So Overwhelmed (February Book Wrap-Up)

READING
Finished This Month

• The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

This was a book I won in a giveaway back in September/October, and it arrived around my birthday. Earlier this year I was in the mood for some fairy tale-like stories, so I went ahead and started reading this. The book contains six short stories of varying lengths and topics. Of the six, I only predicted the ending of one. The rest were at once familiar and totally unique. I think the thing I loved most about this book was the beauty of the simple language within. It's written for a low reading level despite the subjects within being for older readers, but because of the WAY it's written it just flows so smoothly and the message comes across so beautifully. This is the first Leigh Bardugo book I've ever read, but it won't be the last, for sure. If this is any indication I can see why the rest of her works are so popular.

Did Not Finish

• Cold Hard Truth by Anne Greenwood Brown

This was the first ARC I began reading from NetGalley (more info on that and how I got involved in it soon), and the reason I requested the book was because it seemed like a cute romance I could power through during the month of February. (Gotta be thematic, you know.) However "cute" quickly became cliché and uncomfortable as I began to realize that the main guy in the book had only one thing in mind when he began pursuing the main girl in the book - and she just LET him do it, even though she knew better. (We all know what that "one thing" was.) I won't post my full thoughts on it here; if you're interested you can read my review of it on Goodreads. Suffice it to say this left a really bad taste in my mouth and I am disappointed that it is being published at all.

Currently Reading

• To the Castle by Dorothea Malm
• What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
• Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter
• The Comic Book Story of Baseball by Alex Irvine (ARC)
• Crimson Ash by Haley Sulich (ARC)

WRITING
Last month I submitted a pitch for my work-in-progress/NaNoWriMo 2017 novel Follow the Raven to the annual Pitchaplooza event hosted by NaNoWriMo and the Book Doctors. I won't hear anything until March 15 at the soonest, and only at that point will I provide more info about what it is and how it works. I just felt strongly that I should participate in the "Now What" months this year if I really wanted to get the ball rolling on a publishing contract, and this is one of the things that could potentially help with that. If nothing else I'll have taken a bold step forward, and I'll be working on this novel more as the year progresses.

Over on Wattpad I really slowed down in February; I only posted one new chapter in the entire month. That's mostly due to the fact that I hit the halfway point in the story and writer's block at the same time, so I needed to work that out before I could continue onward. I think I've mostly gotten around the detour at this point; there should be more chapters coming out in the next few weeks.

February End Stats:
652 reads
66 votes
23 comments


I'm reading so many books at once right now (and have so many more on the horizon), I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by the numbers. But as long as I keep my eye on the prize and formulate some sort of reading plan to get me through April at the very least, I think I'll emerge victorious and mostly unscathed. I know the year has started out slow in terms of blog posts, but there are more fun things coming your way soon! Keep an eye out, and I'll see you next time!