I had a decent reading month in September, I managed to read 9 books. Here's what I read and some of my thoughts and opinions on them...
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne - This is an adult contemporary novel, it follows two rival coworkers, that are competing for the same job promotion. I was surprised by how much I loved this book, it has it's fair share of cliches, but as soon as I finished this book, I ended up flipping to the beginning and reading it again. As much as I loved this book, both times I read it, I had trouble getting used to the writing style and Lucy's characterization.
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley - This book follows two former best friends, Rachel and Henry, who are reunited after the death of Rachel's birthday. I was intrigued by this book because Henry's family owns a bookstore, and it plays a huge role in the plot. Overall, I felt that this book was okay, I think it was trying to accomplish a lot and it didn't really meet all those goals.
Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart - This book follows two sisters, one of them is trying to become the prince's attendant, but everything changes when the other sister is chosen. I really liked this book, and I feel that the series has a lot of potential. The book is set in a world where women are oppressed, and I think the author did a good job of addressing the social disparity. I did find that there were some common tropes in this book, the first half reminded me of
The Selection, but I'm interested in picking up the second installment.
Ship It by Britta Lunda - This book follows a fangirl, Claire, who passionately wants her ship to be cannon, and she plots to make it happen. I always love to find new books about fandom, but this book was honestly the worst book I've ever read. It's such a problematic book and a bad representation of what fandoms are about, and if you're interested, I wrote a really long, spoilery
review on Goodreads about the problems in this book (which is mostly just a rant that I wrote at 3am because I was so angry about this book).
Warcross and
Wildcard by Marie Lu - This duology follows Emika Chen, a hacker, who gets swept into the world of Warcross, a virtual reality tournament. I love everything that Marie Lu writes, and this duology is no exception. I was so excited to revisit this world and reread the first book before immediately reading the concluding novel. These books are thrilling adventures, and I love that in the second book we got to explore more from the secondary characters, and I really love how this series wrapped up.
Vicious by V.E. Schwab - This book follows two college roommates, Victor and Eli, who find a way to gain superhuman powers, and find themselves in a murder plot. I first read this book in 2015, and it is one of my all time favorite books. I loved revisiting this book, especially since I immediately picked up the sequel as soon as I finished it.
Catwomen: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas - This the third book in the
DC Icons universe, which explains the backstory of famous heroes. This installment has been my favorite of the three books, I really like how SJM took so many creative liberties and really gave this book her own spin. I'm not a huge DC fan, but I know that this book does not follow many of the canon element from the comics, and as an outside fan I think I was able to appreciate it more.
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan - This book mostly follows the couple, Rachel and Nick, as they visit Nick's family in Singapore and Rachel learns that his family is one of the richest in the country. I was actually disappointed in this book, I liked it, but there was so much happening. There's so many characters, and the writing style was hard to follow, as the narrator would switch between character perspectives abruptly. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I actually think that I would enjoy it more than this book. This book is labeled as a satire, and for me it just illustrated the gross indulgence of the characters and didn't address anything beyond that, and I think the movie's representation of it as a romantic comedy is more appealing. I will say that I'm very happy that this book has become extremely popular, because it addresses so much Asian representation, that is not seen in Western media, and I do think that this book did a good job addressing cultural aspects.
And those are the books that I read last month. October has already been a really busy reading month for me, there's so many new releases coming out that I've been counting down the days for (
What If It's Us, Muse of Nightmares, A Very Large Expanse of Sea, Kingdom of Ash, and so many more that I can't name of the tope of my head). And in anticipation of
Kingdom of Ash, I'm rereading the
Throne of Glass series. So the month of October is really just all
booked for me. - Jessica
