February reads… rounded up here!!! Wow, this month’s stack took me on the most eclectic global reading adventure I’ve enjoyed in a while. From a New York City-based psychological thriller and a modern-day-with-flashbacks frolic through India, to a Nicholas Sparks delight based in (obvi) North Carolina… I absorbed so many colorful sights, smells, sounds, interesting humans and all of their big-and-small feelings.
Additionally, while I love reading for pure entertainment as much as the next girl, I am extra-appreciative when a book reaches into my heart to shake me up and affect me in some unexpected way. Two of my February reads really accomplished this, landing a tie for my two favorite books of the month: Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks. I just couldn’t pick one, guys!!! Also, I love that neither of these was a brand-new release. It’s so easy to get swept into only reading the shiny brand-new hot titles hitting shelves and blowing up Instagram. But I don’t want to miss out on slightly older, valuable gold that is aging like buried treasure! Something about these two books was calling to me from the not-so-distant past, and I’m so thrilled that I listened!
Also, I realized this month that I have mixed feelings about including star ratings. Should I include them?! Should I not?! At the end of the day, I’m inclined to believe that they’re helpful, and that they unequivocally scaffold the system by which books are ranked via Amazon, Goodreads, and most breathing humans who read. However, 5s aren’t the only books that I love—4s are incredible, too! Even 3s I enjoy. At the end of the day, a lot goes into why I give a book the star(s) that I do.
So, in attempt to give a guide for my personal rating system, I offer you this legend!
⭐️= I did not enjoy this book. OK, fine. I probably hated it! Maybe the writing was bad or rambling or hard to follow, in my personal humble opinion. Maybe it bored me like crazy or made me mad in some way. I don’t give Ones very often. I probably have big feelings. I’ll share them in my review!
⭐️⭐️= I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who loved this book, but it just wasn’t for me. I can see the redeeming qualities, and the author is clearly talented, but I struggled to finish and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
⭐️⭐️⭐️= 3 is a solid but not spectacular! The writing was strong; the voice or characters, vivid; I liked something specific about the reading experience. However, chances are there was also something particular that kept me from l-o-v-e loving it. The ending, unlikable characters, a long-boring middle? 3 is just: 3. No regrets, no rooftop shouts, either.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️= I loved this book! The words drew me in! The soul won me over! I would totally recommend it to anyone without hesitation! 4 and 5 are both VERY GOOD ratings from me. 4 is love. 5 is…
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️= SUPER LOVE. Oh my gosh. THIS BOOK. Go read it. I probably texted my friends about it already or raved about it to unwitting strangers. I can give a 5 to a sweeping epic, or a YA romance novel, or a life-changing memoir. Literary fiction or poetry or romantic comedy. As long as it’s nailing whatever it is, and I was obsessed and/or moved and/or prone to neglect life’s duties in order to finish: that is a 5 from me, folks. Probs buying a stack for future birthday and Christmas gifts.
Overall, this February collection was a fine little box of chocolates. All 3-5 stars. I’m really glad I read each of them! Here you go, beautiful friends!
Left Neglected
Remember the novel/movie Still Alice, the brilliant, gut-wrenching story of the female Harvard professor who faces a sudden, brutal battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s? Julianne Moore won the Oscar for Best Actress? I absolutely adored this second novel by the same author and neuroscientist, Lisa Genova. I ordered it immediately after seeing it on her Instagram. Somehow I missed its release in 2011! Friends, this book is so good. I was hooked into protagonist Sarah Nickerson’s sharp mind and whirlwind world from page 1. The busy and high-powered businesswoman-slash-mother-of-3 was instantly relatable to me in her rapid-paced effort to do it all, have it all, be it all. But then. While texting and driving, she crashes into a life turned literal right-side (and upside) down. Altered and injured, she walks into healing and a whole new existence with a neuropsychological condition called left neglect: a lack of awareness and visual space of everything to her left. The result is a transporting story of family, forgiveness, new dreams, and rediscovering what’s most important. If you combined the leading lady of I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson with the medical substance of How to Walk Away by Allison Center with the heart of Shauna Niequist’s Present Over Perfect—all books I cherish forever!—you’d end up with this book I now cherish, too. Five moving stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Wedding
After downright swooning over Nicholas’ Sparks latest novel (Every Breath) toward the end of last year, I resolved to reach into the archives and excavate more of his best works. A few friends told me The Wedding was their favorite of his, and now I know why, oh MY! I adore reading stories about fresh new love… but you know what else I love? Reading about couples already married, for years, decades even. Their issues, challenges, nuances, struggles, and strengths. Wilson and Jane have been married 29 years, but somewhere along the way, the two lost their Spark. (Get it, guys?!). Can they reignite it?! Well, you know the master of love is going to try. With a little help from Noah Calhoun of The Notebook, grand patriarch of this semi-sequel, this plot confirmed to me for the 7,000th time that Nicholas Sparks is the King of Romance never to be dethroned. I loved this book. I can’t really say more without spoilers. If you love NS, don’t miss this one. Like me, you’ll swoon over the storytelling and all its essential truths about marriage, selflessness, resilience, and unconditional love. Five stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ugly Love
Collen, Collen, Colleen. “Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?!” – Avril Lavigne, and ME! I’m a huge Colleen Hoover fan, though I always review her books with the RRR-rated warning up front. So many steamy scenes and bad words, always, and this one was NO exception! In the end, Ugly Love absolutely gutted me like all her books do. I was crying. I was moved. I loved the characters. But truly: Only in the end! For the first 75% of this book, I was straight-up annoyed, so much of the time! I think, however, that this was due to my personal lack of love for the plot. Tate Collins moves to San Francisco to live temporarily with her pilot brother. Enter brother’s friend, dreamy also-pilot Miles Archer. Miles and Tate share an instant and undeniable magnetic attraction—but neither of them wants a relationship. They do, however, want to share a lot of very (very, very, very, BE WARNED) sexy experiences together. Miles creates two rules about their arrangement: “Never ask about the past and don’t expect a future.” UM. Or: “I’m going to be an emotionally unavailable jerk, mess with your mind, and break your heart.” Am I a mom, or what?! What follows are many, many pages of saucy scenes that felt pretty gratuitous and over-the-top to me, even for CoHo! And Tate puts up with a lot from this handsome recluse! Let’s just say it gets ugly. Like hard-to-read ugly sometimes. And. YET. Things turned around and I loved the ending! I really did and might even call it beautiful! We are rewarded with the knowledge of what makes Miles so Milesy, and it is satisfying. So. I’m having a hard time rating this book. But I’m going to give it a 3! If you’ve never read Colleen Hoover before, read It Ends With Us or All Your Perfects before you read anything else. Three stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
An Anonymous Girl
I thoroughly enjoyed this modern-day thriller and had a hard time putting it down!!! It kept me guessing and stressing and tapping away at my Kindle! Jessica is working as a make-up artist in New York City when she sneaks in on the opportunity to participate in a psychological study about morality and ethics with a one mysterious Dr. Shields. The questions start simply enough: “Could you tell a lie without feeling guilt?” “Describe a time in your life when you felt cheated.” But as the “research project” continues, questions probe, morality blurs, privacy lapses, and motives grow mind-bendingly, wildly unclear. Who is this chilling and stunning Dr. and what is she after? Haunting, brooding, disturbing, smart. The ending dragged jussssssst a little for me and that’s the only reason it’s not a five. Four stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Storyteller’s Secret
This was my book club’s pick for the month, and our conversations were fascinating. I’m so thankful I read this book for the exposure it gave me to Indian culture and history, and for the incredibly tragic, powerful heart of the tale. New York-based journalist Jaya embarks to India for answers about her family’s nebulous history in the wake of several heartbreaking miscarriages and her subsequently crumbling marriage. The uncovered truths shatter everything she has known and illuminate a new future. I would give the story a 5… but the storytelling… something lower. Have you read The Alchemist? If you loved that, you will LOVE this! It’s truly a great book—but the ancient proverb, fable-style writing was a little hard for me to stick with at times. For all of the juiciness of the story, the telling left a little something to be desired for me. Three stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
What should I read next?!
