October Reading Round Up – Book Reviews & Goals
Considering how much of a great start I had to the year in terms of planning my reading and smashing through goals, it’s definitely stalled a little now! After my week of flu in September, I’m still not fully back to full steam with reading, work and just general life.
We actually ended up with a super busy October! We had a weekend with my parents planned in Northumberland at the very beginning, which was very lovely – the kids were on top form, and we had a lot of fun. Then we had a weekend in a little lodge with a hot tub planned in Skipton for just the four of us – this was also a lovely break. Then finally, we had a very last minute invitation to join some friends at Center Parcs for our first ever trip there – we couldn’t say no! This was also incredible! So 3 weekends away in one month – phew! There was also a 2 week half term thrown in there for our kids, during which I took off an extra day to spend with them as well as my usual Fridays off.
While this was all wonderful and I had a great time, it’s left me kind of exhausted! I haven’t had as much time or energy to put into reading – plus Celebrity Traitors was on which took up a couple of evenings a week. Finally I had a book that was just a bit of a slog to get through.
My big plan for October was to reread all of ACOTAR in preparation for the release of A Court of Splintered Harmony, but I started late thanks to that flu and the long slog of a book, so I’m actually still finishing off my ACOTAR reread, despite picking up the book last week! Speaking of which, I managed to grab a pre-order with a little goody bag from a fairly local bookshop, Beloved Books in Boroughbridge, so I took the kids there at 7.30am that morning – it was a fun outing!
Anyway, let’s get on with rounding this all up!
October Reading Stats
- I read 8 books total in October.
- 2 books were from Netgalley.
- None out of those were past publication dates!
- 1 book was from my “own but not yet read” shelf.
- None of those books was non-fiction.
- I didn’t complete any series, but 4 books were series continuations (ACOTAR re-read!)
- 1 book was an audiobook.
- I acquired 7 new books.
As I mentioned, I’m on my big ACOTAR reread which I knew would throw the goals off this month and which I had prepped for. What I hadn’t accounted for though was the flu and all those busy weekends and evenings! It means I’m really quite behind on a few goals now – especially looking at that books acquired number!
The book I stalled on was Fairydale – my review is below. It’s not that I didn’t like it, but I expected more from it. It just seemed to take me ages to plough through it. That was the only book on the shelves that I already owned this month, and let me tell you, it was certainly NOT a one in, one out system this month!
So I already knew I’d be buying A Court of Splintered Harmony this month – that was just a given. I also knew I’d have to buy a book or two on our Northumberland trip – I can’t go near Alnwick without a stop at Barter Books! I picked up 3 books there, but one was Iron Flame which I’ve already read, I just didn’t have a copy of.
But I also had a day in York with the kids where we popped into Topping & Company – a new book shop. Honestly, it was incredible – a gorgeous view of the Minster, floor to ceiling bookshelves, ladders to reach the books. Unfortunately, Archie had the biggest meltdown I think he’s ever had in there as I asked him to pick one book, not two! This also meant that in the chaos to get out of there, instead of picking one book from the pile I was carrying to purchase for myself, I ended up just…buying them all! That meant 3 more new books on the shelves.
And finally, when I went to collect ACOSH, I told the kids they could pick a book each (no meltdowns this time, and Archie got to leave with a book!) and it seemed rude to myself not to buy another! So I ended up with another one – and this was a chunky one! It’s The Poison Daughter which I’ve been wanting to read ever since I made the best standalone romantasy books list.
So long story short, my “own but not yet read” shelf dropped to 129 books in September, which made my goal of 120 in 2026 feel totally in reach. But now it’s back up to 135, so I don’t think we’re quite going to hit that one now! I’ll keep persevering though!
On the Netgalley front, no progress on the already published pile, but I’m up to date with current releases, and I’m not too worried about the goal of having 40 already published ones left to read with 2 months still to go.
2026 Reading Goal Updates
Book Reviews from October 2026
The Sugar & Spice Kitchen by Harper Graham
A gorgeously festive and cutesy romance read, I ate this one up!
You can read my full review of The Sugar and Spice Kitchen by Harper Graham on the blog here!
Fairydale by Veronica Lancet
This was something of an epic read – I didn’t dislike it at all, but I didn’t click 100% with it.
Teacher Darcy O’Sullivan receives an odd letter informing her that her estranged father has passed away and she’s to come to the town of Fairydale for the reading of his will. When she arrives, strange events immediately start occurring – a huge storm rolls in, and the townsfolk act oddly around her. It soons becomes clear that she’s mixed up in feuding families, but one, including the notorious Caleb, takes her under their wing. Naive Darcy finds herself falling for him, but by night, her dreams are haunted by another man and another lifetime.
This was definitely an ambitious book scaling several timelines and lives. It’s exactly the type of book I would have loved 10 years or so ago – with dark historical pasts, creepy characters, a bit of horror and supernatural, it ticks all the boxes!
I think what actually threw me with the book was the author’s note before reading. It warns you to make sure that you don’t skim the book as it has complex narrative threads, a complicated plot and an extreme slow burn, and not to spoil it for other readers. This set me up for thinking I was going to be reading something a lot higher level than I was, so I was waiting for huge twists that would shock me to the core. There were a couple of reveals that were fun in it, but I’d mostly figured them out in advance. Sadly I think the expectations lowered my enjoyment of it – if I hadn’t read that section, I would have had more fun just letting the book do its thing alone! I didn’t think it was much of a slow burn at all, especially not an extreme one, and it wasn’t all that dark really either. Maybe I just read too many dark slow burns?!
The warning did also contain a note about it not being an authentic historical fiction and keeping those sections as digestible as possible. I got this feeling from those parts, and actually really liked those. There was a dream-like fantasy quality which was gorgeous.
It was overall a very interesting storyline. It was a bit of an undertaking with the length of the book (which I feel could be shortened a bit in some of the middle parts), but worth the read in the end.
Unbound by Ali Hazelwood
Ali Hazelwood is one of my top romance authors – I’ve enjoyed a variety of her work, and while I haven’t got through all of them yet, there haven’t been any that I haven’t clicked with. Until now, unfortunately!
While I enjoyed the book before this one – Bound – as an audiobook, this one just didn’t hit right for me. The approach from the beginning felt somewhat detached. Maybe it was that it was from the perspective of someone I couldn’t identify with, but then again, I’ve read plenty of books where the character lives an entirely different life from me, and I’ve loved them.
I know I do have issues with enjoying audiobooks as much as regular books, but Ali Hazelwood ones have actually usually been okay for me which is why I picked this one as my next car listen.
The story was fine, the characters were fine. But it just didn’t blow me away and I wasn’t dying to set it off every time I got in the car. Nevertheless, I will absolutely still read/listen to more from the author as this one seemed to be an anomaly for me!
A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J Maas
This is cheating a bit with the reviews here, but I’ve already read all of these at least once before!
I decided to take this reread slowly, forcing myself to slow down and try to pick up on more details. That’s been hard! I got to the beginning of A Court of Silver Flames by the end of the month and am very excited to get on to the new book!
