Heartbeat Monthly (25): February 2020

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on March 8, 2020 | 0 Comments

February haul

Bought

Skyward DDF pin (Brandon’s site)
Patches – Cabeswater & Magic in everything (Owlcrate BST group)
Archenemies by Marissa Meyer (SIGNED)
Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre
Honor Bound by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre (SIGNED)
Honor Lost by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre

From Scammed launch

I already had Kristen’s books (hence why they’re in two wrap ups straight) but I took them with me to get signed!

The Deceivers by Kristen Simmons (SIGNED)
Scammed by Kristen Simmons (SIGNED)
Echoes Between Us by Katie McGarry (SIGNED)

Freebies

Skyward DDF patch (pre-order promo)

From publisher/for promo

Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare + book sleeve, character cards, & map
Hood by Jenny Elder Moke

Thank you so much to Simon Teen and Disney Hyperion for these lovelies!

Traded

Raven Boys tote
Hic Sunt Leones pouch
Red Rising character mug shots
Ashlords alternate dust cover & signed bookplate
Saga magnetic bookmarks
Saga vol. 2, 3, & 4
Monstress vol. 1
Skyward – Fairyloot exclusive w/ yellow sprayed edges
Strange the Dreamer – Fairyloot exclusive w/ blue sprayed edges

I’ve been trading a lot of old ARCs for wishlist items!

February Wrap Up

Books I read

All Systems Red by Martha Wells – ★★½
Damsel by Elana K. Arnold – ★★★½
Witches of Ash & Ruin by E. Latimer – ★★★★
Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa (AUDIO, re-read) – ★★★★
One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus (AUDIO) – ★★★★
The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte – ★
Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu – DNF
Honor Bound by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre – ★★★★½
Sherwood by Meagan Spooner (AUDIO) – DNF
Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (AUDIO) – ★★½
Seafire by Natalie C. Parker (AUDIO) – DNF
Honor Lost by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre – ★★★★
My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga (AUDIO) – ★★★
A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer – ★★★
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (AUDIO) – ★★★★

Pages read: 4,418
Average rating: 3.33 (ouch)
Favorite book read in February: Honor Bound
Least favorite book read in February: Vanishing Deep

Books I reviewed

What I’ve been up to this month

I started February off by going to the Scammed launch (which I’ll talk about below)! Then Adam and I spent our first Valentine’s Day together – it was wonderful! Best V-Day yet! Other than lots of snow here there hasn’t been much else happening. I did have a bit of an ordeal at the end of the month with my kitty being sick, that wasn’t fun. He was having really scary seizure-like episodes, and after much stress and anxiety (and five hundred frickin’ bucks), we found out he just had a really bad ear infection. After a week of meds, he’s thankfully back to normal! It was terrifying, though. Definitely not something I ever care to repeat :(

Current obsessions

TV: We’ve been watching Dexter (re-watching for me, first time for Adam) and I forgot how much I missed it!

Music: I’ve actually been ditching music in favor of audiobooks! I started listening to them at work all the time now – at 1.25x speed – and I get so much more reading done!

Food: Tacoooos. We’ve been obsessing over them lately for some reason!

Games: Adam and I have both gotten into Resident Evil 5 lately, it’s so addicting!

Scammed launch

On Tuesday the 4th I drove down to Kentucky for Kristen’s launch of Scammed! I’ve been to every one of her launches since Glass Arrow came out in 2015, so I wasn’t about to miss one! Adam was working so I went down by myself. It was a terrible trip – the weather was bad, traffic was bad, and by the time I got down there I had to pee SUPER bad, and the bookstore’s bathroom was out of order so I had to walk down to a restaurant nearby. I ended up barely making it in time – it took me an hour and 45 minutes to get there, and it’s usually an hour trip!

Kristen was fabulous, as always! Katie McGarry was actually there too, which I didn’t know about until the event started. I had no idea she was listed in the event at all. I ended up buying her newest release because I felt bad about not having anything for her. I brought Kristen a Vale Hall candle (it’s tradition!) and got to chat with her for a bit. It’s always great to see her! They even had a cake for the event (which was delicious).