 Hello, hello, everyone! My name is Laura, and this is my channel, Laura's Little Library, and welcome to today's video, which is my October wrap-up. It's completely insane, so as I have said and talked about a lot on this channel recently, I did my spooky season spectacular, which every week of October and a couple weeks of September were themed readings for spooky season. As of today, the day that I am filming it is actually October 31st. It is Halloween. I am not including any books I may finish today because I will finish them after I film this video, so I will include them in with November. But as of 30 days in October, I read 20 books, which is a lot of books. That was a lot of reading for me, but I loved it. I was really happy that I could do this, and I mean I read 20 books. That's so awesome. So I am probably going to go through them from least favorite to two favorite. A lot of them were over audio or were library books that I no longer have, so I won't necessarily have visuals. I had one DNF of this month, and that was Empire of the Vampire by Jake Christoff. I got, I think, a third of the way into it, maybe even a little further, and I just could not get a hold of the plot. There was so much build-up, and at first I liked the build-up. Like the first chapter, first two chapters, I was super confused, and then we went back to the beginning of the main character's life, and we got a whole background, which was great. But then once the background stopped, and like, I think the plot was just starting to get going. I had lost interest. I didn't care. I wasn't attached to the characters. I didn't know what was going on. I still felt like I didn't have a good enough grip on the world, and just I was not invested, and I was like, you know what? I don't want to waste my time on a book that I'm not invested in, so I did DNF it. I had two, two out of five star reads in October. The first one was The X-Hex. I was not a fan. I did not like this book very much. I liked the concept of it, but I thought the romance was not great. The characters were meh, and I just had a lot of issues with how the characters chose to spend their time outside of the plot of the book, which made there be no plot of the book until like the beginning and the end, like the middle. It was just, it was not great. I did not like it. The other two star was Spell's Trouble, which followed these twin sisters who were witches, who there was a breach of the magic world, and they are the gatekeepers, and their mother passes away, so then they need to figure out how to fix the gate without their mom's help. And I did not like the writing. I felt like the authors of this book tried so hard to make the main characters sound like teenagers that it just felt off and wrong, and the way they handled grief was just off and wrong, and I just, I didn't care, and the book moved so slowly. Like I had such a hard time being invested with how slowly it moved, and how like high school relationships were more important than like the end of the world. It just, it was all out of whack for me. So I will not be continuing on with that series, even though the concept sounded so good. Then I had a 2.5 stars, and this belongs to Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I had, okay, granted, I had really high hopes going into this because I really loved the Golden Enclave trilogy. I haven't read the last book yet, but I really loved those books versus Uprooted she published earlier, and you can kind of tell. It just wasn't there. I don't even remember, I don't even remember too much about the book, which means it was just so forgettable. There was something about her living with the dragon, I think, and it just, it didn't seem right. It seemed very much like the book For the Wolf, but I liked For the Wolf better. It was really slow. I kept zoning out during the audiobooks, and by the time I would zone back in it felt like nothing had happened. I didn't miss anything, so it felt way too slow. It was too long. There were a lot of things that should have been cut from that book, and it just, it did not live up to my expectations, which was pretty disappointing. Moving on to three star reads, I had Over the Woodward Ball by Deborah A. Baker, which is the pen name for Sean and McGuire. I was excited to read this one. It was a middle grade, but it ended up just being okay. Like it was, it was alright. The kids, I mean, I love the writing style because it is very like kid-ish, and I can appreciate that for middle grade, but it just, again, I was not super invested. I just felt like there was so much that was missing, and it is a series. I probably won't continue with the series. Maybe I will. It really depends on the mood I'm in, but it's not a top priority for me. Then another three star that I read was Escaping from Houdini by Keri Menescalco. I loved her first two books. I feel like this one just missed the mark. It was too long. I didn't like the sub-romance plots that we had with it. I just felt like it was, the mystery was alright. I wish, I think, my biggest critique was that they only looked at the circus members as possible candidates for the murderer, and they didn't look at anyone else on the cruise ship. And that annoyed me. I was like, you have so many other people here that you know nothing about, and you're just gonna assume it's a performer. So that really bothered me, and I just, yeah, it's probably my least favorite of the three so far. It also just felt like it wasn't quite the same as the first two. Yeah, so I was a little bit let down by this one, but hopefully the last book capturing the devil will be better. Another three out of five stars was The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston, and this was, this was much more of a rom-com than what I was expecting, but our main character just had so much going on that it was too confusing, and there was just too much. I was overloaded. And I mean, like, I would still recommend it if you aren't super into like dark spooky things, but you love rom-coms, but you want to get into spooky season. I would still recommend it. Like three out of five, it was average. It was pretty good. Yeah, there was just so much to it, I would say. Also, I know I'm not giving very good description of these books. Like I said, there are 20 of them, so I'm trying to move through this very quickly. Another three star book for me was The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. This is one of her earlier books, and you could definitely tell because the writing was not great. I was not super happy with the writing. It was very repetitive, very kind of boring. It started off, captured my attention, and then it slowed down quite a bit, and I just wish that there was more spookiness, more to it than just our character repeatedly being like, I got robbed. I got robbed. I got robbed. I got robbed. Like, because that's the first thing that happens to her is that there's a break-in, and it's a very creepy break-in. But other than it being setting the tone for her mental health, there is not much else. And the ending, like, it was a solid idea. It's just not my favorite style of ending, so yeah. This was a little bit of a letdown. I really liked the environment. I wish we had gotten a little more from that. So this was, it was a three out of five stars. It was alright. It was good. Then the last three out of five star book I read this month was the Seance Tea Party, and this is by Remina Yee. And this, it was, it was okay. I wish that this book was either called something else or had more to do with Seance Tea Parties. Like, I was just missing the one thing I was really looking forward to in this book. And I think the ghost aspect was alright. I don't know, there just, there wasn't much to it that actually made me, like, really happy or emotionally invested. It just, it just kind of happened. So, I don't know. I feel like it just missed the mark for me personally. So this was three out of five stars. I had six four out of five star reads this month, so I'm gonna quickly go through those. So I totally lied. I just realized that on my list I never wrote that I finished The Daughter of Dr. Moreau, which was also a, this was a 3.5 out of five stars, but that means I read 21 books this month, because for some reason I forgot to count this. The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. I loved Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. And so to hear that she was writing another Gothic book, I was super excited to pick it up. And the beginning did not disappoint, but the middle and ending really kind of let me down. So the beginning of the book was very spooky, creepy, very gothic. You know, you're exploring the fact that, oh my word, this man is creating hybrid creatures and it's creepy and it's like, oh you can't help yourself, you just can't look away. But then as soon as we like kind of found that out, the book just stopped being gothic and stopped being creepy, in my opinion. It just became purely love politics. The Daughter of Dr. Moreau wants to get married to the son of the guy who was funding everything, but like then there's love politics. And I don't quite understand where everything was going. Like it just, it stopped being creepy and then the ending kind of just turned into a slasher. And I just don't like how it all went together of gothic, boring, nothing slasher. Like it just didn't flow. I wasn't the biggest fan, which I feel so bad saying, but like it's the truth. I'm gonna be honest. Just didn't, like the beginning was so good. I could not put it down and then it just slowed in the middle and I was like are we gonna read about anything other than the fact that everyone wants these two to get married, so why aren't they getting married? Kind of ridiculous. Now I can move on to the four star reads. So two four star reads were in the same series and they were Tunnel of Bones and then Bridge of Souls, which is the third one. These were so good. Like these are middle grade Victoria Schwab. The first book is The City of Ghosts and I think each book just got creepier and creepier as you went on. So the first book City of Ghosts I read last year takes place in Edinburgh. This one was in Paris and the third one is in New Orleans and you just hear more ghost stories. You deal with bigger ghosty challenges and I was like by the third book I was thoroughly spooked. Like I'm sitting here reading this middle grade but I don't want to have lights off because I'm a little scared. So yeah I love the main characters. I love everything that happened. Such good spooky vibes. Another four out of five stars was The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. As I mentioned earlier when I talked about one of her other books I loved. I'm loving the series. I love the morally gray character, the cliffhanger at the end. Oh my goodness and just the more that they're trying to deal with in this school and the studies I love reading about the studies. It just brings a whole new magic to everything and just I cannot wait to read the last book which I want to get my hands on as soon as possible. I also gave four out of five stars to the Hacienda. This is by Isabela Cañas and it was spooky. I don't know what I expected going into it because I went into it and I was like is this a haunted house book? I'm not quite sure. It's definitely a haunted Hacienda book. It creeped me out. I loved the complexities of the characters and of the hauntings and everything like that. And like this book got a lot of buzz because it was a book in the month book and I think it was everybody's pick for a book of the month because it just sounded creepy. Like who doesn't love a haunted Hacienda story? And it's lived up to it. Like I was just sitting there on the couch listening to the book going oh my word. So thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through. I also gave four out of five stars to The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson. This was her thrasher novel. Our main character so cool. The slashing at the end. Oh my goodness. It had it has a lot of buildup I will say. Like it's not I mean it's a little thriller-y but only in the sense of the trigger warnings that it has for domestic violence and abuse. So just be aware of that before you go into it and all of the racial aspects you're dealing in modern day with a town in the south that is still horrendously racist and it's really sad to see and know that things like that still exist today and just that's very frustrating. So just be warned of the topics and the trigger warnings that are in the book. So you're dealing with those issues and then the very end is when it became like an actual thriller horror like slasher. So I think it was a four out of five stars because I wish it was a little creepier but that's just to my taste like I can definitely see it easily being five out of five stars for a lot of other people. Yeah the last pure four out of five star book that I read was House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson. This was good. This was a good vampire story. I very much enjoyed it. I was hooked to the whole time. I just wish that the like twist in the reveal wasn't so easy and I don't mean easy as unpredictable. I mean kind of but like you know if she's going to be a blood maid for vampires but you know that the house that she's going to has secrets what do you think those are gonna be? It just seemed a little basic in terms of the spookiness like you kind of should have called it a little bit but still very much worth the read. I loved it. The atmosphere, the vibes, the creepiness, the sensuality of it just such good vampire vibes. Such good vampire vibes. Then I had a couple 4.5 out of five stars. Those included This Vicious Grace and this I actually read for my book club and it was really good. I loved the romance. I loved the callbacks to Italian language and culture as viewing Italian as the old language and culture and I loved just kind of how it all ended up. I would say the ending wasn't like perfect but I when it ended I was like oh my word I need the next book and I need it now lo and behold. The next book doesn't come out till next year so I have to sit and wait and just fester in my I want to know what happens next. So it was very good. I very much enjoyed it and then the other 4.5 out of five stars was Wildest The Witch by Rachel Griffin. I think here's the thing I think I gave Nature of Witches 5 out of 5 stars but I enjoyed this more than Nature of Witches so I think I'm gonna bump that one down to a 4 star if it's not already in a 4 star and this is 4.5. I loved this one so much more. It was The Witchier Vibes. I think we're stronger in this one. The atmosphere of like Pacific Northwest magic. It's very spring vibes. I wasn't sure if it was gonna be like spring or autumn because it's so nature based but I would say this is a good spring vibe book but it was so good and I loved the animal aspect. It is different than The Nature of Witches. I thought it was set in the same universe which it kind of is. The magic they use is different between the two books so you don't need to read Nature of Witches in order to read this. Completely different story. Completely different characters. Magic is completely explained in this one but I love this one so much more. Oh my gosh. It was so good. The only reason that's 4.5 out of 5 stars instead of like 5 out of 5 was I had some issues with the romance and really just the love interest. I didn't care for quite as much as I wanted to. I don't like assholes of friends to love her. I just don't so it wasn't perfect for me but it was very close. And then finally I had 3 5 star reads this month. I was so happy that I had so many 5 star reads because I'm just really bad at giving out 5 stars. I always find flaws which sounds so bad but the first 5 out of 5 star I want to talk about is Garlic in the Vampire. This is so cute. It is the perfect balance of spooky and cutesy. Like it's spoopy. Isn't it like spooky dark? It's adorable. So you have your anxious garlic who needs to go and confront the vampire that has just moved in back into the vampire castle and like the witch has a garden. It's just cute. It's perfect. It's just absolutely perfect. I love the really good anxiety rep with our main little bulb here and just friendships and it was like I flew through this so quickly. Like normally you can read graphic novels really quickly but this I just consumed and I loved it so much. Highly highly recommend even if you don't like graphic novels just give it a try. It's so good. I also gave 5 out of 5 stars to Suburban Hell which I thought this book was going to be more of like a zombie book just based on the cover but it was actually demonic possession which also ended up being really good. I think Suburban Hell was when I wanted the southern book club's guide to slaying vampires to be. Like I think it was better than that book and I just enjoyed it so much more of these Suburban moms who are one of them ends up getting possessed and so they need to figure out what they're going to do. Are they just going to move away and protect their families? Are they going to try and deal with it? How would they even try and deal with it? But at the same time they're good parents. I think one thing that bothers me like Finlay Donovan and like I said the southern book club's guide it paints the struggles of what it's like to be a Suburban mom but they also just don't portray the parents as actually being happy with their kids or being loving or like actually being good parents in my opinion. Like it's just they kind of ignore the kids which is not how being a mom works. You don't ignore your kids versus this book did a much better job of like actually being a mother and you know it's summer so the kids are home so what are they gonna do because now the kids are home but they still love their kids. So it was a great book and then the last book that I read that I gave five out of five stars and the last book that I'm going to talk about is Autumn's Tide. So this is a Fae fantasy book where every year the Fae come they choose a girl and she has to complete some mysterious task for the Fae and her family is heavily compensated and she theoretically lives this beautiful wonderful life afterwards in the Fae world. Well our main character's best friend gets taken and the next year our main character really wants to get taken but she doesn't so then she decides to cross over into the Fae world and find her best friend. Oh my goodness the autumn vibes were so good. The twist ending got me so well. I loved the characters you know our main character travels with like these four Fae and it's hilarious. It's so fun. It's so atmospheric. So good like I didn't really feel like there were a lot of slow points. I was just enraptured the entire time and I cannot wait for the next book to come out. It's supposed to come out really soon and I just want to read it already. So yeah it was five out of five stars. It was essentially perfect. What more can I say? You want an autumn Fae book? This this is an autumn Fae book for you to read. I want to buy it so badly. So yeah those are the 21 books I read. If you want more in-depth reviews of these books I do post reviews on Goodreads as well as Instagram so if you want to follow me on those platforms as well as Twitter and TikTok I will have them linked down below and while you're down there you could also subscribe. I post videos on Sundays and Wednesdays otherwise give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and comment down below some of your favorite spooky month reads. I would always love to add more to my TBR for next year or if I just feel like I'm in the spooky vibe at other points throughout the year which is quite often. I love spooky season fall and autumn is my favorite season of all time so I'm always looking for good recommendations but that should be everything so until I see you all in the next video I wish you happy reading!