My February 2025 Reads – A Book Review

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February. A traditionally short month, but I somehow managed to pack a lot into it. Let’s recap!

I went to see a play in Atlanta that I thought was a musical, but 30 minutes in, no singing, no dancing. Did I miss something? I wish I had known it wasn’t a musical, because had I known, I’d have skipped it. It was based off the 1985 film “Clue.” Which was a decent film that I remember watching on lazy Saturday afternoons on HBO growing up. But was I that big of a fan that I needed to see it regurgitated on stage? Uhhhh….

And I love going to the theater. I thought I was in for a real treat. A re-imagining of the film Clue, completely revamped and made even better with music? Yes, please! But alas, it was just a play, based on an old movie. It just wasn’t what I was expecting. Sigh. I should’ve read the fine print. Note to self: Stop assuming all plays are musicals.

Moving on. My daughter started acting classes and she loves it. She also got braces, which is a new journey for me as a parent. Neither I, nor my husband, have had braces, so we had a lot to learn. On the plus side, a lot of kids at her school have braces, so she’s not alone in this journey. And so far, it hasn’t changed her life too much. Though, the days of tootsie pops and laffy taffy will have to wait a while. Also, Solaris put on a concert with her school’s band and she went to the county science fair. Woo hoo!

As for my son, baseball season has begun. And so has something new: flag football. Plus he switched from piano to guitar lessons. I am gonna be one busy mama. Also, my son celebrated a birthday with his friends at one of those jumpy places. What are those called? Oh, yeah. Trampoline parks. It was wild. You’d think they were giving stuff away for free, there were so many people there!

As for writing, I’ve finished 16 chapters of my vampire coming-of-age novel so far, and I will be starting Chapter 17 tomorrow.

As always, if you’re interested in reading my first novel, The Secrets We Keep, it’s available to read here.

Now, without further ado, I read 4 books this past month. Now, I know I usually average about 8 books a month, but hear me out. Two of the books I read were monsters to get through and like 500-600+ pages each. But they were so good! Let’s get into the reviews. 🙂

Butcher and Blackbird (Book One of The Ruinous Love Trilogy Series) by Brynne Weaver

I read this one on my kindle, borrowed from my library. It was an enjoyable read. Not scary.  The two main leads were cute together, of course. The serial killer aspect of it was, to me, sort of a gimmick. I didn’t get the sense that either of them were particularly unhinged. They just seemed like normal people.

It was a delicate balance to portray these killers as likable. On Tik Tok, it’s considered a dark romance, but it wasn’t dark to me. I want to continue with the series and learn more about the brothers and their love interests.

I would’ve liked to see a flashback of their lives and what happened in their childhoods, but it wasn’t that kind of book. I guess that would’ve made it too dark and sad when it’s supposed to be a dark comedy.

4/5 stars

Keeping 13 (Book 2 of Boys of Tommen Series) by Chloe Walsh

I listened to this on Audible. It really could’ve been shorter, but I still love the characters. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is an intense scene featuring the dad and what he had planned for his family. I had to reflect on that for a moment. It got real dark and disturbing. That whole situation was just so sad.

This is such a long book, it’s split into two separate audiobooks. I didn’t need to know every little thing they did, but I still enjoyed the journey. Johnny is such a great book boyfriend. I loved watching Shannon, like the river, grow and blossom.

It starts with Shannon coming to, and then Johnny figuring out that it’s her dad who’s been abusing her. When Johnny saw the dad in the parking lot at the movies, I was like, what is he gonna do? And yeah, he did what needed to be done. Don’t wanna give it away, but I commend him for doing what he did.

He was such a gentleman. He didn’t wanna push her too fast. He knew that she was a virgin. But she was just like hot for him, like she would give him anything he wanted, but he still wanted to take it slow. It was all very romantic and very sweet.

I love the supporting characters. I don’t really understand that other friend, Lizzie, and why she has beef with Gibsy. Maybe I missed something there. We learn about Gibsy’s traumatic childhood of losing his sibling and his father in a boating accident, and that’s why he uses humor to deal with his pain. He gets his own book later in the series, which I will definitely be reading. The stories are long-winded, but I don’t mind.

4.25 / 5 stars

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

I listened to this one on Libby. It started out great. I loved the first 50%. It was like a tinder box just waiting to explode with that toxic father and husband. He was just awful. Everybody had to walk on eggshells around him. He was a crazy son of a bitch, but around halfway through, it started to lose steam for me. The dad started to get really annoying. I was just ready for him to either die or go away.

It didn’t sit well with me that the mother, Cora, by definition, terrorized her own daughter, Lenny, by staying with the man who beat her. She should’ve left him so many times, but she let the abuse go on and on, and did nothing to stop it.

The father was filled with so much rage and hate, it had nowhere else to go but to his fists. What ultimately happens to the dad is probably the best part of the whole book. But then later, it turns into another story, and everyone has to deal with the aftermath and how this sorry excuse for a man negatively affected an entire town. There’s a lot that happens, that I can’t really get into without spoiling everything.

The main character, Lenny, does something real stupid at the end with the police. She’s in her 20s at that point in the book and should’ve known better. I was dumbfounded by the stupidity.

Lenny’s love interest, Matthew, went through so much for her. His entire life was changed all because of her father.

I loved when Lenny stood up to her father and ignored him. She was just done with him, after all the drama he put everyone through. It was so sad that she had to live with that stress everyday. She couldn’t just be free and be a teenager. All because of her mom and her mom’s stupid, destructive decisions in the name of “love”.

Overall, it was a sad story and hard to read at times, but it was well done. The domestic abuse was really well done. The mom was not as bad as the dad, but she’s pretty damn bad, in my opinion, for keeping herself and her daughter in this terrible situation, for her weakness, and her selfishness.

Cora, the mom, brought all her drama into Alaska. It was like she knew her husband was crazy, but she was still like, ‘Here town, here’s my crazy husband. He’s going to affect all of you in the worst way possible’. Girl, bye!

3.75 / 5 stars

Do Not Disturb by Freida McFadden

I listened to this on Audible. This was by far my least favorite book by Freida McFadden. Which sucks, because I love me some Freida McFadden. You can check out my reviews for some of her other books here, here, here and here.

I got nothing from this book. I didn’t care about any of the characters. The twist at the end? Whatever.

We never got to really meet the guy the sister killed in the beginning. But shrug. He was a wife beater and a cheater, so who cares?

I suspected who the bad guy was, but I wasn’t sure. I wondered when they were gonna circle back to whoever killed Christina. And then at the end when we find out? Again. Shrug. The whole thing. Just whatever. None of them were likeable. There was nobody to root for. It was more like an idea that the author just put to paper with no emotion behind it. They were trying to give it a Rear Window / Hitchcock feel, but it completely fell flat to me. Do NOT recommend. Check out her better books!

1 / 5 stars

Thank you for reading!