February 2024 TBR

I’m reading pink and red books in honor of Valentines Day. They’re not even remotely close to romantic but at least they fit the aesthetic. My husband and I aren’t big Valentines Day people. Probably because we just got through with Christmas, my birthday, and our anniversary just a couple of weeks ago. But I can eat chocolate and read scary books just as well as I can with a romance. So, here’s my February 2024 tbr.

Black Sheep

Synopsis:

Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly…something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back–mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.

Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.

When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.

I love the cover of Black Sheep. It’s so pink and pretty. But I suspect that the story is going to shock me. I love the idea of a horror book based on a cult but I haven’t read one that feels well executed yet. So, I’m really interested to see my thoughts on this one.

Rosemary’s Baby

Synopsis:

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling-actor husband Guy are thrilled to move into the Bramford, a sought-after Manhattan apartment building prized for its Victorian details and gargoyled facade. Yet as they learn of a darker side to the building’s history–and become acquainted with their overly attentive neighbors, the Castevets–unspoken tensions enter into the young couples’ relationship. Matters improve when Guy lands a major role, and Rosemary at last becomes pregnant. But as her pregnancy takes frightening turns, Rosemary begins to question if her neighbors’ heightened interest is strictly innocent, or if their motivations–and those of Guy himself–portend terrifying consequences for her, and her unborn child. Is Rosemary “…going mad, or going sane”?

I read The Pram in January, and it is based on Rosemary’s Baby. I loved the concept of The Pram, but it just felt way too short. I’m hoping the Rosemary’s Baby gives me the depth I missed in it.

Cytonic

Synopsis:

Spensa’s life as a Defiant Defense Force pilot has been far from ordinary. She proved herself one of the best starfighters in the human enclave of Detritus and she saved her people from extermination at the hands of the Krell—the enigmatic alien species that has been holding them captive for decades. What’s more, she traveled light-years from home as an undercover spy to infiltrate the Superiority, where she learned of the galaxy beyond her small, desolate planet home.

Now, the Superiority—the governing galactic alliance bent on dominating all human life—has started a galaxy-wide war. And Spensa’s seen the weapons they plan to use to end it: the Delvers. Ancient, mysterious alien forces that can wipe out entire planetary systems in an instant. Spensa knows that no matter how many pilots the DDF has, there is no defeating this predator.

Except that Spensa is Cytonic. She faced down a Delver and saw something eerily familiar about it. And maybe, if she’s able to figure out what she is, she could be more than just another pilot in this unfolding war. She could save the galaxy.

The only way she can discover what she really is, though, is to leave behind all she knows and enter the Nowhere. A place from which few ever return.

To have courage means facing fear. And this mission is terrifying.

I know we’re all tired of seeing Cytonic on my tbr. But it’s pink and it fit my theme. I promise I will read it. eventually.

That is my February 2024 tbr. I’m also going to be making my way through House of Flame and Shadow this month. It’s a hefty boy so I figure it might take me a minute. Even though I’m enjoying it so far.

What are you reading this month?

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