It’s my favorite time of the month! Time to plan my 2025 February TBR select all the books I want to read this month and set my monthly reading goals. I’m so excited for this upcoming month because last month was a fairly good reading month and I can feel it in my bones that this month will be even better!
February Reading Goals
First up let’s talk about some of the goals that I’m seeking to achieve this month. First off, I’m planning on sticking with my monthly reading goal of 14 books. Could I perhaps challenge myself to read more? Maybe, but because February is a shorter month it perhaps isn’t the best time to set an ambitious reading goal. While I didn’t hit my pages goal last month I’m hoping that this month I will and I’m sticking to setting a goal to read 15,000 pages this month.
Next up I want to read 2 Nonfiction, 1 Sci-Fi, 1 Reread, and 1 Amazon First Reads selection. Also, I’m hoping to check off a few books from the two reading challenges I’m doing this year the 25 Books for 2025 Challenge Priority Reads for the New Year and the A to Z reading challenge. We’ll see how successful I am at my quarterly check-in.
February TBR
When it comes to the books I’ve selected to read this month I’m certainly prioritizing books from Black authors in honor of Black History Month. I’m also planning to read a few romance books to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Let’s get into the books I’m eager to read this month.
Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman | Nonfiction, Poetry
It’s been a long time since I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying a book of poetry. I’m looking forward to immersing myself in Gorman’s beautiful work.
Synopsis
Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, Amanda Gorman’s remarkable new collection reveals an energizing and unforgettable voice in American poetry. Call Us What We Carry is Gorman at her finest. Including “The Hill We Climb,” the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, and bursting with musical language and exploring themes of identity, grief, and memory, this lyric of hope and healing captures an important moment in our country’s consciousness while being utterly timeless.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison | Fantasy
This book or this series rather is one of the books on my 25 for 2025 book challenge. The reviews for this book have been amazing and I’ve heard that this book is a highly emotional tale involving a mother who will stop at nothing to bring her child home. Excited to read my first work by Jemison.
Synopsis
Children of Blood and Bone: Legacy of Orisha #1 by Tomi Adeyemi | Young Adult Fantasy
I’m beyond excited to begin this series! And, I’m also immensely excited for the upcoming film adaptation. So anxious to be swept up in this fandom.
Synopsis
They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.
Z lie Adebola remembers when the soil of Or sha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Z lie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Z lie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Z lie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Z lie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Or sha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Z lie herself as she struggles to control her powers–and her growing feelings for an enemy.
Master of Me by Keke Palmer | Nonfiction, Autobiography
Making it my mission to read more autobiographies and memoirs this year. And looking forward to learning more about Keke Palmer’s journey. She’s such a beautiful and talented individual curious to discover how she became the woman she is today.
Synopsis
A Fate of Onyx and Ivory The Obsidian Blade #1 by O’Junea Brown | Fantasy Romance
This is a book by an indie author I stumbled across on Bookstagram and I’m super excited to give it a read.
Synopsis
Bloodmarked The Legendborn Cycle #2 by Tracey Deonn | Young Adult Fantasy
I am screaming over this book and this series. I’m on pins and needles waiting to finally start this book and get caught up with this series before the release of Oathbound in March. This is going to be a phenomenal experience I just know it. I’m not going to share a synopsis as I don’t want to spoil the first book in this series Legendborn.
This Motherless Land by Nikki May | Historical Fiction
I purchased this book back in October and it’s time that I finally set aside time to read this title. This month I intend to do just that and am excited to immerse myself in this family saga.
Synopsis
Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.
Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends.
But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition.
Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family’s generational wrongs can be righted.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones | Literary Fiction
Also looking forward to finally reading this book that’s just been chilling on my physical TBR. I just know this is going to be an emotional tear-jerker.
Synopsis
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. In this deft exploration of love, loyalty, race, justice, and both Black masculinity and Black womanhood in 21st century America, Jones achieves that most-elusive of all literary goals: the Great American Novel.
James by Percival Everett | Historical Fiction
How can I not read Barnes & Noble’s 2024 Book of the Year? I’m a tad nervous since I haven’t read Huckleberry Finn and honestly not sure I want to. But, after reading the phenomenal reviews for this book I’m beyond excited to read it.
Synopsis
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
The Gilded Ones Deathless Series #1 by Namina Forna | Young Adult Fantasy
Can you tell how hyped I am for these Black Fantasy novels? Am I going a little wild starting all of these different Fantasy series? Probably. But do I care? No. Like I’m beside myself to read this Fantasy series.
Synopsis
Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.
But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.
Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.
Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself.
The Do Over by Lynn Painter | Young Adult
Lynn Painter writes such fun, bubbly Young Adult novels. And, I’m super excited to read this Valentine-themed book to celebrate the season of love.
Synopsis
A Court of Thorns and Roses ACOTAR Series #1 by Sarah J. Maas | Romantasy
Finally, hopping on the bandwagon and starting this series. I felt it was appropriate since it has a red cover which aligns perfectly with Valentine’s right?
Synopsis
Funny Story by Emily Henry | Contemporary Romance
Finally, going to read my first Emily Henry. So many people have recommended her to me stating that I would enjoy her romance books and I’m willing to give anything a try. We’ll see how it goes.
Synopsis
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it … right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend, Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin | Young Adult
I read this popular book a year ago and like many fell in love with this sad and tragic love story. I received a special edition of this book for Christmas and I thought what better time for a re-read than during Valentine’s month? The special edition is giving me all the Valentine’s Day vibes.
Synopsis
Us Against You Beartown Series #2 by Fredrik Backman
I’m pushing it by adding this to my TBR as I already have an insurmountable number of library holds I need to get to but I’m eager to continue with this series. I literally cried like a baby while reading this last month and have become so emotionally invested with these characters I’m on pins and needles to see what happens next. I’m not sharing the synopsis as I don’t want to leak any spoilers regarding the conclusion of the first book.
These are the books from my physical TBR except If He Had Been with Me which is a re-read, A Fate of Onyx and Ivory which is a Kindle Unlimited e-book, The Do Over which I need to purchase Master of Me, and Us Against You which I checked out from the library. However, I also have a huge stack of library holds, as I often do, that take priority since they have to be returned in three weeks. I do believe this month I’m going to try and experiment with stretching my reading goal but I’ll try to avoid putting too much pressure on myself to do so because reading is a fun hobby, not a chore that I need to get accomplished. So, we’ll see what happens! What’s your TBR looking like for this month? Let me know in the comments below! Til next time happy reading friends!!
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