Writing
I am ashamed to report that I did not do any actual work on Follow the Raven this month; instead I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to start the story. Now I have a better idea, so I'm going to reset my 5,000 words goal in March and try again.
My story over on Wattpad has been doing well! I'm super excited about this new direction I'm taking, and I feel like my readers are on board, too. The last couple of chapters I've posted have been mostly creative liberty-based world building. It's been fun to try and take elements from Mobius Prime and incorporate them into Boom Mobius in believable ways. Hopefully it will all make sense and help add more depth to the world. My current stats are 332 reads, 42 votes, and four comments.
Reading
As I said earlier, my TBR Takedown is going really well - I'm only one book behind, and the reason for that is simple. Back in January I said that I was going to allow myself one library book for every five TBR books I read, that way I didn't go too crazy during this process. And that's what I did! (The library thing. Not the crazy thing.) You may remember at the end of my January wrap-up that I mentioned I was about to go on my annual "blind date with a book." This was my third year doing so, and the book I got is first on this list:
- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
- The Cage by Megan Shepherd
- Both of Me by Jonathan Friesen
You may already be able to tell from the list, but my general goal was to get as many of the romance books from my TBR finished this month because, you know. February. Valentine's and all that stuff.
Now...I don't seem to have a good history with blind dates with a book, with the possible exception of After Alice from last year. When I unwrapped this year's book and saw that it was Eleanor and Park, I laughed out loud for a couple of reasons. First being that I had actually started it when I was in high school and then put it back because I didn't like it. Second because I know how insanely popular the book is. I've read two different books by Rainbow Rowell and loved them both, so, with this stupidly optimistic mindset, I entered into the world of Eleanor and Park...and hated it. The two things that bugged me the most were that 1) it had SO much language in it that I felt like I needed to go to church every day for a week solid just to erase the memory of it all and 2) Park said "I love you" WAY too soon, and kept saying it, assuming that Eleanor loved him back even though she made it obvious that she didn't. That's one of those things that really bugs me about YA Romance - one of the things that keeps me from reading it, really. Characters that say "I love you" at all usually just make me roll my eyes, but when they say it either super, super early on or just after they've declared the person they're saying it to as their enemy or BOTH? Just...no. I gave this book one star. The first Rainbow Rowell book I did not like at all.
Wuthering Heights is one of those classic, Austen-era romances that I had never read before despite hearing about it all the time growing up. It was definitely different from an Austen novel, but in a good way. It was dark and dangerous and so messed up, but it made the story really intriguing. There were so many events that, had they gone a different way, would have led to a completely different ending, and it made me wonder "what if" in a really good way by the time I was finished with it. I believe now the only famous Austen-era romance I've not read is Jane Eyre. But I'll get there one day.
After the horror that was Eleanor and Park, Holding Up the Universe was a fantastic breath of fresh air that I honestly debated giving five starts. (I settled with four.) I had planned to read it over the course of six days. I finished it in three. It was so good I couldn't put it down! I connected with the characters in ways I never had before - especially Jack. The story was so beautifully written and the characters were so ALIVE. I feel like it really was more of a coming-of-age than a romance; the romantic bits that were there came after a developing friendship, which I appreciated. I recommend this book to everyone.
I chose The Cage for February because I thought (based on the summary) that it would have more romance in it than it did, but I'm not complaining. It is such a great YA sci-fi; those are hard to find. It made me so angry in all the best ways, but I loved it from beginning to end. This book messed with my perception of what is sane so much; it was told mostly from the perspective of Cora, and as the story went on I began to question whether everyone else was crazy like I thought or whether SHE was. I never knew who to trust, even reading the few chapters that were from the other character's perspectives. *SPOILERS* When Cora finally gave up towards the end...oh, my heart. It hurt me just as much as it did her. And the ending! Oh my word...I have every intention of continuing this series. *END SPOILERS*
In other exciting book-related news, I have officially begun to collect the rest of the Skulduggery Pleasant series! (More info about why buying these books is an exception to the TBR rule here.) I'm so happy about this, oh my goodness. I already own the first book, so it's just a matter of getting my hands on Books 2-9 and pre-ordering Book 10, which is set to release in June. Thankfully Amazon has most of them for a decent price, with even better deals when you venture into the "used" section. The books I've ordered so far are #2-3 (from Barnes and Noble - I have a Membership now, boi!) and #9 (from Amazon - it was THE LAST COPY). Very excited about these purchases! I'll be slowly aquiring the rest of them over the next couple of months. After that all I need to do is finish my TBR and then...Skulduggery Pleasant series readthrough! YES!
That's all I have for this month. See you next time!
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