Café Con Monica

Show Us Your Books & Book Goals Update: February

It’s that time again! Linking up with Jana Says & Life According to Steph for Show us your Books!

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But first I want to share my Book Goals update for January!

  • 1/25: Books I didn’t choose for myself
  • 1/12: Non-Fiction Books
  • Posted 7 bookish photos on Instagram & 3 Bookish blog posts
  • #Unreadshelfproject2019 – I DNF the book I picked up off my shelf for January so I gave it away

Now let’s talk about what I read in January!

The Wife Between Us ⭐⭐⭐⭐ You can see my whole review of the book here. The evening after that review was posted I hosted my first Girly Book Club meeting and the overall opinion on the book was that there were simply too many twists and it felt forced. The first big plot twists makes you gasp and then the end makes you think “Seriously? Can this get more ridiculous?”

Six of Crows ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I have seen this book everywhere! I was so ready for it to be available from the library that I almost simply bought it. Almost! I didn’t know about the Grishaverse before I got it but you don’t necessarily have to, though it can be helpful. I may have developed a slight crush on Kaz Brekker. If you like YA, magic, the threat of destruction and a fun group of characters you will like this book.

Dividing Eden & Eden Conquered ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Luckily I got these books from the library back to back because I don’t think I could have waited for the second book to be ready without just buying it. The rivalry that comes up between these siblings drew me in. You aren’t always sure who the bad guys are and who you want to win.

Tower of Dawn (⭐⭐⭐) & Kingdom of Ash ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I could have done without Tower of Dawn or at least could have done without 668 pages of Chaol. I get it, there were definitely parts that made sense but I just think it was a lot of fluff. Kingdom of Ash on the other hand. It took a bit but then when it picked up I didn’t want to put it down. That is saying a lot since it is a 900+ page book. I was ready for the series to end so I am glad that this was it.

Verity ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I haven’t had a 5 star book in a while. I will admit that I think this book ended up being perfectly timed because I had read Wife Between Us the week before and been underwhelmed so this book comes along with Colleen Hoover quality writing but a crazy pants character and some twists that make you literally “WTF”. That being said I read the book in one day and then text all my book club friends and told them it was on Kindle unlimited and they needed to read it. READ IT.

Some notable mentions and a DNF…

  • Seven Days of Us – This was actually a good read, just not main reviews worthy. I liked it enough, found it through the SUYB link up and wanted to check it out. I genuinely disliked the younger sister.
  • I’d Rather Be Reading – This was my Non fiction choice! I am doing a separate review of it next week though so stay tuned for that!
  • DNF: The Darkest Star – I got this book from a bookship box last year and I immediately dropped it on the bookshelf and left it there. So with trying the #Unreadshelfproject I picked it as my January read. Started…got 1/4 way through and was like egh it just did nothing for me. I only got that far because I was really trying to get through a book off my shelf.

What have you been reading? Have you read any of these?? I can’t wait to see all the books this month!

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Books: February TBR

Last month I laid out my Book Goals for 2019 and January’s TBR . Today I want to share the books on my February TBR list. Next week I will share all the books I read in January on SUYB.

#Unreadshelfproject

The challenge for February is to read any book that was gifted to us. Of the books shown above that would be An Anonymous Girl. It was gifted to me by the Girly Book Club in addition to The Wife Between Us. I saved it to read this month because why not throw in a thriller that has passion, doubt and trust issues for the romantic month!

Multiple Categories

Last year I really wanted to read at least one Non-Fiction book a month and I am continuing that into 2019. Becoming by Michelle Obama covers Non-Fiction, It’s political, and is written by an African American author. For those of you not living in the US the month of February is African American History Month. 

Girly Book Club

American War is the Girly Book Club choice for February and as the host I get a copy of the book each month so I am excited to read this one. I would probably not have chosen this book myself anytime soon so it fills in for the goal of reading books I didn’t choose!

A little Romance

I can’t let the month February go by without reading some romance right? Burn for You is one of those slow burn books I am a big fan of.

I will, of course, read plenty more books in February and they will likely be more romance because of Valentine’s Day but Ill share them all in Show Us Your books!

What’s on your TBR list for January? Are you doing any reading challenges?

Don’t forget to check out my new Instagram! Or you can follow me on Twitter,  Pinterest or Bloglovin

Girly Book Club: The Wife Between Us

Tonight is our the first Girly Book Club meeting for the Austin chapter and we will be discussing this month’s book:

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

This book had been on my list for almost a year according to Goodreads. I remember that I had put it on hold through the library and I was like #234 in line and I hung on for awhile and then eventually I must have wanted to read something else and bumped it. Luckily when I joined GBC as their new Austin host I was given a copy of the book to read. Yay for perks! This didn’t come with a request for a book review though so I am just sharing because…because.

I was recently talking about it and a girl I’ve become friendly with asked if she could borrow it. She did, and this past Sunday we got together for coffee to talk about it and just catch up. She decided she would really like to attend tonight too so she signed up. yay!! Now on to why most of you actually visited this post…a review.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Did I like the book? Yes. I did and enough to recommend it a friend to read so that I could talk to her about it.

Why did I read it?

I read all kinds of genres and when I saw it on everyone’s SUYB posts and then read the synopsis on good reads I thought it sounded intriguing. That first line “When you read this book, you will make many assumptions” drew me in right away. I am notorious for making assumptions when reading and 8/10 I am off, really off. For this book, I was off right away and I loved the moment when I actually audibly gasped “what!?” .

That being said. It was only one moment in the whole book and I wish that there could have been another. I realize that the last twist was meant to give the same feeling but by the time I got there I had already figured out something else was coming. There were parts of the story that felt like they were so detailed that it dragged on for just long enough that I skimmed. I hate when I find myself skimming.

Why the rating?

It sounds like I should have given it a 3 star rating right? There were parts of the romance in this story that were so close to real life for me. Have you ever dated someone you thought was just maybe, slightly, too good to be true? Even though you felt this nagging in the back of your mind you just couldn’t help yourself? I have and being able to relate to that just took the book up a star for me. We are capable of doing some kind of ridiculous things when it comes to love and dating.

If I am summing this up in a short little blurb, I’d say that this is a good read that had the potential to be a really good read but fell just a bit short.

Have you read this book yet? Tell me your thoughts!

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