Ha! and I thought January was wet when I wrote that summary post. Turns out February was determined to win that particular competition, wasn’t it?

I live in Shropshire and half the county turned into an ocean and the rest of it a coastline, which was a novelty given we are actually landlocked. We’ve not seen flooding that bad locally in years (probably since the year 2000) and because there was a new storm every weekend (or at least that’s how it felt) the water levels kept receeding and then just as people were getting into the clear up, they’d rise again.

I am super glad we happen to live up a hill and are not near any rivers or waterways so we were safe and sound.

In a perfect world, all that stormy weather would have equalled lots of reading, but my brain didn’t co-operate on that level so I only actually finished three books in February, although I did start three others!

Firstly, I finished reading Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire by J. K. Rowling with the kids. It’s possibly the quickest we’ve finished a Potter book together, even though it was the longest so far. The kids really enjoyed this one, and I loved revisiting it – I’d forgotten how much I loved Winky the house-elf.

The next book I finished was Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch which is book five of the Rivers Of London series (not including the graphic novels, I think it might be book 7 if I count those…) so I’m going to have to try and be spoiler free for the earlier books in my review, which is always fun.

The first book in the series to venture out of the boroughs of London, Foxglove Summer took Peter Grant and Beverly Brook nearer my neck of the woods and into pretty Herefordshire. It was frequently hilarious in a ‘city boy in the country’ kind of way although I will admit to the odd indignant snort at some country stereotypes. I mean, they were quite accurate, but still, hmph!

I felt like this book was possibly a big character building exercise for Peter – dragging him out of his comfort zone and establishing some new boundaries, as well as letting us see him without Nightingale to hold him up when things got a bit messy. It makes me wonder what is coming next, that needed him to be built up this way!

5/5*

My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma was the last book I actually finished in February.

A fluffy, popcorn YA romance that is as cheesy as the title implies, the story follows Winnie as she tries to figure out her future after her relationship with the boy she thought the stars had predicted was her destiny falls apart.

Winnie is obsessed with Bollywood and film, and there are many Bollywood film references throughout. They are cleverly done though, so even if you haven’t seen a single one (like me – I haven’t even seen Bend It Like Beckham…) it doesn’t really matter and they are still funny.

I liked the blend of traditional Indian and modern American cultures and how Winnie and her friends lived in both worlds, it felt very realistic and down to earth.

It was, however, a bit predictable. There were a couple of ‘twists’ but I saw them coming a million miles off and nothing really surprised me – they weren’t bad, just nothing special.

I also found Winnie the tiniest bit irritating. There were quite a few moments where I just wanted to shake her and tell her to get on with it.

If I hadn’t been in a February brain-fuzz and reading at a snail’s pace, this would probably have been a super quick read, and it would be perfect for a holiday read where you want something cute and fluffy.

3/5*

The three books I have started are the next group read with Tori and Arthur (The Wild Folk by Sylvia Linsteadt), a book I am sharing with just Arthur when Tori is out at Scouts (Unipiggle The Unicorn Pig: Unicorn Muddle by Hannah Shaw), and my February book swap book (Our Child Of The Stars by Stephen Cox) – I am enjoying all of them so far and hopefully will get at least two of them finished very soon! (Our all together reads tend to take a while – as they come inbetween reading school books and other things!)