October 2021 Wrap Up

Hi everyone! I just posted a recent reads wrap up that summarized my thoughts on the books I read in August and September, and now I’m doing my wrap up for October because I actually managed to finish 6 books this month! Of those six books, two were rereads and one was an ARC.

My star ratings were fairly normal for me, with two 3.5 stars, two 4 stars and one 5 star read. This is also the month that I read more physical books than I read e-books for the first time this year, with two hardcovers, two paperbacks, and one e-book!

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The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell – ★★★★☆
I found a used copy of this book, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read before from Lisa Jewell so I decided to give this one a go and really enjoyed it! It was really twisted and I didn’t see a lot of it coming. This follows a woman who learns the identity of her birth parents and that she’s the inheritor of their abandoned mansion, but with that discovery comes the horrifying truth about what happened to her as a baby. There are three main characters, and the way that they end up relating to each other is both horrifying and sad. I definitely recommend this one, but be warned that there is a lot of trauma and abuse, and an almost cult-like family.

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling – ★★★★☆
This was honestly just a super fun, cute witchy rom-com! This was a great book to pick up for October, it was a light read and fit the witchy vibes I was looking for. I loved the relationship between Vivi and her aunt and cousin, and the tension between Vivi and Rhys was great! There was also some nice banter between the two, and I loved the chemistry that they had with each other. The curse was also really interesting and I almost wish there was more to the book for us to explore the curse and it’s impacts, but that’s just my overly descriptive fantasy loving self talking. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more books from this author (which is a pen name for Rachel Hawkins).

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas – ★★★☆☆.5
I was long overdue for a reread of this series, and after struggling through chapters of other books I decided what I really needed was a reread of an old favorite, and it was fun revisiting these characters! I’ll admit, I did end up skimming a lot of this first book because I really wanted to just reread the part under the mountain because it had been so long since I first read this book, I couldn’t remember all that happened! I definitely rated it lower the second time around because Tamlin was so irritating to me, and I hated the way he treated Feyre (which I also hated the first time around).

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas – ★★★★★
This is the real reason I reread the first book, I just NEEDED to get to Rhysand and Feyre together! This is by far my favorite book in the series, and it stayed that way upon reread. I still have no idea how SJM can manage to make me love these characters SO MUCH when I don’t typically obsess over characters like this, but all of her books do that for me! I ended up reading this 626 page book in less than a day because I just devoured it. Now that I’ve read ACOSF and reread this book, I think that one thing SJM does well is how her characters react to trauma and how impactful it is to watch these women power through it and come out even stronger on the other side.

The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl – ★★★☆☆.5
My review for The Grimrose Girls was posted earlier this week, so go check it out for more of my thoughts! I loved the idea of multiple fairy tale retellings combined in one setting (kind of like Once Upon a Time) and the murder mystery, but there were definitely parts that fell a little short for me. I did love all the rep in this one, but the pacing was a little off and the ending was so rushed I sort of lost where the story was going. The personalities of the girls weren’t really fleshed out too much and came down to things like the one who fights, the one who is tall and perfect, etc. I also struggled a bit with some of the writing and how the characters always were referencing these things like ‘the thing under my skin’ like we were supposed to know their whole backstory and what was going on, and I felt like I was missing something important. Overall though, it was an interesting read and I think it would be great for younger teens looking to expand their reading more!

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What books did you read in October, and have you read any of these before? I’d love to chat!