Monthly Wrap Up | October 2020 – Worlds Unlike Our Own

I can’t believe it’s already November! Hope you are all staying safe and had a great Halloween! October was a much better reading month than I expected, even if The Tower of Nero did send me into a mini reading slump (totally worth it). November is admittedly one of my favourite months of the year, mostly it’s my birthday month, but it’s also the time when the flood of new books has comparatively slowed down and I can finally start catching up. More importantly though, there’s just one month until A Sky Beyond the Storm is out, and I’m super excited! And now, onto the books!

Books I Read in October 2020
(links lead to reviews)

New Releases
Among the Beasts and Briars – Ashley Poston – ARC (🌟🌟🌟 1/2)
A Golden Fury – Samantha Cohoe – ARC (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
God Storm (Shadow Frost #2) – Coco Ma – ARC (🌟🌟🌟 1/2)
The Tower of Nero (The Trials of Apollo #5) – Rick Riordan (🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟) + 2nd Blogversary!
You Were Never Here – Kathleen Peacock – ARC (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
A Deadly Education – Naomi Novik (🌟🌟🌟🌟 1/2)
The Enigma Game – Elizabeth Wein – ARC (🌟🌟🌟🌟 1/2)
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V. E. Schwab (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
The Camelot Betrayal (Camelot Rising #2) – Kiersten White (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Master of One – Jaida Jones & Dani Bennett- ARC (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Rebel Spy – Veronica Rossi (🌟…)
The Other Side of the Sky (The Other Side of the Sky #1)
– Megan Spooner & Amie Kaufman – ARC (🌟…)

Other posts & reviews this month

Reading Challenge Updates

October’s reading challenges are nearly always Halloween themed, and are the toughest for me, because as a rule, I don’t do horror novels or even mystery novels tending towards the spooky. It took a lot of searching to find two books that would fit the theme that I would be willing to read, but here they are!

1. Epic Reads Reading Challenge: THRILLS AND CHILLS
Chosen Book: Among the Beasts and Briars – Ashley Poston

Cerys is safe in the kingdom of Aloriya.

Here there are no droughts, disease, or famine, and peace is everlasting. It has been this way for hundreds of years, since the first king made a bargain with the Lady who ruled the forest that borders the kingdom. But as Aloriya prospered, the woods grew dark, cursed, and forbidden. Cerys knows this all too well: when she was young, she barely escaped as the woods killed her friends and her mother. Now Cerys carries a small bit of the curse—the magic—in her blood, a reminder of the day she lost everything. The most danger she faces now, as a gardener’s daughter, is the annoying fox who stalks the royal gardens and won’t leave her alone.

As a new queen is crowned, however, things long hidden in the woods descend on the kingdom itself. Cerys is forced on the run, her only companions the small fox from the garden, a strange and powerful bear, and the magic in her veins. It’s up to her to find the legendary Lady of the Wilds and beg for a way to save her home. But the road is darker and more dangerous than she knows, and as secrets from the past are uncovered amid the teeth and roots of the forest, it’s going to take everything she has just to survive.

The setting of the cursed forest was very good and gave a very ominous feel to the story. This is probably as close to a creepy read I’m ever going to get, so I’m going to stretch the definition and use it for this challenge – there are monsters after all!
Check out my review here!

2. Fictional Hangover Book Club Challenge
TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE: Read a book with, obviously, a haunted house
Chosen book: You Were Never Here – Kathleen Peacock

Cat hasn’t been to Montgomery Falls, the town her family founded, since she was twelve years old. Since the summer she discovered she could do things that no normal twelve-year-old could do. Since she had her first kiss with Riley Fraser. Since she destroyed their friendship.

Now, five years later, she’s back and Riley has disappeared.

For the last three months no one has heard from or seen Riley. And while there are all sorts of conspiracy theories about where he went, neither the police nor his parents are any closer to finding him. When Noah, Riley’s brother, asks for help in discovering what happened, Cat is torn between wanting to learn the truth and protecting the secret that she’s been guarding ever since that summer she and Riley stopped speaking.

But then a girl is discovered floating in the river, barely alive with no knowledge of who attacked her or why. With the possibility that someone out there is hunting teens, Cat must make a choice: Use her unusual ability to discover the truth and find Riley or keep running away from a power she can’t control. Only one choice will put her in a killer’s sights…

Paranormal mysteries are certainly very apt for Halloween, and I think I’ve read less than half a dozen of these. This is again, a bit of a stretch, but I think it fits with the spirit of the challenge.
Check out my review here!

Stats for the Month

Number of Books: 12
Number of Pages: 4,828
Goodreads Challenge Progress: 186/200

Did you read any of these books or do you plan to? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Marta the Monogamist Reader November 1, 2020 / 12:11 pm

Great reading month for you!!

LikeLiked by 1 person

- Raji (@journeyintofantasy) November 1, 2020 / 7:18 pm
  
  Thanks, hope you had a great reading month too!
  
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