on the bookshelf :: October

TWENTY. Two zero. Four times five. That’s how many books I read in October. Were any of them deep literary life changers? No. Were they (mostly) fun and easy reads that kept me off my phone? Absolutely. To me, that’s a win.

Most of my reads this month were romances, which we all know has a tried and true formula, so I’m not going to review each and every book. I’ll quickly run down the list though with a star rating. In my personal rating system, 5 is EPIC AMAZING I WILL READ IT A MILLION TIMES, 4 is “decent enough I would recommend it to a friend as a must read”, 3 is “solid and readable”, 2 is “meh, it’s ok”, 1 is “didn’t love it but persevered”.

Falling Into Place – Allison Ashley // 3 stars

Ace My Heart/Hating Doctor Fox/Singing My Tune – Layla Pine // 3.5 stars bc Aussie author! Dr Fox was definitely my preference of the three.

Country Mist – Cheyenne McCray // 2.5 stars

Just The Way You Are – Lexi Ryan // 2 stars

Ten Dates – Rachel Dove // 3 stars

Housemoms – Jen Lancaster // 3.5 stars – a fun story of self-discovery and hard & fast reality checks, and the importance of friendships

A Lot To Unpack/Better Off Wed – Portia Macintosh // 2 stars – this author’s pacing feels off to me in both books so I won’t be reaching for her other stories.

The Exception To The Rule – Christina Lauren // 3.5 – this one was cute as heck. Written epistolatory style.

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years – John Scalzi // 2.75 stars – the twist felt unsettled, and made me question my understanding of the mechanics of the world. Maybe I need to read it again, or at least the last chapter, as it didn’t seem to align with my understanding of the explanations given.

The Kidnapping Of Alice Ingold – Cate Holahan // 3ish stars – I’m still not sure what I thought of this story tbh; but it was interesting enough that I knocked it over in a couple of days

Check & Mate – Ali Hazelwood // 3.5 stars; loved the nerdiness mixed in with the romance.

The Life She Could Have Lived – Laura Pearson // 4 stars – dual reality story of what-ifs and the choices we didn’t make (and then I watched Sliding Doors)

Love Interest/Plot Twist – Victoria Walters // 3.5 – cute stories and well written, will read more of her books

The Roommate Experiment/It’s Complicated/The Love Theorem – Camilla Isley // 3 stars – cute enough; I did’t love It’s Complicated, but the other two were decent. I would read from this author again.

Phew! What a marathon! At the end of October, I was at 75 books of my goal to read 100 this year, leaving me with 12-13 a month to read. I’m three in for November, so I’m feeling on track and confident of hitting my goal.

What good books have you read lately that I should add to my list?