I just read four books in February, but thanks to the two writing/bookish/reading conferences I went to, it was a fantastic month!
Books:
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano: This the book for book club in February. Fantastic family saga story about four sisters, and the guy in their life, and the kids and all the different relationships and struggles they all had. I really enjoyed it and gave it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Lots of people find it quite heart breaking, and while it is, I found it more hopeful and actually heart warming in the end.
Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter: This is the sequel to Better Than the Movies. Our two characters have broken up before this one starts (at the beginning of their college career) and it's about them getting back together two years later. Lots of fun banter! ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick: A crazy weird classic scifi that I knocked off quickly to count it as my first classic book for the Classic Six Challenge I'm hosting this year. This book is the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner, about a guy who hunts androids and "retires" them. But it's hard to tell them apart from humans so he gives them a test to determine their empathy levels. Then he falls in love with one of them. It's very interesting and was short and easily read.⭐⭐⭐
Better Than Revenge by Kasie West: I let in another fun YA romance this month. This one I bought at one of the conferences and had the author sign it. I think I might be caught up with all her books now! She announced she is working on her first adult novel, so that should be interesting. Anyway, this one is about a girl who is annoyed that her boyfriend tried out to be on the high school podcast team and got her spot. Then he said mean things about her, so they broke up... and then she wants to get revenge and take away HIS big dream, which is to be the kicker on the football team. She enlists the help of his nemesis, the previous kicker and she trains to try out for the team. As the kicker. And falls in love with the nemesis. But she learns revenge isn't all that great in the end.⭐⭐⭐⭐
Conferences:
LTUE: We spent three days learning about writing, and hanging out with authors and writing friends and taking a TON of notes. I have been going to this conference since 2008 but have missed it for the last several years. It was good to go back and I realized yet again what a great deal this one is. So so worth the money!
StoryCon: This is a new conference that was held this year, taking the place of Teen Author Bootcamp. But now they decided to invite everyone! And tons of authors came and did keynotes (local and not local) and lots of signings and it was great. I did a vlog of this one and you can watch it here if you are interested. Some of the authors that came: Jeff Kinney, Laini Taylor, Shannon Hale, Brandon Mule, Neal Shusterman, Marissa Meyer... etc.
It was a great month! My only plans for March is to read the book club book (The Bell Jar) and maybe some of the new books I acquired at the conference!
