February Wrap-Up (2018)

Shortest month of the year but I’m glad with my reading month!
Never before had it been so clear that I’m a mood-reader, I love how these cover look next to each others!

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In which you might think I read these beauties on this order on purpose because they look amazing like this…

 

 

1) Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty
Scifi murder mystery in a gerenationel ship in space, staring clones! This was very gripping and kept me wondering, guessing and gasping.

2) The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1), by Melissa Albert
I went into this with no expectations, just hoping to enjoy this hyped YA fantasy and I’m still surprised at how much I liked this book! Portal fantasy is really a sub-genre I love to read about.
Mini-review on goodreads.

3) The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe 
That was awesome! The perfect book to pick up to continue on my fairy tale mood.
Here’s my review.

4) Void Black Shadow (Voidwitch Saga #2), by Corey J. White
eARC from the publisher
I was so excited for this sequel! While it was still as bloody and badass, I had very high expectations and I had hoped for a little bit more plot-wise. Still, I’m really looking forward to the third book!

In which American Panda‘s cover made me crave hot beverage and I realised I had all of these on my tbr. 

 

 

5) American Panda, by Gloria Chao
I really loved this YA novel set in MIT! Mei is adorable and relatable, awkward, charming and passionate. This is a novel of self-discovery, family drama and romance! For more: here’s my review.

6) Long Macchiatos and Monsters, by Alison Evans 
This is a cute novella featuring two characters of colour, both disabled, the main character is a genderqueer college student and the love interest is a trans man. This started as a very light right with bad sff movies references and bonding over coffee ; and went on to sometimes darker path but with still a lot of warmth on the part of the characters towards each other.
content warning: deadnaming, mention of suicide attempt or self-harm

7) Coffee Boy, by Austin Chant 
Another contemporary romance novella! This was also very cute and funny, with a sarcastic young trans man as a main character, starting on an internship in politics while having a day job in fastfood! This addressed a lot of important queer subjects and I had a great time reading it.
content warning: misgendering, graphic sex 

8) The Cybernetic Tea Shop, by Meredith Katz
This one was even shorter than the ones above but I love it just as well. The main characters are a grieving ace robot with feelings, owner of a tea shop and a young ace woman with wanderlust working on cybernetic and whatnot. They meet and cuteness ensue!

 

 

9) Amberlough (The Amberlough Dossier #1), by Lara Elena Donnelly
While I struggled with the first half because I wasn’t expecting so much politics and sexual activities, the second half had me very invested on the fate of the three main characters. It took me two weeks to read the first half and one evening for the second one, my heart beating alongside them and horrified in a can’t-look-away way for everything happening. I might not read the sequel upon release but I’ll certainly do in the future. For anyone interested in a character driven spy thriller set in a fictional world.
content warning: torture, suicide, sex

10) The Ninth Rain (The Winnowing Flame Trilogy #1), by Jen Williams
Bit of a rocky start with that one but I quickly grew obssessed and couldn’t stop reading! This was a lot of fun, reminded me a bit of Dragon Age: Inquisition regarding the weird infected nature and green fire. This is set after an alien invasion was defeated by a kinda-elf kinda-vampires race and the world is still not recovered. The main characters are amazing, going from a 40 woman, scientist and explorer, her mercenary friend trying to escape the fate of his people and a young runaway witch.
I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel out soon! PLUS the ebook is free at the moment! GO GET IT.
I’ll write a longer review soon because this is definitely a new favourite that I’ll enjoy rereading.

11) Ms. Marvel, Vol. 7: Damage Per Second, by G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mirka Andolfo 
This was good, I love Ms Marvel a great deal 💖
It was a bit heavy handed sometimes, and I didn’t love the covers of the issues (read as single issues on the Marvel Unlimited platform) here, apart from the one used for the cover! Still, I loved that this volume showed a bit more Kamala’s gamer side!

12) His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3), by Philip Pullman
So I read the first book in January and finished the next two books with my gorgeous omnibus edition! I loved how many more point of views appeared, even if I was a bit sad that we’d see less of Lyra’s. It was a bit slow at times, but it made me care deeply for a lot of characters. I had a lot of emotions upon reading the last chapters of the Amber Spyglass and I’m very glad I decided to re-discover this trilogy!

 

 

13) Gamora: Memento Mori (Gamora #1-5), by Nicole Perlman, Marco Checchetto, Esad Ribic, Andres Mossa, Travis Lanham
The story was more of a 3 or 3,5 : it was entertaining! But the art was a 5/5 without hesitation! Both the covers of the single issues and the interior art were GORGEOUS!!
Plus the main secondary character (is that a good way to say it??) kinda reminded me of Rey from Star Wars.

14) Generation X, Vol. 1: Natural Selection (Generation X #1-5), by Christina Strain, Amilcar Pinna, Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque, Eric Koda, Felipe Sobreiro
This series follows some new young mutant at the school (Kitty Pride is now headmistress!) under the mentorship of Jubilee. These young people do not have powerful powers enough to be part of an official x-men team and are just trying to control them, while also getting used to their new classmates. I didn’t like all the character, the art was weird, but I still liked it enough to want to read volume2!

15) Ms. Marvel, Vol. 8: Mecca (Ms. Marvel #19-24), by G. Willow Wilson, Marco Failla, Diego Olortegui 
All the stars, this volume was gold. From radicalization, gentrification, different cultures dealing with targeting, slice-of-life, Kamala questioning her decisions and teaming up with a “new” friend… this volume went to a lot of places and handled it amazingly.

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What I posted this month:

Book review: The Starlit Wood
Book review: American Panda
Book review: Tess of the Road
Chronique de livre: Les Seigneurs de Bohen

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Currently reading: 

 

 

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This month ended on a great note for me because it snowed for a whole morning on the very last day! It barely happens here so it was nice to see!

I hope everyone had a good February and will have an even greater March!