Major highlights for the shortest month of the year (because with the world in array I’m determined to find the positives where I can):
* I found my poet
* I did three video reviews – links beside individual books.

A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver – I have found my poetry. My love/hate and at best luke warm relationship has been replaced with OMG I want everything this woman has ever written. Highly recommended for those who love poetry about nature and the small things. Those who love words that are used with delicious purpose, and hints of humour. My favourite poems (after the first read and in this mindset):
The Mockingbird
Green, Green is my sister’s House
Video Review

The Terralight Collection by Pamela Jeffs – Jeffs is a true master of the 1st person POV short story. The worlds she is able to create in such a small amount of words is mind blowing. Her descriptions and characters are so tangible and enveloping.
I adore this entire collection and think it brings together some of the most brilliant and wonderfully weird worlds and stories.
A collection of 10 short stories and I have four that I love even more than I love the others.
Six-Gun Reckoning – who doesn’t love a female Van Helsing – just going to leave it at that lol
Fifty Mile Bone Beach – the use of seemingly incongruous words that make an entire post apocalyptic world seem to shudder with realism.
Rusted Wings – metal dragon *mike drop*
Terralight – a world painted in a sentence … Devine and cruel and wonderful.

Ardulum: First Don by J S Fields – What a fabulous sci-fi adventure. The wo rld building, the characters, and the descriptions were wonderful. I struggled a little with some of the multitude of characters and how they all intersected.
I’m looking forward to reading the next in the series.

Desolation Point by Cari Hunter – I love crime and mystery, action and darkness. And desolation point hints all these for me. Cari hunter’s writing is beautiful. A balance of action, beautiful description, horrific events, and wonderfully rounded characters.
This book had me on edge and I literally had to stay up until stupid o’clock because I couldn’t stop.

A Knife and a Blade by Adelaide Blaike – (ARC READ) – So I don’t normally read MM books, but I do read dark fantasy and damn, this book is dark and brilliant. The darkness seeps underneath your skin and you stay up way too late to read more of it.
The story is fascinating, and twisty. Characters revealing more of themselves as they stroll or sulk through the pages. Mystery and intrigue, mixed and balanced perfectly with humour made this book not just easy to read but a hell of a pleasure. The writing is delicious in its description and flow.
I can’t wait until it comes out, and even more excited for the second book because, holy crap I need to know what’s happened.

The Forever and the Now by KJ – Not a romance. For me, it is the ultimate love story. It gave me every feel you can imagine from laughing out loud, snorting, wanting to throw my device AT the arrogant homophobia of a few side characters, to making me love to cry. I even hit level 10 on the NINSAABO scale (Neen-I’m-Not-Sobbing-At-All-Bugger-Off). A few times in fact. Bron and Kate are so different and so complimentary to each other. They bring out the best in each other in the most wonderful of ways. From the drawings Bron gives to Kate and the origami cranes Kate gives to Bron, to the different world views and life perspectives they bring to each other. Everything about this wonderful book is raw and realistic, wonderful and heartbreaking. The trials and tribulations of a relationship, the highs and the lows. And then we get the wonderful character developments of Bron and Kate. As the book is from Bron’s point of view we see a bit more of her development but we also discover Kate’s as well. And both are wonderful and realistic. There are so many parts I loved about this book but my favourite scene of all time is the intervention with Bron and her sisters and mother. There is so much realistic and raw passion in this scene. It got the tears flowing and the heart pumping. It made me feel like I could have been in my sister’s kitchen being on either end of the situation. And damn did that hit home. With KJ’s trademark flowing sentences, wonderful descriptions, and perfect balance of humour and heartbreak, The Forever and the Now is a book that will stay with me, and I’m so glad to have been able to read it. Just make sure you have tissues nearby when you dive in to this wonderful love story. Video Review.

Gold by E J Noyes – Beautiful second chance at life book. Narration was delightful and the story was beautiful with delicious descriptions of scenery and soul searching. E J Noyes had such a wonderful skill at creating lives and worlds so real and intriguing I have a sudden urge to risk breaking body parts up on the slopes despite my inability to balance in high heels let alone anything else. I adore the single 1st person POV and the characters developments throughout this book. It was a pleasure to read.

The Awkward Truth by Lee Winter – If you love single POV, opposites attract, ice queens, steamy sex scenes and laughing while you get an insight into human nature, a wonderful storyline and brilliant characters. I totes recommend this book.
First, a little rant about the brilliant way Lee Winter writes characters. I adore her characters and am continually shocked how much I relate to them when there is nothing similar in me or my life to their personalities or experiences. I shouldn’t be shocked though. She doesn’t just write, ‘ice Queen’, or ‘yokel’ or even ‘lesbian’. She writes humans who go through growth and change, she writes people who struggle when the outside looking in their lives may seem perfect. She is able to sum up in a paragraph a human condition that has papers on it that can never quite sum it up so clearly.
Now, The Awkward Truth.
What a fabulously well written and delightful story. I laughed so many times during this book. I also found myself feeling like a fish out of water when something else dropped for our delightful main character.
I loved Felicities attitude in The Brutal Truth, she amused me so much with her black and white way of seeing everything, but this sidequel brings up the full roundness of Felicity.
I love the dynamics between her and Cooper. The banter as always was mike drop brilliant and I adored the little extra cameos, specifically Elena, and ooh I adore Rosalind.
A fabulous read, and if you get the chance, definitely indulge in Angela Dawes’ narration. The woman is a voice goddess.

Must Love Silence by Lucy Bexley – What a perfect balance of hard topics, brilliant humour, and well rounded characters. I loved the writing; poetic and light. And the single POV always rates extra points from me. Topic of addiction, and mental health all play a huge part of this book and I couldn’t love the way Lucy Bexley treats this issues any more than I do. I am really excited to read more of her work.

Girl Island by Kate Castle – This book was a thrill and rush to read. One of the best YA sapphic fictions I’ve read.
I saw this book advertised as mean girls meets lord of the flies and boom! The most accurate description but there is so much more to it then that.
The set up of the main character (and the other characters as well) is fantastic, and as I moved through the story I recognised many of them.
There are so many delightful layers of this story and I really enjoyed the way a second POV is brought in throughout the main characters story.
There are moments where I couldn’t help myself from highlighting and making notes on the beauty of the scenery, the crackle between characters, and the way the author has used darkness and beauty to crash and sweep you away like the storms. Video review.

For the verbal babble and February bookshelf wrap up you can find that here.

Be Safe
Be Brave
Be Kind

Neen x