Hello!

Another month has flown by and I’m desperately trying not to have a crisis about how fast the year is going and how ‘little’ I feel like I’ve achieved in that time, but I have read a few more books so it’s time for another monthly wrap up!

Five On A Treasure Island – Enid Blyton (paperback)

I started off the month by reading a book from my January tbr but it was kind of part of my book club so I really needed to prioritise it. Having just finished reading ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ by Robin Stevens, a middle grade murder mystery, I was way more open minded about reading a children’s book and I did enjoy this! The way I’ve been describing it is that I thought the writing was good, I liked the characters and I enjoyed it as much as an adult can enjoy a children’s book that they don’t have any nostalgic attachment too – it was nice, I’m not put off reading the whole series, but it’s not my favourite thing I’ve ever read. A nice 3 star read!

Bride – Ali Hazelwood (paperback + audiobook)

I was so excited when I found a physical copy of this book two days before it was officially released! I really enjoyed it and I loved the signature Ali Hazelwood style and the only reason I needed the audiobook support for this physical read is cos I’ve been quite burnt out this month so every time I tried to read before bed, I managed approximately 8 pages and I didn’t want to spend the next month on this book, so as the book was on Spotify I made the most of the 15 hours of listening I get with my premium subscription and having the audiobook meant I could make it through about 50 pages and it really enhanced the experience for me.

The story was really fun, it may have reignited a paranormal era I haven’t been in since my Twilight phase aged 14. There were moments where Misery felt a bit immature and the ‘enemies’ aspect of the enemies to lovers felt a bit forced cos there was lots of really romantic moments and then Misery would go ‘but he must despise me because I’m a Vampyre and he’s a Were and Weres hate Vampyres’ and I was like dude, he literally just told you how pretty you are stop being dumb. Otherwise it would have been 5 stars, but I did have a really good time!

The Cheat Sheet – Sarah Adams (paperback + audiobook)

I knew I should have DNF-ed this book from Page 4. I wish I was exaggerating but I was actually vlogging it at the time. The narrative style was so immature, it was dual perspective and they both had narrative styles that made them sound approximately 13, but they were meant to be about 23? They were already in love with each other from Page 1, on Page 18 the male main character talked about how ‘he just wanted to close the gap and kiss her’ and I seriously wondered what the next 300 pages were about.

Nothing. They were about nothing.

Spoilers ahead!

The whole premise is that they have to pretend to date for 3 weeks leading up to the superbowl, except that timeline gets forgotten somewhere along the line and by the end of the ‘3 weeks’ the male main character surprises the female main character with a wedding and they get married. It was super unrealistic anyway and then that happened. I honestly think 2 stars was a generous rating.

Five Go Adventuring Again – Enid Blyton (paperback + audiobook)

To be honest, I was still super burnt out when I started reading this book and I was already fretting about how I was going to listen to another audiobook on Spotify when I only had 8 hours of listening left, but The Famous Five books are anywhere from 3-5 hours so I could quite easily have the audiobook support whilst I read the paperback and it made my low-energy-burnout-brain read more than 4 pages at a time! And because it was a book written in the 1940s, the audiobook narrator was a very prim and proper voice actress and it was quite wholesome to listen to.

The second book in the Famous Five series maintained it’s 3 star standard – there were parts of this that I didn’t enjoy as much as the first one, but generally it was fine, I like the writing and the mystery/adventure elements were still quite fun!

Revolution – Jennifer Donnelly (paperback + audiobook)

So I didn’t quite finish this one in February, so I will be doing a full review of this book in my March wrap up but I wanted to include it here because it was my February book club pick and it’s the first month since I started my little solo book club in January 2023 that I haven’t managed to finish the book within the month (and I’m kind of annoyed about it tbh) but I tried my best!

It’s a book that is definitely enhanced by reading with the audiobook – the historical elements of the book are told from the perspective of an 18th century French girl during the Revolution (title drop!) and hearing that read in an authentic French accent is so much more immersive than the British voice I’d be reading in my own head! Thoroughly recommend the audiobook and/or co-reading, it’s fast becoming my favourite way to read.

I’m really enjoying it so far – the narrative style is really lovely to read, the dual timeline is really well done and I’m hyped to find out how it all ends. I’ve got just short of 30% left to read as of writing and I’m excited about it.

So four books in total for the month! I filmed my TikTok and YouTube wrap ups before the month officially ended so I optimistically said I had read five books in the hope I’d finish Revolution, but here on the blog you get the inside scope on what I really managed to read in February!

As always, let me know if you’ve read any of these books and your thoughts, or what you’re currently reading!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx