I have read so many books and just want to showcase some amazing books that I think everyone should read. My personal taste in books varies in genre but I will forewarn you that if you are looking for fantasy recommendations, look to another blog.
The books I recommend each month won’t be based on the season, because that isn’t really how I read books. I am a mood reader, but my moods aren’t based on the specific season. Each month I will recommend 5 books that I have loved or have really enjoyed over my many years of reading. They will range in genre, and writing style. So let’s get into February’s recs.
One Day by David Nicholls
“This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today.”
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Summary:
It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.
Recommend for people who like: Romance, beautiful writing, adult novels
My Thoughts:
This book is something I wish to reread soon because I think about it so often. It is truly a book that you have to experience to fall in love with its beauty and every single word it must speak. I warn you this is not a simple love story. It is heartbreaking and filled with tragedy but also so much love. You will laugh. You will have tears flowing down your face. You will have understood love when you turned the final page.
My Rating:
The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
“Sometimes we have to give up little pieces of our humanity so that we can keep on living.”
Genre: YA Distopian
Summary:
An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate.
Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.
The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?
Recommend for people who like: Divergent series, Dystopian novels, Advanced Technology, Multi-POV
My Thoughts:
I think for me, I read this after not being able to find a dystopian novel that fulfilled me like Divergent did. I wanted something similar, but also something that had me engrossed from the very beginning. I found all of that in this duology. Although at times it felt a little too similar (more so in The Death Code), I fell in love with this little series and that is saying a lot because I hate series. I loved each character and I found the dystopian world they were living in to be fascinating and very much a possibility for the future.
My Rating:
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
“Can’t promise I’ll stay. That would be lying. And I’m so, so tired of lies.”
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Summary:
Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching … for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don’t expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words “I love you” are said for all the wrong reasons.
Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story—a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, “Can I ever feel okay about myself?”
Recommend for people who like: Books in verse, Hard-hitting YA, LGBTQ+ rep. Multi-POV
My Thoughts:
Ellen Hopkins and I do not always get along, but this book actually broke me and made me absolutely fall in love with her writing. I still believe this is her best book to date. This is a raw story of 5 teenagers all battling different things in life but all of them have had to turn to doing tricks for money, somewhere to live, etc. I think it is such a profound and heartbreaking novel.
This is technically the first in a series, but Traffick (#2) is nowhere as good as this novel. Tricks can 100% stand on its own.
My Rating:
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
“Hearts get infiltrated. Promises get broken. Rules get shattered. Love gets ugly.”
Genre: Romance
Summary:
When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.
Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.
They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.
Recommend to people who like: Romance, Books about Trauma, Multi-POV
My Thoughts:
This book was an absolute surprise for me. I had never read a romance before that I actually finished so the fact that I gave this book 5 stars speaks for itself.
I cried, I laughed, and I was hot and bothered at times. This is a novel that will make you think about love and all of its multitudes of moments. These moments are comprised in a relationship that women often find themselves in. I found myself relating to Tate’s feelings throughout the book, but then I also was intrigued to figure out what was going on with Miles. Overall, it was an intriguing book that was impossible to put down.
My Rating:
The Watch That Ends The Night by Allan Wolf
“Some folks is meant to make excuses. Some folks is meant to make history.”
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary:
Arrogance and innocence, hubris and hope–twenty-four haunting voices of the Titanic tragedy, as well as the iceberg itself, are evoked in a stunning tour de force.
Millionaire John Jacob Astor hopes to bring home his pregnant teen bride with a minimum of media scandal. A beautiful Lebanese refugee, on her way to family in Florida, discovers the first stirrings of love. And an ancient iceberg glides south, anticipating its fateful encounter. The voices in this remarkable re-creation of the Titanic disaster span classes and stations, from Margaret (“the unsinkable Molly”) Brown to the captain who went down with his ship; from the lookout and wireless men to a young boy in search of dragons and a gambler in search of marks. Slipping in telegraphs, undertaker’s reports, and other records, poet Allan Wolf offers a breathtaking, intimate glimpse at the lives behind the tragedy, told with clear-eyed compassion and astounding emotional power.
Recommend for people who like: Multi-POV, books in verse, books surrounding historical events
My Thoughts:
This book is absolutely stunning. Each perspective is thought out to a tee which allows for complex characters from every perspective. Wolf even gives a voice to an animal aboard the ship and one of my favorite perspectives is the voice given to the iceberg.
A stunning novel that makes your heart hurt, and makes the Titanic personal even though it happened so long ago. Wolf has really crafted something completely original and an experience that you will never get tired of experiencing. I have read this novel quite a few times and plan to read it again soon.
My Rating:
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Comment what books sound the most interesting to you. Also comment what books you recommend to me based on my love for these books. 😁
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