October 2024 Wrap-Up

Happy November!

How was everyone’s Halloween and Diwali? Did you do anything special or dress up? I dressed up, bought a scary book, handed out candy, and watched a horror movie. I’m also slowly getting back into my reading groove, so I’m really happy about that. I definitely need to work on finding a life schedule that works for my high energy and low energy days, but I’m feeling better about how it’s been going so far. In terms of reading, I finished 5 books, and I’m currently listening to 2 audiobooks.

Editing Update: I have a couple exciting projects lined up for the upcoming months, and I’m officially fully booked until January. I’m excited to see what everyone is working on for NaNoWriMo too! If you’re participating, I would love to hear all about your manuscript, especially if it’s a dark romance or fantasy. You can tell me all about it here 😊

My Library

Our library had a data breach, so I don’t have to return any books for the time being. Hopefully that means I’ll actually finish all the books I borrowed for once 😅

Netgalley e-ARCs

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath

Review:

I completely forgot what this story was about when I finally got around to reading it, so boy was I shocked with the content, especially when I got to the graphic bits. I really enjoyed this because of the cozy and gory vibes. The media (Dexter and Busytown) the publishers compared this story to were spot-on. It kind of gave me the same vibes as I Hate Fairyland but less deranged 😂 This poor town, though. Poor Bertie and Martin. I also didn’t see that plot twist coming at all. Holy moly. Things got real intense. If this is a series, I will most likely continue it because I’m really curious what happens next, plus I just really loved the vibes.

4.5/5⭐

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine Vol. 1 by IRINBI

Review:

I freaking LOVED this manga! It was so much fun and the characters all had such entertaining personalities. Ailette is absolutely the star of this show. I love how she ended up gaining the admiration of everyone around her. Her level of sass was unmatched 😂 The backstory was interesting and quite sad, but it was so fun to read about her life in the web-novel world. The art style is great, and I loved the details around the Voice of the World text bubbles. They were very expressive. I will definitely be continuing with this series. Highly recommend!

5/5⭐

Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san! Vol. 1 by tsuke

Review:

I personally didn’t enjoy this one as much as I thought I would. This is more of a slice-of-life manga, but the situations the characters found themselves in were a bit boring. The relationship between the 2 MCs wasn’t engaging either, and I didn’t feel for either of them. It’s a cute manga, but doesn’t really have much else going for it. If you like cute manga where you have a cute but helpless female and the slice-of-life genre, then I’d recommend this. Personally, I will not be continuing with the series.

2/5⭐

Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! Vol. 1 by Nmura

Review:

This manga was just so cute! I shipped Hashimoto and Shirase so freaking hard. They had such a great relationship dynamic. The moment where the puzzle piece fell into place? Absolute perfection 😍 There are quite a few misunderstandings that happened throughout the story, but I felt like it was done in a tasteful way, not in the way where you’re screaming at the characters to just talk already. Hashimoto’s cluelessness was just adorable. I was pleasantly surprised that the BL lovey-dovey bits weren’t graphic at all. I’ve read so many BL manga with graphic sex scenes, but it was nice to have one that’s just all fade-to-black. I’m not sure if this will change in future volumes once the MCs really get closer, but at least it’ll fit the pace of their relationship a bit better. Overall, I just really loved this manga and will definitely be continuing with the series.

5/5⭐

Other (e)ARCs

From Wednesday Books

Mysterious Ways by Wendy Wunder

Review:

The file was expiring, so I ended up binging this one in one night. I was pleasantly surprised with this story and how addicting it was. I could not put it down. I saw a ton of negative reviews for it on Goodreads, and honestly they had some pretty valid points. However, I ended up enjoying this despite all of the things people didn’t like about Maya and the story, and ended up just taking the story at face value. I thought there were quite a few quotable moments in the story, and I still felt for a lot of the characters, especially Scott. He totally didn’t deserve what happened to him. I did enjoy the parallel between the bobcat and the Bobcats. I also generally like reading about people who can read minds, so that’s one of the reasons why I requested this book in the first place. There are many heavy topics mentioned in the story, so I would recommend exercising some caution if you decide to read it. It’s not a cute little story like the cover suggests, but I definitely enjoyed it.

4/5⭐

Audiobooks

I’m currently listening to 2 audiobooks, one spooky (Stolen Voices) and one MG (A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking). I’m really enjoying both of them and will most likely finish them in November.

What was your favorite spooky read in October? Let me know in the comments below 😄

Happy reading!