Hello Bookworms!

One month closer to Christmas yay! I managed to rip through so many books and audiobooks this month. I’m so proud of myself and I hope I can keep it up in December. I’m joining the #flattenthenetgalleys challenge on Instagram during December in hopes of reducing my Netgalley TBR. Anyhoo, moving on to my wrap-up. I read 10 books and finished 4 audiobooks!

My Library

Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie

Review:

This was a pretty entertaining book! I binged my way through it and thought it was a very easy read. It wasn't too scary at all but it did have some horror scenes that would probably spook younger readers. The backstory behind the boy ghost was really fascinating and I loved all the history behind the story. After I finished reading I googled the history of the SS Eastland to learn more. That was such a tragedy, comparable to the Titanic. If you like historical horror, go check this out!

4/5🌟

The Companion by Katie Alender

Review:

I LOVED THIS BOOK! It was so creepy and it definitely satisfied my need for a spooky read that makes me feel on edge until the end. The book was easy to read and was full of great character. Laura was so unnerving and she really helped boost the creepy vibe of the story. I was not expecting that ending at all but I’m so happy it happened because it was more disturbing than anything I could have hoped for! This is by far my new favourite horror book of the year and I will be recommending it to every person who reads. Please go check this out because it was spectacular.

6/5🌟

Seeing Voices by Olivia Smit

Review:

This was such a sweet book and I’m so glad I read this. Thank you Trisha for saving this for me from your Little Free Library! The characters were well developed and great. I love how this book mainly focused on Skylar’s relationship with her brother and going through the emotional healing from her accident. I really like how there was no love relationship in this book because it probably would have taken a bit of the focus away from the important storyline between Skylar and her brother. I thought the hearing loss bits really helped me understand many of the struggles people who have lost their hearing have to face. Overall an amazing book and I highly recommend it!

4/5🌟

Netgalley eARCs

Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie Volume 1 by Keigo Maki

Review:

This was such a fun manga to read. I love how each chapter always started with a phrase like “Shikimori-san is so cool” or something similar. Her relationship with Izumi was so cute and I love how the roles were flipped so she’s the one who always has to protect him because he’s the clumsy one. I totally ship them! There was a cliffhanger on one of the final chapters and now I really need the next volume so I know what happens! The art style and design was really easy to understand which was great! I also love how manga always has extra manga recommendations at the end because I just found like 5 more stories that I want to read.

4.5/5🌟

Delicates by Brenna Thummler

Review:

TW: Suicidal thoughts and bullying. Gosh this graphic novel just… wow. Literally cried a little it was so heartbreaking. I hadn’t read the first book “Sheets” so I didn’t have the backstory with Marjorie and Wendell, but this was still readable as a standalone book. This book is a masterpiece. Eliza’s storyline was so heartbreaking and my heart goes out to anyone currently going through anything similar. Please don’t be afraid to reach out to someone if you ever need to talk <3

6/5🌟

The Adoption by Zidrou and Monin

Review:

I really enjoyed reading this graphic novel; it was so heartwarming. I loved the relationship Gabriel the grandpa developed with his adopted granddaughter. Even though he was extremely skeptical in the beginning, he eventually grew to love her as his own. There was a plot twist in this book that I was not expecting at all, so that put me on a little emotional rollercoaster, but the ending was satisfying . This was a very sweet book even with the mildly vulgar Geegees group 😂 Also I’m craving a pâté and pickle sandwich now.

4/5🌟

Other eARCs

Tempting Hades by Emma Hamm

Review:

Thank you Emma and Booksprouts for the eARC! I love the story of Hades and Persephone and think their love story is great, so I was super excited to read this book. However it fell a bit short for me at least until the last 70 pages or so. Demeter confused me a little because she seemed like such a strict mother and proper matron (even though she was drop-dead gorgeous), but would get drunk at festivals and loved dirty jokes? I feel like there was some good character development with with Kore's transformation into Persephone because near the end of the book she was more mature and grew into her goddess role, but in the beginning she was so confusing and flighty and her train of thought didn't make too much sense sometimes. In one part she shows great concern for the dead souls and the mortals when she returns to her mother, but then there's one part where she meets mortal men and says she would have let them rot even though they hadn't done anything yet. One thing I loved was how Hades was the mature one in the relationship and taught Persephone how to have a healthy relationship. An example was in the scene where they fight and how they resolve the conflict with Hades taking responsibility for his actions and promising to work on making Persephone feel more loved. Also in their explicit scene it's great that Hades focuses on Persephone's pleasure before his own, more scenes in books should be like this so good job Emma! One thing that threw me off was the writing style because this is set in the time of Ancient Greece but there some modern words and phrases thrown in there that kind of took me out of that world. Also Persephone's "darkness" was a bit overdramatic because she was basically just feeling normal human emotions like jealousy and anger. But on a positive note, Cerberus was just the sweetest doggo ever and 100% my favourite character! I also want to acknowledge Emma's work in sharing as much authentic (I think) Greek myth history as possible. Overall this was a pretty decent book!

3/5🌟

The Green Door Book 1 by Heather Kindt

Review:

I thought this book had such amazing potential but it fell a bit short for me. The plot was so intriguing with how you enter doors which lead to different worlds and you must complete a task to win money. This gave me some Hunger Games mixed with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe Narnia vibes. I think the plot was very adventurous and I loved reading about the Ferox people. The ideas for this book were great but I think the writing style left much to be desired. I felt like Kindt was mostly telling the readers what was happening instead of showing them. Also Carter and Meg’s relationship felt very fake, like they had no emotional connection. Meg and Brek’s dynamic on the the other hand was great and I loved their relationship. The moment near the end of the book where something happened to Brek, I think Meg overreacted a bit too much for something that really wasn’t that bad. Also I wonder what will happen to Shaol.

3/5🌟

A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier

Review:

Thank you Harper Collins for the eARC! This was such an interesting book and I enjoyed the story a lot! I loved how sassy Aleida was and I thought the crystal spirit was so precious. I thought the idea of constructs was very cool as well. I felt that Elodie was an ok character because she had the potential to go through way more character growth than she did. Despite the things she did with Aleida, she still had that shy and insecure mindset by the end of the book. Also some of the language used by the characters seemed a bit anachronistic for the type of setting I was picturing for this book. Overall this was a fun read and gave me very witchy vibes.

3/5🌟

The Story of How We Met by Ivy Oakes

Review:

Thank you to Ivy for sending me an eARC to review! Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I tried really hard to get into the story but the characters were so flat and the writing style was very bizarre and sounded so robotic. The plot itself was sweet and it could have been a great story if not for the writing style. Oakes doesn’t use contractions so the character’s dialogue ended up being very robotic and unemotional. She uses contractions in her authour’s blurb at the end of the book, and that sounded way more natural and fun to read. I don’t understand why she didn’t write like that for the actual book though. The writing style was very much like, “this happened then this happened and she felt this and they did that”. Since this is a prequel, I hope the next few books improve in regards to writing style. 😅

1.5/5🌟

Audiobooks

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

Review:

This was such an entertaining audiobook! The book started off with an intro chapter about the 7 girls which was super helpful for background info. I felt like the beginning was a bit slow because I was a bit confused with all the characters, but as I listened longer I began to be able to distinguish between the girls because of their distinct personalities. I really enjoyed listening to the girls' antics and plotting to find out who murdered their headmistress. I thought the character building was great because when the story ended I didn't want it to end because I wanted to know more about what happened to the girls after. I highly recommend this book if you like great characters and a fun murder plot 😊

4.5/5🌟

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Review:

I’m very conflicted as to how to rate this book. If I had to describe it in one word it would probably be “whaaaaaat”. This book was weird AF and so random. But it gave me such creepy vibes so the horror aspect was definitely there, especially in the end. I think the ending was definitely action-packed and also YASSSSS Catalina! I think the horror story behind High House was so unique and I was not expecting that at all. All of the family members of High House gave off such creepy vibes except for Francis, the sweetheart. Also just a warning, there is some sexual assault that happens in this book. That one scene with Howard Doyle and Noemi made me sick to my stomach (if you’ve read the book then you know what I’m talking about). This story was so messed up but it kept me captivated till the end.

4/5🌟

The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury

Review:

This was such a nice audiobook to listen to, except for when the rock music bits scared the crap out of me 😂 The story was so sweet and I loved the idea of magic coming from music. I also did not see that plot twist coming near the end. I laughed when I learned what happened to Amelia's correspondence with her grandmother 😂 This was such a magical story and I loved every minute of it! Anyhoo, I highly recommend this book so go check it out!

4.5/5🌟

The Weirdies by Michael Buckley

Review:

I LOVED THIS AUDIOBOOK! Kate Winslet’s voice acting was fire and her different voices for each child were hilarious. I loved the children’s weird names and characteristics. This story is basically what life would be like if the Addams family children were ever orphaned, aside from the fact that they received more parental love than the Weirdie children. The storyline was so outlandish but highly entertaining, and I loved all the little quips made by the narrator like where they compare the difference between being considered eccentric or weird depending on how much money you make, and how parents have no clue what they are doing when raising a child. I’m so excited for the next book!

5/5🌟

So that’s my November wrap-up. Did you see any books on here that you’ve read or want to read? Let me know in the comments below 😊

Happy Reading!