February 2026 Monthly Wrap Up!

 

The books I read in February!

I did a beta read for an online writing friend. It's a YA fantasy about dryads bringing their conflict into the human world. It was pretty good! If it gets officially published I'll be sure to mention it and pump it up!

Emma M. Lion Vol 7 by Beth Brower: I continued my love for this series this past month and this one might be my favorite? I don't know! I can't choose a favorite, it all melts into one story and just builds on itself until you can't separate out these volumes at all! I'm currently reading Vol 8 and loving and will be so sad to run out of having another one waiting. Vol 9 should be published later this year and I guess I'm just along for this crazy journey now!  The author came and did an event at the library in February and I was scheduled to actually work the event.. and might have perhaps met her and etc... BUT I got sick and had to stay home! I was so so so disappointed!

We Are Never Getting Together by Janette Rallison: This is a fun YA romcom that I read through NetGalley. It will be released on April 7, so look for my official review as it gets closer. It has some fun tropes like enemies to lovers, fake boyfriend, reverse Parent Trap (they are trying to keep their parents apart!) and football jock with the drama queen. So fun. I love all this stuff! If you love it too, keep your eye open for this one!

Ninja Newsletter by Tammi Labrecque: This is a book all the people at the writing conferences say to read... because having an author newsletter is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! How to get people to come and read it.. now that's a big huge question! She claims to have all the answers and in the second book, which I just finished, she talks about exactly how to do it. And she makes it sound SO EASY and just do this thing and people will come FLOCKING to your newsletter. HA! It makes me crazy, can you tell? Flocking... lol. Anyway, I've started a newsletter on Substack, which is very similar to this blog only... more... authory... and more writing focused and etc... so if you are interested.. you'll all flock there now, right? 

The Spectacular by Fiona Davis: This was the book club book of the month. The premise was cool... all about the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall and the experience our character has becoming one of them for a few months. It's tied into another historical event... some pipe bomber during the late 50s terrorizing New York. So these two stories are combined and also, a character is introduced who started criminal profiling, which helped to find the bomber. It's all interesting, but the writing was so dry and cardboard-y for me and I just didn't love it. It was okay!

If you are interested in a video version of my monthly wrap up, you know you can click on over to the channel! I have a ton of plans for March (some I'm actually accomplishing!) so look to see how that ends up next month! 

What's the best book you read this best month? 

Want to be an ARC Reader?

 Hey friends!

It's time for me to gather some ARC readers for Always Best Buds! I'm going to assume you all know what that means! (If not there is more info on the sign up form!)

I'll be taking sign ups until the end of March, and then you have until the release date, May 12, 2026 to post a review an Amazon/Goodreads and/or your socials. 

So if this book that I've been promoting (see previous posts for a description and a book trailer!) sounds interesting to you, or you just think it would be fun to be part of the journey, go ahead and sign up!

CLICK HERE FOR THE SIGN UP FORM!

I hope to see a bunch of you join me! Thanks so much!

Always Best Buds Book Trailer!

 I made a book trailer for Always Best Buds! Hopefully this will give you a feel for what this book is like: sweet YA romance, boy crazy girls, 80s nostalgia, told through letters. Let me know what you think!

Free School Survival Guide Now Available!

 The characters in my book, Jan and Liv, are very anxious about starting a new school year. About a week before school starts in August 1982, they write up a School Survival Guide filled with worries and fears and how to conquer them, goals, and lists and rules and boy strategies. Also, a playlist of their current favorite music that they think might help get them through any rough patches.

I'm giving that away for free if you sign up for my Substack newsletter! (Which is a lot like this blog actually only for authors!) I plan to post an article in the newsletter no more than once a week... and more likely about twice a month when I'm not promoting a book. I'd love to have you join me there!

So, if that sounds fun, head on over there and subscribe! You should get a welcome email with the link to download the Survival Guide. And hopefully once you read that, you will get a good feel for these crazy girls and what you'll be in for if you decide to read the whole book, Always Best Buds!

I'm Publishing a Book!

If you aren't following me in all the other places, perhaps you haven't heard yet that I made a goal this year to set one of my books free into the wild, aka. I AM PUBLISHING SOMETHING!

I'm done waiting to have the guts to find an agent and a traditional publisher, and since the stigma surrounding self-published books seems to be fading, and after much research, I have decided to go ahead and learn what all that is about and use this first book as my guinea pig. 

Not that I don't love this book, but I figured it is just different enough that it doesn't' stand a chance in the "normal" world of "regular" publishing anyway.  

So this past month I've jumped in with both feet and am doing, or trying to do, all the things! I've started a marketing campaign on Instagram/Threads, with some cross over posts on my new author facebook page and Bluesky.

I've started a newsletter on Substack (which is a lot like blogging, but different too.)

I've created a website.

I've printed up a hard copy of my book and got it proofread.

I've created a cover and blurb.

I made bookmarks to give away as swag.

I put it up on Goodreads and made an author profile. (Still need to connect the author profile to the book, but it won't let me do it until it's official on Amazon.)

I created an Amazon KDP account, but haven't yet put the book up because it's not QUITE ready.

Once it's ready, I will make it available to pre-order. And also call for ARC readers, and also give away a prequel chapter to whoever will subscribe to the above mentioned newsletter. I hope that will include some of you!

But what is this book you ask???

It's called Always Best Buds and is a sweet YA romance set in 1982, told through the notes the two girls write to each other during their junior year in high school. It's in a sort of graphic novel format with the pages looking like actual letters with doodles and pictures and smears and lists and all the cute things 16 year old girls would do.

Here is the official blurb that will be on the back of the book:

“Physics is going to kill me, but I’ll die happy!”

Liv passes the note to her best friend, Jan, on the first day of their junior year, 1982. They are stoked to make this school year a most excellent one. And it’s starting off stupendously with a class full of totally awesome boys.

These dramatic and boy-crazy notes continue all year long, helping them to survive the emotional ups and downs of navigating their first crushes.

Jan is the brainiac.
Liv is the athlete.
Miles is the musician.
Jace is the mysterious new boy.
All of them are band geeks.

And all of them are stressed to the max.

Will their friendship survive the year or will it end in jealousy and messy break ups?

ALWAYS BEST BUDS is a sweet heart-warming romance full of friendship, fun and 80's nostalgia.

I hope it sounds fun to you all and that a few of you will be among my first readers! And if you have a young person in your life (this is YA... but I would consider it lower YA and upper MG if we want to be technical!) then please share with them! 

Stay tuned for the official announcement for ARC reader sign ups and also when that teaser chapter will be ready (most likely this coming week!) 

If you aren't doing so already, you can follow my bookish Instagram to keep updated: @sueyybooks, and if you want to get on the mailing list now for the teaser chapter, you can subscribe to my newsletter here: https://sueysbooks.substack.com/about. Or you can send me a message on my new website and I'll add you to the list myself: https://www.kerrisuejensen.com/connect.

Thank you for following along with this crazy journey! Be looking forward to the official release date, May 12, 206!

January 2026 Reading Recap

 

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol 6 by Beth Brower: There's not much more to say about these books now except if you haven't started reading them what are you waiting for! Emma's story continues and just gets better and better mostly because we as readers get more and more familiar with the characters and more and more invested in all of them. It's like a small town series just sent in this late 1800 time period in England. It's so good. Seriously.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton: This was our book club read for January. I enjoyed finally seeing the inspiration for the movie I've loved and watch so many times over the years. It was a fun read, though I didn't love the writing style a ton. I know a lot of people do, but I found it to be pretty bland at times. I hear that some of his other books are actually better (Timeline I want to check out for sure) so I am definitely curious.

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab: This is the third in the Darker Shades of Magic serious and one that I have been wanting to get to forever. And it felt like it took forever to read too, and I'm not sure why because it's actually an easy read and very fast paced. I guess just because it's such a big book and because I was trying to read so many other things at the same time. Anyway, I got a little weepy when this one ended, having to say goodbye to these characters and leaving them where they are in the end. What a crazy ride it was! I loved the whole series so much and highly recommend if you are into magic and fantasy!

Story Genius by Lisa Cron: I finally finished this one by listening to it. Sigh. It was interesting stuff but still didn't grab me really and I didn't have a big light bulb moment or didn't get anything really wowing and helpful for my writing. She used a LOT of examples of her friend's book as if we were going through the motions for that story and it was so boring for my. I didn't want the details of her friend's book, you know? Anyway. At least I can say I read it and when this author comes to the conference I'm going to in May I can at least now what she's sort of about. Right?

Beta Read: This was a great story by an online writer friend. A YA fantasy about dryads and tree magic and the mixing of that world with the human world and I really enjoyed it! It will be fun to see how it does in the world. 

And that's my January wrap up! Now I just need to get busy and finish some books for February! I think I'm reading about seven books all at once. Why do I keep doing that? LOL!

The Personal Curriculum Club!

 

When I started my BookTube channel just over three years ago, one of my "big ideas" was to do something I called Forced Phases... which is where you figure out something you want to learn about and make it a phase for awhile... do a deep dive and learn all you can.

It didn't really go over very well. I wanted people to join me in the effort, not to necessarily learn the same thing I was learning, but to do their own thing and we'd all talk about it. But it seemed I was all alone with the endeavor.

So I gave up on it.

But then this year my friend on BookTube (Mariandrea at @books_and_bocadillos) suggested we try it again. But this time we'd use the term you are all more familiar with... personal curriculum. You HAVE heard of this, yes? 

Check out our introduction video here, and join us! Figure out your own personal area of study... something fun! Something you've always wanted to do or learn! Something that you might not normally do in the midst of all the craziness. OR... something that fits into what you have planned already!

Just think it up and make a plan and let's do it!

We are dividing the year up into two semesters. Spring semester will go from now (or officially Feb 1) through May. Then we'll take a summer break followed by Fall Semester from September through December. 

At the end of each semester we'll do a live stream on our channels to discuss with you all how it went! We'll also check in with our progress on our own channels about once a month.

In addition, there are two other spaces online where you can connect and discuss your projects. I've created a book club page on Storygraph. Click here to find that. And Mariandrea has added a space on her Discord. Click here to find that. 

And what am I going to study this "semester?" I was intrigued about two different women this past year that I wanted to learn more about so I'm going to do a class about Fascinating Historical Women! And learn about those two and maybe add a one or two more to the list, though I'm not sure who those ones will be yet.

The two I know I'll be studying are Marie Laveau and Mary Pickford! One is called the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, and the other is America's Sweetheart and the one of the first actresses in the film industry. My plan is to read one or two non fiction books about them, and then figure out a fiction book that ties into their life or history somehow. Also a documentary, or podcast or movie. We'll see what happens! (Click here to see my BookTube video about my plans!)

Does doing a personal curriculum sound intriguing to you? Do you want to join us? Do you have something you've been curious about? Let me know in comments! I look forward to hearing what you want to do!