Wrap Up: September 2018

Hello and happy October you guys! It’s honestly quite baffling how we’re already a couple of days into October. That means there are not even three months left of 2018 – which can be a good thing. This year has felt like multiple years pushed into twelve months. I think we’re all ready for things to turn around and slow down, right?

But before I actually ramble on for much longer, how about we just jump into today’s post and talk about the books I read this past month?

For September, I read a total of 9 books. Now, don’t try figuring out how I did that quite yet – four of them were novellas that I finally got caught up with. But then again, a novella is still a book too? It’s just a much shorter one. xD

Here are all the books (and novellas) I read for the month of September!

I was lucky enough to get a chance to read Dear Evan Hansen early and because I was on top of my game with this book, you can check out the review already, just click on the image below. 🙂

Okay, now it’s time to talk about all the books I haven’t reviewed (or haven’t reviewed on the blog) yet. There are quite a few. I’ve been a bit lazy about writing reviews for the blog.

Let’s kick off this list with the novellas I read this month as they are all part of the same series and I read them pretty much one after the other one weekend (I’d just gotten a free trial for Scribd and they had all the released ones up) – what am I talking about? The novellas of the Ghosts Of The Shadow Market series, of course! They’ll all be neatly released in a bindup in 2019 but for now, we get bite-sized novellas each month leading up to December.

I had actually gotten behind on these novellas quite a bit so the first one I read was Every Exquisite Thing all about young Anna Lightwood who managed to steal my heart within just 76 pages.

To be honest, I’d started to worry a little bit that I might not care too much about the children of the characters from The Infernal Devices – or at least not all of them (Jamie got my heart so ridiculously fast too. I knew I’d love him) but after having read this too, I think I might enjoy this second prequel trilogy more than I thought – whenever that comes out. xD

Anna Lightwood is a character I think quite a few people will connect with and be happy to have in their lives, which has me even more excited to learn more about her. Plus, she already seems quite sassy and we all know how much I love me a character like that!

Up next was Learn About Loss which was just an okay book. We do learn more about people that will affect future generations and as I was reading this I realized why we’re getting these novellas leading up to Queen Of Air And Darkness: there are bits and pieces in most of them that I think will in some way play into the events of the final book in The Dark Artifices trilogy and everything beyond.

And now, because things had been reasonable calm and I hadn’t been attacked by all the feels in quite a few novellas came the one that almost undid me: A Deeper Love. My god, who knew such a short story could pack such a punch? Especially early on a Saturday! Exactly what one wants. xD

Right about now, is when anyone who knows me knows what I was hit within this book. If you’ve been reading these novellas too or even know about them, you know who the main character is. And you know about their story leading up to anything and everything that has happened. You might’ve even been as destroyed by that Clockwork Princess epilogue as I was. This, this is almost as painful. If not more at times. Honestly, I need these people to freaking stop already. My heart can’t take it.

Because we can’t enjoy good things for too long we had the kind of mess that was The Wicked Ones, the most recent novella we’ve gotten. And just. Yeah, no.

There are basically two stories happening here: one following our main character and the other following Celine Montclaire and the Circle (and everyone involved).

I genuinely did not expect to feel so much rage and at points disgust in a story this short? But the Celine storyline just made me want to punch something (preferably a pillow so I don’t actually hurt myself). There is a discussion of consent happening in our actual real world and yet we have whatever this mess was.

The only good thing about this particular novella was the second storyline following our main character and everything we learned here. This has to come into play with Queen Of Air And Darkness for sure. I don’t think Cassandra Clare put it in here just for fun.

Okay, phew! Let’s take a deep breath because that was actually quite a long bit for just the novellas. I didn’t expect to talk about them this much??? Which I guess fully solidifies my initial thought of reviewing the next three books I’ll talk about on the blog as they’re all part of the same trilogy and I want everyone to get hyped for the January release that is linked to them. But let me mention them real quick, at least:

Yes, that’s correct! I’ve been working my way through the Grishaverse and I finished all three books in the Grisha trilogy in September. I just flew right through them all. It was amazing, I can’t wait to yell at you guys about it!

But, of course, there is another release on the horizon that I’m super excited about and have been preparing myself for Kingdom Of Ash. I’m currently right on track for my series reread after having finished Heir Of Fire last month. Go me, honestly.

I’ve said this before but to me, Heir Of Fire is the book that really kicks things off while also introducing some of my all-time favorite characters – which is kind of where one of my biggest problems with this book lies.

We’re very quickly introduced to Rowan who bumps into Celeana at some point and then they have their entire plotline going on here, right? And that’s all fine and good – up until the point where Rowan slaps her. He says some bullshit things to rile her up before but he doesn’t quite cross the line until that slap. And no matter how much I want to justify it within the plot and both characters’ positions at that point – I can’t. You don’t slap people. Ever.

And this then plays into another issue that is related to this, in a way. Later on, Celeana is made to apologize and she does so on her knees (no one makes her get on her knees, it’s what she does) but when the slap comes up in conversation after this event – Rowan? He doesn’t have to apologize.

Celeana and Rowan actually discuss it and apparently, he doesn’t have to apologize because they are the same, right? Then why on earth did Sarah make Celeana get on her knees to apologize for yelling at people and the person who is just like Celeana (in the character’ own words) doesn’t?! That’s bullshit. He should’ve had to apologize just as much, if not more. He fucked up big time.

Now that I’ve gotten this off my chest, I want to shout out two of my favorites that we’re finally being introduced to here: Aedion and Manon. My loves, my heart belongs to you. The first time I ever read this book, I did not care for Manon for the longest time. I kept wishing I was back with the other POV characters but my god, does she win your heart over. This woman. This god damn woman. I adore her. I can’t wait for everything that is yet to come in the next couple of books. *gets nervous*

Aedion is awesome too, by the way. I just don’t know how much I can say without giving stuff away. Just know that he is awesome and I’d marry him right now if I could.

Okay, wow. This wrap up honestly got out of hand? I was also going to talk about a movie I watched this past weekend but we’re already quite over a thousand words (like, a good 500 words over) and I don’t want to keep you guys here all day. xD

So, let’s wrap this up, shall we? What are some of the books you’ve read this past month? What was your most and least favorite? Are you doing any rereading to get you all caught up for some of the upcoming big releases in YA? Let me know in the comments down below! 😀