I felt like I had a pretty good reading month in October and I wanted to carry that over to November and continue on with my momentum! Once again I’m just going to be listing all the books that are at the top of my TBR at the moment and throughout the month just mood read whatever I feel like reading!
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
In the last days before her death, Nel Abbott called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind.
As a character I didn’t particularly like Jules or feel any kind of connection to her so I wasn’t that invested in the story as whole because of that. Throughout the book she never surprised me or did something that would encourage me to be on her side. Sure she had something horrific happen to her when she was a child and the other children and her sister were horrible to her but none of that had anything to do with Nel’s death and the deaths of all the other women at the pool. It did give us some context as to Nel’s character and I can see why Jules would believe that her sister was so callous all these years.
Lena just got on my nerves for the majority of the story as well. I can appreciate that she just lost her mum and is in mourning at the moment but her attitude and brattiness was annoying. She was very selfish in keeping that secret about Katie and I was 100% on Louise’s side for telling her that! She would of eased their minds months and months ago about why Katie killed herself had she just told the family about the relationship.
I feel like Louise bless her was the most realistic out of all the characters in this book. Her grief over her daughter’s death and her unwillingness to give up and figure out the cause of it all felt so real and raw. I can’t imagine what she would be going through but she knew that Nel and Lena had something to do with it and ultimately they did.
I liked the structure of the book, having the multiple perspectives really gave us a lot of context and upped the mystery factor as to who was behind Nel’s death. The pacing was just a little off though, there wasn’t enough reveals or twists for me, it was just one big build up to the standoff with the Townsend’s. It was original, unlike anything I’ve read so far and ultimately was just an ok for me!
⭐️3/5 stars Very eerie, dark and wet!
I’m a little late to this week’s Top Ten Tuesday but I still wanted to make a post! It’s a Halloween freebie this week and I figured I would go with 10 hyped horror books I’ve been seeing all over my timeline that I am highly interested in picking up! Let me know if you’ve read any of these books and if they are worth it!!
*A little Spoilery*
War has come to the Witchlands . . . and nothing will be the same again. Iseult has found her heartsister Safi at last, but their reunion is brief. For Iseult to stay alive, she must flee Cartorra while Safi remains. And though Iseult has plans to save her friend, they will require her to summon magic more dangerous than anything she has ever faced before.
The structure of the plot wasn’t a favourite of mine to be honest. I didn’t really like that we lost all of that time right at the start and then have to have flashbacks throughout the course of the plot to find out what happened. Once again Safi and Iseult have been torn apart and even though they are evolving and distinguishing themselves as characters we don’t see them together enough anymore.
I feel like this was definitely Iseult’s book as she figures out what it means to be the new puppeteer and her voidwitch powers. We witness her struggle with the guilt of having to kill so many people and being able to do it so easily and not giving in to that ‘monstrous’ side of herself that she feels is within her. She has many revelations and epiphanies and we learn so much through her about the truth of who the paladins actually are.
Safi’s storyline was a little stunted to begin with. I didn’t really care about the Emperor at all and I wasn’t as invested in what was going on with that. I did like the fact that we learnt more about the Hell-bards and their history and the restrictions that they have now that Safi is one of them.
Vaness and Vivia was a storyline I wasn’t sure where it was going. Definitely didn’t think that they would actually form a relationship which seems to be the direction it’s going. Having that weaved into Stix and Ryber and their adventures was very entertaining and had me wanting to find out what was going to happen next.
Overall the Paladin’s and Exalted Ones were brought into the story way too quickly for me. Had they been introduced right from Truthwitch at maybe I would be on board but right now I’m kind of confused as to who is who. You absolutely need to read Sightwitch to have any indication as to what was going on in this book and even though I only reread it a month ago I was still kind of like huh?
The only thing that is really pushing me forward is Iseult and Aeduan finally being reunited and Merik’s little appearance right at the end with those mysterious sisters. I have no idea what is going to happen next I just hope Iseult and Safi get a chance to sit down, catch up with us and let us as a reader take a breather.
⭐️3/5 stars I’m invested, the story just veered far from what I was expecting
*Spoilers Ahead*
At a party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed – again. She’s been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. The only way to break this cycle is to identify Evelyn’s killer. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is desperate to stop him ever escaping Blackheath…
This book was really hard for me to get into for some reason. I picked it up and put it down I think half a dozen times and I had never even gone past 20 pages. I finally decided to push through and it wasn’t until around the 100 page mark exactly that I started to become invested in Aiden and what was actually happening at Blackheath.
I was a bit indifferent to Aiden’s character a the start of the book. We definitely learn more about his as the book progresses and we figure out his motivations for why he is at Blackheath. We get no real sense of who he is though because he is continuously influenced by his hosts. Had we maybe got to see some flashbacks to before he entered and what he was feeling at that time and then come back to the present maybe I would of gained more of an insight into how much he’s changed.
I never really trusted Anna. Just the way she was always around right when Aiden needed her and how the plague doctor kept telling him that she is going to betray him. And then when we find out who she really is I can’t see why Aiden would be adamant that she has changed. I just feel like we aren’t shown enough of her character to make that distinction, but then again we didn’t know her before either. The same can be said for Daniel, I knew he was too good to be true right from when he exposes himself to himself. He was just that little too sure of himself and the decisions that Aiden was going to make even though he hasn’t made them yet.
Multiple timelines and POVs can get a tad confusing for me and it’s hard to keep track of all the characters and who is a host and who isn’t. I have to say as he switches from each host and the days start ticking down the level of urgency felt throughout the plot kept rising. I had no idea at any point in time what was actually going to happen, I had my suspicions but at every twist I was definitely surprised!
⭐️3/5 stars Unique, confusing and intricate!!
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