For a while there, I wasn’t sure this post would exist this month. At the beginning of February, I was completely consumed by the costuming demands of The Little Mermaid. I just simply wasn’t reading.

This wasn’t for lack of trying. I opened books, but when they didn’t hold my interest right off the bat I quickly gave up. I had a lot to do and not a ton of time to do it in, so I couldn’t waste that precious time on books that I wasn’t getting into.

I worked on costumes right up until the last possible minute of work, until our mid-winter break (aka Presidents’ Week) began. With only minor repairs left to do, I decided to leave the work at work, and actually try to enjoy my vacation without stressing. This afforded me a little bit of time to read, and I was going to milk it for all it was worth! I am a pretty fast reader when I actually have the time to do so, and I managed to power through two books during the vacation!

First up, I read Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty. Moriarty is one of my favorite writers. My gateway into her novels was What Alice Forget, and I was instantly hooked. Over the years I have read all her books almost as soon as they come out. Her latest came out in November, and it has taken me until now to read it. This was partially a time constraint and partially because this latest novel didn’t speak to me at first. I found it slow moving at the beginning and that was a bit of a turn off for me. However, once we got into the nuts and bolts of the story, it became more interesting. The book tells the story of nine people staying at a wellness retreat… I wasn’t expecting this book to go in the direction that it did. To say a lot more beyond that would be to spoil some essential plot details, but it definitely take an interesting turn about halfway through. And I will say that I had no idea whatsoever where Moriarty was taking this story.

The second book was The Winter Sister, by Megan Collins. This one was right up my alley: mystery/thriller. However, it was not a favorite. The story was intriguing – a young woman returns to her hometown to care for her ailing mother and try to solve the mystery of her sister’s murder over fifteen years prior. Though the case is still technically open, no one is doing much about it, and Sylvie takes it upon herself to try and dig a little deeper to see what happened. In the process, she finds out more than she bargained for. It was a quick read, but not enough of a mystery for me. If anything, it was more about Sylvie trying to figure herself out. It was also fairly predictable when it all came down to it (though this in and of itself is not a criticism, as I tend to figure out the endings of whatever I’m reading fairly early on).

With The Little Mermaid officially finished with performances as of Tuesday, March should afford more reading time… unless I decide to spend it all finally sewing for me again (I can’t wait)!