Once again, a month is over and it is time for me to provide my monthly overview of my recent reading. In January I had read a total of 23 books but unfortunately I only managed 15 books for February 2025 which adds up to a total of 38 books for the year. This means that I did not his my monthly goal of 20 books but I am still on track to hit my yearly goal of 200 books. Having gone over my numbers I guess that means it is time to go over the books that really stood out amongst all of the ones I read last month. Considering how few I read last month I’ve only got two books picked out to go over today.
The first book I want to go over is Relic by Preston and Child, which I posted a review about a few weeks back. In all honesty, I had a hard time picking my books for last month as there were several great ones but I picked this one because it was really exceptional in a lot of ways because of how well it was written. The book had great pacing in terms of amping up the tension over the course of the book. It did a great job of gradually developing the plot and revealing different key details that allow the reader to slowly come to the conclusion that whatever happens at the end of the book is not going to be pleasant for the characters. Not a lot of books can say that they do that and do it well but this one just blew me away with how well that was done. I am serious when I say that I know very few books that can draw out the mystery aspect of the story so well while still keeping the tension and drama gradually amping up over the course of the book, let alone do it while having such a unique and complex plot line to do it with. On top of that this book also exhibited a pretty good deal of detailed characterization as it gradually reveals various details and aspects of the different characters over the course of the book. I have a lot of respect for books that are able to blend all of these disparate elements together to create a book. A lot of books either have a great plot line but lack characterization and adequate timing or have great characterization but are lacking complex plot lines yet this book had a considerable amount of both. Overall, a great book to read and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.
The second book I picked out for February is Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker which I posted the review of last week. Now this book was picked for an entirely different reason than the other one but one that is no less important. I love reading books but a genre that I have always greatly enjoyed is biographies, more specifically biographies of authors that I enjoy. You do not want to know how many biographies I have read about Tolkien or C. S Lewis or any number of other authors. Now this book, strictly speaking, is not a factual biography but is instead a fictional biography of Bram Stoker. I am not a huge fan of Bram Stoker but I have read Dracula a few times so I was somewhat familiar with who he was. This book took the known information about the life and times of Bram Stoker and threw a drastically different light on it. I know that there is probably zero chance that Stoker actually met a real vampire that proved the inspiration for Dracula but this book made me believe in the possibility of it happening, at least it did while I was still reading it anyway. I say this because the book was incredibly compelling and extremely well written and researched. You can tell that the authors really knew their information, not only about Stoker but about his work and his time period as well. They then took that information and expertly blended it together with a number of other elements to create this great book. It was definitely one of the better fictional biographies that I have read and one of the better vampire books that I have read, and yes I have read several books that belong in either of those categories. Much like with the previous book, this was ultimately a great read and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I really think these two books were two of the more outstanding books that I read last month. Feel free to check out my reviews of these books and any others that I shared last month and consider sharing what was the best book that you read last month. I am really kind of curious what you guys have been reading lately.