Books I Read in September 2018

QUICK STATISTICS 📈

one science fiction, two contemporaries, one suspense/thriller

three physical copies and one ebook
three 4 stars and one 5 star
three women and one male

three YA and one adult

two 2018 releases

four books read

1386 pages

WARCROSS BY MARIE LU // 4 STARS
I found this a little hard to get into, which makes sense because there's a lot of world-building involved. And I want the backstory and all the details, but the plot seems to get lost in it, if that makes sense? I decided to stick with it because of all the good reviews, and thankfully it got better. Warcross was entertaining overall, especially the scenes where Emika and her teammates are battling it out together. The romance wasn't convincing to me, although I am curious to see what their relationship will be like in the next book. The last third went by quickly and I will definitely be reading Wildcard since I'm sure there'll be more action in this duology ender. I'm looking forward to seeing this team work together to take down the baddie.

P.S. I STILL LOVE YOU BY JENNY HAN // 5 STARS
This sequel follows the events that happened in To All the Boys I've Loved Before, which is about a girl named Lara Jean who faces the consequences of her secret love letters after they get mysteriously mailed out. If you want to know what I thought about this series starter, you can read my full review here!

My reading experience was strange, at least with the first 80-ish pages, because I felt like we weren't getting any new information. Then I realized I knew what was going on because it was in the MOVIE. I guess they included the beginning portion of this second book and I had no idea. But it didn't change my feelings—I still think P.S. I Still Love You is a solid sequel. I don't want to say too much because of how things ended in TATBILB, so I'll just leave you with three things: 1) Lara Jean still brings it with her naïve and sassy internal monologue, 2) The Song Covey family is still a big part of the story, and 3) I loved that it was a proper reflection of how tough and complex relationships (both friendship and romantic) are.

THE POET X BY ELIZABETH ACEVEDO // 4 STARS
I picked up The Poet X because it made this year's National Book Awards longlist under the Young Adult Literature category, and now I know why. It's a powerful story about family differences, growing up, and finding yourself, and you can tell how heavy the content is from the way Xiomara writes her heart into these poems. The Poet X is a great example of "show, don't tell" and it's really impressive that this story says SO MUCH in such a small amount of words. I don't normally read poetry or books written in verse because I'm afraid I won't "get it" but because I liked this one, I'd love to hear your recommendations.

BELIEVE ME BY J.P. DELANEY // 4 STARS
Believe Me was a roller coaster of a story. If you didn't get whiplash, did you even read this book??? The entire thing was pretty much plot twist after plot twist. (Which I liked, even if some of it was doing too much.) You think you have something figured out, but then you turn the page and J.P. Delaney's probably like: 😏😏😏This was an intense, creepy, and dark read—definitely my kind of thing. Side note, and pretty much irrelevant to my mini review but something I still wanted to share: I felt personally offended because the main character called Elf a "terrible movie." Okay Claire, sure.

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I know this is a little late, so I won't ask you to tell me what you read in September ... haha. Share your most recent read and tell me what you liked (or didn't like) about it!