November Wrap Up

I had a pretty good reading month.  I read 9 books and 4 audiobooks.  I am finally caught up on all of my ARCs that I needed to review.  And I knocked out 5 reading challenge prompts.  

Books/Ebooks/ARCs

• Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
• Review
• This came out October 2nd.  I got super backlogged in October.  This was fairly long, and it took me a while to read.  This wasn't scary at all, and it was a bit slow paced.  Overall I liked it.  It had decent diverse representation and good character dialogue.
• Lies by TM Logan
• Review
• This came out on September 11th.  The plot was pretty good, and there was a great plot twist at the end.  Overall, I thought the main character kept doing really idiotic things to get himself in trouble, which played into the twist eventually.  It was certainly not the scariest or best reads of the year as promised.  It was an OK mystery/thriller and a quick read.
• Evermore by Sara Holland
• Review
• This is the sequel to Everless.  I really like the premise of how time is currency in this story.  This moved a bit slow for me.  There was a long time where not alot happened as the main character tries to remember her past lives.  It is a good conclusion to the duology, but what I was expecting.
• Cranberry Bluff by Deborah Garner
• It fits the prompt for a fruit or vegetable in the title.  It was a quick, cozy mystery type book.  I got it for free and it was pretty cute.
• Blue Water by J.A. Armitage
• Review
• This is a reverse fairy tale/retelling of The Little Mermaid.  It is a fun YA story line with some interesting mythology that I'm enjoying.  Overall I'm liking the series and am looking forward to the third book.  
• Pittsburgh Irish by Gerard F. O'neil
• I read this for the reading challenge.  I really enjoyed learning about the city I grew up in and walk around in everyday.  I learned so much from this and about the surrounding areas of Pittsburgh.  It was really nice reading about places that I know and learning about their namesakes and more about the events that took place there and the people who formed the city I call home.
• Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
• I used this for my time travel prompt book.  I'm so glad I read this.  It was a quick enjoyable read.  I really enjoyed the historical and secret society aspects to the story.  I also like that the main character is not having he male chauvinism and she is speaking up for herself more and more as the story progresses.
• The Darkest Star by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Loved this Lux spin-off series.  I always thought Luc was a great character and I'm happy we get to finally know him.  We meet some new characters, and see the return of some old favorites.  I would have liked to see Katy and Dee, but we got Daemon and Archer so...
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
• This fulfilled another reading challenge prompt for a book I meant to read last year, though it could have filled several others.  It was a short, but powerful book.  I really loved it and the illustrations were as beautiful as the words.  So glad I finally read it!

Audiobooks

 I did pretty well in the audio department this month.

• Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor
• I really enjoyed this.  It was a little heavy on the romance, but it was still great!  I loved the mythological and paranormal element to the story.  I can't wait to read more of Taylor's writing.  This didn't really go where I expected, but I liked where it ended up.
• A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
• I loved this installment of the series.  We finally get to know what happened to Sofos who kind of just disappeared from the story a while back.  It also kind of brings all of the political plotting of the 3 kingdoms together once and for all.  There is still plotting but it seems that finally all of the kings and queens will be united.  This series keeps getting better.
• The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
• Review
• I got an ARC of this from Edelweiss after it was published, so in an attempt to get to clear my review list up I grabbed the audio book.  This was a great mystery with alternating times.  I really enjoy the way Sager tells stories.  If you liked Final Girls check this out.
• Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner
• This surprised me by following a completely new character in the series.  It took me a bit longer than normal to get into the story, but it was just as good as the rest of the books.  The writing is amazing, and now I have to wait patiently for book 6 which doesn't come out until March.