 Doveys, what is wrong with me? What is wrong with me? Okay. Hi baby gorgeous. Hello my loves. I can be doing my February wrap up together and listen, oh can you see books here? Push them away a little bit. So we're doing my February wrap up. I've taken two months off of doing wrap ups. I didn't do one for December or January because we're going to give them a little bit of shake it up. We're shaking wrap ups up a bit because they are not my favorite kind of video and I was no longer enjoying the format that I was doing them in so if you know beforehand I was kind of giving my reading statistics which is my favorite part. I find the reading statistics very interesting and very satisfying and then I was talking about each and every book that I'd read that month giving the synopsis, giving like all of the thoughts I'd given before and it's just it's just not fun. So what we're doing is we're doing a reading statistics. I've added a few different like reading stats as well that we're going to be going through and then I'm copying Mara from Books Like Woe who if you don't know is one of my favorite booktubers. I watch every single video for Mara religiously and what she does is she does disappointments, surprises and hits or hits surprises and disappointments. I don't know what order she does them in but I want to do that. I think it's much more fun to talk about them that way, like talk about the books I was disappointed by, that I was probably expecting more from, talk about the books that surprised me and talk about my hits, you know my five stars and amounts that I want to gush about. So that's what we're gonna be doing and I'm probably gonna be giving more of like a rundown, like a quick rundown of my thoughts. I want these videos to be quicker. I mean I say they're gonna be quicker, they're still gonna be like this video is gonna be at least 15 minutes long. It's not longer, not much longer. But my point is I don't want it to be like 28 minutes long like some of my wrap-ups were starting to be. I just don't think that's fun when you've heard me speak about all these books before. It's also like tricky for me to like talk about these books again in depth because I like log them all and I'm like you know if you watch all my videos you've heard this already. So I feel like this would be more fun. I hope I can give some more like fresh ideas on the books, like more like quick ideas. So yeah this month I read 10 books which we're gonna get into which I'm pretty happy with if you know I barely read anything I read well for me. When I say stuff like this like oh I haven't read enough or 10 books is kind of good like that's personal. That's my opinion! How do you know what's good for me? That's my opinion! That's for me personally. You know in 2018 I read 15 books in the whole year and that was great like the first that I hadn't read in ages and that was the first time I read in ages and I was like whoa I read 15 books this year and I was so proud of myself and then I upped it. So like when I say this stuff it's just for me and my personal kind of standards and how much I like to read to enjoy reading. Do you know what does that make sense? So yeah I read 10 books, nine of which are in vlogs or are going to be in vlogs on my channel already and one of them I have logged for my Patreon it was our book club pics obviously I have logged that over there. I read let me skeechy skeechy. Total pages read 3,563 which is pretty good that averages out per day to 127 pages which I'm very happy with. Now this was saved by the fact that on the like last two days of the year I read a 600 page book so that had a significant impact but I always say as long as it's over 100 pages per day on average that is by my bare minimum. Now I often can go days without reading and then I'll read like two books in three days you know that's like kind of how it goes with me so it's by no means 100 pages every day I can never make that a goal because it will not be happening but 127 is pretty good um yeah I'm pretty happy with that overall. This meant an average book length of 356 which is a little bit a little bit higher in terms of pages I think 356 pages per book on average. I almost made it a goal this year I didn't in the end make it official an official goal but I almost made it a goal to read shorter books um which I know sounds weird like people did I make it an official goal? I don't know if I did. I don't remember I don't remember love I don't remember at all. I really don't because I know for long time ago. I wanted to read like more novellas or just short quick fun books this year but I don't know if that's gonna happen because a lot of the books I'm interested in are like thick, thick gals you know what I mean? I had an average rating of 3.65 which I actually thought would be lower because I had like a few 2, 2.5. Did I have 2.5 this month? I can't remember. Oh yeah I did I did so I had like a 2 and a 2.5 and then I had quite a few 3s which were quite disappointing for me so I was expecting it to be lower but I also had some really great books that I read this month so also a new statistic which I'm going to start doing is the average time a book has spent on my tbr now this is rough this is a guesstimate I kind of guesstimate it on terms of months but yeah roughly how long the books I have owned them for before I read them and for this month it was four and a half months they had on average spent four and a half months on my tbr now there were some books that had spent a year physically owned there was one that had been spent two weeks so it all kind of balances out into four and a half months which I think is pretty okay I don't know whether it's better I suppose long term it's better to aim for like shorter statistics than that like two months on average spent on tbr whatever but now like I have a lot of books that have been on my tbr for a long time so it's probably more beneficial to have longer ones now and try to aim to get books that have been on my tbr for a long time but also I want to read new releases so there's just not enough time in the day I was avoiding this issue and I'd stop myself and I said don't avoid it go look at it and go be with it okay other reading statistics let's get into it I've changed how I show you my rating because I've changed it to a bar chart because I think that gives you a better idea a better visual idea of what ratings I gave out so this month I had one two stars one 2.5 star two three stars one 3.5 two fours one 4.5 and two five so we're definitely skewed more towards you know four five but we also like I don't give out two and 2.5s that often I was speaking to my patrons about this on one of our live shows for the whole year so far I've had more two stars than I've had five stars I've only had three five stars so far this year but I've had four two stars so that's why I kind of feel like my right my reading hasn't got off to the best start but I also do I haven't I think I've recognized this in any video so far my year has been a bit shit there's been some stuff happening behind the scenes that I haven't really shared on my channel um that has been shit it's been really hard and so I I do wonder is my life bleeding into my ratings a little bit am I being a bit harsher a bit quicker to judge and be disparaging I don't know so I just want to like push that out there and say perhaps a few of the books that I've been rating lower I would not be rating lower was I happy and I'm happy but you know was everything sunshine and rainbows basically then in terms of genre I read a very wide range of genres this month I read one contemporary two fantasy one historical one magical realism one nonfiction one romance and three thriller so predominantly thrillers but that's pretty much because of the video I did where I read Gabby's here at books but I always love a good I love when I see a good mix of genres but I also think it's fun when like you get really into a genre so like if I was really into mysteries and I was reading those are mysteries in terms of audience this is very interesting to me I read eight adult books and two YA usually that's like 50 50 but I feel like I am a little bit more skewing towards adult stuff nowadays I do the YA I read I love do you know what I mean I love the YA that I read but I feel like I'm being a bit more selective sometimes in the YA that I'm reading and I'm looking at my TBR for March and again it's a lot of adult books so yeah I feel like I am perhaps skewing more towards adult at the moment which is interesting in terms of how I acquired the books four were from Book of the Month which listen I'm getting through my Book of the Month stash no I don't think you understand I'm obsessed I feel so lucky to receive Book of the Month so I love reading the books I get from them uh three were books that have been gifted to me one was a book that I bought myself and two were sent to me by the publisher in terms of author status one was a debut six were authors I read from before which I found pretty interesting I didn't really realize that it was that many and three authors were new to me and then just in terms of series three were part of a series and seven were standalone I'm trying to control the series numbers because there's a thing in the past that number would be much higher like how much were part of the series and you've been thinking making aren't you supposed to be finishing series well that number in the past would have all just been first books in series like me just starting new ones whereas now I'm trying to keep that number more controlled but actually all those books were not first books in series there are me making progress in series let's talk about my disappointments surprises and hits we had quite a few we had quite a few my loves we had quite a few so first my lowest rating of the month which perhaps is a bit harsh but I did tell a bit of a lie there is Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney I just didn't like it I was hoping for so much from this book we're following this couple as they're kind of on like a make or break holiday for their marriage they're going to this like like church a converted church kind of place in Scotland in the snow they're very isolated and it's to try and save their marriage but very quickly shit starts occurring now I just felt like this book I felt like this book was painfully obvious to me like I knew what was happening the entire time the big twist that happens I felt was very obvious in the way that certain passages were written some aspects of the book were written so much so I said this in the reading vlog I read this from one of Gabby's picks I read the book as if that twist had already been revealed I like I read it as if it was already happening and I and I also feel like in this the husband has face blindness so he can't recognize his wife by her face he can't recognize anyone by their face or like walk straight past people he knows but I don't buy that like the way that it's handled in the book I don't buy the way that it's handled and the excuses it makes for a plot in the book I don't think it was handled very well because I was saying this was it on Patreon again I can't remember who it was with I was talking to about this or maybe it was Katie say I saw a member of my family right I saw a member of my family or a loved one or a friend and they literally had a full face mask on nine times out of ten I would know it was them because of their body or their hair or just their their appearance I would still recognize them and this guy could just not recognize anyone like he like genuinely could not recognize anyone and like he was like oh I know my wife by her smell or her voice or whatever but like genuinely if I saw a fan member a loved one or whatever across a crowded room and they were wearing a mask I think I would still be able to tell it was them so I didn't buy into that yeah it was disappointing I don't know if I'm ever gonna read any more Alice Feeney because I know as soon as it hit or miss I am interested in both his and hers and Daisy Darker but they were kind of when I said that in a vlog some of you were like oh girl go girl no so I don't know if I'm ever going to continue with Alice Feeney we shall see the next one was my 2.5 this month I don't know if this can be cast as a disappointment actually it can't but let's just talk about it real quick like I won't go into depth because it's not a disappointment because I actually expected worse but it was survived the night by Riley Sager this isn't good this is where my blood starts to boil I gave it 2.5 because I read it so quickly and compulsively I read it in a wrapped up episode this month but it was objectively bad again very obvious plot twist like it was so obvious both this book and that book have a very small cast of characters which then like it's fucking obvious like I don't like it when thrillers have a small cast of characters because once you've eliminated that person as being your suspect once you've eliminated that person as being a suspect you're left with one like and it's not hard to figure out this is in 1980s our protagonist's best friend her roommate has recently been murdered by campus killer she's getting a lift back home with this stranger and she starts soon starts to suspect that he is in fact the campus killer he says things that he should not be able to know and again this protagonist would often when she would stress start to imagine everything around her as a movie and wouldn't know what is truth what is reality and what is something her mind is conjuring up and again I didn't enjoy the way that that was handled the excuses that made in the plot I feel like both these thrillers were very similar actually in the way that they disappointed me but I expected this to be like a one star and it was a 2.5 so we must be grateful for small mercies and it could have been worse I feel for me too and then another big disappointment for me this month was grown by Tiffany D Jackson I was very upset about this one we're following star who has made it in the music industry but she had a relationship with this mentor figure this much older man and we're kind of looking at the ways in which it was abusive and the writing was just not for me I gave this three stars because I feel like the way it handles the issues of abuse particularly for a YA book and a younger audience I thought were really really done well and handled very sensitively but the writing I just didn't vibe with and now this is the second Tiffany D Jackson book where I haven't liked the writing I haven't really liked like the craft or the writing like the way that the characters are written or the way that the plot is written I've enjoyed the subjects and I've loved the concept I like Tiffany Jackson is one of the YA writers whose concepts I eat up I hear them and I'm like I need it I need it but now this is the second Tiffany Jackson where I just haven't enjoyed all those aspects of the writing not just the style of writing but you know pacing plot characters that I just don't know if I can read any more Tiffany D Jackson I'm seriously considering it I still need to read Mondays Not Coming it was on my January TBR and I just still haven't gotten to it but I'm kind of putting it off out of fear because I've said to myself like if I don't love that if I don't love that I don't think it's fair like on Tiffany D Jackson for me to continue reading her stuff so this was disappointing like I said it took me three stars read it so fast it took me two hours to read this whole book it's one of the quickest books you'll ever read in terms of like you'll fly through it but yeah yeah I'm sorry I'm sorry in terms of surprises this month I only really had one and I don't want to speak about it too much because the vlog is still yet to come out it'll be coming out this weekend but that is Jade Wall by Fonda Lee as many of you know I'm trying to finish series this year and I'm doing a series called series wipeout a video series called series wipeout where some months I'll be finishing multiple series but a lot of the months now I'm going to be like finishing individual series so I've read Jade wall I'm just about to start Jade like I see and I'm not ready and I gave this do I want to see what I gave it yeah I gave this 4.5 stars I really really loved it I won't say much more but I will just say I was surprised because often when I've read the first book in a series and I only gave it like not only but you know I gave it four stars I kind of don't imagine the the rest in the series getting above that which is kind of strange but like that world in my brain is now a five a four star do you know what I mean I was just expecting this and Jade legacy to just be solid four stars but I actually really really loved this and I loved the direction this book takes it's a lot slower it's a lot more about like political maneuverings and I enjoy that I love slow like push and pull relationships and kind of silent battles of maneuverings so that's why I really liked it and it's definitely an undertaking and Jade legacy is even longer than this but yeah I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and then hits this month I had two hits I actually haven't spoken to you about so let's get straight into this Malibu rising this was my book club pick for January but typically the live shows are like a couple days into the month and I like to read the books super close to live shows so I read this in February I loved this this is five stars I've now given Taylor Jenkins read the three books I've read well I've read a novella which I think I gave a four four point five but the three full long full length not the three full length novels I have I still didn't say that right I have read from her I've given five stars and I love this I went into it it's kind of surprised as well because I went into it like with slightly no expectations and everyone who go in Daisy Jones but I absolutely adored this it made me cry I mean June supremacy if you read it June was my favorite character in the entire book I love June we're basically following Mick Reaver's four children me when I meet Mick Reaver to save you suffer would be lovely darling in the present day um their adults now and it's kind of them living their lives then we're also following Mick and June their parents meeting and the story of their childhood we kind of flash back and forth in the first part and then the second part we're focusing on a party that happens at Nina Reaver's house and I just loved it I loved it so much I thought Taylor Dinkins could fucking write like some of my favorite writing the way that she crafts scenes and just like oh it's like cinematic I can see why everything she's ever written is getting adapted because the way she just like takes you through everything is absolutely outstanding the characters outstanding character relationships outstanding but I mean the flashbacks I absolutely adored for their childhood it was one of my favorite parts of the book I've also said by the way by the way it seems Mick's her Jenkins read is like taking you through the decade so Evan Hugo was like mainly 50s 60s if I remember correctly Daisy Jones 70s this is set in 1980s her next book has already been announced I predicted it let it be known in our book club I predicted it so that was going to take place in the 90s and then I need next I need badly badly a naughty's like Britney Paris Lindsay influencer socialite kind of book I need it when I say I need it I need it I am so powerful my mind oh it amazes me sometimes I need it so if she doesn't write that next I'm angry angry it's just listen it's common sense that she'd do that next I don't know what she's gonna do when she's like run out of decades but time will tell but I need that badly so Taylor if you're watching this please deliver my final hit is where the jangles go by Sean McGuire another book that I read in the valentines of log that grain was in this is the seventh in the way we're children series by Sean and McGuire very difficult to talk about because it's hard to spoil stuff from previous books but in this we're following this is like a mild spoilers for some of the previous books if you really care like just I'll see you later but basically our main character Cora we've seen in some of the previous books and she's very scarred by something that's happened to her in the past and she believes that she can't overcome that at Eleanor West school for a way with children which is like the main school but there's another school and she's like Ms Eleanor transfer me and Eleanor doesn't want to do it but she's like I don't care so she goes to another school and it's strict as fuck it's horrible it's not nice and you know high jinx ensue I really loved the setting of another school I know a lot of people prefer the portal world books which I do love but I I like the school settings I think it's really really fun to read going to a different school was like obviously like Sean McGuire her mind like obviously the next step that needed to be taken the friendships in this the magical writing the magical world the fat rep particularly like as a child being fat was outstanding Sean McGuire genuinely the best writer ever genuinely one of the best writers ever so there we have everyone that is my reading 66 for the month and also my surprises disappointments and hits I hope you enjoy this new style of video let me know what you read in February like what your stats were what you read what your disappointment surprises and hits were I would absolutely love to know and let me know what you thought of any of the books I've mentioned if you have read them if you've gone to the end comment a sea wave emoji from how to be rising like what's up all the all the surf but there's a surfer emoji right um comment the surfer emoji or the sea wave emoji if you've gone to the end I love you very much and I'll see you very soon in another video bye