Tag Archives: reading

February 2026 Reading Summary

2026, reading, , ,

TBR Reads

My official February TBR consisted of 13 books. Of those, I have read:

I didn’t read any of the 6 bonus TBR books.

Of the books I planned to read, but did not, 3 of them I do not yet own, so in the last week of February I officially took them off the TBR list and noted them as bonus books (in case I managed to buy them and read them before the end of the month):

Final result after TBR pruning was that I read 9/10 of my planned books. I’m pretty happy with a 90% finish!

Random Reads

February is all about Valentine’s Day in my planner, so when I saw that Amazon had a new series of short story romances (The Improbable Meet-Cute: Second Chances series) as part of their Kindle Unlimited lineup, I decided to make my way through the audiobook versions.

More non-planned reads include:

Hot for Slayer, a short story that I saw on Kindle Unlimited. In general, I really like Ali Hazelwood’s books, so I thought that I would like this one as well. However, it deviates from her normal STEM-related romances and it just wasn’t for me. I’m starting to think that short stories in general may not be for me.

My friend, Monica, alerted me to First and Forever, which was being offered as an ARC (advance reader copy) on NetGalley, with an anticipated publication date of May 12. I love the banter that Lynn Painter brings to her novels and she’s quickly becoming a favorite author. This book was no different; I really enjoyed it! A die-hard fan gets canceled for shoving a beloved team mascot down a flight of stairs after he harassed her at a game, and during the media circus that follows, the football team’s management decides the best path forward is to have a star player take her out on a date to improve the team’s optics.

Monica also let us (her Let’s Peanut Butter Taco ‘Bout Books Facebook group) know that Kim Holden had released a new book, Eye for an I. Another of her books, Bright Side, destroyed me; I have never cried so much while reading a book. This new book is in the same world and has cameos by other characters in the Bright Side series. This book follows a girl who has been hired to be the photographer and social media manager for a new brothers/duo band who nabbed an opening act spot on a tour. It reminded me of Mayluna by Kelley NcNeil, which I also gave 5 stars.

Books Read

  1. Hot for Slayer (⭐⭐1/2) by Ali Hazelwood – Review
  2. Six Crimson Cranes (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Elizabeth Lim – Review
  3. Accidentally Yours (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Christina Lauren – Review
  4. Time Will Tell (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Hannah Bonam-Young – Review
  5. Second Act Romance (⭐⭐3/4) by Julie Soto – Review
  6. Catch Her If You Can (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Tessa Bailey – Review
  7. First and Forever (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Lynn Painter – Review
  8. Fated Skates (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Victoria Schade – Review
  9. Chasing the Ring (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Lauren Rowe – Review
  10. A Play for Love (⭐⭐⭐) by Trilina Pucci – Review
  11. Death to Valentine’s Day (⭐⭐⭐3/4) by Catherine Cowles – Review
  12. Valentine’s Slay (⭐⭐) by Navessa Allen – Review
  13. Nuclear War (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Annie Jacobsen – Review
  14. Eye for an I (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Kim Holden – Review
  15. You & Me and You & Me and You & Me (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees – Review
  16. Stolen Midnights (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Katherine Quinn – Review
  17. Two Can Play (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Ali Hazelwood – Review
  18. Gideon the Ninth (⭐⭐1/2) by Tamsyn Muir – Review

Book Review – “A Merry Little Lie”

2025, Book Reviews, , , ,
A Merry Little LieA Merry Little Lie by Sarah Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a super cute Christmas story that follows 3 siblings and their partners gathering at their childhood home for the holiday. Each of the siblings has a big secret they have been keeping from their normally close-knit family, and Mom Jenny is anxious to have one last perfect Christmas before everything changes. It had all of the feels of a cozy Hallmark-style movie. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and how each character was genuinely interested in the feelings of their family members and in resolving conflict in a respectful and peaceful manner. We don’t often get to see healthy conflict resolution in the media we consume. Each of these secrets had the potential to cause some serious emotional damage, but the characters approached the revelations seeking to understand and heal instead of blame and reject.

There were several different twists in the story. One, I predicted pretty early on, but then was led to reject my prediction – a pretty clever redirect by the author! The main point of the story was that keeping feelings bottled up, swept under a rug, or creating little white lies to “protect” others is never going to lead to anything but isolation and hurt feelings. Being open, honest, and emotionally mature is always the best way to go.

This felt very authentic – coming from someone who is used to having large, chaotic family holiday get-togethers with plenty of drama. And of course, all of the adult sibling squabbling, which always seems to crop up, no matter how old you get.

I would enthusiastically recommend this to my friends, especially as the nights get colder and longer and the holiday season approaches. Bake some cookies, make some hot chocolate, and settle in for a enjoyable night!

View all my reviews

I was able to read and review this book before it is released thanks to Netgalley! It is scheduled to be released on October 7, 2025. Below is a sample of the book from Amazon.

Around the Internet…

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Every so often, I have to make a post like this, where I share some of the cool things that I have found while surfing the internet. Usually, there isn’t much to say about them, so they don’t get their own post, and half of the time, they are in a post just so I have a reference (and to get them off my to-do list!).

Activities

One day, I’d like to take part in the Adult Learn-to-Row program at the Detroit Yacht Club.

Books/Reading

Brandon Vogt shows us how to build a Catholic e-book library.

Scribd is a site that allows you to read as many books as you want for a small fee per month, kinda like Netflix for books.

Oyster – another site like Scribd; however, it appears to be available only

It’s a great year for the book-to-movie genre. Here is a list of 16 that are coming up!

Computers/Electronics

Adafruit – they have projects/supplies for a bunch of different things, including Raspberry Pi and Arduino

Looking to make your own circuit boards? 123D Circuits offers a place online to design and test them, and will even print out boards for you with the necessary connections. 🙂

Food

U of M’s MHealthy Program offers lots of healthy recipes online.

Budget Bytes has delicious recipes that won’t break the bank! Food is getting so expensive!

Crockpot Freezer Meals — one day, I will either do this, or do a freezer meal workshop with Wildtree products by my friend, Stacy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie – somebody make this for my birthday. Please.

Products/Shopping

My Social Book offers a yearbook-style product that accumulates your Facebook posts, comments and photos. It’s pretty cool. I had a small one made. I like looking at the things I was interested in and the conversations that I had years ago. It’s probably a better replacement than a yearbook for high-school kids, at this point. 🙂 (There are also Instagram books, Twitter books, etc. out there.)

My wallet officially died today. Meaning, it’s been dead for a while, but today I finally tossed it in the trash. I demonstrated my need to a co-worker and expressed my dissatisfaction with many of the options out there, and he pulled out his wallet from Big Skinny. I spent much of the morning on their site, and think I have found a suitable replacement.

Religion/Spirituality

Meg gives us 50 ways to talk to God.

Saints in the Making University has a Lenten program that I subscribed to. Every day, they send me a different set of challenges that work to help me grow closer to Christ.

Travel

The Delicious Day gives us 16 reasons to visit Detroit. Nothing like a staycation!

Need WiFi? U of M is now part of a program that allows traveling students, faculty and staff access to WiFi at other academic institutions.