What I read

I read slightly less books than last month. But it was still quite a lot. And I was still on a bit of a Sarina Bowen kick.

Quick stats:
24 books read
191 out of 200 so far
26 ahead of schedule
2 BABALs*
0 Val McDermid
9 new authors
2 library books

October’s five star reads:

First Shift (Maine Marauders #3) – Rebecca Norinne
The best of the trilogy by far. Cally’s the son of a famous goalie and everything’s riding on him as a star new player. Mikey’s ground his way up from the AHL and this is his one chance to make it. Cally can see Mikey has the hockey IQ, but his conditioning isn’t good enough. With Cal helping Mikey he might just make the cut. Although Cal is awkward with people (it’s hinted that he may be autistic) he and Mikey become best of friends and eventually more, with all the potential problems that comes with for professional hockey players. I absolutely loved this as the two of them dealt with their various personal demons together.
Tear rating: 2.5/5 tears. Tropes: Secret romance, friends to lovers, hurt/comfort.

In that moment, I understood Cally genuinely couldn’t grasp why anyone would look at the wreckage of his life and choose him. Why I would willingly stand at his side and fight his demons right alongside him. Much the same way I couldn’t fathom why he had chosen me. Why, when he couldn’t trust anyone, he’d trusted me.

Love at First Fright (ExorSquad #1) – TJ Rose
The premise of this started out a bit flimsy but if you can skip over that the rest is great. Charlie’s desperate for a job so he takes one as what’s essentially a ghostbuster, for minimum wage, with no travel or meal expenses? Oh and he doesn’t believe in ghosts. He starts believing pretty quickly when he and Brad get to Grimthorne Manor and find it teeming with ghosts – and something worse lurking in the cellar. Along the way Charlie falls for Bat. The only problem is Bat’s been dead for nearly thirty years and can’t leave the manor. Let me tell you, I cried and cried through this as it seemed like they were doomed to end up heartbroken. A very sweet and funny romance with a solid plot of evil spirits behind it. Bat is still living rent-free in my head several books later, and I cried this morning recalling the details of the plot for this summary.
Tear rating: 5/5 tears. Tropes: Paranormal romance.

A ghost was going to kiss me. I was standing in a haunted garden lit by spectral flowers, about to be kissed by a dead man. This was insane. I didn’t move.

A Ghost’s Guide to Haunting a Witch – Sharon Ibbotson
The theme emerging here is because it was Halloween and I thought I should read something seasonal! Augustine is a witch – technically. She’s descended from witches, her sisters are witches, only she has no powers herself. So she runs a witchy shop selling candles and incense. Then a ghost shows up asking for her help.
She starts to try to unravel who killed him and why he can’t remember his girlfriend. This has lots of twists and turns though I admit that I guessed several of the key ones (and I’m usually terrible at that).
Tear rating 2/5 tears. Tropes: Supernatural romance.

God, Augustine, pull yourself together. What will you tell Maddy or Celeste when they want to meet him? ‘Oh, we met on Cinder. That’s like Tinder, but for the recently cremated.’ No. Absolutely not.

Possess Me! – (Spooky Boys #2) – Fae Quinn
More Halloween reading! Luca finds himself the owner of a ‘lucky’ necklace. Only it’s actually home to Prudence, one very grumpy ghost who can then possess Luca whenever he wants. What Prudence really wants is to be free, and free for a ghost like him means really dead. Luca agrees to help him, even though there’s a chance he could die along with him. Only… by the time they get everything lined up for Prudence to finally die, he doesn’t want to because he’s in love with Luca.
Tear rating: 2/5 tears. Tropes: Supernatural romance, grumpy x (sad) sunshine

I’ll keep choosing you, even if you don’t want me to. Even if it hurts. Even if choosing you means losing you.

I’m Your Guy (Hockey Guys #2) – Sarina Bowen
I usually prefer hockey player x hockey player, but turns out what I really needed in my life was hockey player x interior designer. I mean, who knew? Tommaso has just moved into a new house after being traded. He has no furniture and couldn’t really care less about paint colours or sofa fabrics. Enter Carter whose literal job it is to care about these things (and who knows nothing about sports). They clash – politely – and manage to work together, but then they complicate things by falling for each other.
Tear rating: 1/5 tears. Tropes: grumpy x sunshine, secret romance, opposites attract.

You’re not the only one who doesn’t know jargon. So I’ll just say this: good job sportsing tonight. I can tell you were sportsing harder than the other team, because the scoreboard said Colorado 4, Nashville 2 when you were done.

The Last Guy on Earth (Hockey Guys #3) – Sarina Bowen
I’m not the biggest fan normally of second chance romances but loved this. Coach Clay Powers is horrified when Jethro Hale is traded to his team. They had a thing, fifteen years before back when they played in the AHL together. It ended – badly – when Clay got the call up to the NHL and Jethro just let him go. Now they’ve got to work together and try to ignore the old attraction that’s still there.
Tear rating: 2/5 tears. Tropes: Second chance romance, forbidden romance.

“I was a twenty-two-year-old bozo with the emotional range of a rubber band. You can’t still be holding a grudge.”
“A grudge?” My voice goes high. “You make it sound like I’m hung up because you ate the last cookie in the jar. Or you borrowed my favorite socks without asking.”
“I didn’t mean…”
“Didn’t you? The problem is that I would have given you the cookie, the jar, and all the damn socks. I would have given you everything.”

My Kind of Guy (Hockey Guys #4) – Sarina Bowen
Sarina Bowen can really do what she likes as far as pairings go. This one’s bartender/beer league hockey player x goalie. I love a good weird goalie character, and Beck doesn’t disappoint. He blurts out the funniest stuff, but has a heart of gold too. Forrest needed someone like Beck in his life even if he’s incredibly slow to get that and nearly throws away everything they have.
Tear rating: 2/5 tears. Tropes: Grumpy x sunshine.

“And if you want my advice? Just be yourself.”

Beck looks horrified. “That’s the worst advice I’ve ever heard. Have you met me?”

The Year We Hid Away (The Ivy Years #2) – Sarina Bowen
College offers a fresh start to Scarlet, fresher than most as she has changed her name to escape the horrific crimes her father has been accused of. Meanwhile, Bridger is having to deal with the fall out of his mother’s poor life choices, which includes taking care of his little sister even though he lives in a dorm. Somehow the two of them carve out an hour or two a week to spend together, until everything comes crashing down when their secrets get too big for them.
Tear rating: 3/5 tears. Tropes: Secret identity.

“Thank you, Scarlet”.
“For what? For being your Tuesday and Thursday girl?”
“For all seven days. Because I think of you on all of them.”

The Understatement of the Year (The Ivy Years #3) – Sarina Bowen
Taking place at the same time as The Year We Hid Away, John Rikker joins the Ivy Hockey team to take Bridger’s place. He left his previous college when he was outed and they didn’t treat him well. His problem now is that Michael Graham – his ex boyfriend from their teenage years – is on the team. He’s nowhere near ready to be out, so if Rikker wants any kind of relationship with him, it has to be in secret.
Tear rating: 2/5 tears. Tropes: Second chance romance, secret romance.

What’s one more bruise on a battered heart? Mine probably already looked like a veteran NHL player’s face.

10 Ways to Accidentally Fall in Love – Emmy Sanders
This was hilarious. Brad is a total golden retriever and so friendly that he accidentally ends up on a date with his new gym buddy. Only, he has no idea it’s a date because he’s missed all the signs. He decides to make it up to Joey by being his wingman and helping him find an actual date. Only, by the time he finds a good potential match he’s realised that maybe he does want that date after all.
Tear rating: 0.5/5 (Unless you count tears of laughter!) Tropes: Friends to lovers.

“Bub,” Joey says quietly, the nickname lighting me up inside. It feels like ours. Like something that’s just for him and me. “You do realize, as my wingman, you’re supposed to find me dates, right? Not scare them off?”

October’s four star reads:

The Ring O’Bells Mystery
Brodie and I read this at bedtime and I made plenty of notes so I can do a review of it later.

I Bet You’d Look Good in a Coffin (Kitty Collins #2) – Katy Brent
Kitty Collins swore off murder at the end of the last book. Only she keeps running into men that just don’t deserve to live and they are really testing her resolve. None more than Blaze Bundy (think Andrew Tate) a misogynistic influencer who is openly taunting her. Probably not much of a spoiler to say blood is shed along the way.

Love at First Bite – Katherine Dyson
Another Halloween-themed read. Lucy – she of the pastel colours and jumpy nerves – is of to Whitby to cover the Goth festival for her newspaper. She has a lovely little annex booked, but when she turns up Bram – he of the all-black clothing, multiple tattoos – and oh yeah, actual vampire – is there, thinking it’s his space for the weekend. Somehow they make it work and despite being total opposites they fall for each other.

Goalie Interference (On Thin Ice #3) – KC Carmichael
Weird goalie x weird goalie! Though, not as compelling as the first two books in the series. Ander and Nico play for opposing teams. Them being friends is seen as a bit weird, but then goalies are weird, so it’s not a big deal. But when that friendship develops into love… Can they pull that off?

Lady of Uncanny Charms (Whimbrel House #5) – Charlie N Holmberg
The final instalment of the series, set entirely in England this time and focussing on Owein and Cora as they go up against Queen Victoria. It was good to see Owein and Cora finally together but I missed Merritt and Hulda.

Stay (WAGS #2) – Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
Hailey runs a virtual assistance service. The rich customer just has to log a request for batteries or bananas or a new sofa and someone will order it and arrange delivery. Hockey player Matt finds that invaluable until the dog walker hired by the service starts snooping around his apartment. Hailey starts taking on more of the assistance tasks, and keeps running into Matt, but can that sustain a relationship?

The Deal (Off Campus #1) – Elle Kennedy
I watched the TV series so of course I had to read the book. Hannah wants to date Justin. Garrett needs to improve his GPA and wants Hannah to tutor him. So, they strike a deal. He’ll pretend to date Hannah to make Justin jealous, and she’ll help him pass his test. Everything is fine until the fake dating gets a bit too real.

Enemy Within (Executive Office #3) – Tal Bauer
The final book about President Jack Spiers and former Secret Service agent turned First Gentleman Ethan Reichenbach. This was a wild, wild ride. After the chaos of book two, Jack and Ethan are deep in Russia, fighting against Madigan with the help of (former) President Puchkov and his bodyguard Sasha. There are explosions and bullets and battles, and yet still time for an impromptu wedding (or two). There are additional books following Puchkov and Sasha but I’d love one about Adam and Faisal too.

How to Live Forever – Colin Thompson
I’ve done multiple Colin Thompson jigsaws, but I had no idea he’d written a book too. The artwork is very much in the same vein as his jigsaws, tiny fantasy worlds amongst the books.

The Library – Sarah Stewart
A sweet story about a girl who loves books so much she ends up with a huge library which she donates to the community when she grows old.

October’s three star reads:

The Name Game – Beth O’Leary
I normally love Beth O’Leary books but this was a bit disappointing. It starts out with Charlie Jones (female) taking a job at a farm shop on Ormer (an island way off the mainland like Jersey). Only she then meets Charlie Jones (male) who’s also there to take the job. Nobody, not even the farm shop owners can work it out, so they both stay on as a trial. So far, so good, as Charlie and Charlie’s bickering slowly turns to attraction. Then it all falls apart, because – spoilers – neither of them are actually Charlie. The ‘two years earlier’ stuff in between the current chapters are actually from two entirely different people. The real Charlie and her ex-boyfriend. (This is not helped in the audiobook by these two being voiced by the same two voice actors as the fake Charlies.) Obviously the book needed a twist to explain, but it makes so little sense and as a reader you just feel deliberately misled.  Unreliable narrators aside, at no point did either Charlie think ‘Well, I’m not really Charlie’? Really?

Icebreaker – Hannah Grace
One of the college ice rinks is sabotaged meaning the hockey players and the ice skaters have to share. Then Anastasia’s skating partner is injured in a prank, and hockey captain Nate takes the blame to protect his team. He’s benched until Aaron can skate again. Despite he and Anastasia love-hating each other (for no apparent reason) he offers to help her practice. I liked the idea of this (and the background of Aaron’s gas lighting was interesting) I didn’t get why they either liked or hated each other.

Pole Position – Rebecca J Caffery
Let’s start with saying that this has not made me suddenly interested in Formula 1. It is nowhere nowhere near as interesting to read about as hockey is. The animosity between Kian and Harper seemed manufactured just for the sake of the plot. Neither character was likeable to begin with but they did get better towards the end and it was sweet at times.

October’s two star reads

The Library Mystery – Suriya Ahmed
A whole star more than The Painting Puzzle! Review to come later this week.

October’s one star reads

None, thankfully.

Not yet rated, as I didn’t finish them in October:

The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next #3) – Jasper Fforde
Bad Pucking Timing (Colorado Bulldogs #1) – Michelle Lenard
Bite Marks & Broken Hearts (Killigrew Street Files #1) – TJ Rose
The Borrowers Afield (Borrowers #2) – Mary Norton

 

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What I watched

• A few episodes of The Simpsons, Only Connect and Taskmaster.
• More of Lego Masters Grand Masters of the Galaxy
• I finished Off Campus (which is now filming season 2) and started season two of Wednesday.
• We watched Jurassic World 4 as a family. It was not great.

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What I did

• It was the school holidays so we managed out for a few trips. The local zoo, the very not-secret Secret Bunker and Huntingtower Castle.
• We did two walks as well. The first was along the coast and we stopped for an ice cream along the way. The second we stopped for cake and I had a hot chocolate as it was significantly colder! We also found a couple of geocaches on our way back.
• At work I was busy preparing autumn crafts for the school holidays and then decorating for Halloween.
• I finally built one of my little fake-Lego flower sets that I bought ages ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How was your October?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries