Wow. October is single-handedly by best reading month to date. I cannot quite believe I’ve read as many epic books as I have in this period, and I’m already deflated knowing that November will not even come close.
Let’s start with my new, all-time, untouchable favourite. The Throne of Glass series. I began this in September, and QUEEN OF SHADOWS has only ramped this series’ greatness up. Now, I’m not going to go into too much detail about this series, because I’m doing an entire stand-alone post for these beauties. I did the duel read with EMPIRE OF STORMS & TOWER OF DAWN. If you are interested in this series, you must duel read, as it created the perfect constant hype between the two timelines. I’m not sure the slower, recovery theme of Tower of Dawn would have brought me the same joy if I read it after Empire of Storm. And I’m here to say I don’t get the Chaol hate, guys. But now––KINGDOM OF ASH–– Let me tell you what this book did to me. I went through my Fable (Reviewing app) and downgraded everything I rated so far by one star, so that when I FIVE-STARRED this book. It would be a true five-star. What Sarah J Maas did with this series was epic. It did for the romantasy fans what the Marvel Cinematic Universe did with Avengers Endgame. All those characters, all those plots could standalone individually, and ALL made sense when it came together at the end. I will never, ever, ever recover from this book or series. It was heartbreaking, beautiful, smart, and funny.
It’s hard to follow from the ToG series. I had come out of my Onyx Storm slump for Sarah J Maas, only to find myself in a bigger slump. That is, until MANACLED was recommended to me. Here are props to my BookTok pal Lel, who first of all recommended ToG, and then again this game changer. I did not have Harry Potter fanfiction on my bingo card for this year. But here I am spreading the word like I’ve got shares in the books sales. I was obsessed, and worst of all, I had it as a file on my phone, so I was reading it constantly. This dystopian/Handmaid’s Tale Draco and Hermione story has changed the entire way I look at the Harry Potter universe. And I’m not even mad about it.
Leigh Bardugo’s THE FAMILIAR is THE best stand-alone I have read this year. From now on, when I talk about slow-burn, I’m comparing it to this. The absolute epic tension for this romance was genuinely shiver-inducing. I loved it. At no point did I know where we were going with the plot. A genuine five-star read, and I will forever recommend this book to everyone. In fact, for our book club Christmas book swap, we’re expected to gift our favourite reads of the year, and I’m planning on wrapping this one. Leigh Bardugo was already brilliant after the Six of Crows duology, but now I will read EVERYTHING she writes.
I had seen STARDUST as a kid. It’s a movie I loved, the fantasy elements were brilliant, but Neil Gaiman’s book was not that. I’m going to go straight in with the complete and unnecessary butchering of everyone favourite fantastical creature. I’m not here to bash the book, but to express disappointment. I guess it just wasn’t what I wanted it to be.
This month I completed my fourth Half-Marathon. To help with pacing and mental focus I listen to audio-books. During all the training, I have been able to fly through books and series, but for the race itself, I re-listened to A COURT OF MIST AND FURY. Why? Just because.
