Alli the Book Giraffe

Hello readers! This was a crazy reading month. I read less books this month than the previous two and even hit a bit of a reading slump, but I still did pretty well with 15 books!

How did your reading month go this month? I finally hit 100 books this month. I honestly didn’t think I would get anywhere near that just a few months ago.

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Cyndicate follows a group of people while they are trying to get into this assassin’s academy and we follow them while they are in it as well.

I loved all the characters, especially Pym. For the tropes, we have a why choose romance with a good amount of spice sprinkled throughout and the found family trope, which is always a good one. There is a badass FMC being Pym and the men have that possessive energy that most romance lovers cannot get enough of. VERY touch her and die vibes. Pym is someone who has never really had a true family and it was great to see her gain one by chance.

The writing is amazing. Some of the best I’ve read in my time being a reader. It’s very fast paced with a lot of action and so immersive. One thing I didn’t love is how long the chapters are toward the beginning, but it wasn’t a huge deal.

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This book was unlike any other I’ve read before. It follows this plus size, NB fae witch named Wolfsbane who is supposed to marry the Solar Prince, but ends up kidnapped by his brother instead. The way the Solar Prince gets his power to become the Solar King involves our MC and his brother gains it instead and we follow all of them trying to win a war between both the brothers for the greater good.

The MC also starts to fall for the brother who took them and his wife. So, we have a why choose (including another character), enemies to lovers, and a TON of spice. There is plenty of plot here, but there is also a big portion of the book dedicated to spice as well.

The way the pronouns were handled was so unique. I love that noone is referred to as a man or a woman, but masc or femm.

The worldbuilding and magic system itself was amazing. I love the character names and Wolfsbane was a great character to follow. I can’t to see what happens to them and everyone else next!

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This one follows a woman named Naomi who has been called to Knockemout by her twin sister for help. She has just left her fiance at the alter and is in town to meet Tina, her twin she hasn’t seen in years.

The twin ends up stealing her car, other belongings, money, and identity and leaves her with an 11-year-old that she has never met before.

This book was just too long. I dreaded picking it up every time. I liked the overall story, but I didn’t enjoy making it to the plot. The first 50 pages are really strong, but it doesn’t pick up again until after 300 pages. I’m going to try to read book two for the GCA post if it is higher up on the list, but I’m not excited.

It’s also weird to me that book two follows the MMC from book ones brother and ex girlfriend. That’s just the oddest matchup for me, but I also loved the ex girlfriends character when she was introduced in book 1.

I didn’t like the MMC at first, but he did grow on me. He is one of those characters who is just mean an negative to everyone and each person in this book gave him a high dose of a reality check and it helped him a lot.

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This was a really short story that went along with the Monstrous Deals series that can only be obtained through Ami Wright’s patreon or newsletter.

I didn’t really enjoy this one. It was too short and as a result didn’t have much of a build up to the romance. It was also a bit more monster than I’m comfortable with. If it were 100 pages longer, it would’ve been much better!

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This was a really short spicy romance, despite the cover making it appear as if it’s a cozy mystery.

This book was EXACTLY what I was searching for. I wanted a book with a plus size man in it and I found it. I’m so tired of every single MMC looking the same in every book and I needed one like this.

This is the first time reading Talia Hibbert for me and I was absolutely be reading more from her after this. I know she writes a lot of plus size characters and I always welcome that.

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Blood Moon follows a witch who owns this bar and a vampire who has opened a rival bar. He has these mafia-type people helping him to sabotage her business to make his bar more popular, but they start to fall for one another, which makes him question everything.

This was a great paranormal romance to read when I was in the middle of a slump. I loved both characters, their interactions, and how the book finishes up between them.

There are also other books that are connected to this one in some way and I’m hoping to read those when I have some time.

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This was one that I got on Stuff Your Kindle day and it was super short, so I went ahead and read it.

It was honestly okay overall. It follows a woman who is promised to be married to a man who only wants her for her money. Her parents are part of this mafia and so is the fiance.

She goes to escape the restaurant to get away from the marriage when she is then kidnapped by the MMC and held in his house. He was definitely her stalker up until he kidnaps her, if you like that trope. I don’t mind it.

There is a huge age gap between them and honestly what gave me weird vibes but two things. One, he had been stalking her for three years and she was 21. Also, they kept focusing how tiny she was and that made me have the ick a little bit. It made me feel like she was being infantilized the whole time while he was also desiring her and that was just a bit gross.

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I think I also got this one on Stuff Your Kindle Day. It’s one of those snowed in romances. Ava approaches Garland seeking a financial break for her parent’s bed and breakfast. It isn’t doing well because it’s in this tiny town.

She goes to his house after their meeting goes wrong and a blizzard happens. They get snowed in together for around a week and romance ensues.

It was better than I thought it would be and even is part of a series! I’m excited to try the rest of the books.

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I downloaded this one because it wasa Christmas book and was Katee Robert. However, it just wasn’t good. It’s WAAAY to short for one. It’s labeled as a romance but isn’t one.

Basically the MC is visited by Krampus and he ‘punishes’ her for a murder she committed. We didn’t get the details for the murder, but we were told it was for a good reason.

The two characters don’t even speak more than a few sentences to one another, so there is not romance at all.

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This one is a romance between a woman named Holly and Santa. Santa is this sort of alien in this book.

I honestly read this because I thought the title was hilarious and it was surprisingly really good. The MC is anti-Christmas and when we finally learn why, it’s actually really sad.

I would absolutely recommend this one if your looking for a smutty Christmas romance!

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This one follows Collette who has become Queen and not everyone loves that. She is much nicer than her predecessor, but some people still find reasons to hate her.

The first half was a bit slow, but the second half really picked up and ended on one of those spots that has you both excited for book two and mad it isn’t out yet.

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The Fine Print was a fun read. It’s a romance between one of three brothers doing a assigned task by their recently deceased grandfather to obtain their portion of Dreamland, which is basically Disneyland.

We follow Rowan, who is one of the brothers, and Zahra, who is a long-time employee trying to become a creator. Rowan is one of those people who is mean to everyone and Zahra helps him to see how his actions affect everyone at Dreamland.

It was such a great story and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

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This is a romance between a plus size FMC named Nellie and her brother’s best friend Jake.

Nellie doesn’t see her family much. Her parents both died very recently and her brother doesn’t treat her well. He hates her job and her size and lets it be known at every moment he can. Honestly her brother was insufferable.

Jake was great, though. He has been friends with Nellie’s brother since childhood and has always wanted to go for Nellie but hasn’t. THEN, they end up forced to share a hotel room and this causes them to face their feelings for each other. It was a cute story when I really needed one. I have been so slumpy this month and this was so refreshing. It does have some tough topics, but is still very lighthearted and had me laughing all the way through. It comes out on the 2nd of November if you want to give it a try!

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This is the 4th book in the Wicked Darlings series and is a retelling of A Christmas Carol. I LOVED this one, which I was not sure about before reading.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved books one and two, but book three just lacked so much. I’ve always said that I loved this series because it’s so spicy and action packed and manages to balance everything well. Book three was mostly just spice.

Book four though brought back the balance! It was perfectly spicy with a great enemies to lovers going and has plenty of plot to balance it out. This one is barely connected to the previous three books, but I still enjoyed it and would love to see these characters interacting with the previous ones in a future book.

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A Conduit of Light is a fantasy romance following a woman named Ash who is taken to a new city to train as a Conduit as a payment. There is this disease that is taking out many people and the Queen’s child gets it and the only payment the healer will take is Ash.

I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. The magic system was really unique and so was the world. I also loved all the characters, but would’ve loved to see more of Clairannia and Figureah, which are the FMCs friends.

I don’t know when book two is coming out but I will be reading it for sure.

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