5. October 2019 Reading Wrap Up

October 2019 Reading Wrap Up
books reading wrap up

  • Hey, hey 🙂 Another abysmally late wrap up from me. And, full disclosure, it’s not even completed. I also did not finish reading three books. But do not despair - I have basically already written this month’s wrap up, so things should be normal again soon. Like.. In the next week, hopefully. So with that, here’s… this.

    The Furies A Prince On Paper Toxic

    The Furies by Katie Lowe

    I’m a little confused on my feelings toward this book, to be perfectly honest with you. I enjoyed the concept a lot, and the writing was spectacular, but I feel like it would have been so much better if it emphasised certain parts of the plot rather than others. The book follows Violet, a girl who has moved schools after tragedy strikes her family. She becomes involved with an exclusive group of students which leads to bad things happening - depending on how you look at it - reminiscent of The Secret History. And actually, it has been described as The Secret History crossed with The Craft. I wouldn’t recommend reading the Goodreads synopsis for this, because it gives way too much away! I’ve seen people describe this as a feminist book, and while I can see why, I also struggle to label it as that myself due to the numerous toxic female friendships present in the story. That’s not a problem, exactly, but it is something I think you should be aware of going into this. Overall, I was satisfied with the ending, I just wish I had been shown different parts of the journey.

    A Prince On Paper (Reluctant Royals #3) by Alyssa Cole

    So… This is definitely the most racy book I have ever read. In fact, I am a little embarrassed to even be discussing that I read this at all, never mind the fact that it was my favourite book I read this month. I’m glad I didn’t let the cover turn me away. A Prince on Paper is an adult romance that follows primarily two members of different royal families that participate in - drumroll please - fake dating. It’s the third in a series of companion novels, but I didn’t find this to be an issue when trying to understand what was happening. I absolutely adored the characters - I was super invested in the main two before getting even 20% in - and I loved all the different family dynamics. There were some seriously touching relationships aside from the focal romance. My main criticism would have to be of the writing of certain scenes. They could be a little cringe-y - the words “eggplant emoji” were used in a totally unironic manner so you can make your own judgement from that. If I am ever in the mood for a well developed romance again, I’ll definitely be trying something else from this author.

    Toxic (DNF) by Lydia Kang

    Like Poison Study last month, I didn’t finish this one. I loved the concept so much - crew of alien prisoners sent on a suicide mission to monitor the decline of a living spaceship? Uh, sign me up - but unfortunately the characters destroyyyed this for me. The book follows two perspectives, one of them a prisoner and one of them an illegal experiment left on the ship to die. I can’t remember their names, so I will refer to them as Prisoner and Experiment. Prisoner is the classic jerk with a tragic motive, though it remained to be seen just how much of a jerk he really was. Experiment had only met one person in her entire life - her ‘mother’, who has now abandoned her. As a result, her social development is supposedly stunted, but not enough to stop her from having an instant connection with Prisoner. Reading from their perspectives was much too difficult for me, especially when you add in the insta-love and the creepy vibes they were both giving me when they spyed on each other. That’s all I’ve got to say - I’m bitterly disappointed.

    Prudence The Last Time I Lied The Need

    Prudence (Custard Protocol #1) by Gail Carriger

    If you’ve seen my previous wrap ups, you’ll know that I recently-ish finished the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger and absolutely loved it. So this month, I thought I would start on her Custard Protocol series. I have to say, Prudence is my least favourite of the author’s books that I’ve read so far, but I did like it quite a bit. Still - I found a lot of my enjoyment came from references to the Parasol Protectorate series, so I don’t think I would have been as impressed if I had picked this book up first. In this one, we follow Prue and her crew of friends on a tea mission in India. Things don’t go quite to plan, of course, and I loved the twists and turns of the plot though I did find that the final action scene dragged a bit. I loved seeing Prue and her companions interactions together, and I particularly enjoyed one scene where they were all armed and dangerous. Having said that, I didn’t really like Quesnel, one of the four main characters, or his apparent romantic tension with Prue. It wasn’t built up enough for me to find it believable or necessary to the story. Hopefully my opinion will change over the course of the series - because of course I will be continuing with it. After all, 3.75 is a very good rating!

    And now, for the first time, I will present to you a list of the rest of the books I read in October without providing a review - only a star rating or, in some cases, no thoughts at all - because I was an idiot and didn’t write notes during this month for some reason and now I can’t remember anything and it’s the last day of November so I just want to get past this 🙂

    The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

    The Need by Helen Phillips

    My Lovely Wife Daughter of the Siren Queen You can paint etc

    My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

    Daughter of the Siren Queen (Daughter of the Pirate King #2) by Tricia Levenseller

    You Can Paint Dazzling Watercolors in Twelve Easy Lessons by Yuko Nagayama

    steal sorcery of thorns paper girls

    Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon

    Sorcery of Thorns (DNF) by Margaret Rogerson

    Cult Artists: 50 Cutting-Edge Creatives You Need To Know (DNF) by Ana Finel Honigman

    • DON’T BOTHER FINDING IT ON GOODREADS
    • -50/5 stars

    Paper Girls Vol 6

    And that’s the reading I did in October 🙂 If you have any questions, particularly about the books I did not review, leave me a comment and I will attempt to answer them. (Is it weird to say that?) Hope you’re having a great day and that you enjoy the holiday season! 🙂 See you soon!

    Battle of the Books
    719 1 4 Share

    Comments (0)

Looks like your connection to URSTYLE was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.