This month was rough – my fibro and mental health were both all over the place, and I wasn’t nearly as active on the blog as I wanted to be. But I did still get some reading done!
Read
The Greenwing and Dart books by Victoria Goddard have been amazing at holding my attention on bad brain days, and I was really taken aback by how much I loved The Charm Offensive – I’m slowly but surely finding more and more to love in contemporary romance! But no question, my favourite read this month was The Fox’s Tower and Other Stories, which is perfect in absolutely every way. And I’m really pleased I finally managed to read-and-finish The Broken Crown – this must have been around my sixth attempt at trying to read it, but the payoff was so worth it! Can’t wait to dive into book two of the series!
Now we come to the stats, so: out of 17 authors, I read
- 14 women, 2 men, 1 nonbinary person (to the best of my knowledge re everyone’s gender identities)
- 13 white & 4 BIPOC authors
The numbers aren’t great, but 4/13 = 23.53%. 23% of my monthly reading isn’t ideal, but it’s a lot better than last month. In fact, a quick check suggests it’s my new record! (As a percentage, not number of books read, thank the gods).
Reviewed
An average of one review a week is acceptable, considering how this month has been. It’s the bare minimum I require of myself!
DNF-ed
I wasn’t a massive fan of the Captive Prince trilogy, so I’m not super surprised that Dark Rise didn’t work for me either. I wouldn’t call it a bad book – it was actually very readable – but every time I put it down it felt like a chore to pick it up again, so… I’m not going to pick it up again. Not in the foreseeable future, anyway.
Starless Crown, on the other hand, is pretty incredible, and I loved almost everything about it. But while I wouldn’t call it grimdark, it’s still a bit too gritty for me to fully enjoy it. I think it’s going to be massively popular, and it deserves to be, but I’m not quite the right reader for it.
Scorpica was a huge disappointment, but I reviewed it so I’m not going to go over it again here.
ARCs Received
I was checking Edelweiss and Netgalley oh, upwards of ten times a day once CSE Cooney mentioned on twitter that she’d seen e-arcs for Saint Death’s Daughter – and I freaked when it finally appeared!!!
Cue a stern lecture to myself that I might not get approved, and even if I did, it might take weeks and weeks. BUT NO. I WAS APPROVED THE SAME DAY.
I might have had to bury my face in a pillow to muffle the delighted screaming. Possibly.
A River Enchanted and Manhunt both sounded interesting (albeit for very different reasons!) but I’m kicking myself for requesting Carnival of Ash – the premise sounded right up my alley, but I didn’t like the excerpt I read and I haven’t been enjoying the ARC. Shouldn’t have asked for it. Ah, well.
The Marvellous Light was bloody marvelous, but I have to admit to being a bit peeved by the timing – I requested it months ago but was approved last week, which gave me almost no time to read and review it before its release day (Nov 2nd). But I did manage, and I have Saint Death’s Daughter, so nothing can put me in a genuinely bad mood!
ARCs Outstanding
Gone up from last month’s eight to nine this month. Got to get cracking!
Rec Lists & Misc
I really wanted to try and get a Halloween-themed reading list up, but I didn’t have the spoons. Maybe next year!
Looking Forward
Two of the books I was most looking forward to in November – The Nightland Express and Kerstin Hall’s Second Spear – have been pushed back, which is disappointing, but there’s still plenty to get excited about! Like Catherynne Valente’s Comfort Me With Apples – its original October release date was also pushed back, but only by a few weeks! Then there’s The Bone Shard Emperor, which I’m really excited for, and Briar Girls, which by all reports is queer and gorgeous and maybe a bit dark??? And even if I’ve already read it, A Marvellous Light still deserves to be on a most-anticipated-of-November list!
Here’s to a better November for all of us!
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