Hi everyone! I’m back! or I hope that I’m back. I spent most of this year in a reading slump, it goes away, and then it comes back and I hate it. And as usual, when I’m in a reading slump it translates into a blogging slump too, so that’s why I haven’t been posting consistently. Also, I’m so tired from my job most of the time that I don’t feel up to blogging. But right now, I do feel like blogging so I’m going to take advantage of that.
In this post, I will talk about 2 books I read in the last week of October, which were Dead Beat and Things have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (the rest of my October reads are in my Latinx Book Bingo Wrap Up), and about the 7 books I read in November. As someone who was reading about 16 books a month at the beginning of the year, it pains me that the number of books that I read in a month keeps dropping lower and lower, but that’s just how it it right now.
Without further ado, here are the books:
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (5 stars): I LOVED THIS! I usually don’t find that many books funny, but this book actually made me laugh out loud a few times. I really liked both of the main characters, the romance was great, it was a slow burn (in that great way that has you screaming at the character to get together already) and the whole fake dating plotline put them in a bunch of slightly awkward but full of sexual tension situations. Also, it had some good steamy moments.
Battle Royal by Lucy Parker (5 stars): I LOVED both of the main characters in Battle Royal, this book included the sunshine/grumpy trope in all its glory, they had so much chemistry but also from very early on the deeper connection was evident. I love how mature the relationship in Lucy Parker feels and how she manages to write books with relationships that don’t have too much drama and angst, but that is still interesting. The writing in this was really good and the book as a whole was funny and entertaining. Obviously, the whole plot with the royals was a bit unbelievable and unrealistic, but it was fun and I didn’t really care if it was something that would never happen in real life.
While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory ( 4 stars): I loved the main characters, their connection and chemistry were fantastic, it has some good steamy moments, and I appreciated the good mental health rep as well as the fact that this book shows therapy in a very positive light.
Isn’t It Bromantic? by Lyssa Kay Adams (3,7 stars): I really enjoyed this book, it was a fun reading experience and the romance was sweet. But the more I think about it, the more little issues I have with it. I really liked Vlad and Elena as the main characters. I enjoyed the little glimpses of Vlad and Elena being friends before they got married and I wanted more of that, just to understand how they fell in love in the first place. They were so sweet together and the sexual tension was definitely there too, but there was no real conflict or reason why they could be together. I feel like Lyssa Kay Adams tends to put too many elements in her books to have more drama or to make up for the fact that there’s no real conflict. And things can end up feeling forced, rushed, or like they don’t make sense.
Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev (3.5 stars): I really enjoy Sonali Dev’s writing and I love the world she created for this series, with this big, wild family at the center of it. I liked both of the main characters, and I could see the tension and angst between them. Nonetheless, I had a hard time believing that they were not over one kiss and a few hours of conversation that happened 10 years ago. Also, I love slow burns, but they took so long to get together and the story definitely dragged a lot in the second half.
A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria (3.5 stars): I want it to love this but sadly it was just ok for me. I have discovered this year that second chance romances where the main characters are reunited after a long time (10 years in this case) without seeing each other, and before parting ways they only had a day or night or a short period of time together, don’t work for me. I thought this was going to be different since they were best friends for a long time before something romantic happened between them, but we only see a little bit of them being friends, so the friends to lovers element wasn’t really there for me. I did like both of the main characters, I enjoyed Gabe’s storyline with his family and his character development, I enjoyed the fake dating aspect of this, and the steaminess was great too. But, while I did enjoy it more towards the end, the romance never quite worked for me.
Dead Beat by Jim Butcher (3,5 stars): In the beginning, this book felt a little repetitive and formulaic. Still, there was some character development, which I appreciated. In the second part, when we learned more about what’s happening in the war against the red court, the book gets more interesting. I hope to see Harry more involved with the conflict that it’s affecting the magical world and I feel like that’s the direction the series is taking. I liked seeing the development in Harry and Thomas’ relationship and Butter was also a good side character. As with most of the books in this series, I wish Murphy was in this more. Lastly, I don’t know where the whole storyline with the demon?/goddess? is going, but I’m intrigued.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca (4 stars): In the beginning, this was a very bizarre story and it escalated quickly to being gross, disturbing, and even more bizarre. The way the story is told, through emails and chat conversations, left me feeling very intrigued about one of the characters, I wanted to know more about her because she is so mysterious in her messages and emails.
Los Abismos (The Abysses) by Pilar Quintana (4 stars): there’s not an English translation of this book yet, but if you can read Spanish, give it a chance! This is a quick and easy read, beautifully written without being too flowery or pretentious. A slice of life story with a very open ending told from the perspective of a little girl. At its core, it’s a story about women that feel trapped in their own lives and can’t see a way out, as well as the ups and downs of mental illness. And, even if it’s told by a child, it manages to address these topics in a powerful way without shying away from hard moments.
Bookish Wanderess 