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Themed TBR: Halloween Season TBR

It’s almost Halloween season and I’m so excited! This really is the time of year where all I want to do is sit and read — I mean, that is always, but honestly, from like October to February it being so dark outside so early is really hard for me so all I want to do is read and escape. Anyway, this time of year especially, all I want to do is read dark and scary books; lots of intense mystery/thrillers and a lot of horror novels.

While I have my Fall TBR, I also wanted to do a Halloween themed TBR for the month of October. Now, my mystery/thriller and horror TBRs are never ending, so there were a lot of options for books to be on this list. I then thought “Hey, you’re trying to get your physical TBR down, how about this list is just the mystery/thriller/horror books that you’ve got physical copies of” and then suddenly it became a little bit easier to figure out this TBR!

So, if you’d like to see what scary and spine-chilling reads I want to get to in October, let’s go!

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Review: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men. 

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.  

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive. 

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world. 

She does not know this yet. But she will.

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Seasonal TBR: Fall 2024

Happy Fall, sundrops! We’ve most definitely still got summer-like weather here, but that’s true until about the end of October. While the weather may not feel like Fall, it officially is, so I thought it would be fun to share my Fall TBR with you!

For my Fall TBR these will be books that I want to get to in the next 2.5 months. This list has a bit of a mix of everything. There’s some romance, mystery/thriller, fantasy, historical fiction…all sorts of things because we all know first and foremost that I’m a mood reader.

If you want to know what books I’m hoping to read this Fall, keep reading!

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Review: The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee

From Gillian Flynn Books, a lyrical YA horror by debut author Wen-yi Lee that’s perfect for fans of She Is a Haunting, Stephen King’s IT, and The Haunting of Hill House.

Art student Isadora Chang swore never to return to Slater. Growing up, Isa never felt at ease in the repressive former mining town, even before she realized she was bisexual—but after the deaths of two of her childhood friends, Slater went from feeling claustrophobic to suffocating. Isa took off before the town could swallow her, too, even though it meant leaving behind everything she knew, including her last surviving friend Mason.

When Isa’s abusive father kicks the bucket, she agrees to come back just long enough to collect the inheritance. But then Mason, son of the local medium, turns up at the cemetery with a revelation and a plea: their friends were murdered by a supernatural entity, and he needs Isa to help stop the evil—before it takes anyone else.

When Isa begins to hear strange songs on the wind, and eerie artwork fills her sketchbook that she can’t recall drawing, she’s forced to stop running and confront her past. Because something is waiting in the shadows of Slater’s valleys, something that feeds on the pain and heartbreak of its children. Whatever it is, it knows Isa’s back… and it won’t let her escape twice.

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Review: The Examiner by Janice Hallett

Told in emails, text messages, and essays, this innovative pause-resister follows a group of students in an art master’s program that goes dangerously awry, from the internationally bestselling “new queen of crime” (Electric Literature) Janice Hallett.

Gela Nathaniel, head of Royal Hastings University’s new Multimedia Art course, must find six students from all walks of life across the United Kingdom for her new master’s program before the university cuts her funding. The students are nothing but trouble from day one.

There’s Jem, a talented sculptor recently graduated from her university program and eager to make her mark as an artist at any cost. Jonathan, who has little experience in art practice aside from running his family’s gallery. Patrick runs an art supply store, but can barely operate his phone, much less design software. Ludya is a single mother and graphic designer more interested in a paycheck than homework. Cameron is a marketing executive in search of a hobby or a career change. And Alyson, already a successful artist, seems to be overqualified. Finally, there is the examiner, the man hired to grade students’ final works—an art installation for a local cloud-based solutions company that may have an ulterior agenda—and who, in sifting through final essays, texts, and message boards, warns that someone is in danger…or already dead. And nothing about this course has been left up to chance.

With her trademark “unique and exhilarating” (Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot) voice, Janice Hallett weaves a fresh and mind-bending mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.

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Let’s Talk: Books I Need to Read by the End of the Year or I Must Unhaul Them

Happy Friday, my friends! Although September isn’t the start of a new year, it always feels a bit like a fresh start. Because of that,  I started thinking about the books that have been on my shelves for a year +, but have survived all my unhauls so far this year. 

As someone with limited shelf space but a never ending TBR, I try to be very deliberate with the books that I buy physical copies of. I try really hard to only buy books that I anticipate being 4-5 stars and books I’ll read again. Even with that in mind while buying, sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a book and suddenly it’s been on your physical TBR for over a year.

Earlier this week I went through my book inventory spreadsheet and took a look at some of my unread books and made a list of 4 books that I need to read before the end of the year, and if I don’t, I must unhaul them.

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Monthly Reset: September 2024

Ah, and here we are. The first “ber” month of the year! You know, lots of people now are posting about fall and how excited they are for the season and cooler weather and pumpkin everything and I’m sitting here thinking “it’s still summer weather here and will be until probably the end of October. I’m still in summer mode!” 🤣

I may still be in summer mode and will be soaking up the sun as much as possible, but it is September now, so you know what that means. It’s monthly reset time! So, sit back and relax and let’s talk about what I’ve got planned for September.

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Monthly Wrap Up: August 2024

Well, friends, it’s the end of August. It’s crazy how fast the month flew by, it feels like it just started, yet at the same time since I’ve been on vacation it also has felt like quite a long month. I don’t know, time is weird and it isn’t real. 

You know what that means, it’s time for my August wrap up! If you want to know what I was up to this month, keep reading!

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Review: The Lies of Alma Blackwell

For over a century, the Blackwells have protected the town of Hollow Cliff from vengeful spirits. Seventeen-year-old Nev is ready to take over for her ailing grandmother as the town’s witch protector—unlike her mother, who left when Nev was a child and never looked back. When a stranger arrives at Blackwell House of Spirits to fill a tour guide opening, Nev reluctantly offers him the job. Nev doesn’t trust Cal Murphy. He knows more than he’s letting on about Blackwell House—and about Nev herself. But Nev soon learns that she has been lied to her whole life. By following the trail of clues left behind in Blackwell House by her most powerful witch ancestor, Nev uncovers an unspeakable legacy of murder and lies…and realizes that a stranger may be the one person she can trust.  

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TV Review: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Episode 6

And here we are, my review of the final episode of season 1 of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder!

If you missed them, check out my review of episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, episode 4 and episode 5 before diving into this one. As always, there will be spoilers for the TV show and the entire book series. If you haven’t read all the books in the AGGGTM series, you will get spoiled throughout these posts, so keep that in mind before reading!

Now let’s chat about the AGGGTM finale!

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