Books Read in October: 17
Books Read for the Year: 171/225
Topical Books/Monthly Goal Books:
The Iron Daughter, by Julie Kagawa (re-read). Still loving these characters.
Signs and Secrets of the Messiah, by Jason Sobel (spiritual). Fascinating read, although a bit over my head in places.
This Outside Life, by Laurie Ostby Kehler (spiritual). I loved reading about all these different places.
Taste of Darkness, by Maria V. Snyder (TBR). Loved this wrap-up to this trilogy.
Send Down the Rain, by Charles Martin (TBR, audio). I loved this!
The Lost Bookshop, by Evie Woods (TBR). I do like a good magical realism book, and this one qualified.
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, by Robert Dugoni (TBR). This was sometimes good, sometimes frustrating (Sam’s mom’s single-mindedness), and sometimes magical.
After Death, by Dean Koontz (TBR). This was a little terrifying.
For Review:
The Hurricane Wars, by Thea Guanzon. The first…third or so of this was so plainly a Reylo fanfic that it grated on me (down to the character descriptions), but I was intrigued enough by the world to keep reading—and I’m happy to say it improved.
The Unmaking of June Farrow, by Adrienne Young. This was a fantastic read! I was just as confused as the MC for most of the novel, which made everything that much more believable!
Unholy Terrors, by Lyndall Clipstone. This was a very atmospheric read, but I frequently felt like the characters were going around in circles. I wanted to know more about the culture and the peoples, but sadly, that was not to be.
Highlands Christmas – Wishes Come True, by Amy Quick Parrish. This was a novella, so at least it was a very quick read. Other than that…although the setting was cool, I feel like this was just a meh read.
The Predictable Heartbreaks of Imogen Finch, by Jacqueline Firkins. I loved the friendship triangle in this book. I found the small town setting with somehow an almost-unlimited dating pool a bit farfetched. I didn’t like that it made it seem like Eliot was the one with all the issues, while Imogen was a doormat/opportunity for sex for 17 different men—and that wasn’t treated as much of an issue.
When I’m Dead, by Hannah Morrissey. I DNFed the first book in this series, so I’m not sure why I read this one. It was solidly written, but it just felt like the setting was so dark, and I didn’t much care for the two MCs.
Swarm, by Jennifer Lyle (review forthcoming). Another meh read filled with actions that didn’t make much sense.
Never Wager with a Wallflower, by Virginia Heath. This was a cute wrap-up to a trilogy I enjoyed, although I thought Venus was so focused on blaming Gal she couldn’t see that some things just weren’t his fault.
Just Because:
Life, by Lisa Harper (devotional. Loved this!
Left Unfinished:
The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed, by Noreen Mughees. I like reading books set in cultures different from my own, but I do not like getting thrown into strange languages and customs with almost zero clarification. This made me put the book down.
Love Interest, by Clare Gilmore. I made it three pages before Casey annoyed me so much by being critical, judgmental, and condescending that I stopped reading immediately.
Silent City, by Sarah Davis-Goff. I hadn’t read the first one, but that wasn’t what made me put this down. After 10%, the choppy, messy writing style just didn’t work for me.
Sisters Under the Rising Sun, by Heather Morris. I love World War II historical fiction, but the first 5% of this did not work for me. It felt completely chaotic and jumbled together, and I just didn’t care to read more.
The Fatal Folio, by Elizabeth Penney. This was the first of this series I’d picked up, and it sounds perfect for me: books and a cozy mystery? I read about 20% of it, but I just wasn’t interested in the characters enough to keep reading.
The Boy from the Sea, by H.L. Macfarlane. I just couldn’t deal with Grace’s obsessions with Lir. Stalker much? If I don’t like the characters, I don’t bother reading more, and I didn’t like Grace.
What the River Knows, by Isabel Ibañez. This sounds like it would be right up my alley, but it felt slow and almost juvenile in the beginning, and Inez, is so naive and even childish as to be annoying. I just couldn’t connect with her, so I lost interest.
The Future, by Naomi Alderman. I just cannot read about characters I don’t like, and this selfish, self-absorbed group were too much.
The Porcelain Maker, by Sarah Freethy. This sounded so good—and might have been. But, when I had to put if down for 24 hours due to life being busy, I wasn’t looking forward to picking it up. and was just sort of blah about it, so it obviously wasn’t holding my attention.
Tomorrow Is Another Day 
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