Sharing a mini TBR last month was a lot of fun, and I can happily tell you that I have completed it! Admittedly, I did wind up reading Blood and Honey in December after writing the January post. But, I still read the book, so I’m totally counting it. One of the books was also a DNF, which was a shame, but I’m not mad about it. There are too many good books out there to force myself to finish one I’m not enjoying. I also didn’t quite complete the very large pile my mini TBR was chosen from. It was so close though! I only have like two books left on it, but I threw in some ARCs and some library books and it all adds up to extra reading.
But I completed my mini TBR, and I want to celebrate that!
And by celebrate, I mean, let me share my mini TBR for February.
What? Don’t pretend you didn’t know what the celebration was going to be. This time I’m going to list the ARCs I plan on reading this month as well. There’s always a chance I’ll pick a few more of these up, but I have banned myself from requesting on NetGalley for a bit, so, hopefully not XD.
Book Club Books
Once again, I only have one book club read for the month. There will eventually be a few others in later months, I promise. I just have enough to read as it is right now.
Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong
All the books in this series will be re-reads for me so I’ll start with that. This is the third book in the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. It’s urban fantasy with paranormal romance elements. Where the first two books followed the only female werewolf, Elena, the third instalment follows Paige Winterbourne, a witch who first appeared in the second book.
Paige might be a witch, but most of the time she seems like a normal 23-year-old woman, worrying about work, life and now her adopted daughter, Savannah. But Savannah is being stalked by a telekinetic half-demon, a sorcerers’ cabal, oh, and she wants to try to bring her mother back to life. If this wasn’t all bad enough, Paige’s neighbours find out what she is, and all hell breaks loose.
I remember that I preferred this book a lot compared to the first two, I adore Paige as a character, and she’s my second favourite. I’m so eager to dive back into this one. We now have a discord channel if you’re interested in joining us, and we have separate channels to talk about each of the books so you’ll have plenty of chances to catch up with us and still chat!
Amazon UK | Waterstones | Bookshop Org
ARCS
I have so many ARCs to read at the moment. I’m listing two that I want to read for certain this month as they’re in my next pile. But, I may wind up reading more. These are two very different books so let’s get into them!
Magic Mutant Nightmare Girl by Erin Grammar (Out 10th March)
Ohhhh, I’m so excited for this book! I saw this book on Amazon and had been planning on buying it at some point. Then I saw the author on Twitter offering bloggers the chance for e-arcs and I jumped at the chance. I can’t believe I haven’t read this yet, it’s right up my alley with all the fashion, queer and magical girl elements. It’s also supposed to be pretty dark and angsty and I’m bouncing in my seat as I write this.
Holly Roads distracts herself from the world with gorgeous, brightly coloured Harajuku fashion. She has a lot of issues but her bright clothes both make her feel beautiful and keep others away. Until one night she winds up running into a group of evil mutants only to wake up the next morning with powers of her own. She winds up using this strength to fight monsters with a hot new partner and his scientist family and everything is totally flipped upside down.
This book! This book! My magical girl and Japanese fashion-loving heart needs this book and now I want to go read this right now… I won’t though.
The Sister Surprise by Abigail Mann (out in e-book 25th March and physical 24th June)
I’ll be honest, not a book I’d heard of or sought out. I received an email about downloading this book to review on NetGalley and when I checked it out, it looked fun, so I decided to check it out. I’ve not got much chick-lit to read next month so this is going to be a much-needed addition. It looks fun but like it could be pretty emotional and I’m looking forward to it.
This book follows Ava, a journalist who on a live-stream took a DNA test and found out she actually had a half-sister. This was like nothing she’d expected but her boss thinks this is the perfect click-bait story. Ava just wants to go to the Scottish village her sister, Moira, lives in and meet her. But her boss decides to send her as an undercover farmhand. But the longer she’s there, the more she becomes to realise that Moira might not be that excited by the news and that the attractive minister she’s becoming close to, might also have ties to her family’s hidden past.
I’ll be honest, this book may be a little more dramatic than I’d usually pick up but that’s far from a bad thing. I’m interested to see if maybe I prefer that now I’m getting a little bit older. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Abigail Mann’s first book so I’m hoping that this book will be a good one!
Amazon UK (e-book /physical) | Waterstones | Bookshop Org
My Owned TBR
Finally, we’re onto the books I’ve pulled from my TBR jar. We’ve got three different genres this time, so, that’s always fun.
Crown Chasers by Rebecca Coffindaffer
This was a book I pre-ordered last year and…I’ve had for a little while now. It just wasn’t coming out of my jar until now, ha! This is the last book on my current pile so when I get to it, it’ll be some kind of success and should hopefully be pretty early in the month.
A sci-fi with some very fantasy sounding elements, this book follows Alyssa Farshot, a princess who has been outrunning her family legacy. She just wants to explore the world. But as her Uncle is dying, he announces it’s time for a Crown Chase. A race to find a hidden royal seal that’ll choose who next takes the throne. Alyssa is thrown into her greatest adventure next. This book is the first in a duology so I’m expecting it to be pretty fast-paced.
This book is supposed to be incredibly queer and I think you guys are starting to realise how much I adore queer sci-fi and fantasy. Like, I’m ready for this book, right now. I’m not sure what the rep is exactly. I’ve just been trawling reviews and I’ve seen there’s pan rep as well as WLW and MLM rep, with one of those presumably being the pan character.
I’ll be honest, with it taking so long for me to get to it, I had forgotten a little about this book. I’m still excited to read it, but I can’t really remember why I was hyped enough to pre-order it. I feel like I will still love it. I just can’t really say why.
Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson
A YA thriller for an easy TBR addition right here. I read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder back in…2019. Ooof. I really should’ve read this sequel sooner. I don’t really want to go into much detail as it is a sequel.
The first book followed Pip as she did a school project trying to solve the murder of a girl from her town. It was believed it was the boyfriend who committed suicide that killed her but Pip thinks otherwise. It was a mixed media book, and though it was hard to read – warnings for rape, drugs, self-harm, alcohol and animal death – it was super easy to get through and I mostly enjoyed it. You can tell by the fact I didn’t DNF after the animal death.
The second book starts off with Pip having run a podcast about the case from the first book but she claims she’s not an investigator anymore. But when a boy goes missing, Pip decides to put her skills to good use again and investigate.
I’m slightly concerned about reading this book now, it has been a while since I read the first book. So, I hope I’ll still be able to get into it. If I can, it really shouldn’t take me too long.
Amazon UK | Waterstones | Bookshop Org
A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy
This book was a gift for my birthday from the very lovely Lewis from LewisLikesBooks on Twitter! Go over there and give him a follow as he’s a total sweetie. This is one I’ve been wanting to read for a little while. It’s a North African inspired fantasy novel with dark magic and rival sisters. It sounds a lot of fun.
Eva is a Princess with magick of blood and marrow, magick that hasn’t been seen since a Queen many years before who killed many including her own sister. This started the tradition of rival heirs. Eva is expected to kill her sister if she wants to take the throne. But weeks before the battle with her sister, someone tries to assassinate her then she has to accept others might want to kill her too.
I’m thinking this will be pretty dark and the sequel comes out in March. So this is the perfect time for me to pick this book up. I’m hoping I’ll absolutely love it. Once again, I don’t really remember a huge amount about it. But I’m still very excited about this. I do love a good fantasy. I just kind of hope things don’t end badly for the sisters but we’ll see!
What books are you guys planning on reading next month? Let me know down below!
Lace and Dagger Books 