Hello everyone! Today, I am going to be showing you what I read for the Fall into Reading-athon along with what I read for the last three days of the month. I only finished 3 books during the readathon, and one was a DNF.
For the first couple of days, I was reading Beach Read by Emily Henry (4 stars). This is an adult romance about two people named January, who write romance, and Augustus, who writes literary fiction, and they decide to swap genres. They spend some time together teaching each other where they get their inspirations from.
I think it took me so long to read because there wasn’t any intrigue. I know, this is a romance so there won’t that type of plot but I really need one to motivate me to keep reading. I wish there was more in the book about writing the actual books. The MC’s book seemed really interesting and crazy. I think some of the characters were really well written and others were left in the dust. The grief parts in this book literally had me in tears as I lost my own father six years ago. Overall, it had me crying and laughing through the whole book along with the MC and I did enjoy it.
The second book I read that was a DNF was Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. This book was a reread. I read this right after it came out the first time and I decided to reread it because I remembered I loved it so much and I couldn’t remember anything about it other than this one hand sanitizer scene. I cannot tell you what I liked about it before and I didn’t really like any of the characters, especially the best friend character. I didn’t really see why the MC and her friend even cared so much about the guy who was missing. It would literally make my skin crawl every time the focus was on her cut on her finger. As a fellow Hoosier, I also felt like I was being beaten over the head with Indiana references.
The last book I finished was during the last Becca’s Bookoplathon 24-hour readathon and that was The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell. This one has three different perspectives but the main one is about a girl who is an orphan. She was found in her crib as a baby in a house with her two dead parents, a mystery third man, and her two teenage siblings are missing. It takes place twenty-five years later when she finally inherits the massive 12-bedroom home she was found in, and the plot unravels from there.
I managed to read this entire book and a bit of another one during that time. This is my second book by Lisa Jewell this year and in general. The first one was Then She Was Gone. In both books I read by her, I started out thinking I knew exactly what the plot twist was going to be and both times, I was completely wrong. I really enjoyed The Family Upstairs but not as much as Then She Was Gone. I didn’t think the ending was realistic. When I say that, I mean the main characters reaction to the information we were given and then the actual end. It just was tied up too quickly and didn’t make much sense for me. However, I still loved it and I am looking forward to more books by her in the future.
After I read The Family Upstairs, I got a package with Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson inside. I tried to listen the audiobook earlier this month of Way of Kings and it just was not working for me. I haven’t really read a book quite like this before so I was not prepared for all the characters, species, and overall world. From what I read online, there are 14 different POVs through the book. I have read Game of Thrones but I feel like it was easier because I have seen the entire show. So, I went ahead and just bought a copy of the book so I could read it physically and hopefully grasp everything a bit better. I ended up getting around 285 pages done during the readathon and I finished the month at about 360 pages. I am doing much better this time around with it and I am enjoying it while not trying to rush myself through it. I do feel like Sanderson has a habit of explaining things that don’t need explained and not explaining things that should be explained more. I also wish there were more chapters in Shallan’s POV because I really love her character but I know she comes back really soon.
The last book I started was after the readathon and I only got 106 pages into and that was A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green. As a person who dislikes sci-fi, I wish there was more sci-fi. I don’t think the POVs are very different from one another, which makes it difficult to read for me. Needless to say, I am taking these last two books into my October TBR. I am going to push through this one so I can see how I feel in the end of it all.
Overall, I didn’t have a great reading month but I think this readathon went well. I did rekindle my love for physical books again in these last two weeks. Comment down below and let me know if you have read any of these books and what you think of them and I will see you in the next post!