September Reading Wrap-Up | Mini Reviews and My Book Haul!

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven’t been posting too much lately. I’ve been super busy with classes, and I literally feel like I’m drowning in work! It’s okay though, I’ve made time just for you guys, and I thought it would be nice to do a shorter “catch-up” post about all my bookish antics. This post may or may not be all over the place, but I’m hoping to just give a wrap-up of my month with a short review of Always Never Yours & The Inheritance Games and talk about my latest book haul! I know, way too much to cover in one post, but I promise we can get through it (because I don’t read or buy too many books hahaha).

BOOK REVIEWS – AKA THE ACTUAL WRAP-UP

So, here goes my monthly September wrap-up! I read a whopping two books in September (absolutely spectacular, I know right), but the good news is that I really liked everything! I barely read towards the beginning of September, but I went on some spree or whatever and finished two books in the same week towards the end of the month (AND it only took me one day to read each of those). I have no clue what that means for my (basically year-long) slump, but I was really happy to at least get something in!

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

THIS BOOK! It’s so good! If you take away anything from this post, I hope it’s adding this to your TBR, because I want to talk about this book with everyone (2,000+ ratings on Goodreads?? way too low). This has to be one of my biggest “surprises” of the year, tied with the Aurora Cycle, because it’s not normally something I would go for! I’m a YA fantasy person, and this mystery/contemporary/thriller is quite literally the opposite of that. But the second I saw this at Barnes and Nobles, I knew I needed it. I mean, it’s marketed as “perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying and Knives Out” so we know it’s got to be good.

This book basically goes over a mystery of how Avery Grambs, a seemingly random girl, received the inheritance of the billionaire, Tobias Hawthorne. Tobias leaves a note to his grandsons that details how to solve this mystery, and the entire book goes over them finding out who Avery is, while also revealing mysteries and information about their own complex lives. There are riddles intertwined in the book (which I LOVE) and the clues leading up to the climax of the book kept me really intrigued. The pacing worked really well with the book, and I was quite surprised by how fast the book flew by.

I loved the cast of characters, but really enjoyed Xander, most of all. I can sense that the sequel is going to have a focus on him, but I wish we had more of him in this book! He was really only there to talk about scones like once or twice, until he played a little importance with the final reveal, as the book really only focused on two of the brothers, Jameson and Grayson. I kind of hated the love triangle in this (and I never really like them *ever*) so it annoyed me a little to read about, but I liked the characters individually enough to keep going.

Okay, and while I liked the mystery and the sub-plot with Emily, the solution to Avery’s identity and why she might have been the heir was a little anticlimactic for my tastes. I thought that there was so much build up and it just kind of fell flat. There is another plot twist and cliffhanger that leads up to the sequel immediately after that reveal that is MUCH more interesting, so I’m not sure if that was supposed to be the final mystery “answer,” but I’ll keep it at that. The cliffhanger was like so out of nowhere, and I loved it (but also hated it because I need to wait for the second book)!

So, abrupt review over, it was an amazing book, and you should all read it!

Always Never Yours – Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka

I picked this one up because of a friend on Instagram, and I’m really happy I gave it a try! I usually go for YA fantasies, so it was a nice break from what I usually read. I do typically rate contemporary romances different than other books, since I usually read them for the “feel-good” factor, so you can feel free to keep that in mind while reading my mini-review!

I gave this book a four star rating and just thought that it was a really cute, adorable contemporary/romance read! I liked the school setting, and I enjoyed the book’s focus around the school’s Romeo and Juliet play (and just plays in general). The book was definitely predictable with the relationships, but it usually doesn’t bother me too much in these types of books. As for the characters, there were also some parts where Megan got a little too cringey for my tastes, but I absolutely adored Owen, sooooo “you win some and you lose some?” hahaha. But anyways, it was a really great contemporary romance as a whole, and it was a great lighter read!

BOOK HAUL

I kind of hauled in a lot of books this month! I got a couple of books for some Instagram tours, and I also bought two books in September! I also cleared an old bookshelf of mine that I had old books in, so I finally have space! No more books on the floor…they have a real home now! I’m way too excited about that, so let’s get to the fun stuff and see what I hauled in!

So, for the two books I bought, I hauled in both Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas and the Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes! I took a trip to Barnes and Nobles the other day because I HAD to have the exclusive edition of Cemetery Boys, and got the Inheritance Games because it wasn’t at my library and the description sounded too good for me to not get. Both covers are so gorgeous though, and I’m literally going to attach pictures just to show you (from my Instagram, also for a little self-promo)!

Sooo, in addition to that, I got a couple of books for some book tours! I was able to get copies of Thorn by Intisar Khanani, Breathless by Jennifer Niven, and Far from Normal by Becky Wallace (plus The Truth Project by Dante Medema from today, but it’s October, so I don’t know if it belongs in my September Wrap-Up haha)!

So anyways, that’s it, so thanks for reading through and sticking by! I know my posting is horrible irregular right now, but I’m going to try to post whenever I can! I hope you enjoyed this post, and feel free to let me know below in the comments if you had any favorites from September, or if you bought anything interesting!

Happy Reading!

-Allison