Where the heck did September go? All of a sudden it’s October and I have no idea where any of the time went. It was a hectic month with back to school and back to school illnesses. However, it was ultimately a pretty good month, and I read a fair few books and got some good books to add to my collection. You’ll find everything I read and hauled below the cut.
Books I hauled in September:
- Foxglove by Adalyn Grace
- Reign by Katharine McGee
- The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
- Never a Hero by Vanessa Len
- Hide: The Graphic Novel by Kiersten White
- Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
- Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
- The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin
- Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
- Mermaids Never Drown by Various Authors
- Percy Jackson and the Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan
Books I read in September:
1. Cherish by Tracy Wolff
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I liked this book a fair bit. It was much more in line with what I have come to expect from the Crave series. It had a lot of ups and downs and had some incredible stakes for the characters to overcome. The characters are really interesting, and I liked getting to see more characters from the previous books. I also liked seeing Grace and Hudson grow up and become more mature when dealing with their relationship issues and also the courts they were going on to rule. It’s just so fun to go on this journey, and this series will always be one of my favourite junk food series.
2. She Started It by Sian Gilbert
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: This book had me hooked from the very first line. I devoured it in one day because I just couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next. The characters were horrifically unlikable, but they were still very well written. I guessed both of the big twists in the story, but I felt really proud of myself that I did. The book was really well written, and I really enjoyed getting to see all of the different characters’ perspectives. It was definitely fun to read about the revenge story.
3. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuval
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This book was really interesting. I had heard it had a really good audiobook so that’s why I chose to read it via audiobook, and I am glad that I did. It was a full cast audiobook, which is really cool. The characters and the premise of the story were really interesting. I found myself really enjoying the narrative structure of the story and how it was told through interviews. I definitely want to keep reading the series.
4. I Survived the Hindenberg Disaster by Lauren Tarshis
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I really enjoyed the ‘I Survived’ series, and the interesting ways they present historical disasters. The author does a great job at writing these in an accessible and interesting way. I learned a bit about the Hindenberg from this book. It was well-written and well-developed.
5. I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor by Lauren Tarshis
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was well-written and interesting. The story was fast paced, and I found the main character interesting. However, this one was shorter than the others that I’ve read so far, and so I kind of wished that it had been a bit longer.
6. The Legacies by Jessica Goodman
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I liked this book a lot. It gave me Gossip Girl vibes in the best way, which was kind of fun. The mystery kept me guessing as I wanted to know who had died, and I wanted to know who had done it. There were some good twists and turns. I did find the end just slightly unsatisfying, so I kind of wish that I could see where our main point of view characters ended up.
7. Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I really enjoyed the conclusion of this series. Kel is such an interesting character, and it’s great to see her character arc come to a conclusion. I just really enjoy how she stands out as different from the other protagonists that Tamora Pierce has written. I also really enjoy the plot of the story. It’s pretty action packed comparatively to the rest of the novels in this series, and the stakes are really high. The characters are really interesting. I find the ending really satisfying.
8. The Well by Jake Wyatt
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I quite enjoyed this graphic novel. It was really interesting, and I quite liked the way that the story was structured with the protagonist being forced to help three people to make up for what they had done. The art was really lovely, and I enjoyed how it was depicted. The main character was also really interesting.
9. I Survived the Great Molasses Flood by Lauren Tarshis
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I really enjoyed this story. The main character was sweet. I liked her story, and I enjoyed learning about the molasses flood. It’s such an odd disaster, but awful in the consquences of what happened. This one also sort of gave you two for the price of one, because it also tackled the Spanish Influenza. It was well-written.
10. The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I liked this book, but not as much as I wanted to. The character was interesting, but I wanted a little bit more from the story and from the events shown in it. It was on the whole well-written.
11. Rivals by Katharine McGee
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I have so much fun with Katharine McGee’s books. They are always so juicy and dramatic with great highs and lows. I really liked this one, though not as much as the first two in the series. I really like getting to see the different perspectives in the book. The characters are always so unique. I’m excited to see what happens next.
12. The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I enjoyed this mystery. It reminded me of my childhood, and it was definitely fun to revisit it. I liked the reveal, anbd how the two mysteries came together. Nancy is an interesting character.
13. Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review:I loved this book. The remote, isolated setting makes the novel extra spooky, and it was really fun to read about. I also really liked the perhaps unintentional statement about AirBnB not being all that great. The themes of reconnecting were nice, and I enjoyed seeing Laney reconnect with her ex-husband and her ex-best friend. It was well written, and I really liked how the author wrote the story.
14. Hide: The Graphic Novel by Kiersten White
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I enjoyed the novel and I was quite excited about the possibility of a graphic adaptation of it. It was really cool to see the story brought to life, and I liked seeing the depictions of the various characters, and especially of the monster. The art was really great, and the artist did a great job bringing the story to life, and the adaptor did a great job adapting the story to the format.
15. The Bungalow Mystery by Carolyn Keene
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: This was a good one, but needed a bit more development. I liked the mysteries coming together, but there were parts that felt a little bit rushed. I just wanted some more to it.
16. Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: This novel was great. I had so much fun reading it. The story was super compelling. It was interesting to see the mystery slowly unfold through the various episodes of the show. I kept making guesses only to be proven wrong, but it was a great journey of trying to figure out just what was happening. New twists kept getting introduced. I really enjoyed the structure of the story and how it was done through mixed media and was mostly written as the transcripts of the episodes. I would love to read more mysteries like this.
17. Surviving Teacher Burnout by Amy L. Eva
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: eBook
Review: I liked the idea of this book, and it was great that it had activities to support you throughout the year. However, in some ways it seemed like much more work. A lot of the problem with the encouragement of self-care for teachers is that it just adds a lot more work onto your already overfull plate.
18. My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I really enjoyed this memoir. The story is fascinating, and definitely well-written. However, I can’t imagine what it would be like to live through. It must have been horrific, but she did a good job of relating her experience to the audience/readers. She has a compelling voice.
19. Ready When You Are by Gary Lonesborough
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: This was an interesting story. The characters were not really what you might technically expect from a male/male romance, but that made it a wonderful addition to the genre. It was a really interesting read. I appreciated the journey of watching the protagonist come to terms with his sexuality.
20. Solitaire by Alice Oseman
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: This was an interesting work, and I can definitely see why the tagline/blurb on the cover compared it to Catcher in the Rye. Unfortunately, I hated Catcher in the Rye, so that was a rather unfavourable comparison for me. I liked getting to see Nick and Charlie in the background and to see them through someone else’s eyes. It was also interesting to see Ben from someone else’s perspective. Turns out he’s really good at masking his shittiness. The events of the story were interesting, but I just didn’t love it as much as I wanted to.
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