Hello!

Making my TBR each month is my absolute favourite – I’m not a mood reader and I hate making decisions so knowing exactly what I’ve got coming up next is my ideal. I already find my physical TBR overwhelming, having to consider and choose between all 437 of my books?? Absolutely not.

I’ve decided to read an extra of my 25 in 2025 books this month – usually I only pick two out of my little TBR jar (as I used my big TBR jar to choose the 25 books in the first place) but as I have seven books left and three more months to make TBRs, unless I plan to read a third of a book each month, I think I’ll read three in October and two in November and December to complete the list.

I make my TBRs slightly differently to how I’ve seen others do it, in that I have four categories and then I pick at least one book for each of them, or two in the case of the 25 in 2025. The categories are:

• One book from the Wedding Library (when we got married we asked our wedding guests to gift us a copy of their favourite book and I’m reading one a month until I’ve read them all!)
• Any New Releases I’ve preordered (maximum three)
• Two books from my 25 in 2025 (except this month)
• And a book to Continue A Series (sometimes one of the new releases fits this category)

Let’s start with the Wedding Library!

Warlock: Escape Velocity – Christopher Stasheff

Oh there’s a story with this one!

I use a spinner to choose from the remains of the wedding library because, as previously mentioned, I hate decisions and I’m very conscious that I don’t want to be left with a collection of books I don’t really want to read, so the randomness of it is good for my brain.

This book has actually been spun in before – it’s a bind up of three books (which I didn’t realise) and I found it really difficult to get through. It took me over two weeks to get through 50 pages and it was actually my husband that encouraged me to DNF it. But I called it a soft DNF because I’ve managed to get through every book in the wedding library and I don’t want to change that.

I really didn’t think it would get spun in again only two months later.

So I’m going to attempt to read Escape Velocity again! I’m going in open minded and hoping that I’m in a better mindset to finish it this time around.

New Release

Mate – Ali Hazelwood

The sequel I never knew I needed – Ali Hazelwood’s second paranormal romance.

Bride wasn’t my favourite Hazelwood book, but I still gave it 4 stars. It’s probably the most seasonally appropriate book on my TBR for the spooky time of year and it comes out early enough in the month that I actually have time to read it too!

I’ve deliberately not looked up anything about this book and I have no idea what or who it’s about so we’ll see how well that goes for me!

25 in 2025

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

I read this book for my English Literature GCSE and like most students, it somewhat destroyed my love for reading and any chance I’d have of enjoying this book without analysing every word.

I spontaneously found this in a charity shop in 2023, I think, and decided I would like to reread it without having to dissect all the hidden meanings and inferences. I remember finding the presentation of minorities in the book really interesting but rereading that as someone who is now diagnosed and more understanding of her own autism I think will hit different.

And it’s really short, which is always a plus for me!

By The Book – Jasmine Guillory

I remember the exact book shopping trip I bought this on and it was nearly two years ago so I’m glad my TBR jar is holding me accountable to actually reading it!

This book is a contemporary romance, and it’s a book about books – that’s all I need to know!

I’m really looking forward to this one – I feel like I haven’t read a lot of contemporary romance this year so I think it’ll be nice to come back to somewhat of a comfort genre for me!

Five Survive – Holly Jackson

The bonus 25 in 2025 book for this month was a brilliant pick, because not only is it the only Holly Jackson book I haven’t read, but my husband bought me the new special edition cover for my birthday so I really feel I can justify having it if I’ve actually read it!

This book didn’t appeal to me when it first came out, but I think that was at least in part down to the fact I was disappointed in the last book in the ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’ series. I only picked up a physical copy because the hardback was down to £2.50 in the Works after the paperback came out, but now that I’ve read and adored two more of Jackson’s standalones, I have higher hopes for this one.

If it’s anything like the other Holly Jackson books I’ve read, I’ll devour it in 3-4 days at a reading speed that is unusually fast for me!

Continue A Series

Maximum Ride: The Final Warning – James Patterson

For the first time in quite a while, I actually don’t have another pre-order to take up this category so I get to continue my reread of the Maximum Ride series!

The way I’m approaching series’ at the moment is that I’ve picked one series that I’m ‘actively reading’ (the one that will go in this category each month when I can), but I do also have a bunch of series that have come out of my TBR jar and I feel like I can’t get rid of them until I finish them, so I’m also actively reading those. I’m overwhelmed by this plan too.

This book is the fourth in the series and I own the first seven – I believe there are now 11 books and still more coming, so I’m not sure if I’m going to continue with those yet! But this series is so nostalgic for me – every book has been 5 stars so far and I say that with the caveat that if I was reading these brand new for the first time, I would think they were cringy and dated and a bit weird, but for me they are the pinnacle of the joy I felt being a fangirl at 14 and I’ve loved rereading them. Plus they’re really fast paced and I can read about 100 pages in an hour (much faster than my usual reading speed!).

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So those are my six books for my October TBR! The Wedding Library book makes me nervous, but I’m really excited about the other five so hopefully it all evens out!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx