Hello!

Wow, considering it’s the shortest month of the year, I somehow managed to actually read everything on my monthly TBR for the first time in a year and a half! 6 books on my core TBR, a bonus book because I’m very much enjoying my Maximum Ride reread and then a catch up book club book – 8 books total and I read all of them!

(I’m incredibly proud, can you tell?)

And considering I already know that I’m very good at yapping, I’m going to jump right in or we’ll be here forever!

Onyx Storm – Rebecca Yarros (4.5 ⭐️) The Empyrean Book 3

Finishing my most anticipated release of 2025 feels like so long ago now but that was because I finished it on literally February 1st, but it was everything I expected it to be.

Having reread Fourth Wing and Iron Flame just before Onyx Storm came out, I came to the conclusion that I don’t think the Empyrean series is the most incredibly written series – some of the dialogue feels very out of place considering the vaguely historical time frame, the romance is arguably my least favourite part of the whole thing and I don’t always love Violet as a protagonist but for some reason this world just feels so immersive in my mind – it’s not just that I can picture it so vividly but it’s like I can feel it with my whole chest. Perhaps it’s the same enthusiasm I had for wanting to go to Hogwarts when I was 9, but despite the war and how quickly I’d die as a dragon rider, something about this world makes me want to jump right in.

I’m already really excited to reread the whole thing again when book 4 comes out.

Spiral – Bal Khabra (3 ⭐️)

This is a book I absolutely took a chance on – it’s the second in a series of interconnected standalone hockey romances that I pre-ordered on my Kindle exclusively because the female protagonist was a ballet dancer and my trainee dance teacher heart could not be contained.

I don’t want to say I was let down by this book, but I kind of was – the fact it’s the second book was fine, I gathered very quickly who the main characters of Collide were and had enough ‘clues’ (that weren’t really very subtle) to get the gist of their entire plot, the characters felt quite two dimensional and stereotypical and the ballet representation in the book clearly came from perceived stereotypes and a surface level Google and made me cringe.

The romance was fine, I will admit there was one very hot spicy scene that still lives rent free in my head, but it was another example of one of my least favourite things in romance books when one character is communicating openly and honestly and the other is internalising and being stubborn about what they ‘know’ to be true despite the contrary evidence.

I’m not running to read book 1, let’s put it that way!

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven – Juno Dawson (5 ⭐️)

My sibling chose this month’s book for our book club and whilst they only rated it 1.5 stars, I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

I have no doubt that this is at least in part due to the fantastic narration of Nicola Caughlan, but I loved this story – I love stories of women’s friendships, particularly when they’re such different people but their differences don’t define them. Amongst the fantastic representation there was a magic system that makes me feel silly to describe as ‘realistic’, but so plausible I wouldn’t even be that surprised if it was real, it felt cosy whilst having end of the world high stakes and there was even a variety of romantic elements that made my heart feel squishy.

I finished this before I went on a trip to Hay on Wye (the world’s first book town in Wales) and I managed to find hardback editions of both the prequel novella, Queen B, and the sequel The Shadow Cabinet. Then I found out that the book that completes the trilogy comes out this summer so have no doubt: I’ve already preordered it.

Our Man In Havana – Graham Greene (3 ⭐️)

This was my wedding book club book from January that was wilfully neglected due to dragon priorities and I don’t regret that decision, but I didn’t not enjoy this book either!

It’s dated, for sure, and some of the references and language are absolutely not appropriate, but the story itself was actually relatively light and easy to engage with. I don’t know if I’d have been able to comprehend it as well without the audiobook, but as was being English in the 50s, it was a jaunty little adventure of a man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and seems to bumble his way through.

It’s a book that I can definitely appreciate for it’s craft and it’s wit, but it’s not a book I would ever have reached for myself. My rating represents my acknowledgement that it is a good story and a well written book, but also that it’s just not the kind of thing I tend to enjoy so a middle-ground 3 is perfect.

Deep End – Ali Hazelwood (4.5 ⭐️)

I’m absolutely one of those girls who goes a little bit feral for a new Ali Hazelwood, though I feel like most of us are aware that most of her books are the same story in a different font and there have definitely been some mixed reviews on her most recent releases and their spicy content.

Although the author described Not In Love as more erotica than romance, I would argue that it was more romance than erotica but featured a very modern looking relationship agreement, whilst Deep End was definitely more on the erotica side – the sexual components were much more relevant to the plot and to be honest, I didn’t love it. It felt like every other scene there was smut for the sake of smut and I don’t think it was unnecessary because it served the purpose of illustrating Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship. Honestly, I think it was just a bit boring? It felt repetitive and especially for how often they described themselves as ‘deliquents’ and into weird shit, all the scenes were exactly the same. Personally, I wouldn’t want it to be anything too adventurous but it definitely helped me realise I prefer more romance in my romances.

And the opportunity for them to fuck in a pool was disappointingly missed.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky (5 ⭐️)

This is a book that I read as a teenager but when I got back into reading and was deciding which books to mark as read on my database app, I left a lot of books marked as unread so I would have to read them again, so I got to reread a book I love and work on my physical TBR!

I was mildly worried that this book wouldn’t hit the same as it used to considering I am now a solid decade removed from when I first read it and considerably far enough away from being included in the YA demographic, but this book spoke to my soul. Perhaps I’m pushing my shiny new autism diagnosis onto the narrative, but I swear Charlie is an autistic character who’s suffered childhood trauma and needs serious help to process it.

I love that the entire story is told through letters, I love how Charlie has such a strong narrative voice and I also love that Logan Lerman was the perfect casting because I had such a vivid image of him in my head. The film never impacted me as much as the book, but realising which actors stick in my head as references says a lot about the casting.

I cannot state the enthusiasm with which I’m giving this 5 stars again – I loved it.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith (3 ⭐️)

And finally onto the wedding book club book I was actually meant to be reading in February – the spinner decided I needed to start another new series, but I was actually quite excited to tuck into this one because it’s relatively short.

Upon reading I found it had the narrative style of a children’s book whilst being aimed at an adult audience, but once I’d figured out what mindset I needed to be in, it was a very easy to listen to cosy mystery narrated by Lady Danbury from Bridgerton! It’s a book I’m not too worried about reading the rest of the series and I figured out a system to put the series back on the spinner without committing to reading the whole thing!

There’s still a lot of books in the wedding library I haven’t read but the options are slowly dwindling and I’m finding it incredibly satisfying!

Maximum Ride: School’s Out Forever – James Patterson (5 ⭐️)

And it was at this point in the month I thought it might be really doable to finish my TBR – I had this one reread and one more audiobook and I could feel victory in my clutches! It really helped that this book was a lot of my motivation to finish my TBR anyway.

Rereading Maximum Ride has absolutely been one of the highlights of my reading year – the pure nostalgic joy of reading a series that defined my teenage years; I wrote fanfiction, I dressed up as Max on World Book Day when I was 14, I found a surprisingly good sketch of some of the characters in an old art book when I was sorting through my mum’s storage unit – this series is a core part of my being and rereading it is making my inner child really happy.

Reading book 2 was as fabulous as my experience rereading book 1 and I have enthusiastically added book 3 to my March TBR.

The Luminaries – Susan Dennard (3 ⭐️)

The final book! A nice, reasonably lengthened fantasy book with forest monsters, though I must say that the thrill of finishing my TBR was more emotional than I really felt about the book.

Our protagonist Winnie is only 16 and I’ve not read about such a young character in a very long time, so I’m not sure if I didn’t really vibe with her because she was so young, or just because I thought she was a bit bland as a character – she went from being stoic and emotionless to bursting into tears for practically no reason. The only bit I really reacted to was the ‘twist’ at the end, but even then that was relatively obvious, I think I just convinced myself that it was going to subvert expectations and then it didn’t.

I can’t tell if I’m going to read book 2 because I’m intrigued enough by the plot or because I have it and I feel somewhat obliged, but I’m not rushing to read it right away.

Powerful – Lauren Roberts (3.5 ⭐️)

Then with a few days left and all the books I planned to read physically read, I got to figure out a new system for what I was going to read next! I’ve firmly realised I’m not a mood reader and not knowing what I’m reading next makes me feel overwhelmed, so I’ve decided that if I ever finish my monthly TBR I’ll be working through reading my new releases.

So as I picked up the Waterstones hardback edition of Powerful, it was time for me to continue the Powerless saga! I think what I realised when reading it is that I accept the writing isn’t the best – it feels very fanfiction-y, it feels very ‘pick me’, but y’know what? It’s easy to read and it gives me that nostalgic feeling whilst being a brand new read – Paedyn is so stereotypical, it’s definitely self-insert, Adena in this novella is incredibly fake but it was easy and kind of sweet, especially for a novella.

And that is how I read ten, yes TEN, books in one month. The shortest month of the year and it’s close to being one of my best reading months ever, especially considering my average rating was 3.95 stars!

I’m really hoping I can keep this momentum going, but considering we just had a new friend move into our house, I can’t be sure that’s going to happen.

Surprise announcement – I got a cat! Her name is Mango, we adopted her last weekend – one week ago we hadn’t even inquired about her and now she’s sleeping in our bed. She’s settling in so well and I am truly obsessed, but this is my first real pet so it’s a lot! Not sure how much reading I’ll get done this month but I will try my best.

Thank you for reading this mammoth post!

Sophie xx