September Wrap-Up

Well, here we are in October my favorite month of the year! That means September is over and the crisp air and falling leaves can start....any time now! Please!!! Ahem. Anyway. September started out on a crazy trip to Oregon to furnish our vacation home, to fancying up the exterior of one of our duplexes to, well, nothing. Things seemed to have calmed down and I'm loving it! More time for reading, binge watching shows and enjoying the cooler weather....anytime now, Fall.

 I read 8 books this past month. 2 print books 3 ebooks and 3 audiobooks. Fairly balanced I'd say.

The Girl From The Well
A creepy read about a murdered girl who seeks revenge until she meets a boy with an even more creepy ghost attached to him.

Shadow and Bone (Grisha Verse 1)
All the regular ingredients to a fantasy but tasted delicious.

A Simple Favor
Stupid, pointless story with deplorable characters.

The Woman in Cabin 10
A likable character in a psychological thriller? I know! I'm shocked too!

The Orphan Keeper
Intriguing page turner about a kidnapped child and his journey home.

Before We Were Yours
Surprising with twists and turns through past and present.

Big Mushy Happy Lump
Get ready to laugh for the few minutes it will take to read this delightful book.

Siege and Storm (Grisha Verse 2)
Slower middle but still so yummy! (review to come)




And there you have it. Big Mushy Lump gets 5 stars because there's nothing to dislike and I'll definitely be reading it again but The Grisha books,The Woman in Cabin 10 and Before We Were Yours were all great books too.  Besides A Simple Favor, which was just awful, I had a pretty good reading month.

September Wrap-Up 2017

September has come and gone. It started out hot and then got deliciously cold with lots of rain. Fall is in the air and I love it! We had a tenant unexpectedly move out in the middle of the month and of course it was one of the rentals that has not been remodeled so we've been working on a smaller scale remodel but keep running into problems. I'm SO over these remodels! Oh well. We're really close to being done and I still managed to read 8 books so it can't be all bad right?

IT by Stephen King
I was expecting horror but got an amazingly well fleshed out story that blew me away!

Invaded by Melissa Landers
The plot go going in this one and encouraged me to read the last book in the series...

United by Melissa Landers
...Which was a bit of a let down. All in all, it's a fine series but I found it a little unbelievable.

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutoski
After loving books one and two I was DEVASTATED by this one. It felt like I was reading about completely different characters and Arin did NOT redeem himself!

Jane Unlimited by Kristin Cashore
Not at all what I was expecting but a fun, unique story.

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson 
Laughed so hard I cried. That's a good thing, right?

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain 
Not enough conflict and then I wondered why the hell I need so much conflict? Brought on some deep introspection.

The Book Shop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
Uh, again I felt like there wasn't enough conflict...or that there was but it was too easily resolved. Talk about a charmed life???

Favorites of the month were Furiously Happy and IT. Least Favorite was The Winner's Kiss. Made me so mad!

September Wrap Up

September was only crazy for half of the month but I still only managed to read 3 books again. I swear I'll do better this month. The colder weather makes me want to curl up and read and the Dewy's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon is this month so...here's hoping. Anyway, back to September.

Hinges of Broams Eld by Jennifer Cano, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

I liked all of them this month. No least favorites. I always think that's a good thing.My numbers are small but at least I liked what I read, right?

September Wrapup 2015

Another month has come and gone. I love autumn. It's my favorite time of year. Sadly, it hasn't been very autumn-ey. It's still way too hot and muggy. The heat has been keeping me inside, though, so I've gotten some reading done. Here's what I read in September.

The Girl on the Train
Somehow grips you and pulls you into the story but predictable ending and terrible characters made this one only OK.

Poison
Whirlwind story! I don't know who can be trusted and what's coming next but I'm excited to find out.

Eleanor
Unique and interesting premise but the writing really needed more editing.

Big Little Lies
I suspected I'd be a Moriarty fan as soon as I read one of her books and I was right! Absolutely brilliant!



Favorite of the month was definitely Big Little Lies. Least Favorite was Eleanor.

Plans For October
Finish the two books I'm reading and then I'm not sure....I guess we'll see. Happy Reading!

Review: Eleanor

Title Eleanor (The Unseen #1)
By Johnny Worthen
Genre YA, Paranormal/Supernatural
Pages 355

Synopsis
In a small town, staying off the radar isn't easy but  Eleanor does a pretty good job of it. That is, until David comes back to town. David with his kind smiles and attention. He begins to draw Eleanor out but when you have a secret like Eleanor's you need to say hidden. With her mother dying of cancer and the whole town starting to notice her Eleanor' secret may soon be out.



First Sentence The coyote circled the campsite in ever tightening spirals.

What it has going for it
I wrote my own synopsis for this one but if you'd like, you can check out the one on Goodreads. It and mine (I hope) are pretty vague and that's what drew me to this story. I wanted to know what Eleanor's secret was. And as it started to slowly be hinted at and revealed, I was intrigued even more. Not to say you won't catch on to her secret pretty early in the story; you will. But by then you're invested enough to want to know how it's all going to pan out. That desire to know what's going to happen and the very unique idea behind this one, kept me reading. They were definitely the strong points to this story. Oh, and the cover. Isn't that a beautiful cover?!

What's lacking
Oh, but for the poor execution. I was never quite sure if the writing in this one was bad or if it was just a style I'm not fond of. It felt so choppy and immature. The whole book needed a very heavy handed editor. Check out this sentence for example.

The following Thursday was parent-teacher conference, a meeting between educators and student guardians held three times a year to discuss performance. 

Um, yeah, I know what parent-teacher conference is and so does every kid in this book's audience. It's a simple case of over-writing that should have been edited out.  By the end the writing felt all over the place and the story became a bit unbelievable. At times I felt like the characters were perfectly young. You know, not twenty somethings acting like teens. And sometimes I felt like they sounded like ten-year-olds. Especially David. Like I said, choppy writing.

Yea or Nay?
I'd love to recommend this one for the uniqueness of the story concept but without a good editing job, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing so.

September Wrapup

September freaking flew by! Am I right?! I managed to read a few more books this month but I'm still disappointed in the numbers. Ah well, here they are.

The Forever Contract by Avery Sawyer. 
Not enough depth and what's with the cover not matching the story?

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
I'm still waiting for this one to makes sense...something tell's me it isn't going to. Ever.

Sulan: Episode 1 The League by Camille Picott
Awesomeness wrapped in perfection! One of my favorites this year.

A Midsummer's Nighmare by Kody Keplinger
Loved the book. Was disappointed in the neat ending, though.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan 
Far from perfect, but, oh, how it made you think!

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
A reread. Absolutely perfect. I love these books and I adore Odd! (Review on Goodreads)

 Favorites of the month were Sulan and Odd Hours and A Midsummer's Nightmare. Least favorite was The Forever Contract.

I upped my reading in September by two books more than August. Think I can manage eight it October?

September Wrapup

As you may remember I wanted to work on some series I was behind on. Sigh, I didn't do as well as I would have liked but I did manage to get two series out of the way and that's something...right? Right?! ;)


Birthmarked by Caragh M O'Brien
Ugh! This one drove me crazy on levels I didn't even know I had!


The Body Finder (Body Finder 1) by Kimberly Derting
Too high of expectations and an overly controlling boy ruined this one for me.

Desires of the Dead (Body Finder 2) by Kimberly Derting
Dang you, you stupid book, you made me want to read more!

The Underdog by Markus Zusak
Can Zusak really do anything wrong? Really?! No.

Road to Rome (The Forgotten Legion 3) by Ben Kane
A fine conclusion to a fun series. (sorry, I didn't review this one)

City of Bones (Mortal Instruments 1) by Cassandra Clare
This time, too low of expectations helped me enjoy this adventurous story.


City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments 2) by Cassandra Clare
Meh, I still don't get what everyone sees in Jace but I enjoyed it.

City of Glass (Mortal Instruments 3) by Cassandra Clare
Too predictable but a nice wrapup and I've no intention of reading any more of this series.


Favorite of the month was The Underdog and least favorite was Birthmarked. Also, and I thought this was rather interesting, every book I read in September was written in third person, and I didn't even plan it that way. Weird huh?