Category: Misc.

Top Ten Books of 2022

.Reading time 18 minutes.

Hey hey, it’s MJ

            Okay, so it should shock literally no one that I read a lot in 2022, like seriously more than I have ever read before. I read like 130 books, plus as few that I didn’t count that I read at school or as a read-aloud to my fifth graders last year. 

            These are really in no particular order, the first two were my top book of the year and the runner up, but beyond that they are not in any order. Also, I did count series as a whole slot in the top ten, so one might have three books and that’s because it’s a series and I didn’t want to count them separate. 

            Am I currently sitting at my desk while eating lunch? Yes, I am, but is that going to stop me from getting at least most of this post done? No, I am going to try and get something done with my time while I have it. Now I must consult the Book Bullet Journal, which is super different from last year. Doing a Book Bullet Journal for the second year in a row has really allowed me to see what worked and what didn’t work when it came to my Book BoJu last year. I have expanded some things, gotten rid of some things and tries some new and different things, so we are going to see how that goes.

            You may not like the books I liked, you may think that all the books I unhauled last year were your favorites and I am an illiterate idiot who doesn’t know good literature. Reading taste is subjective, I like what I like because I like it. If you didn’t like it, cool, but to be honest, it doesn’t affect me, so what I enjoyed or didn’t enjoy shouldn’t affect you either. 

            All of these books were five star books for me, so I am not even going to put their ratings. 

  1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

This was my top book of the year, I read it in January and I could not stop thinking about it for the remainder of the year. That was how I knew this one needed to be my book of the year for 2022. I was late to the party reading this and some people didn’t like it. That’s totally okay, we can all like different things. I really liked Luc, from the moment that he showed up I was like ‘ooh look, my favorite’ and he was. I loved the premise of the story; I want to get I Remember Youtattooed on me because this book made me feel things. I did really enjoy it because it made me feel, I like books that make me feel and this was for sure one of them. 

2. Between by L.L. Starling

You want a book that is a cross between Monty Python and Labyrinth, this is for you. I loved this book, I read it in four days and I cannot wait for the second one. I love all the characters, the worlds, the story as a whole, and I could not put it down. I didn’t want to put it down as it had me in stitches so many times throughout the 737 pages, that is a daunting number but it is so worth it because there was not a part of this book that didn’t keep me wanting more. From her kindergarten class, to the coven, to Lorn as a person, to everything else that went with this. It was such an amazing read. 

3. Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood and Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas

Okay, so this series was not only amazing but the ending of the second one, it broke me, it broke me so hard core that I wasn’t sure whether or not I had imagined the ending as a whole. It was so well written and I really did love the story and the characters. I have my favorites of course, but using a vacuum cleaner after that, that was amazing. I laughed so hard at so many parts and some left me utterly destroyed. There was so much in both of these books but being 750+ each that is wholeheartedly expected, but Sarah do not hurt my faves, that’s all I ask, do not hurt my faves. 

4. Kingdom of the Feared by Kerri Maniscalco

Well, this for sure was an amazing conclusion to this series, so much was tied up from the second one and even the first one with this book. Someone on TikTok said that this was what happens when you don’t plan the rest of the series before writing it. I didn’t see it that way. Though Wrath is my favorite and I cannot wait to read the book that is coming out about Envy in the fall. (I am so excited for it!) She is one of those authors that is an automatic buy for me and I know that is different for everyone. The story was interesting and everything is a hot mess, a complete hot mess and I loved the whole thing.

5. Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Another author that is an automatic buy for me, I don’t care if it was the same story just a little different, this one went hard, it went from like a cute, little love story to attempted murder? I loved it though; it was so much but I love her writing style. I read it in one day and I could not put it down. It was insanity and I liked this one just as much or more than The Love Hypothesis. I have always been a fan of ridiculous characters and this for sure was full of ridiculous characters. 

6. A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, and A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

I read several of her books this year and I don’t regret one single minute of it. I have not read Silver Flames yet and there is a part of me that is so nervous to read it because I am not a Nesta fan, she made me hate Nesta so much that I don’t know if she is going to redeemed in my eyes. (I have seen all sorts of stuff online about it so I will reserve most judgement until after I finish it in a few months.) I loved ACoFaS and I know that a lot of people didn’t like it. It was the Christmas special and I loved it, the snow ball fight had me rolling because those characters…in a snowball fight, that visual had me dying. The world is amazing and I am planning on reading the rest of Throne of Glass this year as well so that will be showing up here eventually. 

7. What Lies Beyond the Veil by Harper L. Woods

This was an early BookTok made me buy it book and it didn’t disappoint. I know that there were people who didn’t like it and I for sure called the twist with the main male. I really liked the whole story though and I want to read the sequel so badly. I will buy it eventually. It was an insane story, but it was so well written and the world was fascinating. I liked the subterfuge, that book was a wild ride from the beginning to the end. It took me like 100 pages to get into it and then I could not put it down. Though, it should shock no one at this point that half of my favorite books from last year involved the fae. 

8. From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I was late to the party on this one, this book was one of those that I couldn’t put down either. So many people said that they couldn’t get into it, that it was slow, it was not slow! It was ridiculous and because of the internet I knew the twist, will that stop me from reading the next one? No, not even a little bit. Poppy and Hawke are a mess, that’s all I am going to say, a mess. The duke got what was coming to him, for sure what was coming for him. But some of it for sure broke my heart. Like I knew that the betrayal was coming because of the internet and it still hurt the whole time, it still surprised me. 

9. A Fate of Wrath and Flame by K.A. Tucker

This was the first BookTok made me buy it book, I think, this was the first one where I saw like several lines and decided that I had to have it. I love magic and court politics, this was such an interesting world to get lost in, the whole premise that happens throughout the novel. The cliffhanger! The cliffhanger, it was insane. I want a happy ending and we all know that about me, I don’t like when the story ends sad. I get really upset when something ends sad or there doesn’t feel like there is a resolution for the series. I will eventually buy the second one because I read a lot of firsts in series last year and this was one of them without buying the second. (Because Amazon keeps increasing the price on them.)

10. Go Hex Yourself by Jessica Clare

I swear, it’s like The Love Hypothesis where the main couple looks like the main ship from the newest Star Warstrilogy. Seriously, look at the cover…I loved the story though. I really did, Dru was a mess but she was the best, I loved the rest of the characters and the story as a whole. There is a sequel coming out later this year and again, the cover tells me some things and I am already looking forward to it. I really am, I love series or interconnected stand-alone’s. 

      I for sure had some honorable mentions, but those get to hang out in my own brain because one I bought because it sounded ridiculous and then I loved it so that was my most unexpected book of the year and it was the last book I read in 2022, that one was UNHINGED. 

            Well, there we have it, my Top Ten of 2022 even though it was more like the top 14 or so because I have a few series on here. I read so much last year and I had so many books that I loved. Some that didn’t make it on this list because I had 20 total five-star books and that is so many for me. I also had 30 books that I unhauled last year so that leaves about 80 books that I liked well enough or were just mid for me. I should probably really be cut throat about the books I keep, but I love books so much. They bring me so much joy and so much escape from everything in real life.

            I am hoping to read some amazing books this year and I am already excited to think about discovering my top ten for this upcoming year, most of the books that I had on this list were found along the way or bought during the year, but a few were from my TBR. I am hoping to find some of my new favorites on my TBR this year.

            If you want to check out everything, I read last year you totally and completely can, I will link my Books I Read in December post because all of the other months are linked at the bottom. If you want to check out what I Unhauled in 2022, there are two parts and you can check those out as well. If you want to actually see my book rating system (which I published early last year, you can do that too). I could link more, but at this point I think that would be edging toward excessive. 

            I will be back later in the week with another post so until then, I hope everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy!

-MJ 

January 2023 Book of the Month Review:

.Reading time 8 minutes.

Title: Lunar Love

Author: Lauren Kung Jessen

Rating: 3.6/5

Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            Here is to a new year and plenty of new Book of the Month books, I want to branch out a little more this year, but in retrospect I did that last year and got really disappointed by a few books that I got in my boxes throughout the year itself. 

            Well, for January there was like three books that I thought sounded really great, this was one of them. I love a good rom-com we all should know that by now because that tends to be what I gravitate toward because I love stories about love, I always have. Though in the last year or so that has changed slightly to different kinds of love stories. 

            If you want to read the book and don’t want spoilers, cool, I will see you with the next post, because this one for sure will have spoilers. 

            It was very clean, if you are someone who is worried about spice, this was very very tame compared to some of the books that I have read in the past, very sweet, very cute. That’s about it with that. 

            I love the character of Olivia, she is head strong, strong willed, anxious, and an over thinker. Her family is absolutely hilarious and I wish that my grandmother had been like her Po Po, that would have made my life so much easier. I loved how traditions were integrated throughout the novel and that was such a fun thing to experience. I know very little about Chinese cultural festivals, I don’t but they are super interesting. 

            Having a whole matchmaking service around your zodiac animal was a fascinating concept, I know that is something that happens, matchmaking and online dating do go hand in hand, I have chosen to stay away from both. I am the year of the monkey and that seems ridiculous, but I know so many women who ask their dates what their star sign is, so I get it. I am on the cusp so if you ask some, I am an Aries and others I am a Taurus, it’s very interesting. I have done my star chart; do I believe in it completely? No, but do I understand how when you are born might shape your traits? Yes.

            So going between Olivia’s matchmaking service and Bennett’s app using a very pared down version of what Olivia does make for some great tension. I love a good enemies to lovers and their meet cute was super cute. Learning how to be less analytical for Bennett and more open for Olivia, it showed so much growth for both of them throughout the whole book.

            Alright, it was cute, but it was also incredibly predictable, I called the ending pretty much as soon as the app was introduced, as soon as Bennett’s job was revealed. The third act breakup didn’t make much sense to me over all to be completely honest, it really didn’t and felt out of place and a little forced, like they have to be separated to come back together. They didn’t need to be, her grandmother’s death was a huge plot point that made me sad, that could have been the thing, but here we are. 

            The whole sub-plot with the real estate agent didn’t make sense, it really didn’t fit into the storyline and it was so sparse that it just felt like a footnote, another thing to bring them together and that didn’t make sense to me. 

            The podcast bet was interesting and a more and more common trope, the manipulation on both sides made it a little weird, but again, it worked out in the end and that was what I wanted to see. 

            It was of course a happily ever after and if it wasn’t I wouldn’t call it a romance novel, if it doesn’t end happily ever after or at least happily for now it doesn’t make much sense to me. 

            Super quick read, I read through it in two days and enjoyed it, it was just predictable, so very predictable; which in some ways is expected with romance novels, but not in others. 

            Alright, well this is the first book of the year so I don’t have much to link, I’ll link December of last year because that will have the links to all of the months of last year if you want to go and see what I read from Book of the Month last year. 

            I will be back later in the week with another post, but until then, I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy. 

-MJ 

Books I Read in January 2023

.Reading time 21 minutes.

Hey hey, it’s MJ.

            I set my Goodreads goal to 75, my physical TBR pile this year is 55 and I feel like after reading 130, that’s right, 130 books last year I can hopefully hit at least 75 this year. 

            I would go through what I am reading and how I am doing my book bullet journal differently this year, but I don’t know if I am actually going to. I am going to give the TBR categories. 12 each of general fiction, science fiction/fantasy, and historical because those are my three largest genres, 4 non-fiction, and 2 thrillers, along with 15 free choice books. That whole list is done. It has been mostly complete since midway through last year. Next year I have no idea what my TBR is going to look like.

            I have already finished my first book of the year so let’s talk about that, like every year there will be a tracker at the bottom because that is what I need in my brain, more lists and things. 

            There might be spoilers, I am putting that up here because I think that giving my honest review unfiltered is how it’s always been. 

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (4.3/5)

            I grew up on the animated version of this, that was the reason that I bought the book and now I need to go and watch the movie again. I really want a movie that follows this book exactly because it is much more adult and grown up than I thought it was. I did enjoy it, there is a lot going on throughout, Wales surprised me. Sophie was sometimes a hard character to like, though Howl was as well, if we aren’t fooling ourselves. I still like the ending; it is much more compelling than the movie ending and I really did enjoy it throughout. I need to not compare the book to the movie because the movie had to curb the story to a younger audience, it was still good though!

The Gown by Jennifer Robson (3.3/5)

            It was good, until it wasn’t. I expected something different from this book, more royal wedding and all of that less sexual assault. It shifted between 1947 and 2016, I thought that was fun. It was and it was so good even though it took me a good hundred pages to get into, but a very out of place sexual assault of one of the main characters really threw me. It came out of nowhere and didn’t fit into the overarching plot at all, I do really mean, at all. It kind of sullied the rest of the book for me even though the rest of it was moving and amazing, but that’s what is going to stick with me about this book. The fact that the main character was raped because she wouldn’t give away information on the wedding dress of then Princess Elizabeth. The 2016 part of it was fun, though a little contrived and that was fine because it was fun. The ending didn’t feel like it was pulled together enough for me though, it just kind of ended, almost suddenly and I was left feeling adrift. 

Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen (3.6/5)

            It was really cute, super-duper predictable but really cute. So very very clean which was totally fine. I liked the story, I liked the characters and the tropes, I will never be a fan of the third act break up because that’s not something I enjoy. This was my January Book of the Month so there will be a more in depth review on this soon. 

Cocky Roommate by Claire Kingsley (4/5)

            Okay, I read the first one last spring which was Book Boyfriend and I liked that one, I really did. This one was a lot, I liked Kendra and Weston even though Weston started out with me wanting to smack him in the head with the book that was about him. I liked so much of it, the trauma, the building back up, but I will never be okay with the third act break up and he was dumb about it. I did enjoy the ending though I feared him proposing at Alex and Mia’s wedding which I would have been really upset about because I don’t believe in someone proposing at someone else’s wedding. I cannot wait to read Caleb’s story and I will get to it eventually since the person I borrowed this one from is getting that one in the mail in the next few days. 

A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander (4/5)

            I read the first in the Lady Emily mysteries last February and loved it. I have number 8 and 9 but not 3-7, so those are on my list of books to buy. A list that is continually growing and that’s a problem. I really enjoyed this book and was not expecting to blow through it in two days. I love Emily and Colin; they are a trip. I liked all of the twists and turns in this one and I didn’t predict the killer until it was revealed. I really didn’t and that is totally cool with me. All of the rumors swirling in this book remind me that while I find Victorian England intriguing, I as a modern woman would not want to be in that time frame (I wouldn’t know any better then, but as a person living in 2023, I think it’s interesting but would not want the pressure of it.) I would love Sebastian to make a reappearance, for no reason or every reason, I don’t know he just seems like a mess. 

You Will Get Through This Night by Daniel Howell (4.3/5)

            This is a practical mental health guide; I will go back and review passages and exercises. I am someone who has struggled since I was a teenager with my mental health (I am finally medicated and that has made me much more even.) I was in therapy for a few years late high school early college but when you have four therapists in three years because they keep moving it gets hard to trust. This was such a good book, it was part memoir, part mental health guide and there was a lot of practical advice. Split into three parts and that was such a good idea. Dan and his best friend, Phil, popped up on my Tumblr back in about 2015 and I started watching their content, they were two creators who got me back into watching videos and made me feel better. I watch their Sims 4 series around Christmas every year because it makes me smile. 

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham (3/5)

            This one was not really for me it seems. When I bought it I was a much bigger Gilmore Girls fan than I am now. (I bought this book in 2014.) It just wasn’t for me; I didn’t really like the writing style. It was based in 1995 and that that was enough of the recent past that it was a little uncanny valley for me. The whole thing with the guy from her acting class that had a thing for her and then her roommate getting broken up with and then might have a thing? Who knows? The premise was interesting but I found the main character annoying on so many occasions. It felt like things just came out of nowhere and I was trying to consolidate them in my brain. The ending left it so open and just didn’t tie everything up enough for me to even say that would have saved it, it didn’t because it left it open and that didn’t feel like a semi-cliffhanger needed to happen. I also got the title wrong for years I thought it was Someday, Maybe Someday. 

Dark Horizons by Jenny T. Colgan (3.2/5)

            It’s a Doctor Who book and I bought a lot of them several years ago, I am slowly witling through them because I don’t really watch it much anymore, it ebbed a while back. It was fine, Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor was my favorite so I like when it’s one of his adventures. Though there were some weird elements in it, Vikings was a cool choice, the Arill were a cool bad guy or antagonist, whatever you want to call them, but I didn’t like the writing style or the pacing. Though I have read several of her books under her non-Doctor Who umbrella and I should have known. I had to look it up to see if it was the same author who wrote this one as well as The Littlest Chocolate Shop in Paris, and Meet Me At The Cupcake Café,which are both books that I have read and unhauled in the last few years. Well, that’s good to know. 

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck (4/5)

            I have a Psychology degree and I teach; I wear a lot of hats with my educational background and I have been meaning to read this book since about 2015, seriously, I watched one of her TED talks and wanted the book. I never bought it. It’s dense, I will for sure say that and I did skim some parts that didn’t apply to me as a person, but a lot of the research was fascinating. I always tell my students that they need to believe in the power of ‘yet’, “I can’t do it.” Okay, you can’t do it…yet. We grow through what we go through and I thank that there is such this stigma on having to be the best at everything and failure is not an option. I have grown into a growth mindset over the years but still am fixed in some things. It is just the way of the world. But it was such a good read and I cannot wait to apply it more to my life personally as well as my life as an educator. 

Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore (3.8/5)

            It was good, not my favorite in the series but still good. It was so much, very Beauty and The Beast, I thought that Tristan was a lot from the second one, Lucian is more. I don’t know how that’s possible, he’s so much. I loved the treatment of the social classes in this one, I really did, it was fascinating. Like they both needed to get over themselves so much though throughout the book, and if it wouldn’t have been a happy ending, I would have rioted. Everyone else in this series has gotten their happy ending and if Hattie didn’t, I was going to be upset. He’s so respectful, that was one thing that stood out to me, like he’s an ass, but so respectful to her. The drama near the end with her going to France, it was a little weird and that was what threw me from this being a four star book to being a little less than that. 

            According to this I only read 10 books, I didn’t I read 13 but I am not reviewing the first three Percy Jacksonbooks because I am reading them for Battle of the Books at school. So I read 13 books in January which is insane.

            There were a few books this month that were just kind of meh for me and that’s totally fine, it is the point of a TBR pile, I have to thin out some of the books that I bought almost a decade ago because they no longer might serve me like the books that are on my Amazon list, or on my Want to Read list on Goodreads, I have new tastes than I did when I bought a lot of the books I own, so it’s time to either love it or leave it. 

            I will be back next month with hopefully just about as many books, I am actually closing this post out on the 31st because I am starting a new book today and I am not going to finish it, I work for a living so therefore I don’t have unlimited reading time, even though today is an AMI day at school because weather. 

            It’s always weird to have the first post of the year like this one because I just have nothing to link down here, so with that being said, there is a link up top to December of last year and that has all the links to the rest of the books that I read last year. 

            I will be back in a few days with a new post, I am going about it a little different this year, I am going to post what I want, when I want. I am not going to try and stick to a schedule because this is for me, this blog is for me and if anyone enjoys any part of it, that’s super cool.

            So, until we meet again, I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy!

            -MJ

Let’s Keep Track Shall We?: 

General Fiction: 1/12 (Someday, Someday, Maybe, )

Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 1/12 (Howl’s Moving Castle, )

Historical: 1/12 (The Gown, )

Thriller: /2

Free Choice: 2/15 (A Poisoned Season, Dark Horizons, )

Memoirs/Autobiographies: 1/2 (You Will Get Through This Night, )

General Non-Fiction: 1/2 (Mindset, )

Book of The Month: 1/12 (Lunar Love, )

Extras: 2/? (Cocky Roommate, Portrait of a Scotsman, )

Battle of the Books (it’s for school!): 3/?  (The Lightening Thief, Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, )

December 2022 Book of the Month Review:

.Reading time 9 minutes.

Title: Babel 

Author: R.F. Kuang

Rating: 3.8/5

Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            There are probably going to be spoilers, there are going to be some brutally honest opinions on this one, and I am not going to apologize for that. So if you want to not know, cool, I’ll see you soon for another post. This is just something that I need to get out. 

            I finished the book two days ago and this book threatened to put me in a reading slump, which was super disappointing! With how this book was hyped up and the fact that everyone loved it I am trying to figure out why I just couldn’t get into it like everyone else seemed to. 

            I walked into it not knowing much besides the fact that everyone who I had seen online who read it was head over heels for it, it was over 500 pages. I slogged through it, I liked it, I did, but there were so many parts where I felt like I was reading a whole bunch of stories rather than one cohesive one. 

            All the twists and turns, it was a fascinating novel, it was very well written, and it was a good story underneath all of the prose. There was just so much prose and footnotes, I have never read a fiction book that has so many footnotes, it felt like I was reading a nonfiction because sometimes it was half the page that were footnotes. I didn’t read them, if I wanted to read footnotes, I would find something non-fiction.

            The story itself was fascinating and compelling, pretty much until patricide and then everything fell apart and like everyone died. I loved the story of coming up at Oxford, of learning to be as a person. I loved the translation institute, the use of silver and match-pairs to aid in technology with magic. I loved that element; it was so cool. There were so many parts where I thought of The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, which was book that I loved so much earlier in the year. 

            When everything started to fall off the rails, I got sad, I got unhappy with the fact that it felt like everyone became a martyr, that that was the only way out of the situation. I know that not everything can have a happily ever after, but I love a happily ever after and just to have so many of the main characters die, that was difficult to stomach. So many people died, I know that to spark a revolution blood must be spilled, but a lot of it felt almost needless. 

            Like imagine the fall out after the thing happened at the end of the book, that is what I am not going to spoil because it’s a big culminating event that left me questioning my own sanity.

            Letty’s betrayal threw me, her whole character though threw me, I never liked her and then she did what she did and I was pissed, for so many reasons. 

            I wanted to love this book; I really did. I wanted to see the hype and the mastery that everyone else saw because this was such an anticipated book. I loved the concept, but it was so dense and could have been slimmed down a little bit in density and page count. I love long-winded prose; I write a lot of long-winded prose there is no denying that. I know that I do because here I am writing this. It was just a little too much for me, felt too much like a non-fiction for me really to immerse myself in it. 

            Everything in this book felt like a means to an end, like everything was set in motion on the path to destruction really early on, that everyone was done for even before they started and I understand that might be one of the points, that there is no such thing as a happy ending, it’s blood and sacrifice and everyone suffers. 

            There were so many good things about this book, it was vivid and amazing, the story was compelling and the characters felt like real people. There was just a lot of things that chafed me funny. Not every book is for everybody, I have learned that several times this year with so many of the books that I loved that others didn’t and vice versa. 

            That is my last Book of the Month for 2022 though and there were for sure some real hits and misses this year, which is surprising, it really is to be honest. I feel like there were some that I loved so much and some that I just couldn’t wait to finish. 

            If you want to check out what else I have read for Book of the Month this year, you totally can, I have read 12 and this is finally December where never month I don’t have to link a billion posts again at least for a few months. Seriously though, if you want to check out what else I have read you totally can; January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and November. 

            Alright, I think that I need to stop because I might like this book more the longer that I am away from it. So, until my next post I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy! 

            -MJ 

Books I Read in December 2022

.Reading time 26 minutes.

Hey, hey it’s MJ,

            Well, here we are in December, I want to go back to January MJ and tell her that we are rounding out into the 120’s in books, I cannot believe that since my goal with my TBR was 50, my actual goal was 75 and here I am going to hopefully hit somewhere in the high 120’s by the end of the year. 

            I read so much this year and loved so much as well, but there were also several that I didn’t really like and I will be making a part two to my unhauled books of the year (you can check out part 1 if you want to). I read so much and a lot of the books kind of have blurred together, I might actually have to do some rereading because I need to, I need to really go back and savor the books. I didn’t this year as much as I usually do and that was difficult for me to realize as we round out November and move into the 12th month of the year. 

            I am hoping to read 13 books this month, but like I said, I have some chunky books to read this month. I am reading Crescent City at the moment and that book is 800 pages! Come on now! I love the series so far and by the time this comes out I will be done with it for quite some time. 

Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas (5/5)

            SARAH! That ending!? The book was so good, but the ending had me almost throwing it across my office, it almost ended up on the floor. Why? Why can’t we have nice things and everyone staying in their own lane? It was so good, I called none of the twists, none of them but I said some words at the end of this book that I cannot repeat in this blog post, I said them out loud to my empty office though. I really enjoyed the book, I did, I loved the world building and the character building and Bryce and Hunt 5ever, if that is not endgame, I will riot. I will, I promise I will. I have put up with a lot of heartache reading anything that SJM has written, like I love the ACOTAR series and CC is so good, I am only one book into ToG so that’s going. Seriously, I walked into this book knowing that everyone was going WTF at the ending, I get it now and I am in pain. 

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan (3.8/5)

            It was really cute and sweet and very clean. Like it was super slow burn, there was no kissing or anything until in the 300’s and this book was only 369 pages. (Spoilers and all that.) I want to know what happens with Stacey and Rob because they would be so cute. I love Chris and Everly, they both needed to get over themselves and they finally did. Everyone by now knows that I need an HEA when it comes to a romance novel or a romantic comedy or something of the nature, so it was good. I really did enjoy it, I wanted something more from it though and I’m not sure what that was. I liked the treatment of anxiety in this because as someone with it, less now that I am medicated, knowing exactly what that feels like though. Knowing the rushing thoughts and not wanting to be in crowds or in situations I can’t control, I felt that to my very core. I had friends in college who pressured me to be social, to go out to bars, to drink. Not being in control in a large crowd triggers my anxiety, like I have had a panic attack in a crowd before. So seeing that in this, it was great to see it treated as a real issue, as a problem, not as something that everyone has to fix. 

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab (5/5)

            I love her writing style whether that’s her adult fantasy series or her YA, this book took me a little while to get into and now I need the second one, I will get it eventually. I love the worlds that she creates and whatever August became near the end, that was super cool. I want to know how Kate and August’s story ends. The story kept me invested from pretty early on and the plot had me guessing and wondering what was going to happen next. The monsters are super interesting and I am so looking forward to the second. 

Babel by R.F. Kuang (3.8/5)

            This was my December Book of the Month book so a more in-depth review will be out soon. I wanted to like it, I actually wanted to love it because of how much the internet and TikTok hyped this up. I liked it, it was a well written book, but it was not the five-star book that so many people made it sound like it would be. There were footnotes, in a fiction text, there were copious footnotes and it read so much more like a non-fiction than a fiction. The concept was super interesting, but it just didn’t wow me like I expected it to and I was so excited to read this one. 

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhew by Manda Collins (3.8/5)

            I liked it! It was really cute. It for sure reminded me of the Lady Darby mysteries by Anna Lee Huber and the League of Extraordinary Women series by Evie Dunmore. It had a lot of similarities in my head to those. It was really cute though and I enjoyed it, I blew through it in two days and that is always fun. It was sweet, kept me turning pages, and I laughed more than once. The murderer did shock me, well, partly shocked me. I had kind of figured it out early on at least in part and so when it was true it made sense. I could read a whole series with just Kate and Andrew, I really could. I have the second one so I will be reading that eventually. I could have actually used an epilogue in this one, or at least a more buttoned up ending, there was just a very open ending and I know that it’s a series, but I want a good closure for pretty much any romance novel. 

The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon (4/5)

            It was so cute! I blew through this book; it was so much fun and as a human who has a degree in Radio and Television Production (and went on to do other things) this book hit really close into my heart. It reminded me a little bit of Ten Rules for Faking It which I read earlier this month. This was a little spicier though and I really liked Shay and Dominic. They were so much fun and who doesn’t love a fun couple in a rom-com. I really hated Kent, he seemed like the worst and I guess that he got his so, it’s okay. I know that this one had some mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed it. I really did and that’s really all that matters. 

A Lust for Blood by K.C. Smith (5/5)

            It was so good! I love a good curse mechanic with true love, who doesn’t love a curse mechanic with true love? The whole concept of bloodlust as a creature and the gods interfering with things, it was so good. I love the book as a whole because I got a special edition and let’s be real Garren and Oriana are end game, if they don’t get a permanent happily ever after, I’m gonna be upset. This is apparently the first in a trilogy (?) I hope so because I want more of their story, more of their adventures. I want more in general, it does get a little spicy, which is fine. It was such a fun book to read though, I don’t give many books five stars, this one was for sure a five star book for me. 

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten (5/5)

            It was so good! I loved the concept throughout the whole beginning, the relationship that forms between Red and Eammon is so much fun and so tortured. It feels very Beauty and the Beast which I absolutely loved, I read it in two days. I could not put it down and I didn’t want to. I cannot wait to read the second one because I want to see where it goes. I really didn’t 100% like her sister, I hope there is a lot less weakness and sniveling in her in the second book. The whole plot that was subversive to this with Kiri and Arick, it made the story so much more interesting and painful. So painful. There was also just a lot of pain in this book but also so much that I smiled at and laughed at, a lot less laughter, but it was so good and I will be ordering the second one here shortly. 

Between by L.L. Starling (5/5)

            This was a TikTok made me buy it book and then it was gifted to me by my cousin. It’s 737 pages of really fun fantasy and I loved it with my whole being. I laughed so much throughout the whole and having it split almost down the middle between Sasha and Lorn, that made it so much more fun seeing how their interactions truly affected the other person. I swear though, Lorn needs to not do the thing and the High King needs to just stop, whatever they are planning and that nonsense, like don’t ruin this really cute relationship for me. The next one doesn’t come out until late next year and I am going to be chomping at the bit about it until then. I cannot wait to see what happens with the coven, with Lyla, with Ash, with Sasha and Lorn as she does become the Queen of Between. Seriously, the artwork in this was fun, the characters were great, and the world is a mess. Who doesn’t love a truly messy fantasy world that gives very hard Labyrinth meets Monty Phyton vibes? Also its starts out with a drunk unicorn headbutting a car, what’s not to love?

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout (5/5)

            We shall rise. (I had to!)

I heard some mixed reviews on this one, I knew some of the spoilers because of the internet and you know it’s popularity over on the clock app. I read it in two sittings, seriously, I could not put it down. I cannot wait to read the second one. There were so many points throughout where I wanted to smack all of them, every character in the book and some parts that broke me. Like I knew about the betrayal because of the internet, but that didn’t make it hurt any less or make it any less shocking. I love the ‘touch her and die’ trope, I really do and the ending! Now I have to wait and that’s just not fair. I want to go out and get the second on like right now, I’m not going to but dang do I want to. I love Poppy, she’s a secret badass and she’s amazing, all around amazing and the plot twists, I called a few of them but not many. I loved the world building and the relationships. I definitely fist pumped a couple of times when certain characters got theirs, I wanted them to get theirs. Seriously, it was awesome, I will never look at a certain melon the same way and that doesn’t seem fair, but here we are. 

Dance With the Fae Prince by Elise Kova (4.3/5)

            It was really cute. I read the first in this series in February. They are all stand-alone’s set in the same world which is really fun. I did call like 95% of the twists but I read it in one day, seriously. I was not planning on reading all of it yesterday into last night but I did and I don’t regret it one little bit. It was a really fun read; I liked the characters and the world building. It was very Cinderella which was for sure what it promised, I am excited to read the rest of them when I get a chance hopefully next year. 

A Court of Sugar and Spice by Rebecca F. Kenney (4.5/5)

            I want to preface this with, make sure you are aware of the trigger warnings because this book goes hard, I do mean that in so many senses of the word. It was really good; I loved the story as a whole and there is apparently going to be a sequel which is fun. This one is…spicy…like, MJ from a little over a year ago would have smacked me when I told her about it. I saw a snippet on TikTok and it lived in my brain, I showed the snippet to a coworker and she said “I wanna read that” so I bought it. I love the story of The Nutcracker and this one was, dark, twisted, spicy, and a little weird. It was good though, I was expecting it to be not as good as I found it but man, it was interesting and kept me reading.

            So, that’s it. It’s December 30th and I am not going to have time to read a whole other book before the conclusion of the year, so this is where I leave this post. I am going to do it the same way next year, once a month…if I keep the blog going, that is still a little up in the air to be honest. I haven’t had the joy or the time this year to really focus in on this as much as I need to or have wanted to in the past which is not fun. I like blogging but it doesn’t seem worth it to only put up a few posts a month because I get overwhelmed. 

            I read 130 books this year, that’s right, 130. I wanted to read 75, my TBR was 50 and here I am, in December and I read 130 books. I joked at the beginning of the year that reading 100 books in a year seemed like an impossible task and then I found my love for fantasy and apparently romance (?) because I don’t know where that came from. But I started to read more things this year that I wanted to read along with my TBR and I plowed through so many books.

            I don’t know what next year holds, I really don’t and that’s fine. I want to say that I want to set my goal immediately at 100, but I am shooting for 75 at the moment, I don’t want to set a goal that I am not sure is achievable two years in a row.  

            Now, it is time to close out my Book Bullet Journal for the year, it is time to prep and plan for next year’s reading, the Bullet Journal for next year is already done and very different from this year’s. It’s better. 

If you want to check out what else I read throughout the year, you totally can, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and November!

            So, until next time, I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy. 

            -MJ

Post TBR Reads: 35/35 (Go Hex Yourself, Bringing Down the Duke, Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood, Love on the Brain, The Devil in the White City, The Shadow in the Glass, Sky Pirates, The Orphan Witch, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, Throne of Glass, Not Your Average Hot Guy, Kingdom of the Feared, Six of Crows, Well Matched, What Lies Beyond the Veil, The Masked City, Book of Night, Defy the Night, Til Death, A Rogue of One’s Own, Hook, Line, and Sinker, Piranesi, Death on The Nile, The Summer of Broken Rules, Much Ado About You, Bride of the Shadow King, Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath, Ten Rules for Faking It, This Savage Song, A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem, The Ex Talk, For the Wolf, Between, From Blood and Ash, Dance With the Fae Prince, A Court of Sugar and Spice)

Unplugged Book Box: 6/6 (The Woman in The library, They Drown Our Daughters, The Last Housewife, Throw Me to the Wolves, The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn, A Lust for Blood)

Book of The Month: 12/12 (Reckless Girls, A River Enchanted, Dating Dr. Dil, Kaikeyi, Darling Girl, The Stardust Thief, The Bodyguard, Small Angels, Other Birds, Sign Here, The Heart Principle, Babel)

November 2022 Book of The Month Review:

.Reading time 8 minutes.

Title: The Heart Principle 

Author: Helen Hoang

Rating: 3/5

Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            There are going to be spoilers. I can promise you that. So, if you don’t want spoilers, walk away, I’ll see you next post. 

            I want to start this one off by saying that this book was a Book of The Month selection from August or September 2021, I would have to look at the hardcover, but I don’t want to walk over to it. I only got this one because none of the books this month actually interested me. That’s a little sad that all of the book selections this month didn’t actually look like anything that I wanted to read. So it was one of those ‘member favorites’ selections because I wanted to get my add-on which is The Kiss Curse which is the second in The Ex Hex series, which was my book of the month in October of last year. 

            I wanted to like this book, I wanted to like it so badly and the beginning had such promise and then it got to the point where it was making me itch. I like the idea of overcoming trauma in books, it makes so much sense because that’s what people do. 

            This book as a whole felt really disjointed, I have never liked the ‘I want an open relationship before marriage’ trope, you want that…cool, we are breaking up. For good. Her boyfriend was an ass and I know that’s what we are supposed to think so we can like Quan, so we can get invested in their relationship.

            I get anxiety, I have that and depression with a touch of OCD for certain things, I am probably neurodivergent and I know that everyone experiences neurodivergence differently. What I go through someone else with similar issues may not experience. I have a degree in Psychology and I preferred the differential diagnoses, that’s a personal opinion. I grew up with someone who had Asperger’s but he was male and his manifested differently than others. Again, no diagnosis is the same, none of them. Am I glad that there is more exposure to conditions? Yes. Am I glad there is more research? Yes. 

            I needed to say that because I finished the book last night and I had to walk away before writing this post. I had to step away from it before I could write about it. 

            I am not Asian, but I understand the cultural implications of expectation from a lot of those cultures. I get generational trauma, I understand caring for elders and giving up everything for that person.

            Her sister was the worst, seriously, the worst. 

            Her father had a stroke and her sister took over the whole situation and then forced others to get involved, her mother forced her to almost marry a man who had suggested an open relationship, and her family has this insane expectation as to who Anna should be because she masks everything. 

            Saying no is hard, saying no is so hard because I do the same thing. You take things onto your plate because you don’t want anyone to be disappointed in you, you go through the torture and pain of other’s words and expectations because you want them to like you and not think there is anything wrong with you. I felt that. 

            There was a lot about Quan and Anna’s relationship that I really liked, I did, they fit well and I was happy that they got together. 

            The ending though, the ending left me with a lot of threads and the last forty or so pages spanned two years. Two full years and that felt very strange, it left me feeling unfulfilled to be honest and I just had to step away from it like I said because I had to temper my temper before I wrote this post. 

            Was it my favorite book this year? No, it wasn’t and I am on book 113 now, I think. I know that my tastes change throughout the year or even throughout the month but I found myself smiling so much less at the end of this book than I did the beginning. I know that was part of the content, it was heavy. It was so heavy for a contemporary romance. 

            This was the third in a series and I don’t plan on reading the other two even though I have heard of them, even though they were popular for a while. I don’t think that they are up my street and that’s okay. 

            If you want to check out what else I have gotten from Book of The Month this year you totally can, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October. 

            I will be back later in the week with another post, so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy.

            -MJ 

Books I Read in November 2022

.Reading time 20 minutes.

Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            Well, here we are in November. I wanted to read more in October and I didn’t so here I am hoping that I can read more in November. I will have a whole week off later in the month because of Thanksgiving Break so I will hopefully have time to read and then just deal with it.

            The first book of the month only took me a few days to read, but has been on my Want to Read list for almost a year? If not about a year. I don’t remember at the moment. Mood reading is my whole life for the rest of that year and at this moment, I am totally cool with that. 

Defy the Night by Brigit Kemmerer (5/5)

            I blew right through this book. It was so good and it kept me engaged from about page one to page 443. I loved Tessa and Corrik and reading it from both of their perspectives made it so much more fun. The second one is already on my want to read list because I want more. I loved the whole story and it was so much the whole time. Like it kept me guessing as to what was going on and who was behind all the things. I want to see how they all grow as people in the second one and there were parts of this book that broke me apart a little. The reveal! I kind of called it, but I really liked all of the twists and turns that led from the beginning to the end. 

Til Death by Carol J. Perry (3.2/5)

            This was book 12 in the Witch City Mysteries and I love the series as a whole. This one though, it didn’t even hit the mystery part until halfway through the book. It was a lot of messy plot lines and maybe that will set up for later books, but it felt very disjointed and I wasn’t actually a huge fan of it. Like her uncle killing her parents? Like he orphaned a child and got away with it for 30 years? It just didn’t feel like the other Witch City books, there was just something about it that fell short for me. Maybe I am getting out of cozy mysteries, I don’t know. I just didn’t love this like I have loved the others. Like I said there was a lot of disjointed plotting and it felt like it took forever and a day to actually get to something interesting. Even then though, it didn’t feel like it was the quality and the caliber of the rest of the series before this one. Like there was this big build up to the wedding and then the wedding got like a chapter before moving on. Lee getting a Jeep had more coverage than the wedding which is really strange because the first half of the book was the prep and lead up to the wedding. A murder at the wedding would have been more fulfilling than this book was. 

A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore (4.3/5)

            I loved it, I loved Bringing Down the Duke as well. Like Tristan and Lucie are so much, in all the best ways. Everyone should know by now I love a good enemies to lovers where the guy for sure falls first! Victorian politics and decorum are a mess. I am glad that I don’t live in that time because no thanks. Her cousins are the worst, seriously, the worst. It was such a fun read and I read more than half in one day because it sucked me into the story and then didn’t let me go until the ending. I cannot wait to read about Hattie and Blackstone in the next one but that is way down on my list so that very well could be an early next year read. 

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey (4.2/5)

            Wow, this one was a lot angstier than It Happened One Summer also a lot less spicy which I was okay with. I was so worried that Fox and Hannah wouldn’t actually make it and that to be honest would have been so sad about that. Like Fox holds my heart and he needs to be protected, he’s kind of a lot but so is Hannah. I liked the first one a little better, but this one had a very different vibe to it. Fox and Hannah just work and it makes sense to be honest. For him to have this persona that he tries to live up to in the first book, then you find out why and I want to give him a hug. People are the worst to be completely honest. He tries to change for her and I was like, ah yes, he falls first but she’s not far behind. I love their relationship to be completely honest. 

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (3/5)

            This was my November Book of the Month because none of the choices sounded good. I should have just kept my credit for next month because I wasn’t a huge fan of it. There is a much more in-depth review that will be coming out soon. 

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (3.5/5)

            It was weird. Good but weird, I think that it was good anyway. It felt like a weird cross between The Starless Sea and Annihilation, I loved the idea of this place with the halls and the statues. The ending was weird though, I understand the mind fracturing and all of that. I know that this is a favorite of a lot of people and it’s been on my list for a long time. It was good, but it was also very strange, I know that’s kind of the point. I went into it blind so that was for sure a better plan than knowing anything. I liked that it was told in the forms of a journal or multiple journals. The random capitalizations were a little weird though, but I understood it. Like it was a lot, some of it was great and some of it was confusing, but that’s totally fine. 

Death on The Nile by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

            This was written and published in the 1930’s I wanted to read it because they made a movie. I was not a huge fan and that’s okay. I love mysteries, I really prefer the cozy variety. This was a lot as a whole book, there was so much convolution. It ends in a murder/suicide and the detective figured that would happen, which was really strange. It didn’t actually start to interest me until like halfway through the book. There were just so many things going on, there were so many perspectives and I cannot judge it on the standard of today, but it’s just not 100% for me and that’s okay.  

The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther (3.8/5)

            I liked it, it was cute. That’s about all I have on it, it was insta love and v Taylor Swift inspired. I liked the premise of the game of Assassin and the story kept me wanting to read it. The whole thing with her ex felt like it was just thrown in there to be a plot point. I was not a huge fan of how her friends/cousins acted with the situation about her sister, like grief is hard and she completely shut down, which was her choice and how she was grieving. I did like the cast of characters though and I love big families like that, I don’t have a big close family, it’s small and everyone is slung across the country. We don’t spend almost any time together and the last time all of my cousins and I were in the same room was a wedding in 2017 and even then, it was just the four of them and their families. It was very small and quiet so there we are. I do wish sometimes that I was part of one of those big families that got together every year, but I’m not. 

Much Ado About You by Samantha Young (4.2/5)

            It was so cute! Like I read it in two days and I smiled so much. I didn’t really like the twist, but it was still a happily ever after because if it wasn’t I would have been upset. I loved the village so much, the bookstore, the whole cast of characters was so much fun. I loved all the Shakespeare references throughout the book. I really liked the main couple because of course I have to. He for sure fell first and head over heels because it was insta love for him which was super cute. I loved Shadow so much; I love when an animal character is featured so heavily. It was a lot of healing old wounds and all of that which was a really good story. A lot of emotional trauma came out through this book and so much of it was solved. 

Bride of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes (4.5/5)

            It took me some time to get into, but man do I ship them. Seriously. Some of the words were a lot because they were not in English and that’s okay, but it did detract from the story a little bit for me, like translations? Please. This for sure was a TikTok made we want it book. It was really good and such a slow burn, I will be getting the second eventually because let’s be honest, I need to see how their story ends but the third one doesn’t come out until next September, so I am going to wait a while before I buy the second one. There is so much in this book and I am wondering, if they would have been up front and honest about all of it, would it have been a very different story? Because let’s be real, boy is pining. I am so scared to see what happens in the second one though because it’s going to be rough, I just know it. 

The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber A. Logan (4/5)

            This was my November Unplugged Book Box book, it was really good and if you want a more in depth review (yes I promise this every time and then I don’t post anything for two months) it will be up in a few days. It was a good book if you like ghosts and The Secret Garden and Japan, it was for sure worth the read even though it took me some time to actually get into it. 

            Okay, I did want to read more in November, but honestly, life likes to get in the way and I read some chunky books this month. I have no idea how many I am actually going to read in December, my goal is 13, that’s my goal every month but I have three books that are at least 550 pages so that might be a stretch. I have two weeks off for Christmas break, so we are going to try. I promise we are going to try.

            There were a few books this month that I wanted to love, I wanted to really enjoy, but I didn’t and that’s okay. There were a few that left me wanting more of them and not having anything else. I had two books this month that I will be unhauling because I don’t want them in my permanent collection, that’s just the thing at this point. I have books that don’t bring me the joy that I want them to, so I will be saying goodbye to them at the end of the year. I feel like I say that a lot of months and that’s just how it happens because I know that I have more now than I even did last month with the separation of time. 

            If you want to check out what else I have read this year you totally can; January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October.

            Alright I will be back later in the week with another post, so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy!
            

            -MJ

Post TBR Reads: 25/? (Go Hex Yourself, Bringing Down the Duke, Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood, Love on the Brain, The Devil in the White City, The Shadow in the Glass, Sky Pirates, The Orphan Witch, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, Throne of Glass, Not Your Average Hot Guy, Kingdom of the Feared, Six of Crows, Well Matched, What Lies Beyond the Veil, The Masked City, Book of Night, Defy the Night, Til Death, A Rogue of One’s Own, Hook, Line, and Sinker, Piranesi, Death on The Nile, The Summer of Broken Rules, Much Ado About You, Bride of the Shadow King, )

Unplugged Book Box: 5/6 (The Woman in The library, They Drown Our Daughters, The Last Housewife, Throw Me to the Wolves, The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn, )

Book of The Month: 11/12 (Reckless Girls, A River Enchanted, Dating Dr. Dil, Kaikeyi, Darling Girl, The Stardust Thief, The Bodyguard, Small Angels, Other Birds, Sign Here, The Heart Principle, )

October 2022 Book of the Month Review:

.Reading time 7 minutes.

Title: Sign Here 

Author: Claudia Lux

Rating: 3.5/5

Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            There are going to be spoilers because I had some feelings about this book and some of them weren’t great. They are my opinion and that’s how it always has been and always will be, no one is going to be sending me books anytime soon. I can pretty much guarantee that because I don’t hold punches. 

            Seriously, if you want to read this book, I will see you with the next post, if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled, I will see you later, bye. 

            So, where do I start? This book was marketed by Book of the Month as a tale about hell, someone living and working there and working toward a promotion. I didn’t know it was also going to be a murder mystery with like teenagers being killed either by murder or accident. Like there were so many twists and turns in this that I felt like I was getting whiplash.

            The chapters were super short and they switched between like a half dozen or so characters and that was just too many. I didn’t really get that feeling of much of the story being in hell or who the main character actually was. I didn’t find half of the characters likable. I wanted to like this book so much, but there was like references almost to grooming teenagers and a lot of stuff that just rubbed me the wrong way.

            Like the holy army militia thing that Cal grew up in and the story of her father, I get religious cults and extremism but all of that just felt so unnecessary. 

            This book felt like it was about a half dozen books all trying to be one book. If it was the story about hell, cool. If it was the story of the Harrison family and their clearly glaring issues, cool. Cal and her family dynamic about growing up in a religious cult where fighting was a rite of passage, cool. It was all of those things plus like some really unnecessary plot devices about cheating and manipulation. 

            With all of the shifting, with all of the almost lack of emotion in this book it just didn’t grip me, reading parts of it was a slog. 

            It all pretty much starts out with a murder, well, not all of it starts that way, but the Harrison family sections, it was an accident or maybe it wasn’t. I still have no idea, to be completely honest the whole storyline with Sarah and Gavin, that whole thing with Gavin that just hit me in all the icky places. Cheating is a pretty common trope in books but he seduced her to kill her child, to take revenge for the death of his sister. Like there was nothing solved. 

            I would have been so much more interested in the story involved with the underworld, with Peyote and Cal and the deals department, that would have been so much cooler and that’s what I thought I was getting because Book of the Month is pulling baits and switches on me this year it seems, which is annoying. 

            The narrative about self-harm and drug use, that hit me in a place that I don’t want to be hit, I never used drugs but I had some dark times as a teenager and I would have liked a trigger warning on that one. I would have also liked a trigger warning on a few other things throughout this book, but here we are. 

            I feel like I am just tearing this book apart, and I did like parts of it, but those parts were overshadowed by a lot of stuff that was really messed up. It left me more confused than satisfied at the end and that’s never fun when you are trying to love most of what you read. This left me underwhelmed.

            If you want to read about what else I have read this year you totally can; January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, and September.

            Alright, well, I will be back later in the week with another post so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy. 

            -MJ 

Books I Read in October 2022

.Reading time 20 minutes.

Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            I am very nearly at 100 books this year, how? How is that possible? I want to go back to 2018 MJ who read 8 books because she got busy and then sad, I want to tell her that we just finished book 98 and its only October 4th. I want to go back to last year MJ and tell her the same thing, she would just stare at me and ask what’s wrong. She would also judge very hardcore what I have been reading. She would also question how I wrote eight books this year, so far. I think she would be concerned, I do think though that she would at least be kind of impressed. 

            I am however really enjoying reading and I think that’s what’s important. I have someone in my personal/professional life who made September difficult at work, it’s sad when you tell someone that you don’t know very well that it’s sad that someone is making you depressed through your antidepressants. So here we are, new month, that’s who we are looking at it, new month. 

            It should shock no one that the rest of the year is mood reading and that’s such a dangerous place for me to be. I don’t need to buy more books, too bad that book that I just finished is one of seven and I am just staring off into the middle distance wanting for a cheaper hobby. 

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (5/5)

            She could write literal garbage and I would still read it; she has a choke hold on me and it’s annoying. Ma’am no one gave you permission…I loved the book, I love her main female characters they are badass and amazing, multi-faceted and they grow so much throughout the story. I have heard that this series needs to be read in a specific order, I’m not going to, I am going to read it in the order it was published at least for the first read through. I loved the tournament element and the growing of the relationships that she finds herself in. I cannot wait to see how magic is integrated into the rest of the series and I have heard it’s going to break my heart, though Sarah has ripped my heart out several times and showed it to me while telling me that I like it. I do and that feels like a problem to discuss with a therapist. 

Not Your Average Hot Guy by Gwenda Bond (3.5/5)

            It was as cute story but the writing style and character voice were a little lacking for me. I am normally not super critical on that because everyone who writes has a different writing style and hopefully a unique voice. This one felt very juvenal at the beginning, it got better as the story evolved. It was a super cute story though and I will be reading the second one to see how Luke and Callie’s story ends. The twists and turns in this story felt both really fun but also tedious and just a little strange. I couldn’t really get a feel of all of it, I do love a cult leader turned into a pygmy fainting goat. That was the best. The whole thing with her friend and her brother, that was a little weird. Just everyone’s reactions didn’t feel genuine and it lacked purpose for me. 

Kingdom of the Feared by Kerri Maniscalco (5/5)

            I have been waiting for this book since last December of last year. Seriously, I have been waiting for almost a year to read this. I couldn’t put it down. I preordered it in April. It came in a few weeks ago and I read it after restraining myself for like a week and a half. It was so good and my 100th book of the year. I feel like that’s fitting, this author was one that really spurred on my reading last year and was my gateway author to a lot of other books and series that I have found since then. I love Wrath, I don’t think that will ever go away and I want to reread the series, which for me is rare. I will not spoil anything, but this book had me laughing, crying, confused, and a whole gambit of emotions that made it one of my best reads of the year no matter that this is the end of the series. I loved the princes and the rest of the cast of characters that were even further developed in this novel. It had me riveted from page one, literally page one and I will recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy and romance, this one was spicy. I will for sure give you that, spicier than I had expected, but it makes sense. 

Sign Here by Claudia Lux (3.5/5)

            This was my Book of the Month book so there will be a whole post about this book in a few days. It was fine, I wanted to like it so much but if felt like six books in one book and there was a lot in it that rubbed me the wrong way. It was a lot and most of it not in a good way. I am not going to spoil it, so that’s about it, if you want to see the spoilers those will be in the more in-depth blog post.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (4.3/5)

            It took me some time to get into and then I couldn’t put it down. I also took a full day off of reading, which is something I usually don’t do. I just wasn’t in the mood to read, which for me is weird and I’m not a fan. I really did enjoy it and I want to read the second one, like right now. I am not going to at the exact moment because I have like 30 books that I want to read before the end of the year…it’s a far-fetched goal, I will try… I promise. It was so good though and I loved the twists and turns that gripped me at the edge of my seat or curled up against in my chair hoping for them to get a break. The ending! What is going on?! I know that like everyone has already read this book, but here I am…late to the party. I will read Crooked Kingdom here eventually because I cannot handle not knowing that maybe there is some sort of happy ending, no matter what “happy” means. 

Throw Me to the Wolves by Lindy Ryan & Christopher Brooks (3.8/5)

            This has its own post coming eventually, I have been out of it for months now and just not posting as much. This one had me hooked from about a chapter in, it was really fast paced and the plot twists I didn’t really see coming, but kind of did. It was so much, but it was actually really good for what it was. It was a little dense overall, but it had me hooked early. The ending left me with a lot of questions and it’s so open for a second, but I don’t think there is going to be one? Who knows. 

Well Matched by Jen DeLuca (4/5)

            It was so cute! I read it in one sitting and it brought back the joy of reading Well Met it for sure brought back the New Girl vibes of the first book. I am so happy that Mitch and April got their own story, that pairing was a little shocking when I first read the synopsis, but it was so good and after the letdown that was Well Played, this was so cute. I love Mitch’s family, like I cannot wait to see Lulu in Well Traveled because I think that’s going to be a lot. I didn’t mind the tension in this one that led to the bad thing, of course there was a happily ever after because if there wasn’t, I would have been upset. 

What Lies Beyond the Veil by Harper L. Woods (5/5)

            This was for sure a “TikTok made me buy it” book and I regret nothing about it. It was so much and I kind of called or at least had an inkling of the plot twist and I want a happy ending, actually no, I need a happy ending. There were parts of it that made me question my sanity but also so much of it kept me turning page after page. Like the first 100 pages or so took me some time to get into and then I finished the rest of the book in two days because I could not put it down. I loved the world building, the tension, and of course we love a good male lead. There were a lot of topics that I am not great with but there are trigger warnings at the beginning so I knew what I was getting into and as long as it wasn’t the main male lead, I’m cool. 

The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman (4.3/5)

            It’s the second in The Invisible Library series and it was so good. I love the characters and I cannot wait to read the next one, which I will buy eventually. I still want Irene and Kai to be together (no one spoil it for me if they have read the series) I love their dynamic, but I would also love that dynamic as well. I really liked the introduction of the dragons in this one and their dynamic against the fae, dragons are order, fae are chaos. I feel like that’s not inaccurate. I am really excited to read the next one though, I would love more library because I love a good magical library. I blew through this book in three days, I could have done it in two, but it’s during the school year so I can’t. The next is already sitting in my Amazon cart and might be a book for next year because I think I am about maxed out for this year, as of this moment. 

Book of Night by Holly Black (3/5)

            This book was good until the last chapter, the last chapter of this book ruined it for me and I will not be reading the second in the duology. I was so excited to read this one, I have had it since I got it in May. I liked the story, I really and truly did, but the ending, the ending turned me off from even considering reading the second one. Also, there were so many things throughout this book that left me with more questions than answers and the ending. Nope. Nah. No thank you. That was so disappointing to me, but it could have ended with this one, if the last chapter would have been changed, it would have been a perfect s stand alone. It is now a duology that I won’t be finishing. This is the first ‘TikTok made me buy it’ book that I didn’t really love as much as I hoped. This was so hyped in the spring and it fell flat because of the ending! 

            Alright, well I wanted to read more in October, but I didn’t and that’s okay. I still got ten books read and that’s still quite a lot. I had some really good reads this month and some that left me lacking feeling or satisfaction. I wanted to like all the books I read this month and didn’t. 

            I still want to read like 13 books in November and I will have a week off later in the month for Thanksgiving so I will hopefully have the time even though I am going to tackle some pretty large books this month. I have hope that I will be able to inch a little closer to 120 by the end of the year, that would be nice. 

            Okay, so like I said, ten books in October for a total of 107 so far this year. How is that even possible? I would love to tell you that I bought more books, I haven’t only my book of the month book but that’s it. 

            If you want to check out what else I have read this year, you totally can, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, and September!

            I will be back later in the week with another post, so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy and healthy!

            -MJ 

Post TBR Reads: 17/? (Go Hex Yourself, Bringing Down the Duke, Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood, Love on the Brain, The Devil in the White City, The Shadow in the Glass, Sky Pirates, The Orphan Witch, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, Throne of Glass, Not Your Average Hot Guy, Kingdom of the Feared, Six of Crows, Well Matched, What Lies Beyond the Veil, The Masked City, Book of Night, )

Unplugged Book Box: 4/6 (The Woman in The library, They Drown Our Daughters, The Last Housewife, Throw Me to the Wolves, )

Book of The Month: 10/12 (Reckless Girls, A River Enchanted, Dating Dr. Dil, Kaikeyi, Darling Girl, The Stardust Thief, The Bodyguard, Small Angels, Other Birds, Sign Here, )

September 2022 Book of the Month Review:

.Reading time 6 minutes.

Title: Other Birds

Author: Sarah Addison Allen

Rating: 4.6/5

Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            Well, here we are in fall, finally. I am hoping that by the time this post comes out that it’s not like 90 degrees outside, that at this point is the goal. 

            Alright, there might be spoilers, I don’t know yet. I never really do as I start these posts whether or not there is going to be spoilers for the novel. I try not to, but in the course of a review it might happen. 

            I read this book in one sitting, I didn’t mean to. Seriously, I didn’t mean to read it all in an afternoon but it was a quick read. It took a minute for me to get into and then when I was into it, I couldn’t put it down. 

            This is book 90 of the year for me which is crazy because I didn’t think I would get anywhere close to that number. 

            So, this book shifts between characters pretty frequently and that worked in this novel, in some it just doesn’t, but in this one it made sense because you are seeing the lives of the people who live in the Dellawisp condos and I love the quirky cast of characters in this novel. You meet Zoey first, who is moving across country, well halfway for school and because her father doesn’t want to be a part of her life. Everyone knows how much I love the found family trope, everyone by now should. 

            There is a death in the building and it’s Zoey and Charlotte cleaning out the apartment, it’s building relationships between the residents and bringing up old issues and secrets. It’s half a ghost story too, but in the best way. I would say more guardian angels rather than ghosts. Frasier, the caretaker, can see them, but they are just there at the fringes and that was such a fun concept. 

            Seriously, the relationship building in this novel was amazing, that made this novel so fun and so worth the read because it felt real, it felt like the natural progression of how you find people who make you whole. 

            Mallow Island seems like a fun place and I would have liked to have seen more interaction with it, but I understood why most everything happened at the condo complex. I liked the bird aspect throughout and the invisible bird that followed Zoey around, it took me most of the book to figure that out, but I loved that symbolism. 

            There are so many characters mentioned that were in the fabric of the main cast’s lives that you never see in person and I thought that added so much to the story as a whole. One decision, one person can make such a difference in your life and that’s true in reality as well. 

            I would for sure recommend this one, it’s an easy and quick read that holds a lot of meaning through its pages. The shifting perspectives and the chapters of the reality and the ghost stories was done so well and the added in ghost stories gave so much more to the story than at face value. 

            I really enjoyed this one, I really did and I would suggest it if you like found family, a bit of quirk, and some magical realism, a touch of drama and intrigue as well. There was a moment that this book went from zero to sixty in about seven seconds and then it hit its conclusion pretty fast as well, but again, that worked here. 

            If you want to see what else I have read this year, you totally can with the rest of my Book of the Month posts for January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and August.

            I will be back later in the week with another post, but until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy.

            -MJ