Hi all!
Welcome to my October 2018 Reading Wrap-Up! I seem to be averaging about 3 books a month. Considering I’m a full-time mama, I would say that’s pretty good! I managed to read my Monthly Classic and Sassy Book Club pick which made me super happy, as well as one of my most anticipated releases of 2018. Unfortunately I wasn’t overly satisfied with anything I read. Without further ado, let’s see what I thought!
1.) THE GOLDEN TOWER (BOOK #5 IN THE MAGISTERIUM SERIES) BY CASSANDRA CLARE AND HOLLY BLACK (KINDLE BOOK)
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PLOT: This is the fifth and final book in the Magisterium Series, so I will not spoil it. The overall story follows a boy named Cal who joins a school of magic despite his father warning him not to. Every year, Cal faces a new threat whilst forced to confront a sinister past with the world’s deadliest villain threatening to return and spread eternal darkness.
MINI REVIEW: If you think this sounds very much like Harry Potter, you are not alone in thinking so. There are many similarities which makes this series quite unpopular. I enjoyed the first three books but the fourth and fifth were so disappointing and boring. I did not like the ending at all and was so underwhelmed by the lack of action.
RATING: I gave this 1/5 stars.
2.) VENGEFUL (BOOK #2 IN THE VILLAINS DUOLOGY) BY V.E SCHWAB (KINDLE BOOK) – SASSY BOOK CLUB PICK FOR OCTOBER 2018
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PLOT: This was our Sassy Book Club pick for October. The live show discussing the novel will be held November 17th at 1pm PST on MissSassyKassie’s YouTube Channel.
I read the first book, Vicious, in February so once again I won’t spoil the plot for the sequel. In this wicked world, we follow two geniuses and roommates by the names of Victor and Eli. They are both highly ambitious, cunning and intelligent. Together, they begin work on a research paper to discover how some humans obtain special abilities whilst under extreme stress/trauma. However, when they try to become EO’s (ExtraOrdinary) themselves, things start to go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison with a mission to eradicate the power-hungry and destructive Eli who is murdering every EO he can find. The plot moves back and forward through time, highlighting the events that saw friends become enemies, heroes become villains and the ordinary become extraordinary.
Vengeful sees our antagonists return, hellbent on finishing off the other…
MINI REVIEW: I really enjoyed this action-packed sequel but wasn’t blown away by it. I found the character of Marcella and her back-story super fascinating. My main issue with this book was that like Muse of Nightmares, I wanted more. Maybe I’m just not a fan of duologies. Overall it was very intense and wonderfully written like Vicious, but the first book was much better!
RATING: I gave this 3.5/5 stars.
3.) LORD OF THE FLIES BY WILLIAM GOLDING (OVERDRIVE BOOK) – MONTHLY CLASSIC PICK FOR OCTOBER 2018
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PLOT: In the midst of a wartime evacuation, a British airplane crashes on an isolated island in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean. The only survivors are boys in their preadolescence. Two boys — the fair-haired Ralph and an overweight, bespectacled boy nicknamed “Piggy” — find a conch shell, which Ralph uses as a horn to lure all the survivors to one area. Ralph is optimistic, believing that grown-ups will come to rescue them but Piggy realises the need to survive just in case. Because Ralph appears responsible for bringing all the survivors together, he immediately commands some authority over the other boys and is quickly elected their “chief”. Ralph establishes three primary policies: to have fun, to survive, and to constantly maintain a smoke signal that could alert passing ships to their presence on the island and thus rescue them. The boys establish a form of democracy by declaring that whoever holds the conch shall also be able to speak at their formal gatherings and receive the attentive silence of the larger group.
MINI REVIEW: I don’t mean to be rude or disrespectful to the author but I was so bored by this novel. Hardly anything happened, the writing was bland and the boys were so mean to Piggy it broke my heart. I found myself skim reading this book due to a strong lack of engagement. Sorry! I thought I would enjoy it so much more considering I love the series Lost, which is loosely based on the novel but nope!
RATING: I gave this 1/5 stars
Thank you so much for reading. Please let me know down below your favourite read of October and what is on your TBR for November. See you next month!
Peace & Love xoxo
Disclaimer: This post contains links to my Book Depository Affiliate which helps fund my blog, I am not being paid or sponsored for this post/products – all my thoughts/opinions are my own
Lord of the flies have been on my TBR for a while, people tend to love this book. I am glad to find a review that tells me otherwise, cause honestly it just didn’t sound THAT good. Think it is going down on my list 😉
Aww thank you, I don’t really understand the hype around that book at all!
My husband keeps telling me to read it, but Idk.. it doesn’t sound that great I guess 😀
Some books just aren’t your cup of tea…like you, I like action in my books so if I read a book without much action or direction, I’ll get bored. I actually haven’t read Lord of the Flies. Maybe one day I will give it a go 🙂