October Wrap Up

I read a lot this month and I’m so happy about it. There was a lot of romance in all kinds of genres, and two books definitely made it to my yearly favorites.  Unfortunately, I didn’t read as many spooky months as I wanted to but I squeezed in a vampire/paranormal romance so I’m not too bothered by it lol.

Take A Hint Dani Brown

Words cannot describe how much I loved this book. I enjoyed “Get A Life Chloe Brown” but to be honest, I was a little disappointed by the romance side of it? For some reason, I just couldn’t connect with the romance? I loved the other parts of the book but I just wasn’t as strongly attached to the relationship in the book as I usually like to with romance books.

This book though, was the exact opposite. I loved these two characters and their dynamic, the tension, their banter, and oh my gosh the support. These two characters cared and supported each other in such a way that it was sexy. Zaf is definitely on the top of my favorite fictional men. I love how the author wrote this giant, grumpy, intimidating man, into someone who’s so supportive but also a person who’s dealing with a lot of shit such as grief, depression, and anxiety.  We love multi-dimensional characters that break all the stereotypes. Please be aware of tw/cw such as grief, depression, loss of a loved one, and anxiety before going into this!

Tweet Cute

I haven’t read a YA contemporary book in such a long time and my oh my, I’m glad this is the first one I picked up to revisit the genre. I was pretty worried going into this book that the social media aspect of it may be a bit too cringey but honestly, I actually loved it? It was so well done and nothing felt cringey or forced. I feel like with YA, especially stories set in high school, sometimes things get a bit flat and repetitive. But this book honestly added so much more to the plot than just the usual tropes we see in YA fiction. I loved the different kind of relationships and characters we meet. While it was definitely a YA story and did deal with YA kind of drama, it still felt extremely entertaining and gripping. For those of you who don’t know much about this book, it follows two of our main characters, Jack and Pepper, who’s families both run competitive restaurants.

Honestly scratch that lol, a perfect description of this book is if the Chick Fil-A’s owner’s daughter went to high school with the Pop Eye’s owner’s son and they both engage in a mighty twitter war while also having to work together on a project and co-exist in a typical high school environment.

Well Met

I loved this reread and honestly, it made me realize that I need to start rereading more. This book just gave me all the perfect cozy autumn vibes and  it was such a comfort during a shitty week. This book follows two characters who don’t really like each other having to pretend they’re a couple during a Renaissance Faire. Their Ren Faire banter is just so amazing and honestly, I need to start searching for more books with pirates in it because Pirate Simone is just amazing lol. As always, this book does deal with some heavy topics such as grief and moving on and trying to find yourself again. I love reading about two people who are somewhat broken and lost, trying to find themselves while finding each other. It’s just so cozy and wholesome.

Vampire Academy

This book, my GOSH. I loved this series in middle school and I’d reread it all the time before college. Rereading it six plus years later… well it was a lot different lol. This book is just so dramatic and the drama in this academy setting is so catty that it’s ridiculous. The main character, Rose, is so cocky and thinks so highly of herself. She think’s she’s a bad ass but comes off as such a DUMB ASS. Excuse my language lol.

For example, she’s hell bent on believing that with no proper training what so ever, she can take down really powerful evil vampires to protect her best friend. So when someone asks her if she’s ever taken physical education classes or training classes to help teach her how to fight off said evil vampires, this girl SCOFFS and says something around the lines of “why would I do that? That’s just more work.”

HOW DOES SHE EXPECT TO FIGHT AND PROTECT HER FRIEND IF SHE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO FIGHT? HOW CAN SHE SAYS SHE KNOWS HOW SHE KNOWS HOW TO FIGHT IF SHE’S NEVER BEEN PROPERLY TAUGHT?

Sorry lol, that line got to me. There was this other line where she says she knows that she looks better in a black bra than the rest of her classmates in the Academy. Basically, there’s been a surprising amount of eye roll worthy lines that had me laughing but also rethinking my entire middle school years on how I didn’t catch it. I don’t know if I recognized how crazy the characters in this book are or if I just looked past it completely. 

All that being said, I’ll still read this series for all the nostalgia, even though it’s what I imagine the paranormal version of Gossip Girl being like.  I’m basically a nostalgic masochist lol and I’m a sucker for the romance. Which by the way if you’re uncomfortable with age gap romances, you may want to be aware of this series.

Realm of Ash – DNF

This book was disappointing. The first book in this series started off not so well but things picked up in the second half and I was pretty sucked into the plot and the romance. This book though, had so much potential to do some pretty interesting things but it just didn’t? I honestly skimmed the last half-quarter of this book and I just feel like nothing significant happened. The characters, the plot, the romance, everything just fell flat for me.