Hello and welcome to damppebbles. We’ve waved goodbye to February 2025 (which, despite being the shortest month of the year, felt as long as ‘never-ending January’ did!) and we’re celebrating March’s arrival. Well, actually, truth be told, I’m sat in my dining room writing this post on Valentine’s Day — 14th February. We’re only half way through the month. However, by the time this post goes live, we WILL be celebrating March’s arrival. We WILL have waved goodbye to February and everything I’ve said so far WILL be 100% true.

I’ll explain why I’m getting ahead of myself in a tick but first – welcome to the second #CaseClosed of the year. #CaseClosed is my monthly wrap up post here on the blog and, cards on the table, I’m pretty bad at it. In 2024 I managed to publish a #CaseClosed post three times – February, March and December. I’m a squeak away from equalling last year’s pitiful effort. Just three more months and I’ll be tottering on the precipice of my best #CaseClosed year EVER. The heady heights of success! 🤣 Best year ever was 2018, by the way. Five posts in one year. And some of them were consecutive!!

Anyhoo, before I recap what happened on the blog during the month of February, I will fill you in on the latest news. If you’ve been around for a while you may be aware that I took a six month unplanned hiatus last year following shoulder surgery. Well, guess what. I need more surgery on my shoulders which is currently planned for the end of February — hence why I’m making a start on my February #CaseClosed post when we’re only halfway through the month (Happy Valentine’s Day by the way!). It’s disappointing but this will hopefully be the penultimate lot of surgery needed (one shoulder now – the other shoulder in a few weeks time). What I do plan to do this time around is have content ready WELL in advance. I’ve got all of my reviews from last year to share plus a tonne of new books. I don’t want to take any more time than necessary away from the blog. Thank goodness for the ability to schedule blog posts in advance! 😅

Right, on to the books! During the month of February I read the grand total of SIX books (appalling, I know)…

Those six books were…

➡️ Her Two Lives by Nilesha Chauvet
➡️ The Grapevine by Kate Kemp
➡️ The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani
➡️ Always on My Mind by Carys Green
➡️ Little Red Death by A.K. Benedict
➡️ The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger

I was part of the blog tour for Little Red Death last week but all of the others will be reviewed on the blog in the coming weeks/months. Keep your eyes peeled!

During February I posted the following reviews on the blog…

🖤 The Guests by Nikki Smith
🖤 Under Her Roof by A.A. Chaudhuri
🖤 The Contest by Jeff Macfee
🖤 You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego
🖤 Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
🖤 I was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
🖤 Little Red Death by A.K. Benedict
🖤 Other People’s Houses by Clare Mackintosh

There were my ‘going to be occasional – definitely NOT every week’ Top Ten Tuesday posts (which I managed to post on every single Tuesday throughout February — they’re occasional, I tell you!)

⚪ Tuesday 4th February – 2024 Releases I Was Excited to Read but Still Haven’t Gotten To
⚪ Tuesday 11th February – Love Freebie: Books with Red Covers
⚪ Tuesday 18th February – Books I Loved but Never Reviewed
⚪ Tuesday 25th February – Books Set in Another Time

And finally, I also posted four WWW Wednesday posts where I share my previous read, my current read and what I plan to read next.

🟧 Wednesday 5th February
🟧 Wednesday 12th February
🟧 Wednesday 19th February
🟧 Wednesday 26th February

My most popular review on the blog in February was The Contest by Jeff Macfee. My most popular non-review post in February was #CaseClosed: January 2025 (the review received more views though).

These ten reviews received the most views in February (as in January, more of a ‘count up’ than a ‘count down’!)…

1️⃣ The Contest by Jeff Macfee
2️⃣ You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego
3️⃣ Under Her Roof by A.A. Chaudhuri
4️⃣ Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
5️⃣ What Lies Between Us by John Marrs (from 2022)
6️⃣ Other People’s Houses by Clare Mackintosh
7️⃣ I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
8️⃣ The Guests by Nikki Smith
9️⃣ Little Red Death by A.K. Benedict
🔟 Hunting Evil by Chris Carter (from 2022)

Last year when I was full of hope and overly confident in my ability to keep the #CaseClosed momentum going, I spent a small amount of time pondering on what I could add to the feature to make it a little more interesting. I thought about what I find interesting when other bloggers talk about their reading schedules/progress and came up with two things. The first being a Goodreads Challenge check-in. The second, a NetGalley check-in. I don’t know about you but I love to see what’s on everyone else’s NetGalley shelf, and, in particular, what their feedback ratio is 🤭😳

First up, let us glance upon my Goodreads Challenge progress. I decided to take the heat off in 2025 and instead of going for my usual ‘one book every four days’ (roughly 92 books a year) I’ve gone with the more sedate 55 books over 52 weeks which I see as one book a week. It’s not 52 for two reasons 1) I started two books in 2024 and finished them in 2025 so they shouldn’t count towards my total. And 2) one of the books I read was only 184 pages long and I only count full novels (not shorter books or novellas) in my challenge total. Makes some kind of strange sense somewhere! So far this year I have read 15 books which puts me 6 books ahead of schedule (27% of the way there).

So on to my NetGalley shelf. For anyone not familiar with NG it’s a site where you can request early copies of digital books in exchange for a review. I’ve been on NG since I first started the blog in 2016 and we’ve….had our moments…? I find it very easy to get carried away and request ALL the books, only to realise a few days later that I do actually need to find the time to read ALL of the books! One of my bookish goals for this year is to get my NetGalley shelf down to five ‘to-be-read’ books at a time. I made a pledge at the end of January to reduce the number of books to be both read AND reviewed on my shelf. I’m feeling positive. I know I can do this. I am strong. I can resist books! Let’s see how I did.

This is what I currently have to read on my NetGalley shelf…

💟 Actually, I’m a Murderer by Terry Deary
💟 The Outback by Sara Ochs
💟 Nobody’s Hero by M.W. Craven
💟 Senseless by Ronald Malfi
💟 The Liar by Louise Jensen
💟 Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey
💟 The Penthouse by Catherine Cooper
💟 Believe by S.M. Govett
💟 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
💟 The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North
💟 Dear Future Me by Deborah O’Connor
💟 The Serial Killer’s Support Group by D.B. Stephen
💟 The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards
💟 Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

This month I’ve made the images slightly smaller in the hope that it will trick your eye and you won’t notice that I’ve more to read on my NG shelf than I had last month. Who am I kidding?! 🙈 Instead of the eleven books I had to read in January I now have FOURTEEN books to read, with eleven needing reviews 😐 (⬅️ my face right now!). My all-important feedback ratio still sits at a positive 91% though, phew!

I read six fabulous books in February but one stood out that little bit more than the rest. I LOVED IT!! So my book of the month is…

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The Grapevine by Kate Kemp

I loved this Aussie suburban mystery with its strong cast of characters, told predominantly in the voice of twelve-year-old Tammy. This is the first book I’ve read this year that I know, without a doubt, will feature on my top ten books of the year list. Love, love, loved it!

So that was February on damppebbles. Here’s to a great March for us all. I’ll be resting my poor, beaten up shoulder for a few weeks. However, assuming my carefully plotted plan plays out the way it should, you shouldn’t notice that I’m gone.

I hope you have a marvellous March stuffed full of the best books. Thanks for reading 🩷

P.S. If you’re looking for your next read then check out the hashtag #fivestarflashback on Twitter / X. I’ve been re-sharing all of my old reviews from the dawn of time itself (or 2016 if you prefer). It’s been so much fun digging in the DP archives! There are around roughly five reviews posted a day so lots of lovely book suggestions if you’re in need of inspiration.