So, February is over, and it’s been… a month. Not a good one, not a particularly worse than usual one, just a month, for me, at least.

I tried three weeks of physical therapy for my weird nerve problem in my forehead, but I don’t know if it’s helped at all, and I’m just completely exhausted. My body can’t take leaving the house that much. I’m going to try continuing with using a TENS machine at home for a while, as well as the heat and massage I’ve been doing, to see if it helps over time.

I listened to another Audible Original audio drama, Beezer, and I was surprised to find that I loved it! It was very cute with some great messages.

Monster Prom got another update and I FINALLY got an official ending with my Interdimensional Prince! And it was so much better than I ever expected and ended up involving my other favorite non-romance option character too. I figured the mod ending I created about him would fall to the wayside now that people have a real ending, but mine is still getting a trickle of downloads, so that makes me happy too.

I mostly just went to PT and did a lot of audiobook listening this month, so that’s about it for me. Oh, and I also did a handstand 🙂

Still got it! 😃 Chronic illness, chronic tennis elbow pain, injured foot, and unexplainable headache nerve problem be damned. Being able to still do a handstand brings me a tiny bit of joy. pic.twitter.com/3KQbaAarz9

— Kristen (Metaphors and Moonlight) (@whykristenburns) February 28, 2020

Blog/Bookish Updates:

I’m constantly running behind on comments, visiting blogs, etc. lately because of my health. If I haven’t responded to you, know that I do appreciate your visits, and I’m not purposely ignoring you!

Books I Received for Review:

Nothing this month.

Books I Finished:

*Normally I link the book covers to Amazon, but there are A LOT of books here, so I’m just going to link to some in the text below.*

I have had a VERY prolific reading (listening) month, as I’m sure you can see. I could try and downplay it by pointing out that a few of these were only 1 or 2 hours, and more of them were only 4 or 5 hours, and most of them were under 12 hours… but no, it was still a damn lot of listening lol.

Dislikes – Unfortunately I DNFed one book (not pictured above) because the MC was so abhorrent with no redeeming or interesting qualities, and he never showed any growth in the book, according to reviews. Blood and Needles was nearly as bad, but I finished that one. Honestly, it read like a cis man’s sex, drug, and blood-filled fantasy, complete with sexism, misogyny, and various other problematic elements. Trapped Wizard and Satyr Inn were short stories I only listened to because I wanted the Audible badges for completing a certain number of books in one go lol (although I still held a bit of hope that they’d be good). It’s a Vampire Christmas was also… something. It might not have been quite so bad if not for the author’s constant use of ‘male’ and ‘female’ instead of ‘man’ and ‘woman’. That may not sound that bad, but trust me, it is.

In-Between Feelings – Never Never, Influential Magic, The Stolen Luck, A Vampire for Christmas, Treasure, Priddy’s Tale, and the first two Tyack & Frayne books were mostly just books I enjoyed but that weren’t super memorable. Wicked Saints, Hunter of Demons, and Demon’s Dance were ones I enjoyed to varying degrees but had some issues with.

Likes – Real Vampires Don’t Sparkle is one of my favorite series, and I felt like rereading it, so I listened to the audiobooks. While I prefer my own imagination to some of the choices the narrator made, I still loved these books even more than I did in my previous reads, even bumping one of my ratings up to the full 5 stars, and the others to 4.5 stars. In Darkness Bound and The Usual Apocalypse, a kind of duology, were also rereads. Again, didn’t super love the narrators, but enjoyed the books. Damned If You Do was great all-around, story and narration, aside from disability being used as a plot device. Firelands was beautifully written with great narration. Wolf Hall was a total surprise because I’d given up on ever really loving short fiction, but this was fantastic! Rhapsody for Piano and Ghost was heartwarming and fun, also with great narration. And I’m enjoying the Tyack & Frayne series more as I get further into it, and mostly liking the narration.

What I’m Loving:

This month, what I’m loving is…

Drawfee

I’ve talked about it before, but no one ever listens to my YouTube recs, although you really should with this one lol. Even though it’s drawing-based, just listening to their jokes and banter, even if I can only glance a view times, brings me so much joy. And one of them has the most infectious, happiness-creating laugh. I also love how unproblematic and inclusive they try to be. If you want some recs, “Drawing Our Home States as People” is a good recent video, but I’ll also always love the first Drawfee video I ever stumbled on, “Artists Draw WEIRD Stock Photos Based on Their Descriptions.”

In Case You Missed It:

Here are the highlights:

– I reviewed The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, a fun first book in the Witcher series.
– I talked about how much I see and hear in my head while reading.
– I reviewed A Blind Legend, an awesome game that is entirely audio with no visuals.
– I reviewed Wolf Hall by Harper Fox, a beautifully written, somewhat surreal supernatural short story.