Hi friends,
Well, another month has passed and another stack of books have been devoured. November was a weird month. There was a solid week(ish) period when I didn’t read anything and I actually questioned if I finished any books this month, totally forgetting about the first 10(ish) days of the month. Yeah, it was one of those months. Fortunately, I was able to break out of the rut I was in and get some reading accomplished.
This month I managed to read 11 books. According to Goodreads, I’m still a bit behind and we’ll see if I’ll read enough in Dember to hit my goal.
Booktube Video:
Stats:
ReadaThons:
ScallywagAThon – Completed Successfully! Full wrap-up here.
#TBRKnockdown24 – Not my best. Two books completed (I think).
ContemporaryAThon – Utter and complete fail, ~1/2 a book read.
Tome Topple – Utter and complete fail, no Tomes read.
MinimojiAThon – Actually completed some books and some challenges. Full wrap-up coming, but when it’s up, it will be here.
Ratings:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 1
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (4.5) – 1
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 3
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3.5-3.75) – 3
⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 2
⭐️⭐️✨ (2.75) – 1
Genres:
Middle-Grade Fantasy – 1
YA Fantasy – 5
YA Contemporary – 2
YA Thriller – 1
YA Historical Fiction – 1
Graphic Novel – 1
Book Format:
Audiobook: 10
eBook: 0
Physical: 1
Total pages read: 3,740!
Books I Read:
Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 4/5 Stars
Review: Full review available here.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 3/5 Stars
Review: I really wanted to love this book, I did, but Kasie West may not be the contemporary author for me. Those looking for a mindless, fluffy, cute, (slightly juvenile) contemporary will really enjoy this one. There were some parts that felt a bit cliched and the “pen pal” reveal could be seen coming a mile away. While this book played out like many others in this genre, I still enjoyed my time reading it. I may revisit this one when I need a light read and pick me up or if I’m in a more mindless mood. Not going to lie though, this book was only on my shelf because it came in an OwlCrate box.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ – 3.75/5 Stars
Review: Please don’t hate me. I will be continuing on with the series, there were just some slower parts of this book that felt like they were there to set up the future books. There were several parts of this book that I thoroughly enjoyed and am excited to see where they lead. I know there are some reviewers I trust that enjoyed the books more on the reread because all the parts that were set up were more enjoyable after seeing what they lead up to. I’m hoping this is true for me too. Raven Boys fans, the series does get better, right? Also is this book more enjoyable when reread? I’m also listening to the series on audiobook, is this the best format or is physical better? Thanks!
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 3/5 Stars
Review: Spoiler-free review here.
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ – 4.5/5 Stars
Review: This book was so much fun! If you guys look at my Goodreads (you should all friend me btw), you’d see that it took me like 6 days to read this book. Most of that is because I had to put it down for like 4 days because of school. You don’t care about that though, you care about how the book was. As you can see from the rating, I really liked it. Of course, more Jack the Ripper scenes (even his POV) would have been great, but I enjoyed what we got. I didn’t mind the romantic scenes or watching the mystery unfold. I honestly did not see the ending coming. The two characters I pegged for Jack the Ripper would have actually pissed me off if I was right due to tropes, but the actual reveal and motives were super cool. I loved how it played with expectations and almost transcended out of the historical fiction genre. I think it was worth the hype and was a creative story. I can’t wait to pick up the sequel and see where the story goes!
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 5/5 Stars
Review: It’s been far too long since I’ve read the Harry Potter books and I’m just so happy to be back home. There were so many scenes I forgot about and subtle movie changes. It was nice to review the original work and kick off this overdue series reread. One thing I totally forgot about was how fast some of the scenes went by in the book, knowing the story so well there were several times I found myself muttering “oh we’re at this part already” or something along those lines. Also, those of you that haven’t read this book in a while or have only seen the movies, you’re missing out on some great sass.
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Rating: ⭐️⭐️✨ – 2.75/5
Review: Yeah, I was not a fan of this one. This book used my least favorite contemporary trope and it kind of ruined the book for me. I can’t stand it when characters don’t communicate; rather they assume things about other characters and these assumptions either eff up relationships or cause drama. Also, Anna’s character just started to get on my nerves. There were several times where I just wanted to reach into the book and shake her. Like, I get it, it’s senior year you don’t want to be away from your friends, but girl, you’re studying in FRANCE. Like, can you stop bitching about that…especially since it didn’t seem like you hated that much after you got there. The thing that really irked me the most though was the hypocrisy. I know she addresses it towards the end, but Anna gets pissed at her friend for some stupid boy thing then goes and does the same thing and it takes her until the last like 50ish pages to realize it and rectify it. Wow. Yeah, I’m not sure if I’m going to continue on with the series. I know the other books are companions, but I don’t know. We’ll see if I have the urge to pick up the other two or if I’m just going to leave Anna in Paris.
When perusing on YouTube, I came across LilyCRead’s video. She sums up several of the things I disliked in her video and I highly recommend you check it out. Just FYI, it is a rant review and there is some cussing.
The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ – 3.75/5
Review: A fantasy book using the concept of King Midas with a female protagonist? Count me in! This book was a lot of fun, the use of magic and fantasy in this plot was executed phenomenally and the weight of the magic on the plot was gripping. My only complaint is that the pacing of the story felt a bit off. There were some parts that were incredibly gripping and others where I struggled to focus on the audiobook and had to go back in the book to reread what I missed. I did like the set up for the sequel and am super intrigued to see where the story goes.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 4/5 Stars
Review: This story was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the magic system and the excerpts of the mythology before each chapter. I’m not going to lie, I almost wish we got a book of the mythology 🙈. I’m so excited to continue with the series to see how that cliffhanger pans out. This book was such a unique fantasy novel. I personally haven’t read a book with elemental magic in it (well, I guess Truthwitch has some, but not to this extent) and loved the concept so much. I give a solid heads up to fantasy lovers, this book is definitely romance heavy. I personally didn’t mind it, I liked the training parts and the villain more, but honestly, the two leads had some good chemistry and I didn’t hate them. There were some toxic masculinity tropes in there that made me cringe a bit. I’ll have Aentee’s well researched negative review below that explain this a bit more. Though this particular aspect was not my favorite, I still enjoyed this one and still recommend it.
Review by Aentee on the Toxic Masculinity in Roar. Again, I thought this review raised some excellent points and is an angle that should be considered.
The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ – 3.5/5
Review: Didn’t love this much as much as the first one. I felt like there was too much focus on the Holmes/Watson relationship and not enough on the mystery at hand. There were some parts that were on the slower side and I wasn’t in love with the conclusion either. I will definitely give this one another try as this might not have been the best time to listen to this audiobook. I’ll probably still continue on with the series and hope this just falls victim to second book syndrome.
Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Brian Lee O’Malley
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 4/5
Review: This is one of the few graphic novels I’ve been dying to reread.
I read this book once in high school and am so happy to revisit this world. There was one drop of the “r” word as a slur that I wasn’t too keen on. [BABY SPOILERS] Also for those who don’t know, part of the main plot is that Scott is juggling two girls at the same time. While I never condone that behavior, I still gave this book a high review because the humor is there and it’s clear that this will become a point of growth. Even if I wasn’t coming into this book as a Scott Pilgrim fan, the fact that the last few panels are Wallace telling Scott that he needs to dump his Knives demonstrates that no one is okay with his behavior and will try to get him to rectify it.
How did your reading go this month?
Be sure to let me know in the comments below!
Coffee Cocktails & Books 📖 
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