Am I being over ambitions with trying to participate in and complete 3 readathons within one month? Yes. But I’ve participated in all of these readathons before and desperately want to again. These readathons being: Polarthon hosted by Jade from JadeyRaeReads on Youtube, Blackathon hosted by Jesse from Bowties and Books on Youtube, and FaRoFeb which is hosted by a bunch of people and authors (the full website). Since Blackathon and FaRoFeb are both month long readathons, whereas Polarthon is only a week, I tried to pick books that would work for multiple prompts across various readathons. It was a bit of a challenge, but I think I managed to do pretty well.
The formatting and organization of this TBR may be a bit wonky, but I’ll try to go through everything as succinctly and easily as I can.
Polarthon | February 7th – 13th
Let’s start with Polarthon, since it’s only a week-long readathon. As I mentioned earlier, hosted and created by Jade from JadeyRaeReads on Youtube, Polarthon is all about reading polar or winter-y fantasy books. With the large amount of snow the northeast just got, you could definitely say that I’m in the mood for some winter-y reads. To make things fun, Jade created two different “paths” that you could go to structure your readathon experience. This year, I chose to go down the Explorer path and plan to read the following:
- Read a book with an adventure
- Read a book with a cold word in the title
Winter’s Orbit: Everina Maxwell
I’m starting off strong since I already figured out a way to double up on a prompt. Though not a polar fantasy, Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit fits these two prompts perfectly and I’ve been itching to read it since it was released last year.
Winter’s Orbit follows Jainan, the widow of the Imperial Prince Taam of the planet Thea, as he’s thrown into a quick arranged marriage to Taam’s cousin, Kiem, in order to keep the tensions between Thea and the Iskat Empire under control. But when it’s revealed that Prince Taam’s death may have not been an accident and Jainan becomes the prime suspect, Jainan and Kiem have to learn how to trust each other quickly in order to solve a murder and prevent an interplanetary war.
- Read a book with a foiled cover
Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations: 1): B.B. Alston
There are only a few books that I’ve never heard anything negative about; Amari and the Night Brothers is one. Since Nevermoor, I don’t think I’ve heard a more raved about middle grade and I’ve been desperate to read it since. I’m glad I’m finally going to get to it this month.
- Read a book with icy magic
The Awakening (Zodiac Academy: 1): Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I literally could not find any books that I have with icy magic in it (that I know of, anyway). Zodiac Academy has been everywhere on my TikTok for months, and honestly, I’m easily influenced. Should I be starting another large series? No, probably not. But I’m intrigued enough to give it a shot.
- Read a polar fantasy
The Last Wolf (The Legend of All Wolves: 1): Maria Vale
Though I love participating in Polarthon every year, I realized that I have next to no polar fantasy on my shelves that I haven’t read already. So, I may be stretching the definition with this one, but it slots in with another one of my many readathons for this year. Last year, I discovered that I quite enjoy shifter paranormal romance (thank you S. Young’s True Immortality series for that one). So I cannot wait to dive into the genre a bit more with this one.
Blackathon | All of February
Every year I try to read more and more diversely. But in February, I always make a point to read from mostly, if not exclusively, Black voices. So that’s one of the many reasons why I love participating in Blackathon hosted and created by Jesse from Bowties & Books. Jesse has created a readathon that celebrates all kinds of Black art and media, but with this TBR I’m focusing solely on books. This year, I chose to join Team Romance and plan to read the following:
- Read a book that explores the duality of love and hate
The Kingmaker (All the King’s Men: 1): Kennedy Ryan
For the past few years, I’ve heard such great things about Kennedy Ryan’s works so being a part of the romance team for this round of Blackathon. I love stories that deal with the fine line between love and hate, and this one has it in spades. I’m about halfway through it right now, and enjoying every minute.
- Read a romance between two Black people
Go Deep (Unexpected Lovers: 1): Rilzy Adams
I think I first heard about Rilzy Adams from Chelsea from Chelsea Dolling reads on YouTube a couple of years ago and it’s been on my TBR ever since. Since I have such a massive TBR this month, this is the perfect time to pull out a spicy little novella.
- Read the group book
The Sweetest Remedy: Jane Igharo
This is one of the reasons I love participating in readathons. Before Blackathon, I never heard of this book but it sounds so good. It sounds like it’s going to be a great balance between romance and family story, and will be an interesting story.
Long Shot (Hoops: 1): Kennedy Ryan
Sports romance is one of my favorite subgenres of romance, so when I saw Kennedy Ryan has a sports romance series, I had to add it to this TBR. I never read a basketball romance before, and I’m so excited to dive into one.
FaRoFeb Readathon | All of February
- Read a low fantasy romance
Pestilence (The Four Horsemen: 1): Laura Thalassa
I’ve seen this book flutter around my corner of the book internet a few times over the past couple of years, and it never truly grabbed my attention at the beginning. However, over the past year or so, especially as fantasy romance has become more “mainstream” (or, what’s probably happening, is that I’m following more reviewers of fantasy romance), the more and more people talk about it, the more I become interested. Though reading a book about plague and sickness may not be the best for today’s current climate, I’m ready to give this one a chance.
- Read from a FaRoFeb author
The Last Wolf (The Legend of All Wolves: 1): Maria Vale
- Read a book with a cover you love
House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City: 1): Sarah J. Maas
The fact that I haven’t read this book yet is a travesty. It’s the only Maas book that I haven’t read yet, and with the sequel coming out literally next week, it’s about time that I do. I managed to go this long without seeing any spoilers, and I’m afraid that my luck is going to end quickly if I don’t read this soon.
- Read an indie author
Magic Dark, Magic Divine (Warrior of the Divine Sword: 1): A.J. Locke
Similarly to The Sweetest Remedy I’m not sure if I would’ve heard about this book without this readathon. Regardless, I’m sure glad I have because this has everything I love in an urban fantasy: a magic user in a magicless world, prophecies, and an enemies-to-lovers plot line. It’s also an urban fantasy that has a majority black cast, which I’ve never seen before in an urban fantasy. I’m very hopeful that this will be the start of a fantastic series.
- Read an epic fantasy romance
Gild (The Plated Prisoner: 1): Raven Kennedy
Besides House of Earth and Blood, Gild has to be the book that has been recommended the most to me. Probably because the combination of fae and since it’s a retelling. I’ve never read a retelling of the King Midas myth, so I’m intrigued to see how it’s adapted and modified. (If this intrigues you in any way, do look up trigger warnings as I’ve seen that there is, at the very least, mention of sexual assault.)
Unhaul Project
At the beginning of this year, I decided that I wanted to do an unhaul project. I have a bunch of books on my shelves that I’ve had for a while that I am struggling to pick up, but there’s still something in the back of my mind that is keeping me from donating or giving them away. So for eight months of this year, I picked three different books (for a total of 24 books) that I will attempt to read to definitively decide whether I should keep them, or donate them. I was able to theme all of the other months, but this time around it’s just a mish-mosh of things.
1. For a Muse of Fire (Shadow Players: 1): Heidi Heilig
I’ve had my copy of For a Muse of Fire since it’s release back in 2018. Initially I was super excited for Heilig’s follow-up series to The Girl From Everywhere, but as it sat on my shelves I slowly lost interest. Now, four years later, I still feel that desire to read it when I spot it but it never comes to the top of my mind when building TBRs. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations from back then, but we shall see.
2. Kingdom of Exiles (The Beast Charmer: 1): Maxym M. Martineau
When a book is compared to Assassin’s Creed and Pokemon, but make it fantasy romance, I don’t need to know any more. However, in between publication of the series it shifted from adult to YA and was rereleased with edits. The series was then continued to be published in the YA age range. Now, that isn’t the issue for me (obviously since I have other YA on this TBR), but the copy that I have is the adult version. So, I’ve been hesitant to pick this up because I don’t know how different the editions are. But, I can’t seem to let go of it because of the comparisons.
I picked up Zumas’ Red Clocks during the time where The Handmaid’s Tale had taken over most of popular culture. I’m always on the lookout for interesting dystopians, and this one fit the bill perfectly. The reason why I’m a bit hesitant to pick it up now is because it may just hit too close to reality with it’s discussions on abortion in America. Though I have no doubt it will spark interesting discussions and paint a fascinating story, I don’t know if I will want to read it as I simultaneously live through it.
Journey Into the Shelves 