February wrap-up

It's the first day of March, and that means that spring has officially started. It doesn't really feel like it - well, at least not here in dreary old England - but I'm looking forward to the birds starting to sing and the sun beginning to shine.
February has been a majorly busy month for me, so I'm kind of glad that it's over!

Bookish wrap-up:
In February, I read 16 books, including two graphic novels and two non-fiction titles.
I also read three samplers (from BuzzBooks, available through NetGalley) which took up quite a bit of my time but they were interesting - I enjoyed reading a couple of chapters before deciding on whether or not I wanted to read the full book.
This is eight books less than I read in January (boo!) but the amount of five star books I read increased (not including the graphic novels, I read four 5 star books this month, compared to just two last month) so I feel as though it was still a good reading month.

For the #2016ClassicsChallenge, I read... Nothing. But that's okay, because I'm reading both 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath and 'Carol' by Patricia Highsmith in March, so I'll be all up to date again.

However, for my personal series challenge, I finished the Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown and Suzy Cox's Dead Girl's Detective Agency. I also caught up with the current releases from Holly Black and Cassandra Clare's collaborative series, the Magisterium. I didn't get the two Stephanie Perkins books ('Lola and the Boy Next Door' and 'Isla and the Happily Ever After') read, but I'm planning on tackling those in March.

The best books I read this month?

The other 5 star book I read was 'Kindred Spirits' by Rainbow Rowell, but it's only a short story so it doesn't really count...

The worst book I read this book was unquestionably 'Love Me, Love Me Not' by Alyxandra Harvey:

 

...But I still gave it 2 stars, which meant I didn't read a one star book this month!

Musical wrap-up:
I've only heard one new release in full this month, and that was The Shaper's 'Reckless Youth' EP. Because I was so busy I didn't get a chance to listen to the albums that I wanted to, but releases of note include Simple Plan's 'Taking One For The Team', Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's 'This Unruly Mess I Made' and The 1975's 'I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it'. I'm going to listen to these albums in March, and will probably love all of them! However, the fact that I haven't read any of them yet makes it hard to pick an album of the month, so I won't be having one this month.

However, my song of the month needs to be the surprise PVRIS release, 'You and I':

My concert of the month? This might be a surprise, and it was difficult to choose, but I have to go with Tonight Alive at Bristol O2 Academy. Each of the bands really impressed me, whereas at the other shows I went to there was always a support that I didn't necessarily gel with.

Hopefully in March I'll be able to catch up on the albums that I missed and I'll be able to read a little bit more - I don't have as many concerts to attend, so there's a lot less travelling and craziness in my life. That's all for this month's wrap-up: I'll see you in April!