October was a great month for ARCs, not so much for reading in general. I only managed to finish four full-length books because I got stuck on one of them for over two weeks, but I did manage to squeeze in two novellas and a short story.
- The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee: Preordered and buddy read on release day. It’s just so much fun and the characters and writing are lovely.
- The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee: Got it with the preorder. Adorable and fun little story featuring pretty writing, lots of awkwardness, talking about feelings, and Monty’s incredible talent for screwing things up.
- The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (ARC): My most anticipated elease this year and also the book I got stuck on. Great worldbuilding, great prose, by all accounts I should have loved it, but something about the plot/pacing just didn’t work for me.
- Blood of Heirs by Alicia Wanstall-Burke (ARC): After Monster, I read this one in two days. Nothing groundbreaking, but it’s fun and it read fast, which was exactly what I needed.
- In the Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard (ARC): Queer, Vietnamese Beauty and the Beast. Pretty prose, one of the most original settings I’ve seen, good handling of consent in such a situation. I hope we get to see more of this world.
- Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire: Short and sweet, in all senses of the word. Still my favourite novella series.
- …and a reread of The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan because I was leading a bookclub! Still as good as ever and I finally had people to squee about spoilery things to! Man, I love this book so much.
r/Fantasy Bingo Challenge progress: 34/50 (68%)
Books read this year: 53
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