12 books. 4320 pages. 9 fiction, 3 non-fiction. 3 fantasy, 3 thriller/mystery, 1 contemporary romance, 1 historical fiction, 1 classic, 2 memoir, 1 essay collection. 8 women. 2 people of colour.

Averaging three books a week, I think I might be getting whiplash from the amount of books I’m speeding through! I’m a slow reader too, so this is really a lot for me. There are just too many books I want to read, buddy reads I’ve committed to, and ARCs to read and review! This coming month I’d love to read less books, at a more comfortable pace, and give each book the presence it deserves, instead of worrying too much about getting on with my next obligated read.

Although Halloween has now passed, I plan on getting more spooky fantasy and thrillers in before Christmas. October wasn’t long enough to squeeze them all in! Autumn really is the best season for reading.

– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –

To be published by Gallery Books on 22 Oct 2019
Goodreads | Amazon

Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak.

During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good.

Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason… and whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.

Sometimes I feel like I have no life to write about anymore. I’ve been at a loss for words and have been seeking them out in books. So that’s pretty much my life right now… just books. This has manifested itself in starting a separate book blog and joining bookstagram.

I kept my bookish content separate because I thought the sudden onslaught of it would be too overwhelming here. I thought the intensity of my reading was just a phase, so maybe I shouldn’t subject you to this manic phase of my life. So I kept it apart. I thought, I’m just going through a phase—lost for words, lost for inspiration, lost in life—but I’ll figure it out and then it’ll be back to the regularly scheduled programme.

But no, this “phase” isn’t a detour from who I am. This “phase” is who I am right now and will shape is shaping who I will be. To reject it would leave me… as empty as this blog has become lately. So I’ve decided to retire my book blog and reunite that part of myself here. (My bookstagram will still be going strong though!)

In an effort to balance the bookish content and lifestyle content here, I plan to share my reads in monthly round-ups instead of publishing individual book reviews for every book I read (like I did on my book blog) and instead of lumping them in with my monthly recaps (like I used to do here).

So here are my September reads: 11 books, 4402 pages. 9 fiction, 2 non-fiction. 4 fantasy, 1 literary fiction, 1 contemporary fiction, 1 horror, 1 YA romance, 1 classic. 7 women. 1 person of colour.