This month I officially leaned way into reading romance. It’s the only thing that I’ve been able to get through lately. I’ve enjoyed reading other books, but they seem to take me way longer than usual. So yeah! Lots of romance this month.
- The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black – Read
- Love & Olives by Jenna Evans Welch [ARC 11/10] – DNF 15%
- The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White [ARC 11/10]
- It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne [ARC 12/1]
- The Umbrella Academy vols 2-3 by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba – Read
Also read/reading:
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J Klune – Read, review coming
- Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher – Read and reviewed
- Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore – Read and reviewed
- Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes – Read and reviewed
- The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman – Read and reviewed
- If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane – Read and reviewed
- Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters – Read, review coming
- Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane – Currently Reading
Books finished this month: 10, 1 DNF
Books currently reading: 1
Overall TBR:
TBR at the beginning of the year = 296
TBR at the beginning of November = 325
Books added to TBR = 7
Books read/deleted from TBR = 1
Total on TBR now = 331
I reread Caraval for a book club and then went ahead and finished the series (but it doesn’t look like I took any notes on Finale, so oh well). I found the whole plot of this book to be confusing (and the next book too, tbh). Tella as a character was confusing. The fates were confusing. I really loved Caraval the first time I read it, but I don’t feel like it held up to a reread (especially compared to The Night Circus which TOTALLY DID). I found Scarlett’s plot-line to be distracting and Tella just annoyed the crap out of me. She kept doing things that were CLEARLY a bad idea just to tick someone off. The writing was also just…not good for me. I could tell the author was trying to be lyrical with these lush descriptions, but if I have to read about how Dante smells like ink and darkness one more time, I swear… WHAT DOES DARKNESS EVEN SMELL LIKE. 3/5
I don’t feel like this book was quite as dynamic a conclusion to this trilogy as I was hoping for, but it was still good. I liked that this book was filled to the brim with strategy and political scheming. I also felt like Jude was more palatable in this book than in the previous two. With that being said, there were a few plot points that I was a little confused by. Pretty early on in the book, Taryn asks Jude to take her place in Faerie for a little bit, but I’m not really sure how she planned to get Jude back out? And then everything that happened with Carden…while I didn’t see it coming, once it happened I felt like the solution was really obvious. Like, REALLY obvious. I thought the overall ending was pretty good, but it seemed like it all happened really fast. I also wish that Grima Mog had gotten more screen time, she was awesome. We’ll see where Black decides to take Faerie next, but I’m hoping we get a book set in the Court of Teeth (fingers crossed). 4/5
I was so disappointed by this book. I’ve only heard great things about it (and the series in general) but I just couldn’t get on board with the characters. I thought all of the characters had these exaggerated flaws that they kept dwelling on and thinking about, but then they didn’t really do anything to overcome those flaws. I mean, I guess Amari did in the end, but Zelie and Inan did not. Zelie was particularly hard for me. She has NO impulse control. Absolutely none. Her temper is too quick to flare and she never thinks about long run consequences which drove me absolutely CRAZY. I thought the magic system was pretty interesting, but I also feel a little confused by it. Zelie mentions that maji exist in other countries, but the gods that the magic comes from seem pretty Orisha-centric. Do the other countries believe in the same gods? Did Saran take magic away from the whole world or just Orisha? Overall, I’m just pretty confused by how this world is set up. I probably won’t be continuing with the series. 3/5
What's She Reading? 