February 2021 Wrap-Up: Reading Surprises, Highs and Lows, Dealing with Stress, and More!

Happy March, everyone! I hope everyone had a good February. Mine was chaotic, to say the least. This post is a bit long because so much happened, and not necessarily all of it was good. Let’s get started with this monthly wrap-up!

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

Synopsis

After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.

Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Date Started: January 19
Date Finished: February 17
Thoughts: I was nervous going into this book because I heard not-so-great things about it. Now having read Children of Virtue and Vengeance, I understand why people did not like it. The plot was basically back-and-forth violence between the Iyika (Zélie and Amari) and the Tîtáns (Inan). Just when you think the story is going to progress, it doubles back. The book is a cycle of attempted truces ending in slaughter, Amari and Zélie fighting, Zélie wanting to run away, and Inan flip-flopping. But the reason why I rated this book two-and-a-half stars is because I liked the ending. I hate how they arrived there—so much wasted death and violence. But the conclusion provides a fresh start and quite the cliffhanger. It makes me want to finish Zélie and Amari’s journey, despite the violence, murder, and heteronormativity. But my expectations for the final book are not high. Children of Virtue and Vengeance was one hell of a ride, but the ending redeems it from a super low rating.
Final Rating: ★ ★ ☆

“When the elders built this place, it was only bare mountaintops.” I look to the crowd. “It didn’t become a home because they filled it with towers. It became a home because they built it together. This land, these temples—they’re not what matters. As long as we have each other, we will carry Orïsha in our veins. No one can ever take that away.”

The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu

Synopsis

Life is good for Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. They’re living together in a fabulous loft, their warlock son, Max, has started learning to walk, and the streets of New York are peaceful and quiet—as peaceful and quiet as they ever are, anyway.

Until the night that two old acquaintances break into Magnus’s apartment and steal the powerful Book of the White. Now Magnus and Alec will have to drop everything to get it back. They need to follow the thieves to Shanghai, they need to call some backup to accompany them, and they need a babysitter.

Also, someone has stabbed Magnus with a strange magical weapon and the wound is glowing, so they have that to worry about too.

Fortunately, their backup consists of Clary, Jace, Isabelle, and newly minted Shadowhunter Simon. In Shanghai, they learn that a much darker threat awaits them. Magnus’s magic is growing unstable, and if they can’t stop the demons flooding into the city, they might have to follow them all the way back to the source—to the very realm of the dead. Can they stop the threat to the world? Will they make it back home before their kid completely wears out Alec’s mom?

Date Started: January 23
Date Finished: February 15
Thoughts: It was so much fun revisiting the original cast of characters! Of course, the book is about Magnus and Alec, but seeing Clary, Jace, Isabelle, and Simon (especially Simon) made my heart swell. I hadn’t realized how much I missed them until this book. I loved the plot, the circumstances, and how the book unfolded. I completely dropped my jaw at the ending. It made me realize how much of a wild ride The Wicked Powers and The Black Volume of the Dead will be. Finally, it is important to restate how much I adore Magnus Bane. He is such a complex character who continues to develop despite being alive for hundreds of years. He has such a good heart, but he also knows when to set up boundaries for himself. I love him so much, and getting to see him as a dad (and more Malec!) made me so happy. The book was a little slow initially, but once the team went to Shanghai, it picked up from there and was fantastic until the very end.
Final Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

“So far,” said Magnus, “life seems to me to be a matter of choosing love, over and over, even knowing that it makes you vulnerable, that it might hurt you later. Or even sooner. You just have no choice. You choose to love or you choose to live in an empty world with no one there but you. And that seems like a truly terrible way to spend eternity.”

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Synopsis

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood—and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

Date Started: February 2
Date Finished: February 22
Thoughts: I did not expect to fall in love with this book, yet here I am. There’s just something about Little Fires Everywhere. The first half was slow, but you still want to read because you need answers. Along the way, the novel deals with critical themes, such as motherhood, racism, love, life-changing choices, adoption, class difference, and more. The characters are wonderfully flawed, and the relationships are beautifully complex. Nothing is simple in Shaker Heights, even if the town comes across like that. The book left me with many questions, but I didn’t need definitive answers. Celeste Ng ended Little Fires Everywhere at the perfect moment, despite some loose ends. I don’t think I have ever read a standalone novel that leaves you wanting answers, but the book still ended at the right place. Actually, Jodi Picoult writes those endings, and it’s so refreshing to find that in another author with a completely different style. Overall, I loved this book, and even though I finished it over a week ago, I’m still thinking about it.
Final Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

But the problem with rules, he reflected, was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time there were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure which side of the line you stood on.

Love Is a Revolution by Renée Watson

Synopsis

When Nala Robertson reluctantly agrees to attend an open mic night for her cousin-sister-friend Imani's birthday, she finds herself falling in instant love with Tye Brown, the MC. He's perfect, except . . . Tye is an activist and is spending the summer putting on events for the community when Nala would rather watch movies and try out the new seasonal flavors at the local creamery. In order to impress Tye, Nala tells a few tiny lies to have enough in common with him. As they spend more time together, sharing more of themselves, some of those lies get harder to keep up. As Nala falls deeper into keeping up her lies and into love, she'll learn all the ways love is hard, and how self-love is revolutionary.

In Love Is a Revolution, plus size girls are beautiful and get the attention of the hot guys, the popular girl clique is not shallow but has strong convictions and substance, and the ultimate love story is not only about romance but about how to show radical love to the people in your life, including to yourself.

Date Started: February 2
Date Finished: February 28
Thoughts: This was such a good book! I loved Nala and her journey through love. Love Is a Revolution is about an essential type of love that is often overlooked—self-love. And it’s hard to truly love others the way they deserve without loving yourself first. That doesn’t mean you can’t struggle, endure bad days, or have insecurities—it’s more about self-acceptance. This book feels like a revolution on its own, and it is so beautiful. I only wish it was a little longer. Love Is a Revolution was concise and to the point, but I would have liked to see Nala come into her own more rather than just realizing she has to focus on herself and attempting to do so. Otherwise, this book was wonderful, and Nala’s character development was truly the best part. She searched for love and eventually realized she had to accept herself for who she is before loving someone else. What a beautiful message expressed through a beautiful story.
Final Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

You want to really be something in this world—learn how to walk in a room being yourself and staying true to who you are. Yes, there’s room for growth, always. But if the change isn’t for you it won’t last.

A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth

I reviewed A Dark and Hollow Star earlier this month! Click here to read my review.

It was Arlo’s choice.
She would have to be the one to decide the shape her future was going to take.
She didn’t want to be a hero, she didn’t want to die, but would her life really be worth living if it meant never taking part in things, regardless of the risk?

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

I reviewed The Gilded Ones earlier this month! Click here to read my review.

The emperors of Otera have oppressed our kind for too long. Proclaimed us as demons. But now their turn has come. Once you wake the goddesses, they’ll make Otera what it once was: a land of freedom, a land where men and women ruled equally, where women weren’t abused, beaten, raped. Where they weren’t imprisoned in their homes, told that they were sinful and unholy.

Television

Superstore, Season 6: This is the only visual media I consumed this month. We are almost at the end, and it hasn’t hit me that the show is almost over. I’m really going to miss these characters. Jonah and his entire being, Sandra’s relatability, Garrett’s realism, Mateo’s better-than-everyone-else vibe, Cheyenne’s sweet nature, Dina’s overbearing personality, and Glenn’s cluelessness. I’m going to miss the secondary characters, even the ones that aren’t super likable. This show is incredible, and it has been from the start. It is a shame how underrated it remained throughout its run. While I do love sitcoms, I had not laughed so hard at a show in years. Maybe ever. I was completely caught off guard by how easy Superstore made me laugh. Sometimes I would have to pause the episode because I couldn’t stop laughing. The show covered challenging issues with such grace and care. I’ll miss everyone so much. Here’s to Superstore going out with a bang!

Albums

Album: evermore
Artist: Taylor Swift
Genre: at this point, I just say that she’s her own genre, honestly
Thoughts: I don’t really know what to say about this album since I had already discussed my thoughts in January’s monthly wrap-up. I guess I’ll list my favorite songs from the album, even though I genuinely love them all. But I have soft spots for coney island, long story short, and evermore. I also love champagne problems, tolerate it, and happiness. But like I said, I love all the songs, and Taylor, please do not release another album in the first half of 2021. I may not survive it.

Songs

Song: Love Story (Taylor’s Version)
Artist: Taylor Swift
Genre: Country Pop
Thoughts: I’m not going to lie. When Taylor first announced she was planning on re-recording her first six albums, I was terrified. I supported her every step of the way, but I was concerned about her first few albums. What if they didn’t sound country? What if there’s no yeehaw voice? Well, as soon as I heard her version of Love Story, I knew I shouldn’t have doubted her. If anything, it sounds more natural and country because there’s not as much production. I love Taylor’s Version, and I am ecstatic to hear the rest of Fearless (along with six new songs!).

• February 4: January 2021 Wrap-Up: Diversifying Books, Reviewing for TV Fanatic, Spotify Playlists, and More!
• February 20: Organizing My Bookshelf (Marie Kondo Style) + Book Recs
• February 23: Book Review: A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth
• February 28: Book Review: The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

My Novel: In February, I didn’t spend a lot of time writing my novel. Instead, I focused on outlining and world-building since my Novel Workshop class critiqued the first two chapters. So, I spent most of the month brainstorming world-building visuals since it’s a high fantasy novel. I also carefully considered my classmates’ critiques before I went about reorganizing sections of my book. My world-building is split between my Scrivener file (where I also write the book) and my Notion writing dashboard. In March, my class will be critiquing another excerpt, so I plan to write more before then.

My Diary: I wrote a couple of entries in February, and I’m glad that I stuck to my plan. I wrote about a terrifying incident, blogging, school, work, and feelings (predictably). There wasn’t much else.

Lyrical Poems: I also like to write songs, but I hate calling them songs because (1) I cannot sing if I had to save the world, and (2) I didn’t write music for my lyrics [but I do plan to in the future]. So, they’re tentatively called lyrical poems, and I have a few notebooks filled with them, documenting personal experiences from my teenage years onward. I will probably never share them, but this is a favorite project of mine, and I’m happy I worked on it a bit this month!

Grad School: I know I said this last time, but I need to reiterate how much I love my comedy professor. She is so sweet and understanding, and she is such an excellent teacher, too. I guarantee I wouldn’t like this class as much as I do if it weren’t for her. As for my Novel Workshop, I am pleasantly surprised at the novels my professor has chosen for us to read so far. After completing an undergraduate degree in English Literature, I expect assigned books to be from the 19th century or early 20th. But so far, they’ve all been contemporary novels written by contemporary authors. I think modern literary fiction is vastly underrated because not many people consider the books as “classics,” so it is nice to cover this genre.

Notion: Using Notion has been incredible, even on days where I’m not mentally at my best. Sometimes when I’m not feeling great, just looking at my Notion dashboard motivates me to get something done. I’m forever changing its appearance to what I find aesthetically pleasing while still using the same color scheme. This program has just absolutely changed my life, and I don’t know who I would be anymore without it.

Decorating My Shelves: So I reorganized my bookshelf this month, but one thing I also did was look for inspiration to decorate it. I had no idea where to get cute little trinkets at a low price, and it only occurred to me last week that the dollar store is an ideal place. This week, I plan to scour the store, and I’ll let you know the results in my next wrap-up!

Overall, February was a very hectic month. As you’ll see in my January goals checklist below, I didn’t get to finish a lot of what I wanted to do. That is because school and work keep me very busy, but it is also because I crashed last week. I let my depression and anxiety get the best of me, and I just shut down for a few days, which I try not to do anymore. But it happened, and I processed it, and then I spent the last few days of February catching up and preparing for March. I’m hopeful that March will not be as dark, but I am still expecting it to be stressful since I have a lot to do. I’m a very spiritual person, and sometimes, staying close to my faith helps me overcome these challenging times, so I will try to focus on that if I ever feel like I’m spiraling in the next few weeks. It’s checklist time!

Books

February Reading Goals:

• Read four books ☑︎
• Good representation and diversity in more than half the books I read ☑︎
• Finish the books on my currently reading shelf ☑︎

February Books to Read:

• A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth ☑︎
• Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi ☑︎
• The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé ☑︎
• The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna ☑︎
• Influence by Sara Shepard and Lilia Buckingham ☒
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng ☑︎
• The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu ☑︎
• Love Is a Revolution by Renée Watson ☑︎

Completed Goals: 3/3

TBR List: 7/8

Other Media

February Television:

• Batwoman Season 2 ☒
• Continue Superstore Season 6 ☑︎

February Film:

• Continue watching horror franchises ☒
• Have movies for my February 2021 Wrap-Up ☒

February Music:

• Listen to music that isn’t Taylor Swift or musical soundtracks ☒

Completed Goals: 1/5

Blogging

February General Goals:

• Think of creative features to add to Regal Reads ☑︎
• Stay active on blog and social media ☑︎
• Connect with followers and other members of the book community ☑︎

To Post in February:

• The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna ☑︎
• A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth ☑︎
• February 2021 Wrap-Up ☑︎

February Royal Teatime:

• Bookshelf Reorganization Journey (Marie Kondo Style) ☑︎
• Think of and outline future Royal Teatime posts ☒

Completed Goals: 7/8

Writing

Novel in February:

• Finish rewriting chapter two, the first interlude, and chapter three ☒
• Research more Jewish mythology to further world-build and plan for future books potentially ☑︎

TV Fanatic in February:

• Post an editorial ☒
• Stay up to date with reviews ☒

Diary in February:

• Write at least two entries ☑︎
• Write about Regal Reads and the book community! ☑︎

Completed Goals: 3/6

Miscellaneous February Goals

Organization in February:

• Research and check out bullet journals ☒
• Watch bookshelf reorganization videos for some inspiration ☑︎
• Finish organizing Notion databases and use Notion actively ☑︎
• Use personal agenda/planner actively ☒
• Stay neat and organized, clean room and workspace if either becomes messy ☒

Personal Goals for February:

• Attend therapy and follow therapy goals ☑︎
• Stay up to date with grad school classes ☑︎
• Continue tracking food/exercise ☑︎
• Study & learn Torah ☒
• Stay involved and informed, inform self when possible ☑︎

Completed Goals: 6/10

Total Completed Goals (including TBR List): 27/40 (67.5%)

Total Completed Goals (excluding TBR List): 20/32 (62.5%)

Books

Reading Goals:

• Read at least four books
• Good representation in more than half of the books I read
• At least half the authors I read be diverse (i.e. POC, LGBTQ+, and/or Jewish)
• Finish the books on my currently reading shelf

Books to Read: (asterisk means they’re on my currently reading shelf, exclamation mark means I have to read the book for class)

• Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
• Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers *
• Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas
• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead * !
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro !
• Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali
• Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
• What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera *

Other Media

Television:

• Finish Superstore
• Watch Falcon & The Winter Soldier
• Watch Little Fires Everywhere

Film:

• Watch *one* movie (if you have any recommendations, please send them over!)

Music:

• Listen to artists *other than* Taylor Swift (if you have any recommendations, please send them over!)

Blogging

General Goals:

• Stay active on blog and social media
• Plan Royal Teatime & other feature posts
• Post more on Instagram with a focus on stories
• Cater Twitter more to books
• Connect more with the book community

Planned Posts:

• Book Review: Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
• Book Review: Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
• Book Review: Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas (this is a huge maybe, only if there’s time, if I don’t get to it, I won’t count it against me)
• March 2021 Wrap-Up (posted on April 1 or 2)

Writing

Novel:

• Finish writing chapter two and write first interlude
• Rewrite chapter one
• Continue world-building and mythology research

TV Fanatic:

• Post an editorial
• Stay on top of reviews for shows I’m covering

Diary:

• Write at least two entries
• Write longer entries

Miscellaneous Goals

Organization:

• Check out bullet journals
• Continue using Notion
• Use personal agenda actively
• Stay neat and organized, clean room and workspace if either becomes messy

Personal:

• Attend therapy and follow goals
• Use faith in stressful & dark times
• Stay up to date with school
• Find a part-time job
• Study & learn Torah
• Stay involved & informed

And that’s it for February! This was a super long post, so enough about my month—how was yours? Did you do what you wanted to do? What were your favorite books? Favorite media in general? Tell me everything!

As always, if you have any recommendations on how to spice up my monthly wrap-ups, please let me know! Advice is always welcome and much appreciated. I hope everyone has an excellent March!