October – why did you have to fly by so quickly?  This month I read twelve books and caught up a little with some reviews although I’m still a bit behind.  I checked out the third batch of my SPFBO books and I have some tough decisions to make – hopefully my update will be up either tomorrow or Friday.  I’m still undecided to be honest, this batch is proving tough to choose between.  My lovely looking covers for the month can be found here.  Here’s my month in review:

Books read:  this month = 12 (with reviews linked)

1. No Sleep Till Doomsday by Laurence MacNaughton
2. The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso
3. Creatures: The Legacy of Frankenstein by Emma Newman; Tade Thompson; Paul Meloy; Kaaron Warren; Rose Biggin
4. Charmcaster by Sebastien DeCastell
5. Soulbinder by Sebastien DeCastell
6. Slenderman – by ‘Annonymous’
7. House of Glass by Susan Fletcher
8. Chasing Graves by Ben Galley
9. In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey
10. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
11. The Boy on the Bridge by M R Carey
12. The Winters by Lisa Gabriele

What’ve you been reading??

Backlist books

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell.

Unfinished series completed:

I’m not sure if The Boy on the Bridge is the completion of the series or not?  I can’t figure out if MR Carey plans on more from this world or not.

Books Bought: 

1. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
2. An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris

Review Books

1. Slenderman – by ‘Annonymous’
2. Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse
3. Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
4. The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
5. The Taking of Annie Thorne by CJ Tudor
6. The Winters by Lisa Gabriele
7. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

I have a couple of covers to compare:

Not sure which I like best out of the above two.  I like the colours and feel of the second cover but then the dark red and black cover feels very seasonally appropriate.  Which do you like best.

Again, really difficult to choose.  I love the second cover and the two covers that come before from this set are beautiful.  But then check out that first cover.  It’s beautiful.  I can’t choose – can you?

Finally, the SPFBO.  The third month is coming to an end.   I’ve read at least the first 30% of all six books and will be posting the outcome very soon although I’m finding it difficult to choose.

October was here and then gone – in the blink of an eye.  How come the months are flying by so fast!  Anyway, another busy month I’ve read a total of nine books this month and also managed to conclude the first stage of my SPFBO event along with the other nine bloggers.  I’ve also taken part in Horror October which was great and – looking at my book list so far this year I’ve now read 100 books.  I hope you all had a great month. Now, here’s my month in review.

Books read: (with links to reviews)

1. The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue
2. A City Dreaming by Daniel Polanski
3. The Apothecary’s Curse by Barbara Barnett
4. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
5. The Witches of New York by Ami McKay – review to follow
6. Ashes of Honour by Seanan McGuire – review to follow
7. The Ninth Wind by Moses Siregar III
8. As the Crow Flies by Robin Lythgoe
9. Unwilling Souls by Gregory D Little

Last month’s covers are here.

Backlist books

None this month.

Unfinished series completed:

None this month – I was concentrating on finishing my SPFBO.

Books Bought: (with links to Goodreads synopsis)

1. Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
2. The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp

Review Books: (with links to Goodreads)

1. The Hidden People by Alison Littlewood – this sounds lovely, maybe more magical realism than swords and sorcery fantasy but I do like the sound of it.
2. The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman – I’m loving this series and can’t wait to delve into this one.
3. Roseblood by A G Howard – I featured this on a recent Waiting on Wednesday – the cover is stunning and I love the idea
4. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence – this has got to by my most anticipated book!  I’ve loved everything written by Mark Lawrence so far as I have high expectations indeed!

I must say that I’m quite pleased with myself this month.  I’ve bought and requested very few books – I’m on a drive to catch up!

My Cover Compare this month.

I like both of these covers – they both have a classical book feel to them, but if pushed I would say I prefer the second cover.  I like the font and the colour, it has an old parchment feel to it and I like the placement of the title.

Events:

Backlist Backburn is an end of month event organised by Lisa at Tenacious Reader. If you’ve caught up on any of your backlist then call over and link up.   I find this a good incentive to dust off some of my books – none this month but I’m hopeful for August.

Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and Bookish (every Tuesday)

Waiting on Wednesday is an event hosted by Breaking the Spine where every week we get to shine the spotlight on a book that we’re looking forward to.

The Friday Face off by Books by Proxy

Friday Firsts is a weekly event hosted by Lisa at Tenacious Reader. which is a great way to let everyone know the first sentence and first impressions for your current read.

Readalongs:

1. Readalong for Ashes of Honour (October Daye #6) by Seanan McGuire (starts 8th Oct) – now complete
2. Readalong for Kushiel’s Mercy (Imriel’s Trilogy, #3) by Jacqueline Carey (starts (starts 9th Oct)

Classic Clubs read:

Unfortunately none this month – currently focusing on my SPFBO entries.

Previous months in review:

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September

The SPFBO 2: My posts:

• There can be only one #SPFBO 2016
• Cover Love: #SPFBO 2016
• #SPFBO Spotlight : the first five books..
• #SPFBO Spotlight : the first five books: update
• #SPFBO Spotlight : the second set of books..
• #SPFBO Review: Rebel’s Honor by Gwynn White
• #SPFBO Spotlight : the second set of five: update
• #SPFBO The third Set of books, plus update plus review
• The Fourth Set of books, plus update, plus review
• The Fifth Set of books, plus update, plus review
• The Sixth set of books, plus update, plus review