Tag: reading

The Best Books I Read in September (2022)

I read 17 books in September, bringing my total read for the year to 176 books. I also DNF 8 books. For a change, there were a solid number of really good reads this month. Of the 17 books, I rated nine of them 5 out of 5 stars. My favorites of those nine are:

The Winners, by Fredrick Backman. I LOVE this book! The first book, Beartown, was such a wonderful surprise to me. The second book was stellar, and this one was enthralling from the very first page. Even if you don’t care about hockey (I don’t), you should absolutely pick this up!

Long Way Gone, by Charles Martin. I adore everything this man writes. Everything. No questions.

The Last Legacy, by Adrienne Young. Adrienne Young is a fantastic writer, and the world of Fable/the Narrows is absolutely captivating. Loved this—and read it straight through in one sitting.

Honorable mention:

Sundays Are for Writing #193

This week, I only wrote one book review, but I also wrote my September reading post, and my Best Books I Read in September post, so it was a solid writing week.

Happy writing!

What I Read In September (2022)

Books Read in September: 17

Books Read for the Year:  176/250

Topical Books/Monthly Goal Books:

Soul Taken, by Patricia Briggs. As usual for this series, I was glued to the page and couldn’t put it down.

No God But One, by Nabeel Qureshi (spiritual, TBR, audio). So much information in this.

The Book Woman’s Daughter, by Kim Michele Richardson (TBR). I enjoyed this as much as the first book.

Elodie’s Library of Second Chances, by Rebecca Raisin (TBR). This was a cute read.

The Return of the Gods, by Jonathan Cahn (spiritual). This was a bit terrifying, but explains so much.

For Review:

Don’t Let In the Cold, by Keely Parrack. This was a solid read. I can’t imagine being trapped outside in a blizzard and being hunted by criminals, but this kept my attention.

Monsters Born and Made, by Tanvi Berwah. The culture/setting in this was quite unique, even if the premise had echoes of The Hunger Games. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

The Girl from Guernica, by Karen Robards. This was SO good! I read it in less than a day because I just couldn’t put it down! I was invested in all the characters and on the edge of my seat several times.

The Make-Up Test, by Jenny L. Howe. This wasn’t terrible, but the MC, Allison, was quite full of herself and unable to look past her own selfishness and be considerate of anyone else.

Something in the Heir, by Suzanne Enoch. This was an okay read, but not a standout. I enjoyed the kids very much.

Spells for Forgetting, by Adrienne Young. This was a heck of a read! I love Ms. Young’s YA books, and I’m happy that this was up to their standard. The setting was very dark, but it was so vividly drawn!

The Winners, by Fredrik Backman. This book. Man. All of Backman’s novels, actually. But this one was unbelievably good.

A Place to Land, by Lauren K. Denton. Loved this! Such a compelling story.

Just Because:

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis (spiritual). Lewis was such a wonderful communicator.

The Final Gambit, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This was such a fun read!

Long Way Gone, by Charles Martin. I love this guy’s books so, so much!

The Last Legacy, by Adrienne Young. Love this author and this world. So unique and vivid.

Left Unfinished:

The Bachelor and the Bride, by Sarah M. Eden. The writing was fine in this, but the characters bored me, so I put it down.

The Opera Sisters, by Marianne Monson. The distant narrator/point-of-view just did not work for me. I didn’t feel any connection to the characters.

The Decoy Girlfriend, by Lillie Vale. I loved the premise of this. But the MC were just…not likable people to me, so I had to put it down.

The Only Child, by Kayte Nunn. I read about 30% of this, but the MC just wasn’t for me. She was a bit pushy and aggravating.

The Two Lives of Sara, by Catherine Adel West. Okay, the MC was completely selfish and hateful, and I couldn’t make myself care in the slightest about her.

The Book Hater’s Book Club, by Gretchen Anthony. These people were just kind of hateful to each other, and the beginning dragged on so long I lost patience.

An Affair of Spies, by Ronald H. Balson. The overabundance of technical jargon felt like the author trying to show me how smart he is. The info dumps did not feel natural.

Wishtress by Nadine Brandes. I read the first 10% of this, but it just didn’t capture my attention.

Book Review:  A Place to Land, by Lauren K. Denton

Image belongs to Harper Muse.

Title: A Place to Land    
Author:   Lauren K. Denton
Genre: Fiction
Rating:  4.5 out of 5

A hidden past isn’t past at all.

Violet Figg and her sister Trudy have lived a quiet life in Sugar Bend ever since a night forty years ago stole Trudy’s voice and cemented Violet’s role as Trudy’s fierce and loyal protector. Now, Trudy spends her days making sculptures from found objects and speaking via notes written on scraps of paper, while Violet runs their art shop, monitors the bird activity up and down the water, and tries not to think of her one great love she gave up in order to keep her sister safe.

Eighteen-year-old Maya knows where everyone else belongs, but she’s been searching for her own place ever since her grandmother died seven years ago. Moving in and out of strangers’ houses has left her exhausted, so when she sees a flyer on a gas station window for a place called Sugar Bend, she follows the strange pull she feels and finds herself on the doorstep of an art shop called Two Sisters.

When a boat rises to the surface of Little River in the middle of the night, the present and the no-longer-buried past clash, and the future is at stake for Maya, Violet, and Trudy. As history creeps continually closer to the present and old secrets come to light, the sisters must decide if it’s time to face the truth of what happened forty years ago, or risk losing each other and newly formed bonds with those they’ve come to love.

I loved this book!   Parts of it are very sad—what Violet and Trudy went through 40 years ago and what Violet had to give up—but the entire story was so immersive and lovely. Lauren K. Denton makes small-town life sound appealing, verging on wonderful. The characters, as always for this author, are fascinating and believable, and the reader just feels at home in the story.

Lauren K. Denton is a bestselling author. A Place to Land is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harper Muse in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:   The Winners, by Fredrik Backman

Image belongs to Atria Books.

Title:  The Winners     
Author: Fredrik Backman   
Genre: Fiction   
Rating:  5 out of 5

Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The residents continue to grapple with life’s big questions: What is a family? What is a community? And what, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in order to protect them?

As the locals of Beartown struggle to overcome the past, great change is on the horizon. Someone is coming home after a long time away. Someone will be laid to rest. Someone will fall in love, someone will try to fix their marriage, and someone will do anything to save their children. Someone will submit to hate, someone will fight, and someone will grab a gun and walk towards the ice rink.

So what are the residents of Beartown willing to sacrifice for their home?

This book. I was up until 2 a.m. finishing it, if that tells you anything. Beartown took me completely by surprise. I don’t really care about hockey, and small towns usually give me the creeps, but it was my first introduction to Backman’s writing and I was blown away. Us Against You was the same experience, and so was The Winners.

I loved these characters and was completely enthralled by the story. Even the seemingly minor characters are compelling in the hands of a master storyteller like this. He is so, so good at creating believable characters that you care about and feel like you’ve met. I’m not super thrilled by what happened to one of my favorite characters, but I laughed, cried, and was in turn awed by the occasional absolutely perfect sentence that truly captured the moment. Go read this.

Fredrik Backman is a bestselling author. The Winners is his newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Spells for Forgetting, by Adrienne Young

Image belongs to Random House/Ballantine.

Title: Spells for Forgetting      
Author:  Adrienne Young  
Genre: mystery, fantasy   
Rating:  5 out of 5

Emery Blackwood’s life changed forever the night her best friend was found dead and the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her. Years later, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence on the misty, remote shores of Saoirse Island and running the family’s business, Blackwood’s Tea Shoppe Herbal Tonics & Tea Leaf Readings.

But when the island, rooted in folklore and magic, begins to show signs of strange happenings, Emery knows that something is coming. The morning she wakes to find that every single tree on Saoirse has turned color in a single night, August returns for the first time in fourteen years and unearths the past that the town has tried desperately to forget.

August knows he is not welcome on Saiorse, not after the night everything changed. As a fire raged on at the Salt family orchard, Lily Morgan was found dead in the dark woods, shaking the bedrock of their tight-knit community and branding August a murderer. When he returns to bury his mother’s ashes, he must confront the people who turned their backs on him and face the one wound from his past that has never healed—Emery.

The town has more than one reason to want August gone, and the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises spanning generations threaten to reveal the truth behind Lily’s mysterious death once and for all.

This book was absolutely engrossing! Young’s writing always draws me in immediately, and this was no exception. Her writing is atmospheric, and Saoirse Island definitely has a vivid and memorable atmosphere. I’m not sure what to say about this novel. It was a compelling read and also quite dark, with only a few glimmers of hope in the darkness, but everything was so vibrant I experienced it right along with Emery.

Adrienne Young is a bestselling author. Spells for Forgetting is her newest novel. (Galley courtesy of Random House/Ballantine in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Something in the Heir, by Suzanne Enoch    

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:  Something in the Heir     
Author: Suzanne Enoch   
Genre:  fiction  
Rating:  3.5 out of 5

Emmeline and William Pershing have enjoyed a perfectly convenient marriage for eight years. Their relationship is a seamless blend of their talents and goals. They’ve settled into separate, well-ordered lives beneath the same roof, and are content to stay that way—or so Emmeline thinks. And if William has secretly longed for a bit more from the woman he adores, he’s managed to be content with her supreme skills as a hostess and planner, which has helped him advance his career.

Then when Emmeline’s grandfather, the reclusive Duke of Welshire, summons them both for his birthday celebration and demands they bring their two little angelic children, William is stunned to discover that his very proper wife invented not one, but two heirs to fulfill the agreement for living at Winnover. But surely if Emmeline and William team up and borrow two cherubs to call their own, what could go wrong? Enter George, age 8, and Rose, 5—the two most unruly orphans in Britain.

As the insanity unfolds, their careful, professional arrangement takes some surprisingly intimate turns as well. Perhaps it takes a bit of madness to create the perfect happily ever after.

This just barely managed to keep my attention invested enough to keep reading. Solid writing and likable—if sometimes oblivious main characters—made it a decent read, it just felt very predictable to me. The kids were funny, but I enjoyed their slang the most. A decent read, but not an outstanding one. Probably just not a good fit for me right now.

Suzanne Enoch is from California. Something in the Heir is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  The Make-Up Test, by Jenny L. Howe

Image belong to St. Martin’s Press.

Title: The Make-Up Test     
Author: Jenny L. Howe   
Genre:  Romance  
Rating:  3 out of 5

Allison Avery loves to win. After acing every academic challenge she’s come up against, she’s finally been accepted into her dream Ph.D. program at Claymore University, studying medieval literature under a professor she’s admired for years. Sure, grad school isn’t easy—the classes are intense, her best friend is drifting away, and her students would rather pull all-nighters than discuss The Knight’s Tale—but she’s got this. Until she discovers her ex-boyfriend has also been accepted. Colin Benjamin might be the only person who loves winning more than Allison does, and when they’re both assigned to TA for the same professor, the game is on.

What starts as a personal battle of wits (and lit) turns into all-out war when their professor announces a career-changing research trip opportunity—with one spot to fill. Competing with Colin is as natural as breathing, and after he shattered her heart two years ago, Allison refuses to let him come out on top. But when a family emergency and a late night road trip—plus a very sexy game of Scrabble—throw them together for a weekend, she starts to wonder if they could be stronger on the same team. And if they fall for each other all over again, Allison will have to choose between a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and what could be a twice-in-a-lifetime love.

I usually enjoy second chance romances. This one…the level of competitiveness between Allison and Colin was almost too much for me. Allison came across as almost hateful sometimes (to Colin and to any random person she didn’t like), sometimes despite the other person being perfectly nice to her.  She was extremely judgmental and rarely made any effort to see anything from someone else’s point-of-view. I enjoyed the body positivity and Allison’s unapologetic views on her life, but she came across as very selfish, rude, and pushy.

Jenny L. Howe is a professor. The Make-Up Test is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review and Blog Tour:   The Girl from Guernica, by Karen Robards

Image belongs to Harlequin/MIRA.

Title:  The Girl from Guernica     
Author:   Karen Robards
Genre:  Historical fiction  
Rating:  5 out of 5

On an April day in 1937, the sky opens and fire rains down upon the small Spanish town of Guernica. Seventeen-year-old Sibi and her family are caught up in the horror. Griff, an American military attaché, pulls Sibi from the wreckage, and it’s only the first time he saves her life in a span of hours. When Germany claims no involvement in the attack, insisting the Spanish Republic was responsible, Griff guides Sibi to lie to Nazi officials. If she or her sisters reveal that they saw planes bearing swastikas, the gestapo will silence them—by any means necessary.

As war begins to rage across Europe, Sibi joins the underground resistance, secretly exchanging information with Griff. But as the scope of Germany’s ambitions becomes clear, maintaining the facade of a Nazi-sympathizer becomes ever more difficult. And as Sibi is drawn deeper into a web of secrets, she must find a way to outwit an enemy that threatens to decimate her family once and for all.  

I was hooked on this from the very first page! All the characters were so vivid and so believable, and the author did such a great job with them that I felt like I was right there with Sibi through everything, grieving and struggling and determined to do what was right—no matter what. I cannot recommend this highly enough!

Karen Robards is a bestselling author. The Girl from Guernica is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/MIRA in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  Monsters Born and Made, by Tanvi Berwah

Image belongs to SourcebooksFire.

Title:  Monsters Born and Made     
Author:  Tanvi Berwah  
Genre: Fantasy, YA   
Rating:  4.2 out of 5

Sixteen-year-old Koral and her older brother Emrik risk their lives each day to capture the monstrous maristags that live in the black seas around their island. They have to, or else their family will starve.

In an oceanic world swarming with vicious beasts, the Landers―the ruling elite, have indentured Koral’s family to provide the maristags for the Glory Race, a deadly chariot tournament reserved for the upper class. The winning contender receives gold and glory. The others―if they’re lucky―survive.

When the last maristag of the year escapes and Koral has no new maristag to sell, her family’s financial situation takes a turn for the worse and they can’t afford medicine for her chronically ill little sister. Koral’s only choice is to do what no one in the world has ever dared: cheat her way into the Glory Race.

But every step of the way is unpredictable as Koral races against contenders―including her ex-boyfriend―who have trained for this their whole lives and who have no intention of letting a low-caste girl steal their glory. When a rebellion rises and rogues attack Koral to try and force her to drop out, she must choose―her life or her sister’s―before the whole island burns.

She grew up battling the monsters that live in the black seas, but it couldn’t prepare her to face the cunning cruelty of the ruling elite.

I enjoyed this read a lot!  The culture this is set in is very dark and depressing—basically hopeless—and Koral’s struggles to save her family were set amidst that darkness. Though dark, the culture is vividly portrayed, with hints at centuries of history that hide many secrets. Of course this story will draw Hungry Games comparisons  because of its very nature, but I found it compelling in its own right.

Tanvi Berwah graduated from the university of Delhi. Monters Born and Made is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.)