February 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up

Howdy, y’all! It’s time for my February 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. I wonder if this will help me reduce the number of books on my TBR. Who am I kidding? I’m a reader; of course, I will forever add books. In January 2023, I had 625 books. Today, I have 621. That is a bit of a decrease, so not too bad. Yay me! Will my February 2023 Goodreads TBR shelf clean-up help that number drop more?

I saw this Goodreads TBR Clean-Up post at Megan’s Book Stacks and knew I had to try it, and Megan found it over at MegaBunnyReads.

Click the titles to go to the Goodreads page for the book.

How It Works:

• Go to your Goodreads want-to-read shelf.
• Use a random number generator to pick a number between 1 and however many books are on the list.
• Go to that book and look at the four after it for a total of 5.
• Read the synopses of the books.
• Decide: keep it, or should it go?
• Discuss here.

Books To Be Read: 621

Starting Number: 88; it looks like I’m going through the books I added in January and February 2021

Shelf Sorted: Date Added

Let’s get this February 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up underway!

The Graveyard Shift by Darynda Jones

Guarding a precocious five-year-old who is half-human, half-god, and 100% destined to save the world is no easy feat.

Garrett Swopes was the ultimate skeptic until he met a certain hellion and her husband. They vanished after stopping a catastrophic event and left him, a mere mortal, responsible for protecting their gift to mankind. But when she disappears as well, he needs the help of another breed of hellion. One who can see past the veil of space and time. One who betrayed him.

She will get a truce in the deal, but she will never earn his forgiveness.

Marika Dubois’s son—a warrior in the coming war between heaven and hell—was foreseen long before his birth. But to create a child strong enough to endure the trials that lay ahead, she needed a descendant of powerful magics. She found that in Garrett Swopes and tricked him into fathering her son. A ploy he has never forgiven her for. But when he knocks on her door asking for her help, she sees the fierce attraction he tries to deny rise within him.

And Marika has to decide if she dares risk her heart a second time to help the only man she’s ever loved.

My Thoughts

This novella continues the Charley Davidson series but does not include Charley or Reyes. But it does have one of their friends. Do I want to visit the world of Charley Davidson’s New Mexico? Of course, I do! But the novellas aren’t always easy to find.

DELETE

The Gravedigger’s Son by Darynda Jones

Get in. Assess the situation. Get out. But for veteran tracker Quentin Rutherford, things get sticky when the girl he’s loved since puberty shows up, conducting her own investigation into the strange occurrences of the small New Mexico town. He knew it would be a risk coming back to the area, but he had no idea Amber Kowalski had become a bona fide PI, investigating things that go bump in the night. He shouldn’t be surprised, however. She can see through the dead as clearly as he can. The real question is, can she see through him?

But is anything that’s worth it ever easy?

To say that Amber is shocked to see her childhood crush would be the understatement of her fragile second life. One look at him tells her everything she needs to know. He’s changed. So drastically she barely recognizes him. He is savage now, a hardened—in all the right places—demon hunter, and she is simply the awkward, lovestruck girl he left behind.

But she doesn’t have time to dwell on the past. A supernatural entity has set up shop, and it’s up to them to stop it before it kills again.

While thousands of questions burn inside her, she has to put her concern over him, over what he’s become, aside for now. Because he’s about to learn one undeniable fact: she’s changed, too.

My Thoughts

Like the other one I listed, this novella is part of the Charley Davidson universe. As I said before, I’m not eager to leave. But this one feels different. Why? Because in the original series, Quentin and Amber were in high school, and now I think they’re a bit more grown up.

DELETE

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

This is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s. They have waited long enough for their turn . . .

This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .

In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.

From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.

A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world’s great tale ever told.

My Thoughts

I love the idea of reading this book. Funny enough, I remember reading Homer’s Odyssey in 6th grade because it was on the bookshelf in my room and I was curious. It would be great to see Penelope’s side of the story. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about this book. BUT, is there too much hype around it? I’ve been so excited to read books that were superhyped only to feel let down.

DELETE

The Meet-Cute Project by Rhiannon Richardson

Mia’s friends love rom-coms. Mia hates them. They’re silly, contrived, and not at all realistic. Besides, there are more important things to worry about—like how to handle living with her bridezilla sister, Sam, who’s never appreciated Mia, and surviving junior year juggling every school club offered and acing all of her classes.

So when Mia is tasked with finding a date to her sister’s wedding, her options are practically nonexistent.

Mia’s friends, however, have an idea. It’s a little crazy, a little out there, and a lot inspired by the movies they love that Mia begrudgingly watches too.

Mia just needs a meet-cute.

My Thoughts

Honestly, I don’t remember why I added this to my TBR! Reading the synopsis above, the premise is cute, but I think it would be better if it wasn’t a YA. Maybe that’s just me. Why does a high school junior need a date for her sister’s wedding?

DELETE

The Flipside of Perfect by Liz Reinhardt

What happens when her two worlds collide?

AJ is a buttoned-up, responsible student attending a high-achieving high school in Michigan. She lives with her mother, stepfather, and two younger half-sisters.

Della spends every summer with her father in Florida. A free-spirited wild child, she spends as much time as possible on the beach with her friends and older siblings.

But there’s a catch: AJ and Della are the same person. Adelaide Beloise Jepsen to be exact, and she does everything she can to keep her school and summer lives separate.

When her middle sister crashes her carefree summer getaway, Adelaide’s plans fall apart. In order to help her sister, save her unexpected friendship with a guy who might just be perfect for her, and discover the truth about her own past, Adelaide will have to reconcile the two sides of herself…and face the fact that it’s perfectly okay not to be perfect all the time.

My Thoughts

A girl living two lives? One in Michigan with her mom and where she goes to school. The other in Florida where she lives with her dad and spends her summer. It sounds like fun, but is it something I want to read? I read a book earlier this year with a similar premise, and enjoyed it. Should I give this one a try as well?

DELETE

Wrap Up

And that is my February 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. It looks like I cleaned my shelf up a bit! Out of the five books, I’m keeping none. That feels ruthless, but I am trying to be realistic! Do you think I should keep any of these? With the novellas, if I can find them for a good price, I may pick them up. The other three probably won’t make a return to my shelf, unless you can intice me to give one a try!

But this was fun. I may do it now and then to help keep my shelf realistic. In the past, I just added books without really thinking about it. Will I stop doing that? Of course not! What kind of animal do you think I am?

What do you think? Have you tried doing something like this to see if you can get your TBR under control?

Looking for some more ideas to read? Check out my monthly reading wrap-ups.