If January was a thousand years long, February lasted a weekend. It seems like just yesterday I sat down to wrap up everything I’d read in January, and now here I am again. 

While some of February felt like Groundhog Day, towards the end, we finally began to see a light at the end of this endless winter tunnel. We’ve had a few days above zero now, and the snowbanks that are taller than I am are beginning to recede. It’s easy to get very stir-crazy when you’re stuck inside day after day with a tiny infant, so seeing these early signs of Spring is quite literally giving me life. 

For such a short month, February was also exceptionally good for reading. I’m still maximizing the little one’s naptimes, which allowed me to get through eight full books this month. As a first for me, I read an equal amount of nonfiction and fiction, though this is not a trend I expect to last as it was mostly necessitated out of need. Of the fiction books I read, they were almost all excellent and left me feeling satisfied with my reading as I head into March. 

Books Read in February 2025

In terms of fiction books, this is what I was able to cover in February:

1. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley—this was a beautifully inventive, witty, and at times devastating novel that tackled time travel, the nature of race and otherness, societal development, etc. It was quick and enjoyable, with a great balance of humour and critique, and I loved every second of it. This was an easy 5-star read for me with a full review to come.
2. The Mask Falling (The Bone Season #4) by Samantha Shannon—this series is my Roman empire. I cannot emphasize enough how good every single subsequent book seems to be and The Mask Falling was no exception. I could not be happier with my timing, having come to this series late but also just in time for the fifth installment that is now released. This was another 5-star read with a full review to come.
3. Gallant by VE Schwab—I picked this book up on a clearance rack with some high hopes as I’m typically a huge Schwab fan. It was a quick and creepy read and did highlight Schwab’s signature prose nicely, but it wasn’t my favourite of their works. I rated this one 3.5 stars and will likely stick with the concise review I left over on my Goodreads.
4. Beach Read by Emily Henry—I’ll never understand why I make myself wait so long between each Henry book that I read because they’re all utterly fantastic. I loved everything about Beach Read from start to finish, it was the perfect summer romance with just the right amount of devastation for my heart. Another easy 5-star read with a full review to come.

TBR Lists

I was pretty focused on just barrelling through all the books that I had on the go this month, but I did manage to add a few new ones to my TBR as I saw them around the internet. Here are my latest additions:

• Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto: a romance about two string players who fight their attraction to each other as they compete for centre stage. I’ve seen a lot of reviewers rave about how much they loved this book and given that it’s now on Kindle Unlimited, I’d like to pick it up next time I want a romance to shake things up.
• The Gryphon King by Sara Omer: this one isn’t due until July, but it’s billed as a Southwest Asian-inspired epic fantasy “brimming with morally ambiguous characters, terrifying ghouls and deadly monsters.” The world sounds hyper-unique and complicated, and I’ve seen some great preliminary hype. I’m looking forward to picking this one up. 
• The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen: sounds a bit like a grown-up Percy Jackson given the Greek mythology and contemporary setting, which I would definitely be into.
• Katabasis by RF Kuang: I started to see ARCs go out for Katabasis this month and I just want to make clear that I would give my left arm to have received one. I have loved everything that Kuang has written thus far and a story about two graduate students who must go to Hell to rescue their professor could not sound more interesting to me if it tried.

What I’m Loving Right Now

First and foremost, I do want to mention that one of the things I love most right now is having such ample time to read. I feel like I’m in this sweet spot where baby girl is still napping quite extensively, and also now sleeping through the night (yay us!), and so, I have both time and energy to plow through a lot of great books. I haven’t had this kind of serendipity in my reading life in probably a year and a half, and as baby girl gets busier I’m quite sure this will change, so for now I’m savouring it as best as I can.

Outside of reading, I’ve had lots of other cup-fulling on the go as well though. Here are some of my particular favourites:

Baking Pies

This is random, but has proven to also be awesome. When perusing Homesense for a lack of anything else to do, my husband and I stumbled upon a cookbook from a baker we’d both enjoyed on a Netflix series. The book was entirely dedicated to pies, and so we committed to mastering the art of pie-making in the coming months. 

I’m not going to mention the actual book because so far it’s been a bit mediocre, but the baking of pies has been a lot of fun! My husband is a chef so he takes on the more skill-oriented pieces (I had no desire to attempt lemon curd on my own) and I’ve been tackling the less skill-intensive pieces. Most importantly, we’ve had a lot of fun and as a bonus, eaten a lot of pie.

Swim Lessons

Baby girl began swim lessons this past month and let me tell you, there is nothing more precious than singing nursery rhymes with a bunch of under 1-year olds in tiny baby swim caps. The word “lesson” might be a bit generous for what’s happening, but it’s been a ridiculously fun family outing each weekend and my husband and I might be having more fun than our daughter at this point.

The Library

In this arctic tundra of a province, it’s sometimes hard to find reasons to leave the house when it’s so far below zero, but I’ve started making a monthly pilgrimage to my local library and have grown to really enjoy it. I live in a city, but our public library system is quite modest and as such, so are their collections. I used to find it a bit frustrating that they never seemed to have the titles I was looking for, but I recently shifted my mindset to look at it more like a used bookstore. I like to show up, peruse every aisle, and see what grabs my attention. I have such a significant TBR that by doing this, I find a lot of the time titles will jump out that I definitely wouldn’t have searched for first, but am still interested in reading. It’s been a fun way of supporting my local library, varying my reading, and getting to titles that I haven’t invested in myself. It’s also been the main driver behind my recent foray into nonfiction—sometimes that’s all I can find, so I take advantage of what sounds interesting and go from there. 

For a short month, it still felt like there was a lot going on and even more, that there’s a lot to look forward to. I’m hoping to maintain this reading pace while also enjoying some of these warmer temperatures that are coming our way.