Monthly Wrap Ups

October Wrap-Up!

Happy Monday bookish people! It is the first of November and that means it is time to share with you my wrap up for the month of October.

October was once again a really busy month for me, I officially started my PhD course and I have had to sort lots of things out in preparation for my Masters graduation while also dealing with some issues with my health. It has been a long feeling month that is for sure, but we are now in November and I am feeling great about reading and the books I have chosen (my November TBR post will be going up later today!).

So, in October I was planning on reading lots of spooky books and mysteries and… well, I didn’t do as well with my TBR as I’d hoped. I wasn’t feeling the books I had on my TBR when it came time to read them and then now – the first day of November I am really in the mood to read them. That is very annoying.

Anyway, let’s get into what I did and didn’t read in the month of October!

October TBR and Thoughts:

  • A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik – I did not read, I was very excited this book was finally on my TBR but I just didn’t get a chance to pick it up.
  • Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody – another book I was so excited for but didn’t get around to.
  • Act Your Age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert – I didn’t read this one but it has been moved to this month’s TBR…
  • Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco – I NEED to get around to reading this soon but I didn’t manage it in October
  • City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab – I did read this one, I actually read this entire trilogy this month
  • Cream Buns and Crime by Robin Stevens – I also read this one
  • The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton – I did not read this one
  • Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff – I’ve heard such good things about this one but I haven’t read it yet
  • Good Girl Bad Blood by Holly Jackson – I didn’t get to this one
  • Legendborn by Tracey Deonn – I’m disappointed I didn’t get to this one it was the perfect month for it
  • Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T A Willberg – This is the one I’m now really in the mood to read so I’m just going to do it, I’m going to read it in November
  • Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – I am so scared to read this because I heard it’s classed as a horror so I didn’t read it in Ocotber
  • Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – I did not read this one
  • Once Upon A Crime by Robin Stevens – I did read this one
  • One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M McManus – I did not read this one
  • People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield – I didn’t get around to this one but I am very excited to read it soon
  • Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price – I did not read this one
  • Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch – I didn’t read this one
  • Take A Hint Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert – I didn’t read this one
  • The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino – Another book I was too scared to read
  • The Painted Dragon by Katherine Woodfine – it turns out this book is from a series and I don’t have the first ones in it and I’m not sure if I need to read them first
  • The Winterhouse Mysteries by Ben Guterson – another book that it turns out is in a series and I didn’t read because I don’t have the first few to read before this one
  • The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava reid – I did not read this one

So, out of my TBR I read five of the books which isn’t great but it isn’t awful either. Outside of my TBR I also read the first three books in the Araminta Spook series by Angie sage which takes my October total to eight books. Considering everything that has happened this month I’m pretty happy with that total. Although I definitely plan to read more in November so we will see how that goes.

That’s it for my October wrap-up I hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know how you all did with your October reading.

Monthly TBRs

October TBR

Happy Friday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a lovely day! It is finally time to share my October Tbr! It is the month for all things spooky and I thought I might as well join in with that and get out all the books that fit the season.

So, this month my TBR game was horrible to me and I got so many doubles. I always start by doing twelve rolls and after all my doubles I ended up with 25 books on my TBR. Yes, I’m worried about this too.

Onto the books I will be reading in October!

October TBR:

  • Once Upon A Crime by Robin Stevens – I found this in a charity shop and I’m excited to read it
  • Cream Buns and Crime by Robin Stevens
  • The Winterhouse Mysteries by Ben Guterson
  • The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino
  • The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
  • Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco – I’m so excited to read the final installment of this series
  • Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T A Willberg
  • A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
  • Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
  • The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
  • City of Ghosts series by V E Schwaab
  • Take A Hint Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
  • Act Your Age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
  • Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • The Painted Dragon by Katharine Woodfine
  • Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
  • One of us is Lying by Karen M McManus
  • Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson
  • Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody
  • Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
  • Legendborn by Tracey Deonne
  • People of Abandoned Character by Claire Whitfield

So that’s my TBR for the month of October and I’m excited but scared to start on it. I hope you all enjoyed reading about it!

Uncategorized

Friday First and Lasts!

Happy Friday bookish people! and welcome to my new Friday segments!

It feels good to be back this week, I wasn’t able to post on Monday and Wednesday this week like I usually would because there has been so much going on, including: a trip to A and E because my boyfriend slipped on a bottle and injured his wrist and ankle and… I found out I got onto the Creative Writing PhD course that I wanted. Now starts three years of hard but rewarding work.

Anyway, back to the exciting, new Friday segments. I was talking to a friend and we were laughing about how sentences from different books can create all new sentences and that gave me the idea for this segment. I will take two books and put together their first and last sentences to see what I get, whether it works or whether it doesn’t!

I would love to hear from you all what happens when you put together the first and last sentences of some of your books, let me know some down in the comments!

I also have some thoughts of maybe turning this into a giveaway once a month or something like that so let me know what you think of that idea down in the comments too!

Last week on my Instagram – @the_blind_scribe – I asked everyone for two numbers between 1 and 405 and today I am going to show you the first five sets of first and last sentences from books chosen by the numbers I was given.

The / is where the two different sentences are split.

Up first is…

One Of Us Is Next by Karen M McManus and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

which gives us… My sister thinks I’m a slacker/Far above the stars are watching delighted.

This actually works! It’s not the clearest sentence but it does work which is great considering how different the two books that created it are.

The second one is…

A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer and Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie

which gives us… I miss knowing exactly what time it is/Girl found.

So, this one doesn’t work together which is a shame but of course, they won’t all work together but I’m still going to put them on here.

Next is…

Six Tudor Queens Kathryn Howard by Alison Weir and The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

Which gives us.. Kathryn was seven when her Mother died/ “I am a God” I tell them “and I am your Queen”.

This could work.. with a few tweaks such as changing the tense in the sentence so they are both the same which would give us – Kathryn was seven when her Mother died and “I am a God” she tells them “and I am your Queen” which would work much nicer.

The fourth one is…

Legendborn by Tracey Deonn and One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

Which gives us… The police officer’s body goes blurry and then sharp again/there is only the sea, clear and sparkling

Like the last one, this one almost works – if the ‘and then sharp again’ part was taken out it would work much better.

Finally for today’s episode of Friday First and Lasts…

Optimists Die First by Susin Nielson and Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

Which gives us… The first time I saw the bionic man I was covered in sparkles/they brought us together

This one works strangely well. It alludes to the characters being brought together by those sparkles and that sounds like a lovely thing to me.

So, that’s it for the first episode of this new segment. As I said above, comment down below with what you thought of it, any great ones you come across in your books and what you think of he giveaway idea and I’ll be back next week with some more!

Monthly Wrap Ups

July Wrap Up!

Happy Saturday bookish people! It is the end of July… this month has felt like a long one for me. I submitted my new PhD application at the beginning of this month and I’m not sure how I feel about it, the first time I sent in an application I wasn’t confident exactly but this time any confidence I might have had was completely gone. Anyway, I also got to see family in July which was really nice!

So in terms of reading for the month of July: Once again I did not complete my TBR, I’m not surprised about this at all because I had a couple of book tour reads I had to do and I spent four days in Hampshire and I mostly mood read for that. I packed five books and read four over this weekend so even though I didn’t read much off my TBR I still read a lot of books, I think my final number was fifteen. I’ll know for sure at the end of this wrap up.

Let’s see what I did and didn’t read this month!

My July TBR and thoughts:

  • A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas – I did not get around to reading this (again) I will read it at some point but I need to be in a certain mood and have time to really get engrossed in the book, I mean Rhysand is in it so I’m definitely excited to read it.
  • A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn – I read this one! I took this one with me to Hampshire and read it in the hotel room on one of the evenings, I really enjoyed this book and of course now I want the whole series. I will be putting up a review of this book very soon.
  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – I didn’t read this book. I am still very interested in this book I just didn’t have enough time this month.
  • Blood and Honey by Shelby Mahurin – I read Serpent and Dove in June and loved it, however I wasn’t ready to go back into this world yet so I will read this one in a couple of months time.
  • European Travels for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss – I have started reading this one but I have not finished it yet.
  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V E Schwaab – I haven’t read this one because I have a feeling it will make me cry and I didn’t feel like crying too much in July.
  • The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah – I didn’t get around to reading this one either.
  • King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo – I feel like I should read the final installment in the Shadow and Bone series first so I haven’t read this one.
  • Legendborn by Tracy Deonne – another one I haven’t read this month.
  • Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch – I have read this one. I wanted a light and fluffy read, I didn’t quite get this but it was an okay read.
  • Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth – big books strike again, I didn’t read this because it is a huge book.
  • Pumpkin by Julie Murphy – I read this one, this was my first read of the month, I really liked this one. I will have a review up for this book soon too.
  • Save the Date by Morgan Matson – I don’t read very much contemporary so I’m not surprised that I didn’t get around to this one.
  • The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden – again I was very much mood reading this month so I didn’t get to this one.
  • The Plague Letters by V L Valentine – I thought this book would be a bit dark for me this month so I didn’t read this one either.
  • Threadneedle by Cari Thomas – I didn’t read this one.
  • Finally Turtles All The Way Down by John Green – I di not read this one either.

So, from my TBR I read three books and started one other. Outside of my TBR I read some other books, these were:

That is my reading for this month, I read 13 books and started two others so overall this was another good reading month. I am actually pretty confident I will reach my 100 books challenge for 2021.

Monthly TBRs

July TBR!

Happy Thursday bookish people! It’s the first of July! There’s so much happening this month: book tours, seeing family members, an outdoor murder mystery event! And because it is the first of the month it is time to show you what I’m planning on reading this month.

June went very well, I ended up reading twelve books, if you’re interested in seeing what I read I posted my June wrap up yesterday.

So once again for July I have given myself a large TBR, and that is before the books I need to read for book tours.

Onto my TBR for July!

  • A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas – I am very much looking forward to reading this one. I read A Court of Thorns and Roses earlier this year and really enjoyed it.
  • A Curious Beginning by Jeanna Raybourn – I’ve found in the past year that I enjoy murder mysteries set in the victorian period so I’m hoping I’ll love this one too.
  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – it’s about time I get around to reading this series. I’ve had it on my shelves for over a year.
  • Blood and Honey by Shelby Mahurin – I have just read Serpent and Dove and loved it so I can’t wait to pick up the sequel.
  • European Travels for the Monstrous Gentlewoman – I read the first in this series and I’m hoping to enjoy this one too now that I know the characters well.
  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V E Schwaab – I think I’m going to cry at this one.
  • The Killing at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah – I used to love all the Poirot books and the TV show so I’m hopeful about this one.
  • King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo – I love the Grishaverse so much I can’t wait to be back in it.
  • Legendborn by Tracey Deonn – I’m excited for this one as I’ve heard good things about it.
  • Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch – This is a contemporary so I’m not sure how it’s going to go but I don’t usually love contemporaries.
  • Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth – I picked this one up by chance but I do enjoy a mystery.
  • Pumpkin by Julie Murphy – this one looks so good!
  • Save the Date by Morgan Matson – I have read some of her other books and enjoyed them so this one should be good too.
  • The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden – I loved the Bear and the Nightingale so I’m hoping to enjoy this one too.
  • The Plague Letters by V L Valentine – I’m so excited for this murder mystery.
  • Threadneedle by Cari Thomas – This book is absolutely beautiful!
  • Turtles all the way Down by John Green – I’m not sure if I will enjoy this book or not, I’ve never read any of his other books.

That’s it for my July TBR, I hope you all enjoyed it! What books are you reading in July?