What I read in February 2022

I read so many good books over this past month! March has a lot to live up to, as February seemed to have a particularly high proportion of books I absolutely inhaled and/or gave 5*.

Chasing Lions, A Long Petal of the Sea, Unhinged, The Bloody Chamber

Chasing Lions, by Amanda Marks - 4*

A Long Petal of the Sea, by Isabel Allende - I so wanted to like this more, but I couldn’t connect with the characters and it was more about the historical events than the people. It sounds like this isn’t a typical Allende book, so maybe I just chose the wrong one to start with. 3*

Unhinged, by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, translated by Megan Turney - 4*

The Bloody Chamber and other stories, by Angela Carter - 4*

Changeling, Deep Down There, The Killing Kind, Good Omens

Changeling, by Matt Wesolowski - have I mentioned recently how much I’m loving this series? 5*

Deep Down There, by Oli Jacobs - 4*

The Killing Kind, by Jane Casey - review coming soon! 4.5*

Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - my pick for February’s Book Shelf Raiders and WHY did I take so long to get to this? It’s brilliant! 5*

The Midnight Hour, Municipal Gothic, The Porcelain Doll, Galatea

The Midnight Hour, by Elly Griffiths - 4.5*

Municipal Gothic, by Ray Newman. Carrying on my short story kick! My three favourites in this collection are Modern Buildings in Wessex, Imp Adrift and Director’s Cut. 4*

The Porcelain Doll, by Kristen Loesch - so compelling and readable that I can’t help but forgive the more far-fetched bits (how do the same people keep meeting in a country the size of Russia?). 5*

Galatea, by Madeline Miller - short and sweet. 4*

Looking ahead…

The Flames, The Smallest Man, Beast, Peach Blossom Spring

More great reads ahead as my TBR pile continues to grow! The Flames, by Sophie Haydock, and Peach Blossom Spring, by Melissa Fu are both blog tour books that look and sound amazing. I’m also looking forward to continuing Matt Wesolowski’s excellent Six Stories series with Beast.

This month’s Book Shelf Raiders theme is ‘Booksta made me do it’, which I’m interpreting as ‘a popular book that I bought when I repeatedly saw on Twitter that it was 99p’: The Smallest Man, by Frances Quinn.

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About Alice Violett

Writer of blogs and short stories, reader of books, player of board games, lover of cats, editor of web content, haver of PhD.

Colchester, UK https://www.draliceviolett.com