Thursday, October 6, 2022

Monthly Reading Wrap-up ~ September 2022

This year I thought I would share a little more of all my books and I thought the best way to do that would be if I wrapped up my reads of each month, so I can share mini reviews on all the books I've gone through! 

It could be a big range from 2 to 10 books depending on how much I read, but I figure I can share a little synopsis and quick thoughts on each book. I will still be doing more in depth reviews on books that really capture me! 

Monthly Reading Wrap-up ~ September 2022
I purchased all these books - this posts contains affiliate links 

So, in September I read 10 books - a mix of genres from middle grade memoir to adult thrillers. I love most genres, and I really want to keep my reads diversified this year - I think I have been doing a great job of that so far! Also, I've been trying to read a mix of old and new books, which I've done a good job at so far this year. I read 5 audio books, and 5 physical books (with no e-books this month!)

Here's a quick look at all the books I read in the past month:  

Monthly Reading Wrap-up ~ September 2022

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy ~ ☆☆☆ ½ - 3.5 stars. This is a young adult contemporary book - I'm slowly working my way through Julie Murphy's back list of books because I'm really enjoying her writing! This is about a young girl diagnosed with Leukemia and has been using the last year to complete a "bucket list". As a teenage girl going through a terrible time, she sometimes focuses her time in revenge and negative activities (but honestly, while she can be hard to read sometimes, I was a bitchy teenage girl so I could certainly understand her perspective). In the end, what I wanted and expected happened and I appreciated the arc. Good read overall.

Verity by Colleen Hoover ~ ☆☆☆ - 3 stars. This is an adult thriller - this was hyped up everywhere so I was excited to read it! I thought it was good, nothing as spectacular or as out-of-this-world as it was sold to be. I will say, the writing had me pretty invested, I did stay up late reading this a few times as I did want to keep reading the book in the book and find out what was going to happen. I was actually expecting a little more of an explosive end, but this was a pretty dark and weird.

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang ~ ☆☆☆☆ - 4 stars. This is a young adult graphic novel, sort of historical fiction setting. This is about a prince who likes to wear dresses - it's a cute graphic novel! loved the story and the art was great as well. It was a quick easy read, but also had a pretty fantastic message.

Act Your Age, Eve Brown ~ ☆☆☆☆ - 4 stars. This is an adult romance novel - it's the third in the Brown sisters series following the youngest sister. This one is sort of the grumpy/happy trope and I enjoyed the characters the most in this one, they were just a lot of fun and the author is effortlessly able to include a variety of representations in her books, which is great. I am still not quite used to reading books this spicy and the sex scenes are a little over the top - great if you like that, but it's a little much for me! Enjoyable read though and I liked the series overall. 

Long Live The Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw ~ ☆☆☆ ½ - 3.5 stars. This is a young adult fantasy/magical realism novel - this is following Sally Skellington after the events of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I knew Shea Ernshaw would create the perfect vibes of this book and would do Sally Skellington justice. I loved this character in the show and I enjoyed the setting and story of the book - loved the discovery of Dream Town and an expansion on Sally's background story. This is a super quick read, my only thought was I was a little disappointed with the ending with the villain in particular; I just wanted a little bit more!

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid ~ ☆☆☆☆ ½ - 4.5 stars. This is an adult contemporary novel and I loved this - wrote a full review that you can check out here! I wasn't sure how I was going to mesh with this book; I'm not really in to tennis, nor did Carrie Soto come off as a likeable character in Malibu Rising, but that is really the beauty of this story! Carrie is a strong character and TJR writes her in a way that humanizes these characters and makes you see what's brought them to be this way, and to end up liking them and rooting for them. I've never been more invested in tennis, but this story drew me in and I loved it! 

Witchy, Volume 2 by Ariel Slamet Ries ~ ☆☆ ½ - 2.5 stars. This is a young adult fantasy novel and it's the second volume - I enjoyed the first one so I was excited to pick this one up. But, I'm a little sad I didn't get on with this as well as I was hoping. I just didn't click with this part of the story and I didn't think that much happened in this story. I also thought the pages were a little overwhelming and hard to follow.

Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton ~ ☆☆☆ ½ - 3.5 stars. This is a middle grade memoir - it's a quick read for a younger age group as an introduction for that age to residential schools. It's certainly not as in depth as other memoirs, but you can tell it's meant for a younger age with definitions, pictures and a scrapbook at the end. It was interesting with the travel to and from in the far north and would recommend this for people with kids that they'd like to introduce this topic to! 

Monthly Reading Wrap-up ~ September 2022

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin ~ ☆☆☆ ½ - 3.5 stars. This an adult contemporary fiction novel. This one was pretty hyped and I was expecting to love this. I loved the concept of this book, the gamer basis and the idea of this spanning decades. I typically like unlikable characters, but I found these two with their basis of friendship that was too fragile and I struggle when a whole book is about lack of communication. I loooved the side characters. I loved the games - the writing made everything seem so realistic (please can someone make Ichigo into a real game for me?!) This was hard to rate because I loved certain parts of this and struggled with others. Beautifully written though.

The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell ~ ☆☆☆ ½ - 3.5 stars. This is an adult thriller novel - it's the follow up to The Family Upstairs. It follows the events of the first book, but also adds more background information and new character perspectives too. I like the anticipation and Lisa Jewell writes in such a way that keeps you guessing until the very end, love how she can really build you up and slowly have everything come together. 

I would I would call September a decent reading month, I read a great books and lots of decent ones!

Here's a little refresh of my rating system:

5 Stars: Excellent/Fantastic/Amazing Read 
4.5 Stars: Really Great Read
4 Stars: Great Read 
3.5 Stars: Really Good Book
3 Stars: Good Book 
2.5 Stars: Eh, It was Okay Read
2 Stars: Finished it, but Didn't Enjoy It
1.5 Stars: Not Good at All
1 Star: DNF (Did Not Finish)

What was the best book you read this month?! My favourite of all of these was Carrie Soto is Back! 

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