october 2024 reading wrap up
here are all the books i read this month!
In October, I read 5 books. Here’s what I thought of them!
1. The Oath We Give, Monty Jay
October started on a good note with Monty Jay's last book of The Hollow Boys series. I didn’t expect much, but I honestly loved it. Compared to the previous four books, The Oath We Give had a completely different feel to it. It was sexy and suave, and Silas turned out to be my favourite Hollow Boy. He took me by surprise in many ways, and he easily knocked off Thatcher’s position at the top of my list.
I also love how the series ended with all the characters getting their happy endings. I enjoyed the series, and I heard there’s a second-gen series for The Hollow Boys, with the first book coming out soon! 👀
Verdict: 5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. Part of Your World, Abby Jimenez
Back in August, I fell in love with Abby Jimenez’s book, Just For The Summer, and I loved it so much that I knew I wanted to read the other books in the Part of Your World series. But don’t be like me and start from the third book lol.
To be honest, I did not like this book. I hated it because I hated the main character, Alexis. I left a rant-review on Goodreads when I finished the book but basically, I thought that she was so annoying. She kept dismissing her relationship with Daniel and refused to put in the bare minimum for him when he’d literally do anything to make it work.
I also hated how she kept going on about how their relationship was temporary, how it couldn’t work because of their “differences”, how she was not supposed “to do this” and other things that got on my nerves. Plus, she kept a lot of things from him and refused to communicate, which was total bullshit.
Verdict: 2/5 stars ⭐️⭐️
Side note: I read a different book before starting the next book in my Oct reading wrap-up, but that book’s under the SMP boycott. I won’t be revealing the title and properly reviewing it in this post, but I didn’t enjoy that book either which sucks because the author is one of my faves :( Anyway back to the post.
3. Yours Truly, Abby Jimenez
After Part of Your World, I didn’t know if I wanted to read Yours Truly. I was super sceptical because two of the books in the series had infuriating leads that ended up with guys who didn’t deserve them — but eventually, I decided to pick it up anyway because my friends said it was their favourite book in the series.
Yours Truly was fucking adorable. It reminded me of a different book because Briana and Jacob (the two leads) wrote letters back and forth with one another, and I loved that so much. I completely adored them and how they made each other laugh out loud.
While it was an overall feel-good read, there were also more emotional, more emotional scenes.
Verdict: 4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. The Phoenix King, Aparna Verma
The Phoenix King by Aparna Verma was my first and last DNF of the month. I wanted to read the whole book, and I was almost there but I ended up DNF-ing at 61%.
The world in The Phoenix King was interesting, and Elena was my favourite character so far. I loved how fiery (pun intended) and powerful she was. But I thought her relationship with Yassen was close to non-existent. There was no chemistry between them because their scenes together were so little.
“After all this time, you can’t just leave and never come back. I’ll miss you. Hell, I think even Elena would.”
Would she? He had grown used to her presence, the smell of her hair, like fresh sandalwood and jasmine. The way her eyes would find him across the room. Their silent game of observation. Yassen looked across the courtyard, half expecting to see her emerging from the shadows with a quip, but the courtyard was empty.
“No, Sam, I will leave. For my sake.”
It was weird reading this part because, as the reader, I didn’t even realize they spent a lot of time together or interacted with one another and then suddenly we get this monologue from Yassen. There were only a couple of moments of tension, and that was it. Nothing else.
But instead of getting more scenes between them, I thought there were way too many chapters in the king’s POV. I got bored of him constantly yapping every other chapter in the book.
Verdict: DNF 📚🚫
If you liked my book review, let’s connect!
Instagram: @intj.reads
TikTok: @booksby.nat
Goodreads: @piperstaggart
The StoryGraph: @piperstaggart