Oi, I thought I was never going to be able to get this post up today. I spent far to long frigging around with a new page for my site and jeesh, let’s just say it’s hasn’t exactly been going well. But you’re not here to read my whining, you’re here to find out how my reading went in October right? Right!
My tbr pile at the beginning of the month.
October turned out to be a pretty good month for me. I ended up getting through a total of 12 books, the most I’ve read in a month in some time, bringing me up to a total of 92 for the year (I’m soooo close to my reading goal). I stuffed the month full of spooky reads and participated in my first ever week-long read-a-thon, called Spook-a-thon, hosted by @booksandlala, which really helped motivate me to read throughout the month. I tend to be a pretty competitive person and I never get more competitive with anyone other than myself, if I set myself a challenge I’m determined to complete it, and because of this competitive nature of mine, I made it through four and a half books in one week! I have to admit, I’m pretty proud of myself, but I’ll also admit that by the end of it I was totally a book zombie. Y’know, glazed eyes, vacant expression, groaning and lusting after other peoples brains…okay so that last part didn’t happen, but still!
Anyway…clearly it was a full month and there were lots of great reads (thrillers and horrors and fantasies, oh my!) so I should probably get a move on sharing those with you.
Aaru by David Meredith: 3 Stars. I received this in exchange for a review and while I didn’t love it, I did find it interesting. You can read my full review here.
Lies She Told by Cate Holahan: 4 Stars. This one was a buddy read with some of my #booksorority girls, and woah, this book took us on quite the ride. The end wasn’t stellar, but it certainly left us guessing (and frantically hurling theories at each other like they were going out of style).
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling: 5 Stars (duh). I will NEVER be tired of Harry Potter!! NEVER! I’ve been slowly making my way through the audio books, the Jim Dale versions, and it’s like reading them again for the first time. I’m so in love with the narration and I just have so many feels hearing these scenes read aloud to me. Harry Potter will ALWAYS have 5 stars in my book!
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo: 4 Stars. This was another buddy read, but with my lovely friend @nerdishmum (she also has a blog which you can check out here). We’ve been making our way through the Grisha trilogy and mostly enjoying, yet also wondering if we’re missing something? Like…why does everyone love the Darkling so much? He’s barely been around! We haven’t read the third book yet, so I suppose that could change, but right now we’re all about our beloved Nikolai. *heart eyes*
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty: 4 Stars. This was for one of my book clubs and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I figured out just about everything by the end, but it was still so good! The characters are just so real and you can’t help but feel for them, I definitely recommend this if you enjoy dramatic mysteries.
Revival by Stephen King: 4 Stars. A Grimdragon read-a-long pick with ALL THE FEELS. I really loved this book, and I wanted so badly to give it 5 Stars, but there were a few things that fell a little flat for me (I won’t say what, spoilers). Still, this book was excellent and if you’ve enjoyed any of Stephen King’s other work then you should definitely pick this one up.
A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena: 3 Stars. This was the read-a-long pick for Spook-a-thon and my pick for a thriller. The premise of this book was excellent, but sadly I felt that it was executed rather poorly. The synopsis made it seem like it was going to be a lot more chilling than it was and it just didn’t have the oomph I was hoping for.
Bird Box by Josh Malerman: 4 Stars. This book almost got 5 Stars from me, it is so good and has a perfectly spooky setting, which took care of another Spook-a-thon prompt, but it was just left with far too many questions in the end. That being said, I still absolutely loved this book, it was chilling and terrible and just awful to imagine, but I couldn’t put it down.
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero: 3.5 Stars. My expectations were WAY too high for this book…which makes me really sad. This book is marketed to people who love Scooby-Doo, and while you can absolutely see that’s where the inspiration was drawn from, it just doesn’t live up to what you hope it’s going to be. The mystery is good and so are the characters, but the writing itself, flip-flops between a traditional novel style and a screenplay, which makes for very confusing reading. If you can get past that though, it’s still a decent read, and it took care of the prompt for reading a book with orange on the cover.
Help for the Haunted by John Searles: 4 Stars. I knocked out two prompts with this book that had been sitting unread on my shelf for far too long, a childhood fear (ghosts) and a spooky word in the title (haunted), and I honestly can’t figure out why the heck I waited so long to read it! This book was great! It’s creepy and unique, and draws some parallels to the real life Ed and Loraine Warren which is super cool. I was really drawn into the mystery of this book, and while I was a little bummed about the lack of really scary haunting, I still enjoyed it.
The Mist by Stephen King: 5 Stars. My only 5 star read of the month! I read half of this during Spook-a-thon and finished it a couple of days after and UGH, I LOVED IT SO MUCH!! For only 240 pages The Mist packs a serious punch and just drowns you in all of the feels! ALL OF THEM! I’m still not over this book. I want to watch the movie and the new Netflix show and even though I know it will all be different from the book, I just need to!! As you can see, I’m still having lots of feelings over this tiny, little masterpiece of a book.
Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts: 4 Stars. A nice, light romance as a pallet cleanser before starting It. I enjoyed every second of it.
Enjoying the leaves and coffee and reading and the 12 books I read for the month.
So tell me, what did you read in October? How many books? Have you read any of these and/or have any thoughts/opinions? Inquiring minds want to know! Share in the comments below!
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