Arya's February Reads

Hello fellow ink drinkers. In today’s episode, Belle and I talk about how we pick books and our book shopping experiences. However, this topic is a lot easier to listen to, so I would highly recommend checking it out on Spotify or iHeartRadio. Instead what I’m going to talk about today is some of the books I read last month.

So for those of you who don’t follow us on Instagram, I had set a goal for myself to read 30 books in the month of February. It has been a long time since I had even set a reading goal for myself so to have this kind of goal seems like it was probably insane. However, I felt the need to push myself in my reading and I really wanted to see if I still had the crazy insane reading skills. Something that did help with this goal is I finally broke down and subscribed to Kindle Unlimited (not sponsored). One of my friends had been recommending a lot of interesting books in this catalog and so I wanted to give them a shot.

Let me tell you, I haven’t read this much, this quickly since I was in middle school and high school. However, I loved every minute of it. Even though now I’m super exhausted and I’ll probably take a little bit of a reading break. Or let’s put it this way, I won’t be tearing through books at such a high speed.

Now for what I read. Considering it’s such a long list, I’ve decided to highlight some of my favorites or books I really enjoyed. The first is two series that are by the same author; “The Court of the Underworld” series and the “Gods of the Duat” series by Alessa Thorn. These books are essentially myth re-imaginings of both Greek and Egyptian mythologies. They are romances and they follow a different couple for each book. For example, Hades and Persephone, Medusa and Persus, Thanatos and Hecate, and the list goes on. There are some spicy bits so if that’s not what you're after, you have been warned. However, there is still a lot of world building in these series, especially in “The Court of the Underworld”. Honestly, this is what I wish “Neon Gods” had been because it balances both lore and spiciness very well. It’s on Kindle Unlimited so if you have that and my little synopsis sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend you check it out.

Another book that I had read that I was very surprised by was “The Enchanted Sonata” by Heather Dixon Wallwork. So this is actually a retelling of “The Nutcracker” and I thought it was well done. There was no Rat King or Sugar Plum Fairy in this one. The rats were just a horde of wild animals that the kingdom the Nutcracker is from constantly battles. There are fairies, however, they are considered to be more or less a way for fate to take place. I found the read to be very enjoyable and since I’m not a big fan of “The Nutcracker” anyway, that’s no small feat.

The next series that I read was the “Blood Alliance Series” by Lexi C. Foss. Essentially, this series takes place in a world where vampires and werewolves have conquered humanity and essentially treat humans as slaves and a food source. There are a few vampires and werewolves in this new world that miss the old ways and think that humans should be treated better, so they are trying to rebel against those in power. Each book again focuses on a couple (or in the one book a trio) of characters and the relationship that grows between said characters. There are romance elements to these books and it can get pretty spicy. Overall I enjoyed the series and there are a few of the characters (Kylan and Ryder to be specific) that I absolutely fell in love with. However, as of writing this, the series is not complete and the next to the last book left off on a pretty big cliffhanger. I’ll be interested to see how these books end.

Another book that I wanted to talk about is “An Elderly Lady is up to no Good” by Helene Tursten. SPOILER WARNING. Now this book is a series of short stories about a little old lady who ended up murdering a whole bunch of people. When I started reading the first story, I was a little confused as to how this book was going to work. And then the first murder happened. It was one of those, I’m somewhat creeped out by this as well as a well dang this little old lady is super clever in how she plans everything and no one ever suspects her. I mean she did kill a guy who was committing domestic abuse. Granted I think it was because they lived above the little old lady and she could hear everything and she wanted peace and quiet. However, I’m going to think there may have been a little bit of goodness there even though it lead to the murder of a man.

“The Love Con” by Seressia Glass is another book that was completed. This book is a romance and doesn’t really have any spice so it is good for those who don’t want to read about that sort of thing. Essentially this book is about a girl named Kenya who is on a cosplay competition show. She essentially says that her best friend is her boyfriend since the final round is to be a couples’ costume challenge. Her best friend of course has feelings for her and has been trying to plan on telling her when the announcement is made and is all for acting like a couple. I’ve come to find I do enjoy friends to lovers as well as the fake dating tropes, so I found this book to be really enjoyable. Also, reality competition shows are a gilty pleasure of mine so to have a story based on the “behind the scenes” of the fictional show is also really fun for me. I definitely recommend this romance because it is a super cute and fun read.

The last series that I will talk about in today’s post is the “Deals with Demons” series by Stacia Stark. This series has been a really fun read for me. I think of it as a “Dresden Files” mixed with romance and adding in a plot to overthrow Lucifer. The main character Danica is a no-nonsense character and when she meets the demon Samael, it doesn't go well at first. However, she is the type of character that once she cares about someone she will do everything she can to protect or save them and it makes such a good story to see that in action. However, this is enemies to lovers and eventually you do get some pretty spicy scenes, but they aren’t absolutely everywhere in the book. This is another series that as of writing this post, it is not finished and the next to the last book ended on a cliffhanger. I’m really excited to see how this series concludes.

Hope you guys have enjoyed today’s post. See you all next week.

Arya