First Review of February

Hello Lovelies! Welcome to Heather's themed reading year. That's right, we are doing themed reading this year. Not constantly... please, I'm a huge mood reader and my neurodivergence will throw a tantrum if I stick to too close of a script. However I have long appreciated reading Christmas themed books in December, and as I realized my book count goals had turned into a need for feeling some sort of accomplishment in my life (which thankfully I no longer need) I don't have a specific count set for the year. Ignore goodreads, that's only so I can keep track, I don't actually care if I read 50, 100 or 10 books this year as long as I'm happy with my life and enjoying the books for simply being good books... So I needed a new "goal" persay. Something to drive my reading forward. I also want to continue the practice I have started, to try and be conscious of the diverse voices and stories I read and make an effort to keep my reading diverse. In that vein while I have set "themes" for different parts of the year that in no way means I can't read certain voices or themes the rest of the year it only means that I am focusing in specifically on them during a certain timeframe, kind of as a challenge to see what new amazing books I can find in each niche. 

So without further ado we begin February, the month of love...and the month of Black History. As this is my first time attempting this challenge (mood reader) and I have finally had a breakthrough with my mental health and am trying to keep my reading light so as to not trigger massive depression and rage at the world again... I'm not focusing on the history part. Yes it is important and I highly encourage everyone to pay attention to the history we so often weren't taught in schools. It is vital. For me for this month I focused on the love...yes if you don't enjoy romance or romcoms, this is not the blog for you for the rest of this month. This is your PSA. I will be spending the entire month focusing on Romcoms and Romance novels written by black authors. 

This was actually a bit of a challenge for me when I decided it because as I looked through the stacks of books around my house both read and unread. While I have actually started accumulating more romance novels, I owned zero by black authors...it's okay I'm judging me too. But also why couldn't black history month fall not on romance month haha I have a stack of fantasy novels I would love to read/re-read. I guess it wouldn't be a challenge then haha. I now own two, and would own more but my bank account screamed at me, so we are doing some library books...and if I get totally burnt out on romance I'll switch to supporting black voices while reading fantasy. 

Now that I've given you far too long of an introduction, would you like to hear about the book I read last week? It's a new favorite and now I need the entire series, so the being good and not buying more books for this challenge may not last. 

I read "Happily Ever Afters" by Elise Bryant. Definitely the cutest most feel good book I've read this year (I read a lot of dark fantasy so far). In this adorable romcom, coming of age, finding yourself story; we follow Tessa, a junior in high school who just moved hours away from the only life she's ever known. Moreover Tessa is a writer, has always been a writer, and is taking a leap by attending an exclusive art school in Long Beach to hone in on her writing. Unfortunately for Tessa, she has never shared her writing with anyone other than her best friend and gets a massive case of anxious writers block. In this school where the focus is her writing, Tessa cannot find a single word. She embarks on a crazy plan to create her own love story in an attempt to get her inspiration back and find the words again. 

I LOVED this book. There were several nights this week I was up later than planned because "oh I'll just read another chapter". It was lighthearted and fun and also extremely serious. The pressure Tessa is under between school, her ethnicity, the struggles with having and supporting her older brother through his disabilities. It's a lot, yes she looses herself and becomes not the best version of herself. But what rises from the ashes of burning down who you thought you were, what you thought you wanted, almost makes it worth it I think.

And Sam...Sam is the best, everyone should be like Sam. I (like Tessa) instantly appreciated him for the way he spoke to and treated Miles. No awkwardness, no treating him differently or being uncomfortable. Total and complete acceptance. 

Nico....ugh, that boy. ew. that is all I'll say on that. 

I also really appreciated the conversation Poppy and Tessa had towards the end of the book. Yes Poppy is a privileged mean girl and pulled some pretty nasty shit. But I appreciated that we were given a glimpse of her being human too. What she did is still unforgiveable. 

This book is YA, it's about young love, about life, about struggling to find the right path for yourself, about accepting yourself and accepting people other than yourself exactly as they are. If they're dorky in Hawaiian shirts gushing about the latest recipe they made. If they experience the world differently than the "average" person and need some more grace. If you love writing happy romance novels even though some may not consider it "serious writing". 

If I could tell Tessa anything, give her any kind of pep talk it is that. We all need a little more love and light and diversity in our lives. We need to see people who are like us and people who are different than us represented. And we all need to be more accepting of our fellow humans whatever our differences, because the differences are what make us special.