February News Letter 💕

Good evening lovely book readers,

We made it through January!

So during the first month of the year 2024 I've read (published more precisely) 7 books and did enjoy most of the them. I focussed on a lot of things: like setting my Goodreads Reading Challenge (total of 80 books), I decided that when working I would included every hour a 15 min reading period so I did not have to panic on reading when I'm home as I do want to do other things as well. Additionally, the most read genre of the month was Romance and one mystery (that was crazy good).

However for February I wanted to twist things, I know I should prioritise Romance books because of Valentine's day, but... I wanted to have at least once a year for a full month a "mystery month" so this year I decided it would be February. Besides I can do whatever I want cuz it's my birthday this month.

So in this newsletter I wanted to recap the books I've read and the star reviews I gave them, books I want to read and releases of the month.

Books read in January

In January I read and reviewed a total of x books.

I started the month with Campus Drivers - Supermad by C.S. Quill. It is YA novel happening on a campus. One of them got dumped and thrown out of the apartment they were sharing with their partner before getting a broken heart and until a campus driver basically offers her the couch.

Review can be found here.

Second book to be reviewed was King of Greed by Ana Huang. We enter again the world of New York and their elite billionaires, following Dominic Davenport the King of Wall Street and his wife/ ex-wife Alexandra. As we follow them, we clearly realise that there is nothing between the two of them, but is that really it.

Review can be found here.

Third book that was reviewed is A Dream Life by Claire Messud. It was a book that I DNF'ed earlier in 2023, as I only bought it because the cover of the book looked nice. We follow an American family that relocates to Australia and gets involved into the Upper Class Life and how it messes up with you.

Review can be found here.

Fourth book of the month was Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score. So it was recommended through my TikTok and Instagram. I never read one of Lucy Score's book and to be honest never knew about her until I started my bookstagram account, now I see it everywhere and wanted to try it.

Review can be found here.

Fifth book of the month was Wildfire by Hannah Grace. Due to having read Icebreaker and starting the Maple Hills series, I was entitled to read Wildfire. It was a nice little, cozy read. However I would highly recommend reading it during Spring/ Summer as the setting is a summer camp and not in the middle of January.

Review can be found here.

Sixth book of the month is a murder mystery and actually recommended for fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder. It is an intriguing story and this author first novel: How To Find a Missing Girl by Vicotoria Wlosok, set in a small town with a podcast.

Review can be found here.

Seventh book of the month is a similar book to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which anyone who knows me, probably knows it is my all time favourite book and made my cry three times. It is a kind of similar vibe, and did almost made me cry again hence why on Goodreads I gave it the 5 stars, and the score is actually 4.75 stars. The book is Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman.

Review can be found here.

Continuing the month of January, I read The Fine Print by Lauren Asher. This one was a TikTok recommendation as well as having read her Love Redesigned book (review can be found here). I did enjoy this book, but was not greatly invested and some people told that Terms and Conditions is better.

Review can be found here.

For the last book of the month, we go back to Knockemout and we'll read about Nash and Lina. You guessed it the book I'm talking about is Things We Hide From the Light by Lucy Score. It was definitely a long book, and not a quick read as expected but I did it and I read it.

Review can be found here.

TBR February

As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson

The third and final instalment in the A Good Girls Guide to Murder series.

The finale to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. By the end of this mystery series, you'll never think of good girls the same way again...

Pip is about to head to college, but she is still haunted by the way her last investigation ended. She’s used to online death threats in the wake of her viral true-crime podcast, but she can’t help noticing an anonymous person who keeps asking her: Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?

Soon the threats escalate and Pip realizes that someone is following her in real life. When she starts to find connections between her stalker and a local serial killer caught six years ago, she wonders if maybe the wrong man is behind bars.

Police refuse to act, so Pip has only one choice: find the suspect herself—or be the next victim. As the deadly game plays out, Pip discovers that everything in her small town is coming full circle... and if she doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears...

Goodreads nominee for Best Young Adult Fiction in 2021

One of Us is Lying by Fiona MacKenzie

First instalment in the One of Us is Lying series.

Pay close attention and you might solve this.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.

Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.

Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?

Goodreads Nominee of Best Young Adult Fiction 2017

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone's declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she's in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous--and most people aren't good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it's safest to keep your secrets to yourself.

Goodreads nominee for Best Young Adult Fiction 2019

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

Dublin is the city were it unfolds and I live in Dublin.

Nothing More to Tell by Karen M. McManus

Four years ago, Brynn left Saint Ambrose School following the shocking murder of her favourite teacher—a story that made headlines after the teacher’s body was found by three Saint Ambrose students in the woods behind their school. The case was never solved. Now that Brynn is moving home and starting her dream internship at a true-crime show, she’s determined to find out what really happened.

The kids who found Mr. Larkin are her way in, and her ex–best friend, Tripp Talbot, was one of them. Without his account of events, the other two kids might have gone down for Mr. Larkin’s murder—but instead, thanks to Tripp, they're now at the top of the Saint Ambrose social pyramid. Tripp’s friends have never forgotten what Tripp did for them that day, and neither has he. Just like he hasn’t forgotten that everything he told the police was a lie.

Digging into the past is bound to shake up the present, and when Brynn begins to investigate what happened in the woods that day, she uncovers secrets that might change everything—about Saint Ambrose, about Mr. Larkin, and about her ex-best friend, Tripp Talbot.

Four years ago someone got away with murder. More terrifying is that they might be closer than anyone thinks.

Goodreads nominee for Best Young Adult Fiction 2022

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.

Goodreads nominee for Best Young Adult Fiction 2018

Book Releases in February

Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey

Release on February 13th.

Wells Whitaker was once golf’s hottest rising star, but lately, all he has to show for his “promising” career is a killer hangover, a collection of broken clubs, and one remaining supporter. No matter how bad he plays, the beautiful, sunny redhead is always on the sidelines. He curses, she cheers. He scowls, she smiles. But when Wells quits in a blaze of glory and his fangirl finally goes home, he knows he made the greatest mistake of his life. Josephine Doyle believed in the gorgeous, grumpy golfer, even when he didn’t believe in himself. Yet after he throws in the towel, she begins to wonder if her faith was misplaced. Then a determined Wells shows up at her door with a wild be his new caddy, help him turn his game around, and split the prize money. And considering Josephine’s professional and personal life is in shambles, she could really use the cash… As they travel together, spending days on the green and nights in neighboring hotel rooms, sparks fly. Before long, they’re inseparable, Wells starts winning again, and Josephine is surprised to find a sweet, thoughtful guy underneath his gruff, growly exterior. This hot man wants to brush her hair, feed her snacks, and take bubble baths together? Is this real life? But Wells is technically her boss and an athlete falling for his fangirl would be ridiculous… right?

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Release on February the 6th.

A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis.

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.

I hope you guys enjoyer this newsletter!

Love, Manon