Three Book Reviews-the rest of October

Murder in the Drawing Room by C.J. Archer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A little bit confusing with finding out who's cheating on the husband (or wife), then turns into a murder when the wife is dead in her drawing room. Cleopatra and Harry Armitage solves the case of whodoneit, and I have to save, even though this one is my least favorite one out of the three I've read, I've really enjoyed this one. I loved Cleo and Harry's banter, I loved how Cleo was fighting so hard to find what she wanted, and the whole other storyline about the cook pocketing the money was funny, not gonna lie. Still liked it though.

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Gothghul Hollow by Anna Stephens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Killer. Sorceress. Scholar. Priest.

These four people team up to stop a beast that is attacking the Hollows and unraveling a mystery that starts with one word: Mhurghast.

I really enjoyed this book. It was short, yes, but it was a good short novel that deals with magic, murder, a beast that turns out to be something else, and also a mystery. My favorite out of all of them was the sharpshooter Runar and the sorceress Erdea. The priest Tiberius was okay, but the father, A-A-ric (dang right I did it like that inner-city school skit by Key and Peele) I really didn’t like, mostly because he kept sheltering Erdea with everything and it was really ticking me off.

The beast reminded me oddly of the tale of the Beast of Gevaudan in the beginning, but then as the mystery of Mhurgast starts to unravel, starting with Erdea’s mother, Hepizibah I think her name was. She started to do research on the Four Heralds, and then it became her obsession as she worked so hard on figuring it out, that when she gave birth to Erdea, the beast came and took her, leaving baby Erdea there.

The hint of a romance is there between Erdea and Runar, the sharpshooter, but it wasn’t much, which is very refreshing and it didn’t overpower the story. The four of them worked to unravel the mystery of the Mhurghast, and when they did in the end, it turned out to be a vampire named Genevieve Dieudonne, which I have to say, I’ve never read a fantasy that had a vampire in it, and I kinda like it. Genevieve is very interesting as a character and I want to read more of her story. Who was she? Why was she the beast? What did she learn that could help them solve the mystery of the Mhurghast? I want to know more, but maybe one day I will.

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Blood and Fog by Nancy Holder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So this Buffy novel fell flat for me. Yes, it takes place in season six, and yes, it does have the Spuffy pairing, but in all honesty, it fell flat for me. The whole thing with Buffy hiding her relationship with Buffy was just weird, then Xander, Tara, Dawn or Anya was barely in it, maybe like a couple of seconds before they disappeared. Angelus, Darla and Dru was in it as well, but as a flashback.

Jack the Ripper as a fae was…okay?? I guess??? It didn’t feel like I should be all scared of him and stuff. He was just all, “I’m going to unleash hell on Sunnydale with a fog, unalive 12 women and become and god” and I was all like…okay? Can you do something more sinister, more evil, I guess? But I guess he can’t??? And the whole Tuatha thing was weird as well, along with the thing of ‘Buffy’s blood is going to drip by her enemy’ and it turns out to be…Willow??? Of all people??

(I know why, since I’ve watched season six).

This just fell flat for me, sadly, and then the other side story of Giles in England was just weird as hell as well. But while I did hear the flashbacks of the Fanged Four (which I actually liked because they made the book much better, to be honest) I did hear Dru’s voice, and maybe Darla’s?? But throughout the book I did hear Spike’s voice, so there’s that.

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All the Books I've Read in October-Book Reviews

 Hello friends!

Today's post is a long one, because today is all the books I've read in October-with three more to come. So this is a two parter, because I've about around eight-nine books??? And I actually enjoyed them?? So let's get started on this very long book review.

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The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really good book. It reminded me of the old 90s show I loved as a kid, which was Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but more adultier and with chaos involved (I realize that I like books with chaos in them). Rhys and Vivienne’s second chance relationship was so cute to read, and having this set in my homestate made this book feel more cozy and funnier than ever. Also, I love the opening line, “Don’t ever mix witchcraft and vodka.” As soon as I saw this line, that’s when I knew I was going to love it.

The book opens with Vivienne placing a curse on her ex, Rhys Penhallow, drunk on vodka. Years later, he comes back to fix the ley lines…only to find out that Vivi placed a curse on him that she thought was a joke. Turns out that it wasn’t a joke, and the chaos that happens around Graves Glen are horrendously funny-the skeletons coming to life, Rhys’ tires popping, and also the ghost of a student who was trying to summon an ancestor of Vivienne who was going to be sold by some ghost hunter or something like that.

Rhys and Vivienne does get back together, but when they found out the real reason why the ley lines are so fucked up, thanks to their respective ancestors, the Jones witches go to the cave and fix it, unlike the first time Rhys and Vivienne goes and they unleashed a curse on the whole town when Rhys went to fix it. Even though that ending kinda went flat for me, I wanted more than just “the Jones witches did this, and now the town is saved, hooray!” I kinda wanted a little bit more.

Hopefully in book two it’ll be much better and the ending much better as well because I really love this book and the ending just fell a bit flat for me, that’s all.

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The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once again, T. Kingfisher has blown it out the park for for with this horror novel and I loved every bit of it. The plot was so good that I stuck with the ride and I was on the edge of my seat to the end. This has to be one my favorites of all time, and that I would honestly reread this book over and over again because it was THAT good.

This was about a woman who went through a divorce and is working and living in her uncle’s taxidermy museum. One day a hole appeared in another dimension, and she and her friend, Simon, went through it. They start to explore it, learning about this other dimension, which they thought was another world. While they were in that world, they learned about the bus with all those kids in the chair, an army that was in there but somehow none of them got out. So Simon and Carrot got out (don’t remember her name, I’m sorry about that) and then Carrot started having some very bad dreams about that world.

So she had Simon handcuff her down so she won’t move, but she kept going back to that world, even when she had Simon fix the wall and make everything safe again, but that monster from the other world came out and possessed a taxidermied animal and attacked…

Then all the other forest animals came alive and attacked the taxidermied animal and won, sending the thing back to hell where it belonged, and Prince (that’s right, Bambi’s daddy) even helped defend her!! God I love that about that Prince (even though I’ve never seen Bambi, only as an adult, I believe) and then everything was back to normal. I know the husband called and tried to talk to her, but she was kinda not into it or not paying attention to him?? And then the uncle that runs the place had to go to the hospital, so she was alone in running the place.

I truly enjoyed this one, gonna give more of T. Kingfisher books a go because they are SO GOOD.

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Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So Daisy Jones and the Six is my new favorite book. I read this book with the audiobook, and the experience was so good. I loved every bit of the audiobook, listening to the different voices that goes to the different characters as they tell the story of how this band became big in the seventies. I thought while I was reading this book that this band was real, but the more I read and listen to the audiobook, the more I fell in love with the characters.

My favorites are Daisy, Karen Karen, Graham, Simone and Camilla. CAMILLA IS BEST GIRL AND SHE DID NOTHING WRONG, YES SIRRR. All she did was be the best wife to Billy and the greatest mother ever, but seeing Daisy and Billy on stage during SNL I think?? I think she was really mad, but she didn’t want to say anything. But when she visited Daisy??? And told her to leave??? Honestly, that’s one of the most shocking things I’ve ever read in a book, mostly because I wasn't expecting that from her, but I felt like Camilla was in the right??? I think??

The whole KarenGraham situation felt like a fast car crash that was waiting to happen. I loved them together, but when he got mad because she went to get an abortion because she didn’t want the baby? Yeeeahh that’s when I wanted to punch Graham in the face. Because it was HER decision to get that abortion because she didn’t want kids. I know Graham wanted kids, thinking that her keeping it would change her mind, but I stand with Karen and her decision.

Billy…I don’t like him. In fact, I hated Billy throughout the book (and I know when the show comes out, my hatred for Billy will come out). To me, Billy was this bully that wanted everything that he wanted, not giving one damn about who he hurt or who he stepped over. And yes, he tried to resist Daisy so much-I mean, he TRIED, I will give him that. But each goddamn song he wrote? Was about Camilla. Every. Goddamned. Song. I’m glad Daisy challenged him to change tune, because if I did live back then, I wouldn’t want to hear about Billy and Camilla. When Daisy told him to “put a little darkness” in the lyrics, I silently thanked her.

I really really enjoyed this book and I want to read more from this author.

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Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, Vol. 1 by Yuji Kaku
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a really interesting manga. I really liked Gabimaru and the fact that he's alive for his wife. The girl-Yamada Asaemon-was there for his many executions, and tells him that he's picked for looking for an elixir that'll make the Shogun immortal. And where is this said elixir? On a long, hidden island where monsters lurk.

I really liked Gabimaru and how he's calm, cool and collected he is, then slip into this mode where he just kills everyone. There is a bit of a trigger warning of bloody hands groping Asaemon's chest and depictions of murder, but other than that it was very enjoyable read.

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In the Company of Witches by Auralee Wallace
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Alexandra Roselyn recommended this book, I ordered immediately and read it. And I loved every bit of it. I really loved how this book deal with grief and how she made this book so cozy that I wanted to live in the B&B and never, ever leave. I really loved this book so much, and I realize that I liked cozy mysteries if they have a witchy characters in there-and murders. Oh and if they can do magic. And they have really good food as well.

Brynn Warren lives in Evenfall with her aunties, Evanora and Isadora, and they own and run a B&B. Brynn had stopped using her magic when her husband, Adam, died one fateful day. They have a very bad-tempered guest named Constance Graves who mysteriously died in thier home…and the police thinks that it was Aunt Nora who did it. Not wanting her auntie to be in jail forever, Brynn decides to go and solve the case.

This book felt like a mixture of Witches of East End meets Practical Magic meets a murder and it WAS SO GOOD. This book, like I said before, deals with grief as you watch Brynn go through her grief, and that her aunties were trying to help her. When she told them that she was stop doing magic, her auntie Nora didn’t believe her and told her that her magic was the one that’s making all of those cracks and things that were happening each time they were doing magic.

At the end, when they found out who did it, it was quite shocking (in fact, I didn’t even know that they did that) and Brynn talking to Constance’s ghost was pretty good. I really enjoyed this book and I’m going to read more of this series.

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A Spell for Trouble by Esme Addison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A cozy mystery written by a BIPOC author? Sold. Esme Addison is the first author that I’ve come across that writes cozy mystery, and I enjoyed this one. It was cute, cozy, and also, witchy. It does drop a bit because of the confusing history lessons about the Warsaw mermaid (that I found that I really liked), but this also felt like a really nice small town soap opera, with daughters of mayors and another family warring with another family, and a love triangle between Alexandra, Dylan and Jack?

And also ATHENA IS BEST GIRL THROUGHOUT THE BOOK?? Yes, please.

Alexandra Daniels had just lost her job and her father, and she and her adorable dog Athena moves to Bellamy Bay to live with her family-her aunt and her two cousins. She starts to work at their apothecary, Botikana, and one day a man named Randy comes in, asking for some tea and something else, and her aunt made a scene…to the point that she’s accused of murder! Her aunt swears that she didn’t do it, and Alex decides to solve the case, since the police thinks that she did it.

Alex goes to Dylan to help after a bit of magical screwups are happening around town, and finds out that it was his sister Brynn who’s doing all of this all for the reality office and the land that supposedly have the Warsaw Shield. This does also deal with magic from a baby witch, which I find that I really like to read about, because most books just have witches that just know what they’re doing. And also seeing everything through Alex’s eyes was also kind of refreshing, because you get to see everything that happens in the town of Bellamy Bay and her life.

Even though at the end Dylan ticked me off for what he did (like my guy, BUT WHY), I started to ship them together, though now that I think about it…I kinda wanted her with Jack SO MUCH. At least he won’t hurt her and all that. But all in all, I really enjoyed this book, would like to read more from the author.

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