Read:
Hunting the Five Point Killer by C.M. Wenelboe
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
White Bodies by Jane Robbins
Still Life by Louise Penny
1984 by George Orwell
The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey
UNSUB by Meg Gardiner
I can’t believe October is over already! What a whirlwind! I spent the first half of the month catching up on work and life from being away for a two week honeymoon. Then we decided to immediately immerse ourselves back in the house hunting game. Your girl needs a weekend of naps! Despite my lack of sleep, I can proudly say I’m back on a reading high! I read seven books and the majority were outstanding picks. Seriously there were so many 5 star picks! I did fail to get back in sync with reading graphic novels, but I’m hoping to try again in November.
This month I decided to take a step out of my comfort zone and get to know my fellow Bookstagraming community better! I joined in on two book clubs (@criminallygoodbookclub and #pennypushers), as well as participating in the massive #creepyreads buddy read! For Criminally Good the selection was UNSUB by Meg Gardiner, which I think just became one of my all-time favorite books! This was an insanely captivating story following a serial killer that I could not put down. Book two in the series comes out in January and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy! The Penny Pushers are a group dedicated to reading Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series, which is currently at a whopping 13 titles. The plan is to read a book each month and I started a month behind, so I’m on book two right now still playing catch up. STILL LIFE reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel and the cozy community, Three Pines, which is the setting for the entire series, made me fall in love. Definitely a well deserved 4 stars! Lastly in my group reading undertaking was a buddy read of WHITE BODIES by Jane Robbins. This book was insane! Some of the things the characters did just had my jaw on the floor and I couldn’t help but rate this one 5 stars!
October was also about catching up on some reads I took with me on my honeymoon, but never picked up (except of course to photograph!). The first was THE SNOWMAN by Jo Nesbo. I’ve read a few Nesbo titles this year and have been captivated by his writing style. THE SNOWMAN is book seven in Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, which recently released as a movie. I knew I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie, but I was hesitant to start so far in to the series. After much encouraging from fellow readers I dove in and I was not disappointed! I loved every moment of this 5 star, breakneck-paced book and hated having to put it down. I also caught up on some classics reading with 1984 by George Orwell. My husband had read this book a few months ago and asked me to push it up on my list so that we could chat about it. Now my husband likes to read, but he’s not obsessive like myself, so I took full advantage of this and read it immediately. I’m only sorry I was never assigned this book in school because it was mesmerizing and terrifying all in one! A very dystopian 5 stars!
This month also had me doing a bit of NetGalley catching up with two titles that had been on my shelf for a while. First up was HUNTING THE FIVE POINT KILLER, which was a fun look into a murder investigation, but with a different point of view. Instead of focusing on the standard police procedural template, the reader was following along with a former detective turned consultant to solve the case. This unique perspective earned the novel a 4 star rating. Unfortunately, THE DARK LAKE wasn’t such a fun NetGalley selection. I had high hopes for this debut novel, which was selected as a Book of the Month Club choice, but I found myself drowning in subplot focused on the main character’s past and present. Normally I wouldn’t knock having various story lines in a novel, but this particular instance felt too forced and did not lend anything to the overall book. Bailey did accomplish pulling out an exciting ending to the book, which bumped my rating up to 3.5 stars. I’ll be interested to see where she takes this series, but I’ll be reading a lot of reviews before picking up another installment.
Here’s to November! Happy reading!
What Jess Reads 