September 2024 Wrap-Up

Happy spooky season!

I’m super excited for Halloween, and I hope I’ll get to read at least one scary book before the month ends. I had a bit of a better reading month in September, and I’ve mainly gotten through a bunch of manga for October. I managed to finish 2 books and 2 audiobooks in September.

Editing Update: I worked on 2 edits in September and attended ACES VCON. I had a blast at the virtual conference and learned so much. I’m looking forward to watching all the sessions I didn’t get a chance to attend, especially the one on burnout 😅 In terms of availability, I have a few slots left for November, but my December is essentially fully booked. If you’re an author with a spooky manuscript, I’d love to work with you! You can check out my Editing Services page and fill out my form to tell me all about your story 😄

My Library

Medusa by Jessie Burton: I impulse-borrowed this from my library and started reading it. I love Greek retellings, so I was super excited to read it. However, it wasn’t captivating me as much as I expected. I’ve heard many great reviews about it though, so I will definitely try to finish it.

Netgalley eARCs

The Legendary Mo Seto by A.Y. Chan

Review:

This was such a fun middle-grade story! I loved all the martial arts in the story, and I thought the fight scenes were absolute gold, especially the final one. The backstory for the conflict in the story was way more intense than I was expecting too. The movie aspect and Cody Kwok (except his reveal) gave me Jackie Chan vibes and I loved it. I didn’t even call who the Black Hoodie Guy was, so that reveal was a big surprise. It’s quite an action-packed story, so I think kids will really enjoy this. The Chinese lore relating to the martial arts was so intriguing. The story also features such a fierce FMC as well. There are also so many great lessons sprinkled throughout the story that are a great learning opportunity for kids and people in general. There was also a tiny romance arc in the story, mainly in the vein of a first crush where Modesty, the FMC, is lowkey oblivious to Nacho’s feelings toward her. They are just so innocent and adorable. Things get interesting by the end of the story though. I also really enjoyed their friendship and how they resolved their conflicts. I was also really happy with Dax’s character growth. Overall, this was such a fun story with lots of action and character growth. I highly recommend it!

4/5⭐

Mika and the Gurgler by Agatha Loth-Ignaciuk and Berenika Kolomycka

Review:

This was such a cute little picture book. I’d highly recommend it since it’s so short and has very minimal writing. I flipped through this in probably 1 minute, but the artwork is fun and I liked the story with Frog. I definitely think children will be more engaged with this book than I was. It would make a fun bedtime story!

5/5⭐

Other (e)ARCs

I paused my reading of The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst because it is just too good and I don’t want to finish the book and have it be over. I want to live in that story because it’s so cozy.

Audiobooks

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Review:

Wow . . . I don’t know why it took me so long to read this book. This was a WILD RIDE. I was absolutely HOOKED in the beginning. I always love a story where the MC goes to an academy and they have their training arc. Rin was such a captivating character. There are a lot of emotional punches pulled in this book that were used very intentionally and worked great for the story—Chapter 21 especially. That chapter . . . I couldn’t even. It felt very much like the moment in Mulan where the army enters the burned-down village, but a million times more graphic and emotional. It really tears your heart out, which I’m really glad it did because war is really that graphic. The battle strategy scenes were so smart and well written. This story spans many years in Rin’s life, but I think the pacing was well done in the sense that only the important bits of the timeline are included in the story. I listened to this on Audible and it included an excerpt of R.F. Kuang speaking about her book on a podcast. She talked about the scene when Rin deals with her period, and it was really interesting to see how Kuang meant that scene to be portrayed. On a side note, the pronunciations of the character’s names in the podcast were so off compared to the audiobook, and that was just such a relatable moment for readers who pronounce things in their head when they read but it ends up sounding completely different with the audiobook 😂

4/5⭐

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser

Review:

I listened to this as my bedtime audiobook to help me fall asleep, so this review is mainly based on the 85% of the book I was actually awake enough to listen to 😅 I thought this was such a heartwarming and sweet middle-grade story. There are a lot of main characters to keep track of though, so I’d definitely recommend reading this when you’re fully awake. Each character has a well-developed personality which made things a bit easier. The ending of the story was very satisfying, albeit a little too easily wrapped up. I wasn’t too sure why their landlord didn’t renew the lease, but that’s on me for falling asleep. I would definitely recommend this as a MG read though. It kind of gives off Nanny McPhee vibes, but in reverse since the children don’t want to leave.

4/5⭐

Do you have any spooky books on your TBR for October? Let me know in the comments!

Happy reading 🎃