February 2020 Reading Wrap Up

“Jasnah Kholin pretended to enjoy the party, giving no indication that she intended to have one of the guests killed.”

First line in Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Hi, guys and welcome to my monthly reading wrap up for the month of February. It was a mixed month to say the least. Just take a look at my stats for the month:

4 books is not a lot but I’m not exactly surprised. This past month I’ve often had the time to read but then decided I didn’t want to. I don’t really have reading slumps where I don’t read anything at all. Then I just read 20 pages a day instead of 100 resulting in only 4 books read. 

However, my page count is quite high (thank you, Words of Radiance) and I’m still on track with my Goodreads goal. But let’s get onto the books and the 4 mini-reviews. 

The Exiled Queen (Book 2 in Seven Realms)

Go to Goodreads to read the synopsis of the first book in the series, The Demon King.

My thoughts

This was a step up from the first book! There was more of a direction to the plot and the characters became more dynamic. It’s just a fast paced and easy read so I really enjoyed reading it. If you’re interested in more of my thougths, I have review and spoiler dicussion right here. 

Autoboyography

Synopsis: Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.

It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

Goodreads

My thoughts

Autoboyography was such a nice surprise. I didn’t know very much about it before starting it and I think that made a huge difference. The Mormon faith was a bit of a gray area for me before going in but I really like how it was portrayed, and how it wasn’t just there to be the “villain”. We saw the good sides too and that especially made Sebastian’s character believable and realistic. I also think it worked really well that our MC, Tanner, wasn’t Mormon but instead an outsider looking it and observing that community. He’s learning alongside the reader. 

The development of the relationship felt very natural. It might have been a little rushed in the beginning making it a little insta-lovey but I really didn’t mind that. I mean, it’s what we’re here for so you might as well get the story going. After that, I really appreciated that the relationship had some bumps along the way showing that love doesn’t solve everything. 

I had to take a star off because I wasn’t in love with the ending. It seemed like it was dragged out because they couldn’t decide which ending they wanted and therefore went with all of them. I would have loved to see the authors take a chance and just go with one ending. 

Words of Radiance (Book 2 in The Stormlight Archive)

Go to Goodreads to read the synopsis of the first book in the series, The Way of Kings. 

My thoughts

It’s unreal how many times I just said “what?” out loud while reading this. This would often be followed by 20 minutes of me just staring at nothing, trying to wrap my head around the epicness of this book. 

I don’t think I have much to say about this book and this series that hasn’t already been said. It’s amazing in every way. The world keeps getting bigger. The magic evolves quite a bit in this one but there is still so much that we don’t know. 

The reason I only gave this one 4.5 stars is because of Shallan. This is kind of her book as the first one was Kaladin’s… but I don’t like Shallan. My main issue with her is that she seems to be a little too lucky sometimes. Everything she tries just works out and when she makes mistakes they are small and there are no consequences for her. It all just sorts itself out and everybody loves her. It made me loose interest in her chapters because why should I care then? I think it’s especially evident when you see the contrast in Kaladin’s chapters where his mistakes have huge repercussions. So, Kaladin is still my favorite character. His story is just a lot more interesting. Also, a certain scene with him near the end actually made me stop breathing. That was a masterfully written scene!

The Gray Wolf Throne (Book 3 in Seven Realms)

Go to Goodreads to read the synopsis of the first book in the series, The Demon King.

My thoughts

I did not like this one and I’m so sad about it. I loved reading the first two books in the series but The Gray Wolf Throne just became waaay too tropy for me. I was annoyed with practically every single character and on top of that, the plot moved way to slow. I spent most of the book waiting for stuff to happen. I have a full review and spoiler talk up for it if you want to know more of my thoughts. 

Those were the 4 books I read in the month of February. Let me know if you’ve read any of them. Finally, I hope you had a great reading month and have a good week.