Hello!

I really don’t know how these months keep passing me by and I feel like I’m missing them, but October flew passed and despite having an amazing tbr, I only managed to read 6 of the 9 books on my list (I say ‘only’ – that’s still a lot considering I’ve never consistently read this much before).

The books I didn’t get to were book 2 in the Hades trilogy in the Hades and Persephone series by Scarlett St Clare A Game of Retribution (on Kindle Unlimited), Legendborn by Tracey Deonn (on Audible, but I have actually finished that in the first few days of November) and Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner (my September AfterLight subscription book, which I have also started). So considering I started reading 8 out of 9 books, I actually did okay!

Without further ado, here’s what I did read in October.

Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros (hardback) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It was actually my husband that finally got me to read it – I wanted to buy it over the summer and my lovely husband treated me to it, then he randomly decided he wanted to read it in September and he binge read it whilst on an international job at the end of the month and when he came home he put the book in my hands and demanded I read it immediately. So when he took me on a job with him in Scotland, I read Fourth Wing and I get it – I get it now! Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t perfect – if I did half or quarter ratings I think it would sit at a 4.25 or 4.5 but I find having too many options for ratings overwhelming so I rounded it up to 5. Sometimes Violet’s characterisation felt a little bit like an adult trying to be ‘down with the kids’ and some of the dialogue felt a bit disjointed. But the world building I thought was really solid – Basgiath as a war college setting was really immersive and I want to go and the fantasy system with the dragons felt new and fresh to me (though that might be because I’m only just getting back into my fantasy era and I’ve not read anything like it before, I’ve seen some criticism from more well read fantasy fans). Honestly I just had a really fun time and both my husband and I are incredibly excited for Iron Flame.

Wind In The Willows – Kenneth Grahame (hardback, book club) ⭐️⭐️
I get that it’s a classic for a reason… I just don’t like classics and my autistic brain takes things too literally so I really didn’t like Toad as a character and I couldn’t get past it. That and that fact that for a children’s novel I really thought I’d be able to read it in one sitting and tick it off as a quick win, but it took four days for me to read it. I can appreciate that it’s well written and I understand why it’s a classic, but it’s not for me.

A Game of Fate (Hades and Persephone #1.5) – Scarlett St Clair (Kindle Unlimited ebook) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I feel like this series is hanging over me now because I’ve been trying to read it for so long, but I actually paused reading this twice to read Fourth Wing and Wind In The Willows and all round, I thought the new bits of the story could have been a novella and the bits that were exact parallels to Persephone’s story (A Touch of Darkness) really didn’t add anything to the story because Hades as a character makes his feelings and experiences of being with Persephone very clear so there’s nothing new there. But I feel obliged to finish the trilogy because I finished Persephone’s trilogy and I have pre-ordered the next book, which is a dual perspective story that concludes both trilogies and I don’t want to risk not understanding something because I didn’t read the books that I can access on Kindle Unlimited. Will I finally finish this series in November? Who knows (statistically: no).

Wildfire (Maple Hills #2) – Hannah Grace (new release) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I mean, I technically bought this twice because I preordered the ebook because I’m really getting into Kindle reading but then The Works did a special edition with beautiful sprayed edges and I couldn’t resist (plus the retail of the paperback in Waterstones is £9.99 and I spent £8.99 total on two editions so I basically saved money). I devoured this book – I read it in less than 48 hours, I adored Russ and Aurora as the protagonist characters and I loved everything about the story. I actually shunned everything on my to do list and read probably 50% of it in one day because I just didn’t want to do anything else but read Russ and Aurora’s story. I’m obsessed.

And on the day I finished it, I think I saw a sneaky rumour that suggested the next book would be about Henry? And Henry is just the sweetest so as soon as that’s announced I will be preordering it, I can’t wait!

The Last Devil To Die (The Thursday Murder Club #4) – Richard Osman (Audiobook) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I kind of accidentally caught up on reading books 2 and 3 in this series and inadvertently timed it really well with the release of the newest instalment. I’ve listened to the entire series as audiobooks so I waited for my next Audible credit and ended up accidentally doing loads of long drives and, alongside really enjoying the story, I managed to finish it relatively quickly considering I listen to the majority of my audiobooks whilst I’m driving! Returning to Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim’s story was so cosy and the crime story was really good (at least to me, as someone who doesn’t really read crime at all). This instalment was surprisingly emotional and the character arcs were really sweet. This series is one of those that’s really cosy and lovely to come back to and is a consistent 4-star read for me and this one is no different – Osman’s done it again!

A Study In Drowning – Ava Reid (hardback Illumicrate subscription) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I saw a couple of people on TikTok that are obsessed with this book and about halfway through I realised that I was telling myself I was enjoying it more than I actually was because TikTok told me to. Don’t get me wrong, it was okay – I’d argue it’s New Adult rather than Young Adult as the protagonist is a university student, but the fantasy elements felt like they were incredibly glossed over and I couldn’t properly get invested in anything. It all felt quite slow, I liked the environment building of the old house and Preston and Effy were quite interesting characters, but I don’t think I overly cared about either of them. And the big twist was quite predictable – I’m not normally good at guessing those kinds of things but I found it really obvious. Solid 3 stars – the Illumicrate edition I have is absolutely stunning and I have a sentimental attachment to it because it’s my first subscription book, but I’m not obsessed.

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Now let’s crack in to the November tbr.

To briefly sum up: rather than choosing a list of books from my tbr I want to read each month, I am basically ensuring that I’m getting my moneys worth in subscription services, justifying pre-ordering new releases and still desperately trying to work through my never ending tbr.

So I have a book club pick, two Kindle Unlimited books, 2 Audible books, my Illumicrate subscription, my Afterlight subscription (which is going monthly in 2024 which is exciting for me and not for my bank account or my tbr) and any pre-orders.

This month’s Rocket Book Club (my husband and I’s book club going through all the books we received as gifts when we got married) is going to be a little different because it’s our first wedding anniversary! So we’ve decided that this month we’re going to pick a new book to add to the collection and it’s definitely got nothing to do with the fact that the Fourth Wing sequel Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros comes out this month and we’ve pre-ordered a hardback edition and an ebook edition so we can both read it at the same time, so that’s our book club pick for November!

On Kindle Unlimited, like a broken record, I’m really going to try and A Game of Retribution and A Game of Gods by Scarlett St Clair to finally finish the Hades trilogy in the Hades and Persephone series. I keep putting it off because I want to prioritise my physical reads but I think I am actually just putting off reading more of these series. I love this retelling of the Greek stories, I do like to modernisation of mythology but I think I’m a bit bored of this version of Hades and Persephone. Honestly, at this point if I can get the series finished by the end of 2023 I’ll be happy but if I can finish them this month ready for festive reads next month I’ll be even happier.

On Audible, I carried over Legendborn by Tracey Deonn from my October tbr and I managed to finish that in the first 4 days of November, so the other book I want to read this month is The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (which I will also be co-reading with the physical edition) and if I manage to get through that I would like to read Wings of Ebony by J. Elle. If I don’t get to it, we’re going to pretend that it was never on my tbr for the month. It’s my list, I can move the goal posts however I want 😂

The other new release I will be reading this month is Check and Mate by Ali Hazelwood (which obviously releases on the same day as Iron Flame, because of course it does). I love Ali Hazelwood’s adult romance books so I am really excited for her YA debut, though I’m mildly apprehensive of the YA demographic as I do feel like I’m too old for it. But in my head, it’s going to be a less-sexy, lower-stakes-cos-it’s-not-adult version of other Ali Hazelwood books and I think I’ll need a light, contemporary romance when I finish Iron Flame anyway!

My Illumicrate book for this month is After The Forest by Kell Woods which is a Hansel and Gretel retelling that I’m really excited about! I’ve not heard anything about this book and I don’t know if I would have picked it up if I was book shopping of my own accord so I’m looking forward to reading something with no expectations.

And lastly, while there was no Afterlight book for October (as it’s currently a bi-monthly subscription), I didn’t finish the September book which was Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner so I want to finish that off this month.

Having hit my reading goal for the year back in June, I’m definitely feeling less pressure to read and enjoying it more, but this monthly tbr doesn’t really work on my physical tbr at all. It’s 8 books long and I generally read about 6 books a month so am I pushing myself to read more or am I putting too much pressure on myself? Let’s not think about it too much!

As well as trying to write 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo 😂

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx