WHAT I READ: OCTOBER 2022
The fall weather had me craving cozy witchy reads and fuzzy love stories. Here's everything I read in October!
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
This series is weird and specific and delightful. I describe book one as a slightly damaged teenager’s quest to survive an international magical school infested with monsters (I've called it Buffy in Hogwarts a few times!), but by this book it’s so much deeper than that and surprised me so many times. The world building from page one of book one tosses you off the deep end and this book is no different, with that world getting bigger and more exciting and suspenseful with each page. It’s excellent and I can’t wait to continue to devour every book Naomi Novik writes.
Lucy Checks In by Dee Ernst
This book had an older leading couple than my usual read, but it’s very cute and has great heart. I loved the French hotel as a backdrop for the story, and the characters were likeable. Not totally my taste but not a bad read. I found myself more interested in Lucy's experiences restoring, renovating, and reinventing the rundown French hotel than I was in the love story, but that's not a bad thing necessarily. I could have used a bit more spark though!
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
A cozy fall read that is witchy in almost a cottage core way. Felt wholesome but with just the right amount of spice. An ensemble of fun characters including witches young and old plus a non-magical chosen family who so charming that I wanted even more scenes of them. Mika and Jamie’s love story was a slow burn that felt earned and overall I liked it. Mika is a ray of sunshine, Jamie is a grump, and it all gave me Luke/Lorelai vibes in a way that I always enjoy. Very cute.
Royally Unexpected by Laura Ashwood
This book was fluffy romance with a very Hallmark movie-esque writing style, but it was missing the fun— and you would really expect a story about a prince falling in love with his dog trainer to be full of fun!!
The poor heroine, Emmie, was just one big tragic backstory, which culminated with her spoiled love interest/EMPLOYER, Dorian, CRASHING HER GRANDMOTHER’S FUNERAL with a grand gesture that felt jarring and like he was taking advantage of her and making it about himself. Other than her various tragedies and her skill with dogs, Emmie is a forgettable character, except that her behaviour and the things she would blurt out never seemed to match up with her more timid inner dialogue. That weird dichotomy made it really hard to connect with her. So much of Dorian’s life is clearly based on Prince Harry, which could have been fun if his actual character had been more interesting or likeable.
Overall this clearly wasn’t a book for me!
A Cosmic Kind of Love by Samantha Young
This was super cute. Astronaut Chris and event planner Hallie see videos of each other revealing a whole lot of their innermost thoughts before ever meeting each other— before they are even on the same planet, actually. When they do meet, it’s shooting stars and supernovas and a pretty great, unique read.
Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan
I loved this book!! I don’t know how to describe it without ruining it, but here’s a try: audiobook narrator Sewanee falls in love with herself again and also with someone else. And there’s lots of romance tropes explored in a fun almost meta way. And the hero is dashing and caring and it’s spicy in that falling in love way that gave me butterflies. I feel like if you like Taylor Jenkins Reid, where it’s romance with a twist and definite heart, this is probably a great read for you.
Bad Girl Reputation by Elle Kennedy
It might be my fault that I really didn’t like this, I missed that it was book #2 of a series and possibly that’s why I didn’t connect with the characters. Also felt like all their problems were really unrelatable? Wasn’t for me.
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