February 2022 Wrap-Up

(Last Updated On: )

February was the month of the reading slump. Who could have possibly guessed that reading 30 books in January would do that to me? Overall, February was a strange little month full of ups and downs and a few great books. Without further ado, let’s get into my February 2022 Wrap-Up!

The Books I Read in February

The Ravens – Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige

After reading The Monarchs in January, I wanted to reread The Ravens again. I just wasn’t ready to leave this world.

As expected, I’m still in love with this series and getting to revisit Vivi and Scarlett as we first meet them was delightful. Honestly, this reread made me even sadder that there won’t be any other books in this series. There’s so much potential left unexplored!

I’m also now in a mood for more witchy books, so maybe my March reading is going to reflect that!

Related: My Review of The Ravens

Tarot for Change – Jessica Dore

This is the kind of book I hope to read again and again over the course of my life.

I love tarot. I have a small collection of decks because they’re beautiful despite only really using one. My (somewhat regular) practice of drawing a card in the morning to give me something to reflect on during the day is one of my favourite parts of my day. In short, I am a big fan of tarot.

I’ve also been following Jessica Dore on Twitter for a while. Her thoughts on tarot from a more psychological and social work lens have been slowly shaping my own understanding of the cards.

I listened to the audiobook but promptly ordered a physical copy because this is a book that is begging to be annotated and made my own. There is so much wisdom in these pages!

Silver-Lined Secrets by Aleksander Petit

I got a really sweet review request from the author for this book. Queer teens at a spy school? I’m interested!

Silver-Lined Secrets was a nice balance of fun and action-packed. There are the expected spy-shenanigans but also an exploration of mental health struggles and queerness in a very nuanced way.

It took me a while to get into the story because the first chapters didn’t manage to catch me in the ways I had hoped. But overall, I enjoyed the time I spent with this story!

Bluebird – Ciel Pierlot

Have I potentially found another 2022 favourite?

Bluebird really took me by surprise. Sure, with a lesbian gunslinger main character and all the sci-fi goodness, I expected to have a good time. But this book was fantastic!

I’m in love with all of our main characters and the way their relationships shift through the story. The worldbuilding was exciting and fun and I was particularly impressed with the amount of political intrigue we get without it being overwhelming.

Bluebird is at its core a story about loyalty and choices and the way governments and institutions use them for their own agendas. It is also in many ways a story about belief and belonging.

Writing a full review for this book is going to be hard, there are so many things to talk about!

Goal Check-In

It’s time for my monthly goal check-in! It’s an opportunity for me to look back at my 2022 goals and give you an update on my progress.

Reading

I finally hit my base reading goal of reading 33 books this year! It feels quite nice to have accomplished one of my main goals this early on in the year. On top, 3 out of the 4 books I read this month were books I owned before 2022! So I’m still on track to have 50% of my reading be from my existing TBR.

I didn’t really work towards any of the other goals because this was a very slow reading month for me. Here’s to a slightly better March!

Blogging & Social Media

I’m really happy with my relationship with blogging right now! I’ve managed to publish at least one post per week and I’ve been enjoying writing them so much! I have fun plans for a silly little blog series in March (if you follow me on Twitter you already know what it is!) and I’m excited to write all those posts!

This month, I’ve been trying to regulate my time on social media more. Doomscrolling through the injustices and conflicts in the world for hours on end is paralysing and not very helpful. So I limit the time I spend on Twitter and try to get my news from reputable sources and stay informed that way. Your mileage may vary, but for me, Twitter is a great place to get information on ways to help, places to donate and voices to amplify. But it shouldn’t be my newsfeed.

In February, I’ve been having a great time posting on my bookstagram! I’ve been experimenting with different kinds of photos and it’s been a wonderful creative playground recently.

Do you follow my bookstagram yet? If not, just click here and you can come to say hi!

No progress was made on any other goals, whoops!

Writing

I have a confession: I didn’t do anything for either of my WIPs this month. Time got away from me, I had some really bad mental health days and was stuck in depression limbo. The next logical step for my heist WIP would be to reread my NaNo draft. I just couldn’t get myself to do it. For March, my only writing goal is to finally reread and annotate that first draft so I have something to work with going forward.

Personal

I’m not going to lie, February was sort of a shitty month. I had some very bad days and didn’t do most of the things I set out to do. I’m writing this on February 28th and only now is it occurring to me that I wanted to take photos this month! So that’s a fail. It’s alright though, I’ll just try again next month.

In the past, having a less than stellar month would’ve sent me spiralling. If I can’t even get myself to take the simplest actions towards my goals, what kind of a person am I?! The answer is, of course, a very normal person who just happens to struggle sometimes. I am trying to get better at recognising that I am in fact influenced by my depression! Turns out, having an official diagnosis does actually help validate my experience. So yeah, my February wasn’t a spectacular month in terms of progress, but it also didn’t set me back. There were plenty of achievements and wonderful moments to celebrate so here are some of them

• I received great feedback and good grades on two university projects I finished late last year and in January!
• I had a great meeting with my advisor about that dreaded paper I still have to write but now feel more hopeful about
• I’m loving playing with my new D&D group
• I went on a few sunny walks
• I introduced a friend to tarot and revived my own practice
• I played a lot of Animal Crossing and am still loving it

Posts I Wrote

Here are the posts I wrote in February, in case you missed any of them!

• My January Wrap-Up
• My Review of The Magpie Society: Two for Joy
• My Review of The Monarchs
• My Review of The Coldest Touch
• Musicians I Want to Write Books
• My Review of Light Years From Home
• How I Read 30 Books in 31 Days | Lessons from a Reading Challenge
• My Review of Silver-Lined Secrets

Posts I Loved

As always, here is a small selection of posts from other bloggers that I loved this month!

• Naemi rewrote book synopses with herself as the main character…and what she would do in the plot! Absolutely hilarious to read, made me think about how interesting (or terribly boring) I’d be as a main character!
• Kate shared her tips on how to read more, a must read post for, let’s be honest, all of us!
• Veronica recommended 14 fantasy duologies to celebrate the wonderful date that was 2/2/22
• Clo wrote a discussion post about why slow burn is a superior trope.

Some Closing Words

To be honest, I’m glad February is over! While March brings new stress (mostly this goddamn paper) and deadlines and my final university exams get closer, I’m also excited for this new month. It’s a chance to try again, try differently and redefine what my idea of progress looks like. I’m beginning to see that working on 20 different goals only burns me out. So now, I’m trying to approach them in more of a “one at a time” fashion. Let’s see if it works!

Thank you so much for reading this Wrap-Up. I hope you’re safe and taking care of yourself and each other 💜

How was your February? Did you reread anything this month? Are you on team self-induced reading slump with me?

I hope you have a lovely day,

If you like my work and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee!