Everything I Read this Month: October 2023

This novel was an entertaining read, though the characters were a bit one-dimensional. There were points in the story that really drew me in, but many plot points felt either overly predictable (the husband she hardly knew turns out to not be the knight in shining armor) or outlandish (the ex-fiancé just so happens to be family to another antagonist in the story).

All that is to say, I can see why people enjoy the novel. It’s a light read, despite the dark subject matter it deals with, and offers an interesting take on women in medicine in the 19th century. However, it wasn’t really for me.

The Roads We Take by Christy K. Lee is available from from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

I’ve long been a fan of Alison Weir, both in her historical fiction and non-fiction writing. This book features her thorough research and knowledge on Tudor England, of course, but the novel fell flat for me. For all the ways Henry VIII touched history, his personal story just isn’t that compelling to me.

The novel just highlighted his over-inflated ego and did little to illuminate any humanity he may have possessed. Weir illustrates that he grew up in splendor, rebelled a bit against his father, and suffered a major trauma in the death of his mother. However, there is little to no character growth beyond that — which is, perhaps, intentional on Weir’s part. If that is the case, though, he’s just a grating character, almost a caricature in his portrayal.

In all, it felt like a rushed retelling of Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series from a slightly different perspective. Read that series instead.

The King’s Pleasure by Alison Weir is available from from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Often relatable and a heartbreaking portrayal of being a young woman in the 2010s, Adelaide is a compelling debut novel.

Following the eponymous main character as she navigates her career and love life in her mid-twenties, Adelaide deals with an equal mix of light and dark, traversing family struggles, mental illness, and the pressures of being a young woman.

In all, I found myself simultaneously sympathizing with her emotions and frustrated with her short-sightedness. The teenage-crush-esque obsession Adelaide has with her on-again-off-again boyfriend was infuriating by the end, which I guess is the point.

I don’t know what else to say besides this book made me feel a lot of things. It’s a good read, for sure, but not as light and fun as the cover makes it out to be.

Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Kristin Hannah has an amazing storytelling ability, and her work in The Four Winds is no exception. The novel was fascinating, endearing, and riveting from start to finish.

That being said, by virtue of the subject matter, it is also incredibly depressing. Telling the story of a mother and her two children escaping the Texas Dust Bowl in 1920s, Hannah really captures the absolute futility individuals faced at this time.

A lesson in both American history and the persistence of the human spirit, The Four Winds will knock the air out of you more than once. I definitely recommend it, but make sure you’re in a good frame of mind when you pick it up.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is available from from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

This book came up as recommended for me on my library app, so I decided to give it a shot. It was…not great. At one point, the audiobook jumped ahead 20 chapters and I barely noticed; the plot was that bland.

Full of melodrama and questionable plot lines, I found the entire story difficult to believe and far from compelling. The only thing that stood out to me was how incredibly antisemitic Elizabeth Arden was. From a cursory search after listening to the audiobook, it sounds like this is more fact than fiction (see this NYTimes article from 1972).

A Beautiful Rival: A Novel of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden by Gill Paul is available from from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

In the fourth installment of Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series, Charlotte Holmes and her companions are hired to recover secret letters stashed in a priceless piece of art.

Like the first three novels in this series, The Art of Theft handles an ensemble cast with ease. Thomas’ characters only become more and more realistic with each installation, as the reader follows their fact finding missions from start to finish.

P.S. read my reviews of the earlier books in the series here.

The Art of Theft (Lady Sherlock #4) by Sherry Thomas is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

In the fifth installment of Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series, we see another instance of how small Holmes’ world is in Victorian England. Here, Charlotte and her friends have to solve a murder pinned on Inspector Treadles, a character we have seen more than once in the series.

Unraveling a tangled web of interests, alibis, and motivations, Charlotte has to work with an unwilling suspect and through seemingly unrelated workplace misogyny to determine who the true killer is.

P.S. read my reviews of the earlier books in the series here.

Murder on Cold Street (Lady Sherlock #5) by Sherry Thomas is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

In the sixth Lady Sherlock novel, Charlotte comes face-to-face with Moriarty, who hires her to look in on his estranged daughter. The case feels like a trap — and it is, in many ways — but Charlotte and her team can’t seem to extricate themselves from the hire.

This volume of the Lady Sherlock series did a fantastic job of keeping me engaged. With twists and turns that surpass even the earlier novels, Miss Moriarty, I Presume? left me guessing until the very end.

P.S. read my reviews of the earlier books in the series here.

Miss Moriarty, I Presume? (Lady Sherlock #6) by Sherry Thomas is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

For a book over 800+ pages, I devoured House of Earth and Blood in record time. I don’t know why, but I hadn’t been particularly drawn to this SJM series — maybe because it’s decidedly more modern than the others. However, that feeling of disinterest fell away almost immediately.

There’s a lot of world building in this book, which turns a lot of readers off the series, but I found the introduction to this world to be appropriately detailed. Having now read both this and the second book in the series, I want to go back and re-read this book to catch the world building details I may have missed.

Anyway, all that is to say that, if you’re a SJM fan and you’ve been procrastinating on this shorter series of hers, you’re going to need to start it ASAP. And definitely before book three comes out in January!

P.S. Check out my full reader guide to the Crescent City series here!

House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City Book 1) by Sarah J. Maas is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

If I read the first Crescent City book quickly, it was nothing compared to House of Sky and Breath. How SJM keeps all the characters and storylines together is absolutely mind boggling.

House of Sky and Breath kept me on the edge of my seat from pretty much page one. I loved getting to know all the characters more, especially as Bryce comes into her power.

And the cliff hanger that this book ends on…I mean, good Lord. I need more people to talk to about it!

House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City Book 2) by Sarah J. Maas is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

A bookstagram favorite I’d had on my TBR for a while, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross is a relatively quick read that is almost a mix of Crescent City and The Alice Network. It’s a fantasy world that feels pretty similar to ours, with human characters and plenty of human emotions.

A war-torn romance with vengeful gods in the mix, the novel feels a lot like a foundational text for the Letters of Enchantment series, complete with a cliffhanger ending. The second book in the series — Ruthless Vows — comes out at the end of December.

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.