October was a pretty good reading month for me. I definitely read some unhinged romances – which I will get into because I HAVE to talk about them – and some really great graphic novels. Sadly we did not get any trick-or-treaters this year once again. Even though we put out decorations! I really thought living in the suburbs we would finally get some kids, but no. Did you get any trick-or-treaters? Anyways, let’s move onto the books!
The first book that I want to talk about is Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu by Virginia Nitouhei and Natsuya Semikawa (original creator). This is such a cozy manga. It revolves around food and drinks and making people feel warm while also trying to expand their palette and introduce them to new foods.
I’m a sucker for anything to do with food so this one was right up my alley. I loved that all of the characters each had their own woes and that the food at Nobu was able to help each of them in a different way. I can’t wait to read more of this series!
So I read five Kindle Unlimited “romances” in October. Unhinged, Sap & Spile, East Coast, Squeak, and Squeal all of them by Vera Valentine. I thought that for the most part these were pretty good! One in particular was a little bit more bonkers than the others. According to the Goodreads description, “Unhinged is a paranormal romance story that involves a human woman getting it on with her front door, which later turns into a guy.”. She literally fucks the doorknob on her front door. And then the door magically comes to life! No spoilers on how he can do that but this was my least favorite of this group of KU romances – it wasn’t bad though, just my least fav or the five.
Sap & Spile revolves around Mila as she goes up to a cabin that her dead estranged husband had bought to try and start a maple syrup farm in the woods surrounding the cabin. While she’s up there she goes out into the woods to try and tap the trees and ends up getting lost in the woods in the snow. Her heroes, Sier and Alsam, are male tree dryads that are connected to the woods surrounding the cabin. Sier is the younger softie while Alsam is the older more strict of the two. They are in a committed relationship but after Sier rescues Mila, they are willing to add a third to their relationship. Honestly, this one was really short and I thought it was cute. Not to strong on the spice scale, probably like a 2.5 out of 5, but I did really like the relationship between all three of the characters. I think the most unhinged thing in this is that the dryads come tastes like maple syrup and they put it in HER TEA without telling her.
Next up we have East Coast (Carnal Cryptids) which is a why choose reverse harem monster romance. Our lady main character, Desiderata, is working on the New Jersey boardwalk, trying to figure out where she’s going to live for the off season. While she’s getting a drink at a bar on the boardwalk after her shift, the bartender flights with her and she thinks that there might be something there. That is until she sees that same bartender making out with a college age looking guy. To try and forget the two hot guys from the bar, she agrees to go on a dinner date with the other hot guy that shows up at her job the next day. But it turns out that he is already dating the two hot guys from the bar. So Desi ends up going on a dinner date with all of them. Penn, JD, and Will just need one night to convince Desi to join them. Turns out that she’s a believer with a capital B. That means that she believes in cryptids, the Jersey Devil, the Loch Ness Monster, and Mothman in particular. There’s a lot that happens very quickly in this book and the middle felt a little bit rushed but I really enjoyed the ending with all of them at the lake. Also, if you don’t like dub con maybe skip this one.
The last two, Squeak and Squeal, are about balloon animal and clown shifters respectively. In Squeak we have two balloon animal shifters that were created by an evil witch who runs a carnival. We’ve got upbeat Sebastian and moody Keane who have escaped their captors and are on the run. They currently work at a concession stand at the zoo which is where they meet college student Poppy. They need someone to draw some specific runes for them to break the curse laid on them by their creator and since Poppy is a art student Sebastian decides to ask her to help them, much to the annoyance of Keane. While the three of them are working together on breaking the curse, they quickly realize that Poppy means more to them than they first thought.
No spoilers here but I honestly thought this was a very interesting paranormal romance. I’ve read a lot in this particular genre and I can say with 100% sincerity that this is the first balloon animal shifter book I have ever read. I did love the fact that when they get aroused they smell like a funnel cake, that’s hilarious in the best way.
Next up we’ve got Brooms by Jasmine Walls and Teo DuVall. This graphic novel follows a group of friends as they compete in illegal broom racing. Billie Mae is the captain of the Night Storms, Loretta is her best friend and second-in-command, and Cheng-Kwan is balancing being true ti herself and being a good “son” to her parents. Mattie and Emma are the youngest of the group and are just coming into their magical powers. Billie Mae agrees to train them in broom racing. They are all trying to make enough money to get out West to states that allow Black people to broom race and use their magic without being penalized. Can the girls make enough money to get out? This is one that you need to read for yourself. On Goodreads they describe this book as “a queer, witchy Fast and the Furious” and I couldn’t agree more.
The next graphic novel that I want to talk about is Stories of the Islands by Clar Angkasa. This graphic novel is a short story collection featuring the feminist retelling of four Indonesian folktales, “Keong Mas,” “Bawang Merah Bawang Putih,” and “Timun Mas”. I loved all of the stories in this collection but my favorite was the story about the princess who was cursed to live as a snail. But they were all great stories and I think that they lent themselves to the graphic novel medium very well. The artwork and the colors really popped. I hope that this author does more, I would love to read more Indonesian folktales.
This next book is a manga called The Darwin Incident by Shun Umezawa. This is about a half-human, half-chimpanzee “humanzee” named Charlie. The story starts off fifteen years later with Charlie’s foster parents deciding that it’s time for him to go to high school. Up to that point he’s been home schooled by his foster parents. On his first day he makes his very first human friend, a girl named Lucy. Meanwhile, The Animal Liberation Alliance – the same people who rescued Charlie’s pregnant mom – want him to join their operation. That pretty much covers the first volume of this manga. I can’t wait to see where this goes. It has a very interesting premise and Charlie is such a complex character, I’m excited to see how he grows and changes throughout the series.
Next up is a book called Our Black Hearts Beat as One by Brian Asman. This was a really weird book but in a entertaining way. I don’t know if I would call it a romance but it did have those elements in it. It is essentially about finding yourself after a relationship ends. Our main character, Michael Mallory, is the lead singer of a popular band called Modern Love. He is blindsided when he comes home one day and his long time girlfriend has packed up all her stuff and tells him that she’s leaving him.In his heartbroken state he does something rash, he performs a ritual to get rid of his heart. And it works. A little too well though. He becomes a shadow of his previous self and all of his friends and band mates are concerned. So he goes on a quest to get his heart back which involves him collecting three stories about love and bringing them back to a creature in the basement of a bar. Little does he know that these stories that were so freely given come with a price.
This was a really fun book and the pages just flew by. I haven’t read anything else by this author but I liked this so much that I’m going to read whatever else that he has. Highly recommend if you are looking for a short creepy read.
The last book that I want to talk about is The Woman in Me by Britney Spears. This was such a heartbreaking book to read. I knew a little bit about the conservatorship but I did not know the extent to which her father was controlling her. Even though this was a hard book to read I would recommend reading it. You can really see how strong she is through a large chunk of her life.
That is it for the month of October! I hope you all had a fun and safe spooky month. I can’t wait for Thanksgiving because I get to see my parents for a whole week! I took the week off from work so we can hang out together and do some fun things. There’s a garden where I live that we always go to and I want to take them to a few other places.
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