February 2023 Wrap Up

Hello reader, welcome back to my blog! I have been neglectful of my little site this month. I must admit I found the second half of February and the majority of March very difficult. At last I can finally see through to the other side and I’m ready to start making content again. So for the shortest month of the year, I found this February to be ridiculously long! Here are the books I read last month.

Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis

Rating: 3 and a half stars

Review: Stranded on the road in a snow blizzard, Noelle meets Sam, and the two strangers find themselves drawn to each other as they try to navigate this unexpected night they’ve found themselves in. The pair connect immediately but eight hours later part ways without leaving any form of contact. Yet the universe has plans for these two yet, as they keep bumping into each other when they least expect it. This leads them to question whether their meetings are simply a coincidence or fate. This was a really sweet and charming read with some excellent writing and wholesome characters. I really enjoyed this one. There were lovely moments between Noelle and Sam to make you root for them. It was an easy read that I sped through and with a satisfying ending I am left with an overall great impression of this book.

“The only way to live forever is to leave parts of yourself behind.”

Eight Perfect Hours

Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

Review: This is the true story of an unwanted Chinese daughter, Adeline Yen Mah, born in 1937, to an affluent Chinese family in a period of great political upheaval. Her memoir tells the stories of emotional abuse from her stepmother, her distant father, and her siblings all battling against each other in pursuit of gaining favour with their parents. She continues with the tales of her education, from Hong Kong, to England, and finally to America, where she settles to work. Time after time she is drawn back to her family, now one of the more successful siblings and eager to find her position in her family that is still determined to shun her. This memoir reads like a piece of suspenseful fiction and Adeline’s stories of her life begin to mirror the political and cultural changes of the time. There’s so much to learn from reading this, and it opened up my world to new perspectives and stories I hadn’t previously discovered. I found the entire experience of reading this utterly fascinating and thoroughly recommend, but it is a heavy read.

Rating: No rating for memoir

“Falling leaves return to their roots.”

Falling Leaves

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Rating: 1 and a half stars

Review: Catalina needs a date for her sister’s wedding, and the only available option appears to be her least favourite person, her colleague, Aaron. I didn’t like this one! I almost stopped reading after chapter one, but I’ve never not finished a book so my sheer stubbornness got me through! I spent most of the book thinking this man is too good for her, wishing I could read this story from his perspective, and then I reached the smut and thought “ew, get this man away from me!” At first I liked him a lot. I thought it was sweet how he anticipated her needs and showed he was there for her anxieties, but then it started to border on creepy. During the steamy moments he became so domineering, not at all in a sexy way. If any man spoke to me like that I’d run as far and as fast as I could in the opposite direction. Catalina had so much potential too but she came across as needy and a little bit pathetic. There were moments I liked but these were few and far between. One star felt too harsh but two stars seemed too generous. Not for me I’m afraid!

“You feel complete in my arms. You feel like my home.”

The Spanish Love Deception

Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher

Review: After discovering something her father wrote on a forum and learning her whole life has been a lie, fifteen-year-old Tess stops talking while she adventures to discover the truth of her identity. There were some interesting themes in this book, about self-discovery, family dynamics, and individuality. It’s a raw and emotional situation that most people find themselves in at various ages throughout life, sometimes more than once; we need to remind ourselves of who we are and why we matter to those around us. I found that the author wrote the characters well and portrayed that difficult stage between childhood and adulthood naturally and accurately. I liked the personification of the goldfish torch that acts as a friend and guide to Tess while she navigates her new reality.

Rating: 3 stars

“You might not be a lion, Tess. That’s fine. Neither am I. But we’re still cats, aren’t we? Just because we don’t roar, doesn’t mean we have to hide ourselves away.”

Silence is Goldfish

So there are my February reads, posted way later than I intended with my March reads only just around the corner! I hope to have broken through this difficult patch I have been working on and hope to have some more regular content on here. Let’s see shall we!

Thank you for reading!

Jade Anna x