Monthly Wrap Up and TBR: February - March 2014

Some of the people who live locally hate February. They have very little money left over from Christmas and New Year, they are starting to become demotivated when it comes to their resolutions, and the weather is terrible. It's all very sad, and the village gets a bit depressed. But I managed to avoid this trend, and I've had a brilliant month!

On the Blog

No books absolutely blew my mind, but I did review a number of very entertaining reads such as Flame, Fangirl, Uninvited, and Secret. Plus some not so great ones. Tatum discovered Grave Mercy, and reviewed The Returned, which sounds like an awful book and yet she still gave it two stars. I don't know, I don't understand her rating system.

I got very excited for some February debuts, as well as February's Epic Rec, even if it is soul-destroying. I discussed why I don't care about the female-to-male ratio in YA books, and Lauren gave her views on the dreaded love triangles and instalove. She, Tatum, and I also talked about our book club read, The Naturals, in a giant post that seems to have intimidated people into not commenting.

Me in February

My resolution to comment on other blogs is going well! I discovered a tonne of new blogs via the Loveathon, and have been commenting on a lot of them regularly, as well as keeping up with old favourites. I'm proud of myself! Everything is good to go on the Virginia Tea Party front (more on this soon), and I finally sorted out some financial stuff which was something that I had been meaning to do forever. I bought some books, because I'm stupid and have no self control, even though I'm on a book buying ban.

I've also decided that I'm going to make the move to WordPress! I've been going back and forth with this for two years, and I think now is finally the right time to make the move. I'll just have to wait until I'm back from the USA so I have time to sort everything out. 

Books Read

I managed to reach my goal of double figures! Finally! Like I said, February was a great month for me. I made the decision to read what I want, when I want, and to not feel guilty about pushing review copies back to a later date. I'm a huge mood reader, and I think that forcing myself to read books that I wasn't enjoying or not in the mood for was putting me into a lot of reading slumps. And it worked out so well for me! 

Because of this, I'm not going to include a TBR this month. I'm just going to pick up whatever I feel like reading, and see how that works out for me.

It was tough to pick a Book of the Month for February, because I read some very good books. If I had finished The Book Thief sooner then I definitely would have chose that, but I finished it at 2AM last night so it was a March read. I was debating between Fangirl, Monsters of Men, and The Girl of Fire and Thorns, but ultimately Fangirl was more enjoyable for me because it was so gripping. And, just like last month, I'm giving a copy away! 

The giveaway is international as long as Book Depository delivers to your country, and it ends when I get back from the USA so you have a whole three weeks to build up your entries!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

January's Winner

Congratulations to Sandra of Sandra's World of Books! You won a UK copy of Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas. Woop woop!

Looking Forward To...

Obviously the biggest thing I'm looking forward to this month is travelling to the U.S. to stay with one of my best friends! I'll be leaving in a couple of weeks, and I'm so excited that I can't stand the wait. We're going to have bog cookouts (don't ask), get drunk on St. Patrick's Day, see the Veronica Mars movie, and - most importantly - visit Walmart. 

I'm also looking forward to my move to WordPress, which should be happening at some point in March if everything goes well. 

My little sister is turning six years old in a couple of weeks, which is weird because it's as though she's suddenly so much older. I don't want her to grow up! Speaking of birthdays, Judith is about to hit a huge milestone too.