I do this post every year. Every year I look back at how hopeful I was, how excited I was to get to all these books and every year I disappoint myself hahaha. Let’s look at what I did manage to read from my 2023 list.
I thought I had read more murder mysteries this year than I actually had! But here are my top 5 murder mysteries from the year. We may also have my favourite book of the year on this list?…
Despite this being a successful month compared to my other reading month’s this is by far my weakest reading month. I don’t know what was in the water this month but I’m hoping next month will be better.
I read 9 books this month
I DNFd 2 book.
Genre: 4 fantasy, 5 non-fiction, 1 thriller and 1 sci-fi
Gender of authors: 7 women and 3 men
Race of authors: 6 white authors, 2 asian writers and 2 black writers
Age range: 8 adult, 2 YA and 1 middle grade.
Format: 6 paperback, 4 hardback and 1 audiobook.
Challenges
Prompt: Non-Fiction
Becoming – Michelle Obama
Pandora’s Jar – Natalie Haynes
Beyond the Story – BTS
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokkbokki – Baek Sehee
Always Take Notes – Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd
Bookshops and Bonedust – Travis Baldree (DNF)
Earlier this year I read Legends and Lattes, by the same author, after seeing all the hype on social media. I was quite underwhelmed with it to be honest and I didn’t really want to read the prequel but a couple of my friends who didn’t love L&L actually loved B&B. I, on the other hand, just couldn’t get into it. I found there to be a real disconnect with me and the main character Viv.
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokkbokki – Baek Sehee (3 stars)
Another book I picked up due to the insane amount of hype I saw. Something like this is always subjective to someone’s personal experience so in some cases I really enjoyed and connected with some of the stuff mentioned. But other chapters I just didn’t connect to as much. I always felt I didn’t learn anything new. This led to a middle of the road rating.
Beyond the Story – BTS (4 stars)
Really interesting discussion about BTS’ journey from pre-debut to now, there was some stuff that I knew especially the more recent years. But the earlier years and their first stint in America I knew nothing about and it was enlightening and sobering to learn about their struggles and how they supported one another. I loved the use of QR codes to link to unseen footage, music videos, performances etc. But I will say I was not expecting as much musical analysis in the content. I felt it was more a musical analysis book than an actual memoir.
There is a small selection of middle-grade novels that I have read over the years which make such an impact on me that I need to scream into the atmosphere. This book is one of them. I wish I had had this book growing up as it’s exactly what little old me would have devoured. The characters were fun and meaningful, the world was vibrant and vast, and the plot was exciting and kept me on my toes. This is an epic book that I am so excited for young readers (and older readers as well) to be able to read and lose themselves in. We have a classic in the making here!
Their Vicious Games – Joelle Wellington (4.5 stars)
This was incredibly thrilling and heart-pounding. I enjoyed reading every second of it despite hating the events that were unfolding. I thought the writing was super engaging and I literally flew through this book and couldn’t put it down. The characters were written so well and I enjoyed watching the psychology of the characters, their alliances, and their battles. It was very very interesting. The ending had me cheering and jumping in my seat!
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (5 stars)
I don’t think I will be able to truly put into words how much I enjoyed this book! This book literally put me in a reading slump after I finished it. Literally no book was matching up to this one! I had been waiting for a book with interesting characters, unique plot and a complicated world. I like not fully understanding what is going on. This book confused and amazed me.
Other books I have read:
Sisters of Sword and Shadow – Laura Bates
Always Take Notes – Simon Akam & Rachel Lloyd
Princess Floralinda and the Forty Flight Tower – Tamsyn Muir
Another year has flown by and what a year it has been. I have had a lot more off blog milestones reached so this year blog wise has been business as usual.
But 5 whole years! Half a decade of talking about books! I mean that is insane! 1826 days or 260 weeks or 60 months!
Spooky month is officially over and we enter the month of pre-Christmas!
I read 16 books this month
Genre: 9 fantasy, 2 non-fiction, 2 horror and 3 contemporary
Gender of authors: 12 women and 4 men
Race of authors: 10 white authors, 5 asian writers and 1 black writer
Age range: 8 adult, 6 YA and 2 children.
Format: 13 paperback, 2 hardback and 1 ebook.
Challenges
Prompt: Spooky
Starling House
The Girl from the Other Side, Vol.3
I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Witchcraft
Garlic and the Witch
Every Exquisite Thing
Sword Catcher – Cassandra Clare (DNF)
I was super excited to finally read Cassandra Clare’s adult debut. I had read the first 4 books of her YA Shadowhunter series when I was younger but hadn’t read any of her stuff in ages. I was looking forward to seeing her to move away from her Shadowhunter universe and try something new. While I did enjoy the world-building and lore of Clare’s brand new world I found the pacing and the plot to be very slow. I ended up DNFing just under 200 pages in as barely anything was happening and this was a nearly 600 page book. I was just a lot of standing around talking which for me did not grab me at all.
Every Exquisite Thing – Laura Steven (2 stars)
This was a disappointing read unfortunately. I found the premise to be super intriguing and was excited to see how it was applied but I found the execution to be lacklustre and at times absurd. I found the main character unlikable, the plot structuring to work against mystery the author is trying to set up and many other things. I will say it was super nice to see aloe pica representation – as someone who struggled with it growing up I could relate to our MC on that level.
Normal Women – Philippa Gregory (4 stars)
I had the privilege to introduce Philippa Gregory on her book tour for this mammoth of a history book. Taking in 900 years of women’s history in Britain – this book was vast, well-researched, intersectional and very inclusive. I learnt some much about so many women that history had forgotten.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson (4 stars)
Look at me rating a classic very highly. I think this was down to the short page number and the creepy atmosphere. I also part audio booked it and the author was incredible in building tension and a sense of dread.
I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me – Jamison Shea (4 stars)
I have a whole review about my love for this book but what I will say is this is a super atmospheric novel that delves into the descent into madness that happens when you get given loads of power and how systems are built on oppressing talent that doesn’t fit into their very white lense.
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop – Hwang Bo-reum (5 stars)
This book resonated with me on a molecular level. Most likely due to me being a bookseller but I loved all the conversations that were had about lifelong happiness, how that is different from one person to another and how the pursuit for happiness takes courage, sincerity, putting yourself first and a big leap. I loved the mix between the funny slice-of-life moments in the bookshop alongside the more introspective elements of the novel.
Curious Tides – Pascale Lacelle (5 stars)
After finishing this a week I am still struggling to form the words to describe how much I enjoyed this book. The writing was incredibly insightful and poetic, the plot kept me up at night and constantly guessing, the mystical meta element to the plot was super fun (listen I love books about books), the beauty of relationships and how complicated they can be was probably the most interesting and humanising factor of the novel and finally I loved the exploration into how insecurity and fear can hold you back.
Starling House – Alix E. Harrow (5 stars)
This book is an amazing slow-burn urban fantasy/horror novel about creepy houses with a complicated history, a book about a book, the topic of how history distorts the truth, how poverty can be just as horrific and scary as the fantastical horrors plaguing this story, slavery in the American South, Opal’s character from start to finish was so incredibly written and I feel that Harrow has truly nailed flowery prose with a straight to the point plot.
So, there wasn’t an August wrap up last month as frankly I went on an unprompted 2 week hiatus. So, we a re back better than ever to wrap up what I read in September!
I read 10 books this month
Genre: 5 fantasy, 2 non-fiction, 2 romance and 1 contemporary
Gender of authors: 8 women and 2 men
Race of authors: 6 white authors and 4 asian writers
Age range: 5 adult, 4 YA and 1 middle grade
Format: 7 paperback, 2 ebooks and 1 hardback.
Challenges
Prompt: Academia
Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 1
Haikyu!!, Vol.4
Love in Focus
Sequel Challenge
Haikyu!!, Vol.4
Love in Focus – Yoko Nogiri (DNF)
This was a book I bought ages ago and was super excited to finally getting round to reading it. I have been enjoying a lot of romance stories recently and I had been enjoying a lot of manga romance subplots. Unfortunately, this book to me felt super surface level. I didn’t feel the character had any depth whatsoever and it was very clear who the main character was going to end up with. I don’t mind the love triangle trope but it only works if you really are unsure of who the main character will choose. This book made it so obvious.
Assistant to the Villain – Hannah Nicole Maehrer (DNF)
Another romance I was hoping to enjoy. Now, I love the premise of this book. I loved mixing the office like experience of a daily 9-5 but in a fantasy world. Unfortunately, I found the main character to be very annoying and I wasn’t fussed by the romance at all. I wanted it to be more of a focus of the office environment in the fantasy world but I spent most of the book reading about how clumsy the MC was. This had so much potential but I felt it was wasted.
The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Vol.1 – Hiromu Arakawa (3 stars)
This series has been HARD to lock down. I knew after finishing the Fullmetal Alchemist series that I needed to read her adaptation of The Heroic Legend of Arslan but the volumes are really hard to get hold of! Anyway… this was a fine first volume. It set up everything it needed to but it didn’t blow me away. I am hoping this will change with the coming volumes.
The Long Game – Elena Armas (3.5 stars)
Now I nearly DNFd this book. I was just not feeling it. I said to myself get to page 100 and if you’re still not feeling it then DNF it. Well it was literally page 100!!! that made me change my mind and continuing reading. I have an issue with the ‘enemies to lovers’ trope in contemporary settings as I feel that it never works. Here we have two people that had one misunderstanding and you want me to believe they are ‘enemies’? No. No way. I found super unbelievable and therefore did not care for them at all. When they finally started to show feelings for one another and the hating became more flirtatious then I was finally interested. I don’t think they were layered enough as characters to work as a ‘enemies to lovers’. After that though it was super fun and I had a great time. It’s a shame it took 100 pages though.
The Witchstone Ghosts – Emily Randall-Jones (5 stars)
The perfect book for the spooky season. I was intrigued about a middle-grade book with strong Wicker Man vibes and inspirations. Like I was so interested to see how it was done but also nervous to see how far the author would take it. Emily Randall-Jones nailed the horror elements! She also had an amazingly strong female character at the centre which I love!
The Hexologists – Josiah Bancroft (5 stars)
Josiah Bancroft does not disappoint! He never lets me down! This steam-punk fantasy ,which (I personally feel) is inspired by Britain during the Industrial Revolution, has an amazing mystery at the centre, rumours of revolution around the corners and a married couple who holds the whole story together. I am being serious I have literally found a book that ticks all my book fave boxes. Bancroft’s writing and imagination is incredible. I got slight Terry Pratchett vibes.
Divine Might – Natalie Haynes (5 stars)
Ok, so I know I said no more Greek Mythology. I MEANT RE-TELLINGS. I am taking a break from the re-tellings. Until Madeline Miller releases her Hades and Persephone re-telling and I have heard the possibility of a Hera re-telling from Jennifer Saint. So I am one major hypocrite. The reason I say this is everytime I think I am done with greek mythology but thenI read something like Divine Might and it reminds me why I love it so much! THIS BOOK WAS SO SO SO GOOD. Specifically the Hera chapter. I learnt so much about deities I thought I knew loads about already.
Other books I read this month:
Witch Hat Atelier, Vol.1 – Kamome Shirahama
Haikyu!!, Vol.4 – Haruichi Furudate
Seven Kinds of People You Find in the Bookshop – Shaun Bythell
Probably the stack of books I am most excited to get to this year. A good mixture of new releases plus spooky books perfect for Halloween!
Also yes… this is an unobtainable amount of books to try and read in one month!
Manga/Graphic Novels
Title: Witch Hat Atelier, Vol.2
Author: Kamome Shirahama
Series: Witch Hat Atelier #2
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 192
Plot for Volume 1: In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…
Title: The Girl from the Other Side, Vol.3
Author: Nagabe
Series: The Girl from the Other Side #3
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 180
Plot for Volume 1: In a land far away, there were two kingdoms: the Outside, where twisted beasts roamed that could curse with a touch, and the Inside, where humans lived in safety and peace. The girl and the beast should never have met, but when they do, a quiet fairytale begins. This is a story of two people – one human, one inhuman – who linger in the hazy twilight that separates night from day.
Title: Garlic and the Witch
Author: Bree Paulsen
Series: Garlic #2
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 160
Plot: Garlic loves spending time with Witch Agnes, Carrot, and her new friend, the Count, who has proven to be a delightful neighbor to the village of vegetable people rather than a scary vampire. But despite Agnes’s best attempts to home-brew a vegetarian blood substitute for Count, the ingredient she needs most can only be found at the Magic Market, far from the valley. Before she knows it, with a broomstick in hand, Garlic is nervously preparing for a journey. But Garlic is experiencing another change too–finger by finger, she appears to be turning human. Witch Agnes assures her that this is normal for her garden magic, but Garlic isn’t so sure that she’s ready for such a big change. After all, changes are scary…and what if she doesn’t want to be human after all?
October Releases
Title: Curious Tides
Author: Pascale Lacelle
Series: Drowned Gods #1
Format: Hardback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Fantasy/Murder Mystery
Pages: 544
Publication Date: 03/10
Plot: Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess. Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them. To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths. And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.
Title: The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Author: Hisashi Kashiwai
Series: The Kamogawa Food Detectives #1
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 157
Publication Date: 05/10
Plot: Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner treats its customers to wonderfully extravagant meals. But that’s not the main reason to stop by . . . The father-daughter duo have started advertising their services as ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they are capable of recreating a dish from their customers’ pasts – dishes that may well hold the keys to forgotten memories and future happiness. From the widower looking for a specific noodle dish that his wife used to cook, to a first love’s beef stew, the restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to the past – and a way to a more contented future.
Title: Sword Catcher
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: Sword Catcher #1
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 597
Publication Date: 10/10
Plot: Lithuania, 1943. A father drowns in the all-consuming grief of a daughter killed by the Nazis. He can’t bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can use kishuf — an ancient and profane magic — to create a golem in her image. A Nazi killer, to avenge her death. When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose thrumming within her. But she can also feel glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amidst the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when she meets Akiva, she recognizes the boy with soft lips that gave warm kisses. But these memories aren’t hers, and Vera doesn’t know if she gets—or deserves —to have a life beyond what she was made for. Vera’s strength feels limitless—until she learns that there are others who would channel kishuf for means far less noble than avenging a daughter’s death. As she confronts the very basest of humanity, Vera will need more than what her creator gave Not just a reason to fight, but a reason to live.
Title: The Possessed
Author: Witold Gombrowicz
Series: Standalone
Format: eBook
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Gothic
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 18/10
Plot: With dreams of escaping his small-town existence and the limitations of his status, a young tennis coach travels to the heart of the Polish countryside where he is to train Maja Ocholowska, a beautiful and promising player whose bourgeois family has fallen upon difficult circumstances. But no sooner has he arrived than his relationship with his pupil develops into one of twisted love and hate, and he becomes embroiled in the fantastic happenings taking place at the dilapidated castle nearby. Haunted kitchens, bewitched towels, conniving secretaries and famous clairvoyants all conspire to determine the fate of the young lovers and the mad prince residing in the castle.
Title: Supper for Six
Author: Fiona Sherlock
Series: Standalone
Format: eBook
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Murder Mystery
Pages: 295
Publication Date: 19/10
Plot: London, 1977: Agapanthus and Francois Langford, Jeremy Crowley, Elizabeth Chalice and Chrissy Crowley have very little in common – except for the fact they have all been summoned at fairly short notice to attend a dinner party hosted by Lady Sybil Anderson, in her rather charming and opulent apartment in Bruton Square, Mayfair.Except each guests believes they are having a private dinner party with their host – so the other visitors are quite a surprise. Once the awkward introductions are out of the way, a powercut sends shockwaves through the group – and when the lights come back on, Jeremy is discovered dead. Elizabeth Chalice – the only private investigator in the group – becomes detective, witness and suspect all at once . . . Is Jeremy’s death an accident – or is it the very reason they’ve all been called here at once?
Title: Normal Women
Author: Phillipa Gregory
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: History
Pages: 512
Publication Date: 26/10
Synopsis: Most histories have been written by men, about men, relegating women—with the exception of a few queens—to the shadows of time. Now, bestselling author Philippa Gregory reveals the importance of ordinary women, providing a more balanced and truer chronicle that expands and adds rich detail to the story of Great Britain. In Normal Women, Gregory draws on an enormous archive of primary and secondary sources to rewrite British history, focusing on the agency, persistence, and effectiveness of everyday women throughout periods of social and cultural transition. She sweeps from the making of the Bayeux tapestry in the eleventh century to the Black Death in 1348—after which women were briefly paid the same wages as men, the last time for seven centuries—to the 1992 ordination of women by the Church of England, when the church accepted, for the first time, that a woman could perform the miracle of the mass. Through the stories of the female soldiers of the civil war, the guild widows who founded the prosperity of the City of London, highwaywomen and pirates, miners, ship owners, international traders, the women who ran London theaters and commissioned plays from Shakespeare, and the “female husbands” who married each other legally in church and lived as husband and wife, Gregory redefines “normal” female behavior to include heroism, rebellion, crime, treason, money-making, and sainthood. As she makes clear, normal women make history.
Title: Starling House
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Horror
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 31/10
Plot: Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home. As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares. If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.
Spooky Books!
Title: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Author: Shirley Jackson
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Horror
Pages: 158
Plot: Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn’t leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family.
Title: Gideon the Ninth
Author: Tamsyn Muir
Series: The Locked Tomb #1
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror
Pages: 448
Plot: Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead.
My friend Morgan has been waiting basically a year for me to read this book.
Title: Rouge
Author: Mona Awad
Series: Standalone
Format: Hardback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Horror
Pages: 384
Plot: For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.
Title: She is a Haunting
Author: Trang Thanh Tran
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Horror
Pages: 352
Plot: When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised. But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don’t eat. Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home her family has always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.
Title: The Sacrifice
Author: Rin Chupeco
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Horror
Pages: 287
Plot: Pristine beaches, lush greenery, and perfect weather, the island of Kisapmata would be the vacation destination…if not for the curse. The Philippine locals speak of it in hushed voices and refuse to step foot on the island. They know the lives it has claimed. They won’t be next. A Hollywood film crew won’t be dissuaded. Legend claims a Dreamer god sleeps, waiting to grant unimaginable powers in exchange for eight sacrifices. The producers are determined to document the evidence. And they convince Alon, a local teen, to be their guide. Within minutes of their arrival, a giant sinkhole appears, revealing a giant balete tree with a mummified corpse entwined in its gnarled branches. And the crew start seeing strange visions. Alon knows they are falling victim to the island’s curse. If Alon can’t convince them to leave, there is no telling who will survive. Or how much the Dreamer god will destroy…
Title: Every Exquisite Thing
Author: Laura Steven
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Murder Mystery
Pages: 287
Plot: Penny Paxton is the daughter of an icon. Her supermodel mother has legions of adoring fans around the world, and Penny is ready to begin her journey to international adoration, starting with joining the elite Dorian Drama School. When Penny’s new mentor offers her an opportunity she cannot refuse, to have a portrait painted by a mysterious artist who can grant immortal beauty to all his subjects, Penny happily follows in the footsteps of Dorian’s most glittering alumni, knowing that stardom is sure to soon be hers. But when her trusted mentor is found murdered, Penny realises she’s made a terrible mistake – a sinister someone is using the uncanny portraits to kill off the subjects one by one. As more perfectly beautiful students start to fall, Penny knows her time is running out…
So the 30 books in 30 days whooped my ass. I managed to get 19 books read which is amazing but not 30… For this month I still have loads of books I want to read but not sure how successful I will be. The theme for this month is academia.
I have also started a focus on reading my books in the month they are published. I noticed this year that I was slightly neglecting to read the books around the time of their publication. Maybe reading it a couple months too late. I have decided to change that and this is the month I start.
Title: Witch Hat Atelier, Vol.1
Author: Kamome Shirahama
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 208
Plot: In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…
Title: A Study in Drowning
Author: Ava Reid
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 19.09.23
Plot: Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. She’s had no choice. Since childhood, she’s been haunted by visions of the Fairy King. She’s found solace only in the pages of Angharad – author Emrys Myrddin’s beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, and then destroys him. Effy’s tattered, dog-eared copy is all that’s keeping her afloat through her stifling first term at Llyr’s prestigious architecture college. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to design the late author’s house, Effy feels certain this is her destiny. But Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task: a musty, decrepit estate on the brink of crumbling into a hungry sea. And when Effy arrives, she finds she isn’t the only one who’s made a temporary home there. Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin’s papers and is determined to prove her favorite author is a fraud. As the two rival students investigate the reclusive author’s legacy, piecing together clues through his letters, books, and diaries, they discover that the house’s foundation isn’t the only thing that can’t be trusted. There are dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspiring against them – and the truth may bring them both to ruin.
Title: You Could Be So Pretty
Author: Holly Bourne
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Sci-Fi
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 28.09.23
Plot: Belle Gentle follows the rules of The Doctrine to the letter and is so close to Having It All. She’s the highest Pretty in school, A Chosen One in her spare time, and she’s about to win The Ceremony and fulfil her destiny. So why does she feel so suffocated by her perfect life? Joni Miller is an Objectionable and hated by everyone for her repulsive looks. But Joni doesn’t care. She just needs to win the Scholarship to The Education, so she get the power to overthrow The Doctrine and wake everyone up. The only person standing in her way is the prettiest girl in school. Set in a dystopian world, of normalised sexual violence, and where girls are expected to maintain impossible beauty standards of beauty, You Could Be So Pretty explores what happens when two enemies are thrown together. As Belle and Joni confront their prejudices, the reader is left asking themselves: Is this world really so far from our own?
Title: I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me
Author: Jamison Shea
Series: Standalone
Format: eBook
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Horror
Pages: 339
Plot: Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood. The primordial power Laure gains promises influence and adoration, everything she’s dreamed of and worked toward. With retribution on her mind, she surpasses her bitter and privileged peers, leaving broken bodies behind her on her climb to stardom. But even as undeniable as she is, Laure is not the only monster around. And her vicious desires make her a perfect target for slaughter. As she descends into madness and the mystifying underworld beneath her, she is faced with the ultimate choice: continue to break herself for scraps of validation or succumb to the darkness that wants her exactly as she is—monstrous heart and all. That is, if the god-killer doesn’t catch her first.
Title: The Skeleton Key
Author: Erin Kelly
Series: Standalone
Format: eBook
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 512
Plot: Summer, 2021.Nell has come home at her family’s insistence to celebrate an anniversary. Fifty years ago, her father wrote The Golden Bones. Part picture book, part treasure hunt, Sir Frank Churcher created a fairy story about Elinore, a murdered woman whose skeleton was scattered all over England. Clues and puzzles in the pages of The Golden Bones led readers to seven sites where jewels were buried – gold and precious stones, each a different part of a skeleton. One by one, the tiny golden bones were dug up until only Elinore’s pelvis remained hidden. The book was a sensation. A community of treasure hunters called the Bonehunters formed, in frenzied competition, obsessed to a dangerous degree. People sold their homes to travel to England and search for Elinore. Marriages broke down as the quest consumed people. A man died. The book made Frank a rich man. Stalked by fans who could not tell fantasy from reality, his daughter, Nell, became a recluse. But now the Churchers must be reunited. The book is being reissued along with a new treasure hunt and a documentary crew are charting everything that follows. Nell is appalled, and terrified. During the filming, Frank finally reveals the whereabouts of the missing golden bone. And then all hell breaks loose.
Title: Love in Focus
Author: Yoko Nogiri
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Romance
Pages: 512
Plot: Mako’s always had a passion for photography. When she loses someone dear to her, she clings to her art as a relic of the close relationship she once had…Luckily, her childhood best friend Kei encourages her to come to his high school and join their prestigious photo club. With nothing to lose, Mako grabs her camera and moves into the dorm where Kei and his classmates live. Soon, a fresh take on life, along with a mysterious new muse, begin to come into focus!
Title: Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe
Author: Emma Torz
Series: Standalone
Format: eBook
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 416
Plot: For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect. All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .
Title: Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman
Author: Lucy Worsley
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Biography
Pages: 498
Publication Date: 08.09.23
Synopsis: Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was “just” an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn’t? Her life is fascinating for its mysteries and its passions and, as Lucy Worsley says, “She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern.” She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why—despite all the evidence to the contrary—did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? She was born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do. Lucy Worsley’s biography is not just of a massively, internationally successful writer. It’s also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman. With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley’s biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realize what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was—truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.
Title: Assistant to the Villain
Author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Romantasy
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 05.09.23
Plot: With ailing family to support, Evie Sage’s employment status isn’t just important, it’s vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer—naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie. But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain—and his entire nefarious empire—out. Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.
Title: Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth
Author: Natalie Haynes
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: History
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 28.09.23
Synopsis: Natalie Haynes, author of the bestselling Pandora’s Jar, returns to the world of Greek myth and this time she examines the role of the goddesses. We meet Athene, who sprang fully formed from her father’s head: goddess of war and wisdom, guardian of Athens. We run with Artemis, goddess of hunting and protector of young girls (apart from those she decides she wants as a sacrifice). Here is Aphrodite, goddess of sex and desire – there is no deity more determined and able to make you miserable if you annoy her. And then there’s the queen of all the Olympian gods: Hera, Zeus’s long-suffering wife, whose jealousy of his dalliances with mortals, nymphs and goddesses lead her to wreak elaborate, vicious revenge on those who have wronged her. We also meet Demeter, goddess of agriculture and mother of the kidnapped Persephone, we sing the immortal song of the Muses and we warm ourselves with Hestia, goddess of the hearth and sacrificial fire. The Furies carry flames of another kind – black fires of vengeance for those who incur their wrath. These goddesses are as mighty, revered and destructive as their male counterparts. Isn’t it time we looked beyond the columns of a ruined temple to the awesome power within?
Title: Emporer of Rome
Author: Mary Beard
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: History
Pages: 512
Publication Date: 28.09.23
Synopsis: In her international bestseller SPQR , Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Emperor of Rome is not your usual chronological account of Roman rulers, one after the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Beard asks bigger What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? She tracks down the emperor at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven. She introduces his wives and lovers, rivals and slaves, court jesters and soldiers―and the ordinary people who pressed begging letters into his hands. Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman (and our own) fantasies about what it was to be Roman, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.
Title: The Bone Chests
Author: Cat Jarman
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: History
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 14.09.23
Synopsis: In 1642, William Waller and his Parliamentarian army came to Winchester with destruction on their minds. They forced entry to the magnificent cathedral that had stood on the site for over 600 years and began to smash things. In the cathedral’s holiest place, ten beautiful mortuary chests rested as they’d done since the 7th century. In search for treasure, the soldiers ripped open the lids and when all they found were bones they flung them at the great West Window, destroying the 14th-century stained glass with its sacred images of the Virgin Mary and St Peter. The desecration was total – blood, glass, bayonets, bones all scattered underfoot. The chests housed the mortal remains of West Saxon kings, saints and bishops; of Queen Emma of Normandy, William Rufus, Harthacnut, Edmund Ironside and Edward the Confessor. As the soldiers left, local people picked through the damage, gathering the glass and hiding the bone chests for safekeeping. Six chests remain today – with a jumble of the original bones. In 2014 they were opened for the first time to anthropologists and archaeologist, photographed and catalogued so that the exact position of each individual item is a matter of record. Since then, cutting edge science, including isotope analysis, carbon dating and DNA analysis has revealed astonishing new insights. In Bone Chests, bestselling author of River Kings, Cat Jarman builds on evidence from these bones of the men and women who witnessed and orchestrated the creation of England, fuelled and fortified by the actions of invading and settling Vikings, to tell an unforgettable new account of this early period of history. This is Anglo-Saxon history in technicolour, with an important revisionist take on the role of women.
Title: The Long Game
Author: Elena Armas
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Adult
Genre: Romance
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 05.09.23
Plot: Adalyn Reyes has spent years perfecting her daily routine: wake up at dawn, drive to the Miami Flames FC offices, try her hardest to leave a mark, go home, and repeat. But her routine is disrupted when a video of her in an altercation with the team’s mascot goes viral. Rather than fire her, the team’s owner—who happens to be her father—sends Adalyn to middle-of-nowhere North Carolina, where she’s tasked with turning around the struggling local soccer team, the Green Warriors, as a way to redeem herself. Her plans crumble upon discovering that the players wear tutus to practice (impractical), keep pet goats (messy), and are terrified of Adalyn (counterproductive), and are nine-year-old kids. To make things worse, also in town is Cameron Caldani, goalkeeping prodigy whose presence is somewhat of a mystery. Cam is the perfect candidate to help Adalyn, but after one very unfortunate first encounter involving a rooster, Cam’s leg, and Adalyn’s bumper, he’s also set on running her out of town. But banishment is not an option for Adalyn. Not again. Helping this ragtag children’s team is her road to redemption, and she is playing the long game. With or without Cam’s help.
Title: The Witch-Stone Ghosts
Author: Emily Randall-Jones
Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: 14.09.23
Plot: Autumn Albert can see the dead – much to her annoyance. But when her dad dies in mysterious circumstances, he’s the one ghost who doesn’t appear. A curious instruction in his will sends Autumn to Imber, the storm-soaked island of his a place marked by tight-lipped locals, strange stacks of witchstones – and even fewer ghosts. Soon Autumn is ensnared in a dark and twisty mystery, which must be unravelled before the sea rises up and history is doomed to repeat itself …
Title: Haikyu!!, Vol. 4
Author: Haruichi Furudate
Series: Haikyu!! #4
Format: Paperback
Age Rating: YA
Genre: Sports
Pages: 216
Plot: Ever since he saw the legendary player known as “the Little Giant” compete at the national volleyball finals, Shoyo Hinata has been aiming to be the best volleyball player ever! He decides to join the team at the high school the Little Giant went to—and then surpass him. Who says you need to be tall to play volleyball when you can jump higher than anyone else? The training camp kicks off with a bang! Hinata and his teammates train their hearts out in preparation for the practice game against Nekoma, but they’ll need to polish their receiving skills if they want to win. Then finally, after all their hard work, the moment they’ve all been waiting for arrives—the revival of the long-standing rivalry between the cats and the crows! And Nekoma’s starting setter looks vaguely familiar…
We are just a couple of days out from the autumn months and I am so excited! So in preperation for the months I thought I would recommend some autumnal reads.
So, every year I do a quick overview on all the series I am trying to finish. Now when i started this it was a small number and quite manageable. This year however, this post is going to be a long one. Buckle up!
IndiaReadsALot 
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