October Wrap Up: The Month I Finished Uni … FOREVER

Hi all!

Well, well, well, it’s November. How in the flying fuck did that happen? I could have sworn it was still June??

Anyway, this month has been a very big month for me because I FINISHED MY MASTER’S DEGREE!! I’m both very excited about this and very nervous because on the one hand, no more uni ever!!, and on the other hand I now need to look for an actual job, lmao. Pray for me, friends.

So this month was pretty much dedicated to me finishing my final assignments and reading some pretty big books. I don’t know why I suddenly had the energy to read these books, but I’m not complaining!!

Books read

Books read: 16 (11 books, 4 short stories, 1 novella)

Pages read: 5,224 (…fuck me)

Average rating: 4.3 stars

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Books reviewed 

Words in Deep Blue is a beautiful novel. It’s a #LoveOzYA book about grief, friendship, love, and discovering who you are. I really recommend it to everyone, but be warned, you will cry. Lots.

★★★★★

Read my review

 

Unfortunately, Autoboyography just wasn’t for me. It upset me quite a bit from the weird stalker-ish plot, to the horrible and selfish characters — it just wasn’t a good book. A lot of people love this book so I want to reiterate that it was definitely a case of ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ You might love this book.

★★

Read my review

Pisces Hooks Taurus is honestly one of the best romance books I’ve ever read. Anyta Sunday really does have an incredible way of writing amazing characters, who are completely different, and falling in love in the most sweetest ways. I highly recommend this book, and while you’re there, read the rest of the Signs of Love books too!

★★★★★

Read my review

Tower of Dawn was not a novel that I expected to like. In fact, if it were anything like Empire of Storms, I would have hated it. But I think SJM tried really hard with this novel and the results were worth it. I still maintain that the length of the book is soooooo unnecessary, but I’m glad I read it (well, a bit glad).

★★★★

Read my review

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BOOK(S) OF THE MONTH

Yes, another month with TWO books of the month! That doesn’t usually happen, but it has the past three months in a row! Woo!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an incredible novel. It’s a non-fiction title that is part biography, part historical book — but all of it is important. It’s about a woman named Henrietta Lacks who passed away from cancer in 1951. Her death shaped the history of medicine forever. Without her, we would have no polio vaccine; through her, there have been breakthroughs in the fields of cancer, AIDS, leukemia, influenza, in vitro fertalization, and more. However, scientists only came to these breakthroughs by stealing her cancer cells while she was still alive. What’s worse is they tried to bury her name for years, to the point where her own family didn’t know what her cells had been used for. Rebecca Skloot spent 10 years researching this book and getting intimately involved with Henrietta’s family. It’s an amazing novel, I encourage everyone to read it.

A Wish Upon the Stars is the final book in the Tales of Verania series by TJ Klune, and while every book in this four-book series is amazing and is the book of the month too, I hold A Wish Upon the Stars in a very special place in my heart. This book was incredible, everything from the previous three leading up to this one. It was funny, heartbreaking, romantic, sweet, epic, cool, and just all round INCREDIBLE. PLEASE READ THIS SERIES! I literally read the four books in one week, and they’re all over 400 pages each. You won’t regret it!

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MONTHLY DISAPPOINTMENT(S)

TWO MONTHLY DISAPPOINTMENTS! I don’t think this has ever happened before!

Changing Faces is the fourth book in the Criminal Intentions series by Cole McCade. A new book comes out on the 10th of every month. And I was very disappointed in this one, especially because I rated the first book 4 stars, and books two and three 5 stars each. My reasons for rating Changing Faces 3 stars is a bit spoilery, so if you have already read the book or haven’t but are interested, check out my mini review on Goodreads here.

It was a buddy read with Kathy @ Books and Munches and Destiny @ Howling Libraries. Thank you so much to these girls for reading the book with me, because I feel like without them, I probably wouldn’t have read it. And while it wasn’t a horrible read, it was definitely a disappointing one. It was just too long and the plot actually wasn’t that scary. So much of the book was leading up to the when the main characters — as kids and adults — fight It. And that’s not till the last maybe 100 pages? So the rest of the book is quite slow, but if you’re into slow books, you might like it. Be warned that theres a very, very upsetting scene at the end of the book as well. TW for child sex.

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IF YOU LIKE THAT, TRY THESE … POSTS

To check out my If you like that, try these posts … click on each title below!

If you like that, try these … is my bi-montly post series where I share book (and sometimes movie or TV show) recommendations based on a book I’ve read. A new post comes out every second Thursday!

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BOOK TAGS

I’m currently completing The ABC book challenge! This is a weekly tag where bloggers share memorable titles starting with a letter of the alphabet, as well as books on their TBR also starting with that letter.

A post of this series comes out every Tuesday!

Check out my posts for October:

L, M, N, O, P

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EXTRA CONTENT

This month I wrote a discussion post about my favourite trope ever: Enemies to Lovers. You all know it’s the superior romance trope and to find out why, click on the image below!

I also wrote a post where I pledged to tackle my Kindle TBR. I’m definitely more of an eBook reader and so I have a massive Kindle TBR — and it feels like it’s never ending! So I wrote up all of the books on my Kindle, including ARCs (some of which I haven’t touched in like a year, oops), in an effort to shame myself into reading them. Check out the post!

Recently, I’ve wanted to expand my reading interests. I absolutely adore young adult fiction, but I’ve wanted to read beyond that for a while now, and I’m currently really interested in non-fiction novels. Some of my favourite books have been biographies, and I started to think about all the awesome topics I’m really interested in and then my non-fiction TBR was born! Check it out!

This month I reached the nine-month check-in point for the 2018 reading challenges I set for myself at the beginning of the year! Spoiler alert: I finished one of the challenges! Wooooooo!! Check it out by clicking on the image below:

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BLOG TOURS

This month I participated in FOUR blog tours! Each of the tours include an exclusive excerpt from the books, so check them out!

• Release Blitz: Thrall by Avon Gale and Roan Parrish
• Release Blitz: Building Forever by Kelly Jensen
• Review Tour: Pisces Hooks Taurus by Anyta Sunday
• Cover Reveal: Lanterns in the Sky by P.S. Malcolm

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ARCS I RECEIVED

Just one this month! I’ve decided to stop requesting books that I’m not interested in anymore.

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BOOKS PURCHASED

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NON-BOOKISH STUFF

This month, I watched quite a bit of TV while trying to ignore my final assignments. My sister and I watched The Haunting of Hill House together, because we’re both big babies who are too scared to watch horror by ourselves. We absolutely adored this show. Honestly, it’s probably one of the best horror shows I’ve ever watched. While it wasn’t too scary, it was definitely creepy. The writing, the plot, the characters were just fantastic, and I love that it had a solid ending. Oftentimes with horror, the ending is left open or it’s confusing. That’s not the case here, there is a proper and understandable ending. Please watch this show! And now I really want to read the book.

You guys may know that my sister and I are trying to watch more classic horror films together, and this month we watch The Purge. I really, really enjoyed this movie. While the movie itself wasn’t incredible, the story was fantastic. I love the idea behind the purge: how, on one night every year, all crime — including murder — is legal for 12 hours. But what’s really interesting is that each Purge movie is set from the perspective of a different socio-economic class. So the first movie (the one I watched) shows what happens to rich people during The Purge — they’re basically safe in their gated communities because they can afford protection. The second movie is about the middle class, and the final movie is about the poor and the homeless. I’m really intrigued to watch the rest of the series.

I also watched The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell and freaking loved it. This is honestly the weirdest show I’ve ever watched. I don’t understand a thing, all I know is that I love it. Christine is a babe, the weird undead creatures that live in her house are hilarious (particularly Rose), and now I want to make everything that Christine made (especially those candles). Seriously, watch this show. It’s funny and super bingeable.

 

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LOOKING FORWARD: November

REVIEWS TO COME:

1. Circe by Madeline Miller
2. Series review: Tales of Verania by TJ Klune
3. Black Iris by Elliot Wake
4. Abroad: Book Two by Liz Jacobs

BLOG TOURS:

1. Renewing Forever by Kelly Jensen
2. The Husband Gambit by L.A. Witt

Personal life:

GUYS MY SISTER AND I GOING TO NEW YORK IN 20 DAYS!! I’m so freaking excited 🙌🏼😍

Tentative TBR: 

I actually have a massive end of uni TBR coming out on the blog tomorrow, but for November I’m going to try and read:

How was your October?

How many books did you read? What shows/movies did you watch? Are you finished uni/school? Are you going on a holiday? Let me know!

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