September Wrap Up

Fall is here, kind of . . . I live in South Texas so fall, outside of my dreams and memories, is completely nonexistent. I only get to experience fall through disturbing amounts of pumpkin spice chai drinks and the vicarious imaginings of my favorite authors. I started a couple of new series this month and ended another beloved series. The theme for the month was dark and mysterious, I didn’t really plan to read a ton of dark and mysterious books it just kind of happened. I knew I would be reading the last two novels in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series but I didn’t expect to fall completely in love with the Three Dark Crowns Series by Kendare Blake, much less devour three of the books one after the other. I typically try to spread out my series but this one was so easy to binge read that I couldn’t resist. I will probably do the same thing with the last two books in October.

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake – Three Dark Crowns follows three sisters, an elementalist, a naturalist, and a poisoner who must battle for the throne. The queens that have ruled the island have always given birth to triplet daughters. The daughters are raised by one of three houses, the Elementalists, The Poisoners, and The Naturalists and eventually must battle to the death for the throne. The premise of this book is very dark. If you don’t like dark fantasy book you won’t enjoy this series but if you do I recommend picking it up. The series is somewhat inspired by King Lear which made me even more excited to read it! This book gave me all the dark and spooky fall fantasy feelings and I’m so happy I finally picked it up. I’ve known for a while that I wanted to read it but it finally seemed to fit my mood this month and I borrowed it from the library. I can’t wait to see where the rest of the series goes!

Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco – The next book in the series is released during the month of September so I couldn’t resist picking up the preceding novel. I really enjoyed following the mad antics and misadventures of Audrey Rose and Thomas Cresswell. One of my issues is that I wish there had been more of Thomas Cresswell. This book took a slightly weird turn in the series with the sideplot and the introduction of a new character. Although, I’ve heard that the ARC had a completely different ending (which I really want to read now that I know that) so I’m curious as to what made the big change from ARC to finished product. That being said I really enjoyed the carnival and boat elements to this book. I will always enjoye a book with a carnival thrown in especially one as gothic and strange as this one.

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake – I love this series so much! This book was even better than the first. It took me a while to read it and it does start off a little slow but I’m still so happy I picked up this series! I’m so excited to see where the series will go next. I think that this series was originally supposed to be a duology but I’m delighted that the author decided to expand the series into four novels rather than just two. I don’t really want to say a ton about this book since it’s the second in the series and it would spoil the first book but if you are interested in knowing more about the series as a whole I will have a series review coming out as soon as I finish all four books in the series.

Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco – This book was the perfect ending to this series. It wrapped everything up but also left room for some great spin-offs in the future. Considering how popular this series has been I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they decide to have a spin off in the next few years once Kerri Maniscalco concludes her next series. Like I mentioned in the blurb about the books above I don’t want to give too much information especially since it’s the last book in the series. But as a whole this series has become one of my absolute favorites! It features a clever young woman who takes on the field of forensic pathology with grace despite a lot of difficult obstacles thrown in her path. She has excellent taste in fashion and is surrounded by so many wonderful characters that make the story special.

Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake – It’s always interesting to learn more about the history of a fictional world. I know a lot of people don’t like reading novellas, but personally they serve as a great tool for world building and character development. Novellas help to clarify some of the details an author doesn’t have time to explain deeply within the pages of a full novel. I’m one of those people who loves information so books like this are perfect for me. The Queens of Fennbirn serves as a great refresher to the world of Fennbirn and to the history of the island. Every time I open a book in the series I want to know more, I want it to be more tangible and this book added to the series and I’m hoping it will help be a bridge from the second book to the third one.

Well Met by Jen DeLuca – I loved this book so much! Everything about it felt like it was written just for me. A romance that happens at a Renaissance Faire and main love interest quotes Shakespeare so many times. I’ve been in such a slump lately listening only to audiobooks and this helped to break the audiobook cycle. There’s nothing wrong with audiobooks but sometimes it’s nice to get completely invested in a physical book as well. I started this book on Saturday night and read about 80 pages then I finished it off the next day. There are a few grown-up scenes so if you are like me and don’t like reading that kind of stuff they are really easy scenes to skip. Normally stuff like that would bother me but the entire novel was so cute and adorable that I didn’t care. I also posted a review where I mention a few other things that bothered me as well but overally this book is a lot of fun and it’s arrival in my life is well met!