September was a bit of a doozy for me—before I knew it, it was over, and October was here! Which meant I’d gone a little longer than intended to do one of my LFL Hauls. It was a nice change of pace from my usual 9-5 days, followed by periods of days off that were more to catch up on my chores.
What did I take with me?
I took a few books with me, including previous pull I am Princess X.
Speaking of which, I’d read the Young Adult novel about a week after I picked it up. It was an overall decent YA novel—the blending of comics into the narrative was done pretty well, and the concept of the plot surrounded an ARG, which I really enjoyed as a plot device. Unfortunately, it’s pace was incredibly fast with mysteries that were a bit lackluster, and the character’s never felt nearly as fleshed out as they could’ve. It also suffered from quite a bit of “the character’s first theories were always right”, which is partially why the mysteries fell so flat for me. It was overall a 3⭐ read for me since I was able to read through it pretty fast and the things I did enjoy, I enjoyed a lot.
The other two books I left were Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout and Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. Armentrout’s book was one I saw in Walgreens one day for $10, went “Why not” and bought it, then read ten pages and realized it wasn’t for me. Harrow is a favorite author of mine, having written my favorite short story of all time, The Six Deaths of the Saint. But, I still have complex feelings about Starling House I haven’t entirely unwound.
What waited for me?
I hit up two different libraries in my town, though different ones from last time. The first was in a nice suburban I’d been eyeing every time I left my parent’s house. There were quite a few good nuggets of reads in there and it was well stocked—you could tell the owners who managed it really minded keeping it stocked with a variety of works and clean. The one I ended up picking up was Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer.
I gravitated to the title and found the summary enchanting enough. I tend to gravitate towards novels about the relationships about women, though tentatively. I can be a rocky hill to navigate sometimes, so I’m hoping this book reaches my expectations. It’s not on the top of my TBR, but it’ll get there eventually.
I ended up going to another library that was closer to my home, on the way to a coffee shop I like to frequent and write in. This one has a little reputation with me, because it’s one that’s hardly stocked and, when it is, it’s usually stocked with a librarian’s worst nightmare author selection… You know, James Patterson, Stuart Woods, Nora Roberts.
I did find a relatively nice copy of Kristin Hannah’s Angel Falls though. I’ve been meaning to pick up Hannah, especially with the explosion that was The Women. Though, out of all her books, I never heard of this one, so it’ll be interesting to dive into a more (perceived) niche novel of hers.
Neither of these picks are going to be my next reads, I will say that. I’m currently juggling three reads at the moment, including a book club read that needs to get done by the end of the month.
Also, apologies for dropping off the face of the planet this past month. As I mentioned before, September has been a certain kind of month. I’ve hardly been writing since my nose has been so deep into other things, including hobbies that take significantly less brain power. I’m hoping to write consistently again in this coming month!
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