Mid-Month Reading Update | February 2021

February has been a very odd reading month so far, I have read a few excellent books but I have also read very disappointing books. I just have to hope that the rest of the month won’t be as all over the place as the first half!

Books I have Read So Far This Month

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A Dead Djinn in Cairo was a great story to start February with, it follows a murder investigation in alternative 1912 Cairo where djinns and other magic creatures exists. I don’t know how P. Djèli Clark managed to cram so many ideas and cool things in so few pages but I really enjoyed this one. I also had a good time reading issue 119 of Apex Magazine and you will probably see one of the stories from this issue in the upcoming February Short Fiction Highlights.

After that I read Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor, an amazing novella following a deadly young girl and her fox trying to find a magic object that was stolen from her. I loved this story! I don’t always get along with Okorafor stories (as you will see) but when I do, I’m always amazed by how powerful her stories can be. So far, this is the best book I read in February! Speaking of Nnedi Okorafor, I also finished her Binti trilogy with The Night Masquerade and… I didn’t like it very much. I wasn’t a fan of the first two books but this finale solidified my feelings about this series. I like Oomza University but that’s about it. I love Okorafor’s The Book of Phoenix, Who Fears Death and Remote Control but I don’t quite the hype around Binti.

After this disappointing read, I read On Fragile Waves, a book following a family from Afghanistan as they try to emigrate to Australia. I have a review for this one but the short version is that the premise and the themes of this book were great but that the execution didn’t work for me. The writing was too experimental for me. I had high expectations for this book but sadly, it was another miss. And because third time is not always the charm… My next read, A Princess in Theory, wasn’t much better. I wanted to read a fun romance but I gave up on it after reading half of the book. I wasn’t enjoying it at all, 1) the dude was a stalker and I find this scary, not romantic and, 2) the interactions between the love interests were cringy and overly sexualized. It was to the point that if a character was just blinking, the other would think something along the lines of “the way they blink made me look twice at their eyes, rimmed by a set of jet black and full lashes, their burning gaze piercing through my skin made me flush, the blood was rushing through my veins, I wanted to feel their gaze on me, on my [insert body part]”. That’s a no from me. A big no no. Also, if I am bored during sexy scenes, something is wrong with your book. I loved When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole but I’m not sure her romance books are for me…

After so many meh books, I wasn’t in the mood to read so I took a few days off. Thankfully, after that I picked up two amazing books Riot Baby and Friday Black. Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, is a story about two siblings trying to survive in a world where being black means every second can be your last. Riot Baby is an angry tale of survival and Black Rage. Powerful, brutal and masterfully done. I also read Friday Black, a collection of short stories written by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. In its themes, Friday Black has a lot of similarities with Riot Baby but the execution is very different. It’s angry, bloody and beautifully written. One of the best collections of short stories I have ever read.

Currently Reading

I am currently reading Kushiel’s Chosen, the second book in Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel universe. It’s a re-read and I am having a lot of fun reading and discussing this book as part of the Kushiel Read-along hosted by imyril from One More. I love the world, the characters, the court intrigue and, Carey’s writing is a balm for the soul.

I’m also reading Lightspeed issue 122, since I read Friday Black earlier this month, I haven’t read as many magazine issues as I planned to. I don’t really mind since Friday Black was so good!

and Next…

My February TBR was very ambitious and since I didn’t have the best reading month so far, I’m pretty certain I won’t be able to read all the books I wanted to read. However, I still have the time to read a few books and I should be to read Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (that I am going to buddy read with the wonderful Mayri from Bookforager!! 😀 ), Sun-Daughters, Sea Daughters by Aimee Ogden and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine before the end of the month.

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Well, I hope you enjoyed reading an excerpt from my upcoming romance debut, A Stalker in Reality, a gorgeous tale of sexy blinking and crazy stalkers being aroused by… pretty much anything!

How is your month so far? Any good books? 🙂