Sorry kids, no feet.

Nobody is more surprised than I am at my start to the reading year. After the way I finished 2016, I thought for sure 2017 was going to be the same struggle. Fortunately I have found some excellent new authors and characters to keep me motivated to read in 2017. February was another month of discoveries and fantastic reading. 

I did not quite meet all of my set February goals but considering I had less reading time, I think I still did pretty well. 

New Characters:

John Shakespeare  

-I have most of Rory Clements' John Shakespeare (Yes, that Shakespeare but not  that  Shakespeare.) in my Kindle library. They tend to come up on monthly deals quite a bit. I may have said this before but I'm going to say it again. Rarely do I really like the first novel in a series. This novel was a rare exception. I'm always on the lookout for something comparable to C.J. Sansom's Shardlake novels. I like Tudor-era mysteries that gloss over the glitz and glamour of court life and immerse the reader in the gritty back alley politics. Clements manages to capture that atmosphere with his slightly naive Shakespeare. I look forward to spending more time getting to know Shakespeare and wandering around in his Elizabethan world. 

 Amelia Peabody 

-I don't even know where to begin with this wonderful Victorian "spinster". From the first few pages where Amelia is referring to typhoid as a disease weak minded people get to the end where she is running around planning on how she is going to get her hands on a pair of pants, Amelia had me in stitches. I am going to need to make space on a bookshelf for more adventures from Amelia and friends. 

New Authors

 Emily Hauser 

- For the Most Beautiful is one of the best books I have read all year. It is going to take some pretty intense competition to bump this book off of my end of the year top 10. Like the title suggests, this book was beautiful. Hauser takes the battle of Troy and tells the story from the perspective of the women on the front lines. I knew within 20 pages, this was a book meant to be devoured in one sitting. By the end I was crying. Crying because of the inevitable fates of many of the characters. Crying because it was over. Crying because I have to wait until June to read any more of Hauser's work. 

 Susanna Kearsley 

-Several of my reading friends have suggested that  The Splendour Falls  is one of Kearsley's weakest novels. If this is what Kearsley's worst looks like, I'm dying to see what her best is like. Again, I think I'm going to need more bookshelf space.

Other Thoughts

-The latest collection of published short stories by J.K. Rowling found its way to my Kindle this month. I am a huge Harry Potter nerd. I am not-so-patiently waiting for the day my girls are finally big enough to have Harry Potter buddy reads with me. Any time J.K. Rowling announces she has released new writing, I am like a kid a Christmas. My excitement really needs to stop. I was terribly disappointed in  The Cursed Child. My levels of disappointment with these short stories was not on that level, but I was disappointed none the less. These stories are advertised as delving deeper into the world of Harry Potter. That might be the case for the casual fan. However, for avid Harry Potter fans, the stories don't really add anything to the existing Harry Potter universe. The one thing I found interesting in these short stories was Rowling's own commentary. I really enjoyed the inside look at what went into Rowling's writing. She didn't just make up words. There was a reason for everything word she wrote. 

Hopefully March provides me with more quality reading!