So October didn’t go so well for me as far as reading the books on my Spooktober TBR. Out of the twelve books on my list I finished four and had to abandon one less than 100 pages in.

The books I did manage to read were great but as is my usual bad habit I wandered off and read a few books not on my list, generally library books or new ARC’s (why is the shiny new book always more tempting than the one on your TBR).

Despite this less than successful month I am however trying again in November. Some books will carry over but given how close to the end of the year we are and the fact that my netgalley shelf is spiralling out of control, my plan is to focus on those 500 ARCs sitting on my shelf. If I manage to make some progress with them I’m hoping I can spend December reading those books I own but never get around to.

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Current Titles

• A Wedding in December by Sarah Morgan – I am a BIG fan of Sarah Morgan’s books and always look forward to her Christmas stories. I’m a little late in getting to this one, usually I’ll have it read by September, but I’ve been trying to keep my Christmas reads to nearer the time
• The Christmas Party by Karen Swan – Another Christmas story by another favourite author. I plan on getting in the holiday mood this month.
• The Alibi Girl by CJ Skuse – This one is not a Christmas story (or at least not to my knowledge) but it is by yet another fave author. Skuse is seriously underrated, every single book I’ve read by her has been brilliant whether it’s YA books like The Deviants or her female Dexter type series Sweetpea. I’m therefore very excited about her newest book.

• Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan – I really enjoyed the first book in this series Girls of Paper and Fire and with how it ended I couldn’t wait for the sequel. I have high hopes book 2 will be even better than book 1
• Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo – I was a big fan of Christo’s last book To Kill a Kingdom so when I heard she had a new series coming out I knew I’d need to read it. The reviews do seem a little mixed but I like to make my own mind up on these things.
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave – Honestly, this was a case of cover love. I’m not even 100% sure what it’s about. It is already out so I’ve spied it in bookstores and can confirm it’s even more stunning looking in physical copy.

• The Night Country by Melissa Albert – This is the sequel to The Hazel Wood, a story with a dark fairytale theme that I absolutely loved. It wasn’t perfect but the writing was just wonderful so I have high hopes for The Night Country.
• Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin – It feels like forever since I’ve read a YA contemporary and I really like the sound of this story about a group of girls out for revenge after one of them is assaulted. I suspect it won’t be the easiest of reads but I am curious.
• A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones – This year has been the year of Darynda Jones for me as I’m so close to finishing the thirteenth and final book in the Charley Davidson series about a PI who’s also the grim reaper. I therefore couldn’t resist this the first book in a new series by the author. It’s not supernatural (I don’t think) but I’m hoping it keeps a lot of the humour and fun.

• Doing Time by Jodi Taylor – It’s been forever since I read a Jodi Taylor book. This is a spin off from her St Mary’s series which follows a group of time travelling historians.
• Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza – I love Robert Bryndza’s books so am very happy to get my hands on a copy of the first book in a new series by him.
• Summoned to Thirteenth Grave by Darynda Jones – I got this from NetGalley way back in December 2018 but as this is the thirteenth and final book in the series and I hadn’t read the first twelve (why do I do this to myself) it’s taken me a bit of time to get to it. I am however reading it right now (well not right now, as I’m writing this) so it’ll definitely be one book on my TBR for November I’ll manage to finish.

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There are of course a ton of other books sitting on my NetGalley shelf at the moment (the current count is 90) so I may do a little switching around but I have high hopes of at least making a small dent in the pile. Is your NetGalley shelf as out of control as mine? Have you read any of the books on my list? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy reading

Ali x