall, I really liked the concept of this. It is about a girl named Danica who lives at Sonoman-Versailles palace and sells an illegal drug, Glitter, in the fantastical world in the book. I really like France and French history, so I really enjoyed the added French phrases in the writing and the palace setting. However, I didn't really like Danica as the main character and I thought the storyline was drawn out too long. This book was 360 or so pages and I think that it could have been condensed to 250-275 pages. There was a big cliffhanger at the end which sort of annoyed me, but I don't think that I will pick up the next book in this series. This was not a bad book, I really did like many aspects of it but as a whole, it didn't blow me away.


Those are all the books that I read in February! Be sure to check out my TBR for March to see what I'm planning on reading this month and let me know in the comments if you've read any of these books! See you next week with a new review!

-xoxo Victoria