Book Hauls, Monthly Wrap Up

October 2020 Wrap Up & Book Haul

Hi Everyone! It is the end of October….definitely went too fast but I am happy about 2020 ending because it has been a shitty year. Let’s hope that 2021 is better and we can get back to normal lives. I am pretty proud of myself, I have read a lot this month compare to the other months, I am hoping that means my reading slump is over for now. I read 9 books this month between blog tours and TBR and Beyond Book Club’s game this month.

Horrid by Katrina Leno: After the death of Jane’s father, her mother and Jane move from California to Maine to live in her late grandmother’s dilapidated old house. It is where Jane’s mom grew up. The history behind the house and a lot of dealing with grief in the present and past. This book was perfect TBR and Beyond group read for October, it was creepy without all of the goriness of a horror book. I enjoyed the book, it was perfect for October with the fall and Halloweenish environment. The only thing I didn’t like was the ending, I was looking for more to end of it. If you are looking for a mixture of horror, mystery/thriller and paranormal book then this would be perfect. Rating: 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by various authors: Will post detail review for each story later. It was a nice book of short stories to do with vampires and I like some of stories and other ones left me with wanting more information about the story. Rating: 🧛‍♀️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️🧛‍♂️

The Haunting of Beatrix Greene: Vol. 1 by Rachel Hawkins, Ash Parsons, and Vicky Alvear Shecter: Received the eARC from NetGalley for this book and I really loved this book. It had all of the elements of a horror book, the book is set Victorian England with Beatrix Greene posing as spiritual medium. She meets James Walker, who is going around disapproving psychics and mediums. When he offers her a job to go Ashbury Manor to see if it is haunted or not, she couldn’t pass it up with the amount money he was offering her. James has a dark secret which only a true medium can uncover. This book was definitely creepy and kept you on your toes at every corner. I hope we get a Vol. 2 of this book. Rating: 🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮 https://www.serialbox.com/serials/the-haunting-of-beatrix-greene

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe: Find my review post here. Rating: 💜💜💜💜

I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan: Find my review post here. Rating: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙

Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore: Find my review post here. Rating: ❄❄❄❄

The Bone Carver by Monique Snyman: Find my review post here. Rating: 💜💜💜💜1/2

Forget This Ever Happened by Cassandra Rose Clarke: Find my review post here. Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜

Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz: Find my review post here. Rating: 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷

I did enjoy this months books…next month I am hoping to top my read count (hopefully).

My October book haul was lot this month but some were gifts from book gift exchange that I belong too and some were from box subscriptions. I am looking forward to read these.

How did you all end your October month? Did you have a good month of reading? What book did you get this month that you were looking forward to getting in?

Be safe and if you haven’t do so, go vote.

Book Hauls, Monthly Wrap Up

September 2020 Wrap Up & Book Haul

Hello!!!! October is here….can’t believe how quickly this year is going…hoping that 2021 will be better and we will be able to get back to normal. Looking back I haven’t done a Wrap Up and Book Hauls post since February. This year has been a struggle for me mentally so I have only been doing blog tour posts. But I am back, I know I haven’t been the only struggle over the past months and I hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe. To get through half of this year, I tried to read more, watch my favorite TV shows, and I brought a Switch to play Animal Crossing: New Horizon.

Wrap Up

Here are the books I read in September, I only got to read five books but that was my goal for this month. The month of September is really busy at work and I was surprised I even read five books.

I’ll Be Gone in The Dark by Michelle McNamara – True Crime story based on The Golden State killer. I read this part of TBR & Beyond Club Group Read and it was good. I also watched the docu-series on HBO Max. It was interesting to read her process on searching for the killer and the way she gave us some personal information in the book to help with the intensity of the book. I was sad that she didn’t get a chance to finished her book and see what happen later on when they finally caught him. Rate: 💜💜💜💜💜

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black – I enjoy all of Holly Black’s faerie books and I definitely like this one. It was whimsical and nice story, I enjoyed Hazel, Ben and especially Jack. He is such an adorable character and really felt bad for him. It was a nice and after reading some dark ones this month, it was nice to end it with this one. Rate: 💜💜💜💜

Chasing Starlight by Teri Bailey Black – Part of blog tour hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours. You can find my review here. Rate: 🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬

A Curse of Gold by Annie Sullivan – Part of blog tour hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours. You can find my review here. Rate: 👸👸👸👸

Sisters of the Moon by Alexandrea Weis – Part of blog tour hosted by Good Choice Reading. You can find my review here. Rate: 🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Those are all of the reads I did for September…not a bad month for me.

Book Hauls

Have I mention that I have a book addictions especially when I have so many books to read on my shelf. I can’t help myself…here are the books that I got in September.

I am looking forward to reading some of these in October.

How did you do on your reading for September? Did you buy anything new to read?

Book Hauls, Monthly TBR, Monthly Wrap Up, Reviews

January 2020 Wrap Up and February TBR

Hello! A little late in posting my monthly wrap up and TBR so I decided to do both in one blog post. My reading in January started out great, I read 6 books but I got burned out with reading so many fantasy books that I needed to take a break. My intention was to read a different genre to finish out strong in January but the last two weeks of the month I decided to watch Netflix series. Sometime you need to take a break from reading so much so that you won’t get into a reading slump.

Here are the books that I read in January and short reviews for each one.

Lie To Me by Kaitlin Ward – The book was good and it was nice to see the main character figuring out her sexuality. Representation of mental illness and depression was addressed in the book. The only thing I wish there was more on mystery/thriller portion of the story play out better and less concentration on the romance between Amelia and Liam. Rating: 💜💜💜💜

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw – I enjoy the book, it had magic, adventure and some spooky moments in it but the only thing I did not enjoy is the pace and the predictable behind the twist in the book which I figure out in the middle of the story. Rating: 💜💜💜💜

Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes – I love any stories about Alice in Wonderland so I was really excited that a friend suggested for me to pick Queen of Hearts up. I found the series on Book Outlet which I couldn’t resist in getting. I found the retelling to be good and I thought it focus on the political aspect of Wonderland more than other retelling I have read. The book does focus on the darkness and brutality of Wonderland. The only thing that I didn’t enjoy about the book was that it was really slow and it took awhile to get interesting but other than that I really liked it and planning to read the rest of the series. Rating: 💜💜💜💜

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare – I decided for 2020 to complete reading the Shadowhunter series this year. I am working on the Infernal Devices series and I really like this series so far. I enjoy the The Mortal Instrument series, I didn’t know about the order of reading the Shadowhunter series per Cassandra Clare but hasn’t made a big difference for me. When Jem and Tessa was introduce in TMI series, I was hoping we would get separate series about them. I really like this first book of the series, getting to read about how Jem, Tessa, and Will met and how Tessa find out who truly is and her struggle on accepting it. It was refreshing to see the development of the relationship and friendship were in the book. Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜

Blood Heir by Amelie Wen Zhao – This was good start to fantasy series and debut novel for Amelie. I enjoy learning about the different affinities and how they use them. The world building was done well and the writing style was good. The two different POV between the two characters were nice to read and getting their background on how they came to be in the present time. It took me awhile to get the book finished because I was burning out on fantasy at the time and I need a break before I gave up on the book. I am glad that I did take a break from reading it because I came back with refresh brain and was able to enjoy the book more. I looking forward to next book in the series. Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare and more authors – I used the audiobook for the book and I like that the book had different narrators which was nice to have. I was excited to read about Simon to see him go through the academy to become shadowhunter and slowly regaining his memories of his friends. My favorite characters from the Mortal Instruments series are Simon and Magnus so I was happy to have book concrerating on Simon. Rating: 💜💜💜💜

For the challenges I was participating in January, I was able to get four books read for the TBR and Beyond Menagerie Boardgame.

My January book haul…

My January reading month was pretty good and hoping I have a better February month.

My February TBR…I am hoping to read 7 books this month because I know I won’t be able to get them all read.

How was everyone reading in January? What did you buy in January? What is on your February TBR?

JoAnne

Book Hauls, Monthly Wrap Up

Wrap Up – December 2019

December Wrap Up…this month was a lot better than the previous ones. I actually got a lot of reading done during the couple of days I was off for the holiday. I ended up reading 10 books which was due that I was trying to reach my Goodreads goal of 60 books but I didn’t make it but I did better than my 2018 goal.

December Book Haul

I am pretty proud about my reading month, hopefully I continue with upping my monthly reading goals in 2020.

How was your December month of reading? Did you get anything exciting books?

Book Hauls, Monthly Wrap Up

Wrap Up – November 2019

November Wrap Up…it didn’t goes as I had plan! I had a bad case of reading slump for the last couple of months so this month I only read three books. Two were re-read.

Hoping to get a lot more reading done in December. I am not sure I will reach my Goodreads goal of 60 books but we will see.

I didn’t buy as many books this month which is a good thing. Here are my book haul for the month.

How was everyone reading in November? What did you purchase to this month?

Book Hauls, Monthly Wrap Up

Monthly Wrap Up and Book Haul – October 2019

Monthly wrap up for October 2019…I read the following books which I am happy that I got six books read this month more than Sept.

Rating:

The Night Weaver by Monique Snyman 💜💜💜💜💜 (Check out Blog Tour Review post)

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 💜💜💜💜💜

Hex Life 💜💜💜💜

Forgotten by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast 💜💜💜💜💜 (Check out Blog Tour Review post)

The Merciless by Danielle Vega 💜💜💜💜💜

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller 💜💜💜💜💜

Will be posting the other books review this weekend.

Here are the books that I brought this month…I thought I only got six this month but turn out it was a little more…lol!

Let see how I do for November…working on getting my TBR together. How was your October month? Did you get all of the books on your TBR done?

Monthly Wrap Up

September 2019 Wrap Up

My wrap up for the month September is going to be really short. I didn’t do much reading this month because of working a lot and not having much time to read this month. I was able to read three books this month but the ones I read were good ones.

Tiger Queen 💜💜💜💜💜

Godsgrave 💜💜💜💜💜

Realm of Knights 💜💜💜💜💜

Books I brought this month were a lot but not bad…it could have been really bad. Here are the books I got this month.

How was your reading month? How many did you read this month? Did you go over board with buying this month?

Monthly Wrap Up

August Wrap Up

I am late in posting my August Wrap Up! It was my birthday weekend (Aug 29 is day I was born) so took a couple of days to watch Season 2 and Season 3 of Stranger Things with hubby and then we headed to opening day of Ohio Renaissance Festival. I was a little busy this Labor Day weekend 😊. Below are the books I read this month, I didn’t read as many as I was hoping too but I did read the ones I wantee too.

I did buy a lot of books in August (22) and it not going to be better for September either.

Truly Devious: 💜💜💜💜💜

Final Girls: 💜💜💜💜💜

Grimoire Noir: 💜💜💜💜

Dare You to Lie (re-read): 💜💜💜💜💜

Don’t Say a Word (ARC): 💜💜💜💜💜

Have you read any of these books? What did you read in August and which one was your favorite?

Book Hauls, Monthly Wrap Up

May Wrap Up and Book Haul

My reading for May was not the best. I only read two books. The books were for TBR and Beyond Book Club middle grade group read.

I haven’t read a middle grade since Harry Potter books, I was looking forward to start reading middle grade again and see if I still enjoy reading them. We read as a group Nevermoor series from Jessica Townsend.

I gave them both 💜💜💜💜💜 rating because they were really refreshing to read and writing was done perfectly. I will be posting my reviews for both them this weekend.

These are the books I read in May but hoping to get myself back on track for June (finger crossed).

My lack of reading for May didn’t stop from getting books!

My book haul this month was small. Majority of the books were pre-ordered so technically I didn’t buy them in May but I received them during the month.

May Book Haul:

I have already started reading We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia.

How was your reading in May? What did you read? Did you buy any books?

Monthly Wrap Up

April Wrap Up

Here is my wrap up for April. I think I am finally out of my two month ready slump! I finished seven books (two e-Arcs graphic novels) and finished the Dark Fantasy challenge in TBR and Beyond group. 

I had forgotten how much I love reading dark fantasy. I am going to incorporate one or two dark fantasy into my monthly TBRs.

Here are the books I read this month and this weekend I will post the reviews for them.

Rating: 💜💜💜💜
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Rating: 💜💜💜💜

My favorite reads for this month were Wicked Saints and A Curse So Dark and Lonely! These two books is what I really needed to get me out of the slump I was in. Can’t wait for the sequels of these.

How did your reading month go for April? Did you meet your goal for the month? Which were your favorite books?

Thanks for coming!

JoAnne
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