I'm a month behind with my reading wrap-ups, but I'm making the effort to squeeze in November's before the year is through.
The bookstack photo will have to be added later when I've recovered from Christmas as I'm useless and haven't taken one yet, but until then, I've added my Storygraph infographics to break up my bookish ramblings.
Here's what I read in November:
November Reading Stats:
📖 9 books completed, 1 started.
📖 4 hardbacks.
🎧 5 audiobooks
📖 1748 pages (3324 pages including audiobooks).
🎧 66.55 hours listened at 1.1x or 1.2x speed.
📖 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!
📖 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!
📖 Average rating: 4.19 stars.
📖 Average book length: 415 pages.
📖 Average time to finish: 7 days.
I finished nine books in November and started another, so it was a pretty decent reading month for me- especially as six of them were four or five star reads!
I Read:
📖Wisteria by Adalyn Grace. 5⭐
📖Phantasma by Kaylie Smith. 5⭐
📖Enchantra by Kaylie Smith. 4⭐
📖One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig. 3.5⭐
🎧Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout. 2.5⭐ (Reread).
🎧The War of Two Queens Graphic Audio Part Two by Jennifer L. Armentrout. 5⭐ (Reread).
🎧Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. 3.5⭐
🎧Quicksilver Bonus Scenes Kingfisher's POV by Callie Hart. 4⭐
🎧Quicksilver by Callie Hart. 4⭐ (Reread).
And I Started:
🎧Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline.
Favourite Reads: My favourite book for November was Wisteria. In fact, I loved it so much, it's become an all-time-favourite! The entire Belladonna series was a delight to read, but I'd say Wisteria was the best one yet. It was so magical and whimsical, and came in strong with the enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, and grumpy x sunshine tropes, which were so much fun to see unfold. The back and forth between Blythe and Aris had me laughing out loud a lot, especially while they tried to make each others' lives a misery as they were forced to live together, and pretend they were in love. I loved getting Blythe and Aris' stories and POVs- especially Blythe's, who is my favourite character in the series because she's so fierce, although it was nice to see Signa, Sylas, and Elijah pop up from time to time, too. The book also still retained the ghostly, gothic fantasy, and murder mystery vibes of the first two books, with plenty of chaos, humour, and heartache thrown in for good measure, so it was so well-rounded, and the perfect end to a fantastic trilogy. I honestly think it's one of the best fantasy series I've ever read! Do yourself a favour, and go read it!
I also thoroughly enjoyed Phantasma, a spicy dark gothic fantasy where a young woman with necromancy powers and OCD enters a deadly competition in an old manor house to find her missing sister, and has to team up with a hot ghost in order to survive the trials. Trials that are based around the seven sins and get deadlier with each level of the house. Ophelia has to use her powers and Blackwell's help to give her an edge, while watching her back against the other contestants, a devil determined to stop her from winning, and countless other dangers in the house. All while the voice in her head tries to interfere and make life so much harder for her. The love interest is also a charming but rakish ghost with a sad back story, and plenty of secrets to uncover, and he made it such a fun and surprising read. There is a lot of spice, so you've been warned if you prefer to avoid it, but it thankfully didn't overshadow the main story, or become the entire plot. I enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters, as well as the magic, and trials, but the FMC's OCD was what made the story so interesting to me- particularly as the author shares the condition with Ophelia. I never knew that sufferers of the condition could hear voices urging them to be compulsive, so I feel like I learnt something from this story, while being entertained by how creepy Ophelia's inner voice could be. I'd recommend it if you're over eighteen, but please check trigger warnings first.
Favourite Listens: I really enjoyed listening to The War of Two Queens Graphic Audio Part Two and Quicksilver. They were both rereads for me, but my first time listening to them, and they were really fun in this format. I could listen to the male narrator in Quicksilver, and the guy who voices Casteel in the Blood and Ash series Graphic Audios speak all day.
Least Favourites: My least favourite had to be Fall of Ruin and Wrath. I reread it to complete my audio read of the Blood and Ash universe, but I'd forgotten that the book has no plot, and that the characters are basically just carbon copies of Poppy and Casteel (from Blood and Ash) from an earlier time period. The story was mostly just spice, and it was even more frustrating to listen to than it was in print. I was so bored, I struggled to keep listening, and it took me longer than usual to get through it because I just wasn't motivated. I hope the series improves as I really like Thorne as a character, and enjoyed when he popped up in The Primal of Blood and Bone.
And that's what I read in November.
I'll be back with what I read in December ASAP... so I guess I'll see you in a month or two! Haha!
Have you read anything good lately?
