Last month went by fast. I read 11 books! 11! And if I had kept up my momentum I would have read 14. Alas, I got distracted by the fanfiction corner of the internet. Meaning AO3. I spent 4 days on AO3.

And then my cat got sick and had to have surgery. I spent so much time being worried about her that I couldn’t focus to read. She is currently wearing the cone of shame.

Yeah, KoKo doesn’t like it either. I had to buy her a new feeding dish and switch her to wet food to get her to eat, because cone of shame!

My poor baby.

But before I got distracted by the world, I read these 11 books!

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

“Never mix vodka and magic.” When Vivienne gets dumped, she gets drunk with her cousin and curses her ex, but it shouldn’t take if you use a Bath and Body Work candle, right? 9 years later, handsome and successful, Rhys returns to town only to find out that he has been cursed. Together he and Vivienne have to work together to break the curse before he, and the town, end up dead.

I really liked this book. I reviewed it last month so you can see my full thoughts about it here, but I thought it adorable. I gave it 4 stars.

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow

Zinnia, having the last birthday she will ever have due to an illness, is thrust into the world of sleeping beauty. But all is not as it seems. Can Zinnia save the day? This short novella was great. I really enjoyed the plot, characters, and writing in this little story. Also, some positive LBGTQ+ rep for you. I gave it 4 stars and have already pre-ordered the sequel.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

Thomas delivers a book, and that opens his life to the occult. This novella was interesting, but it was only a three-star read for me. Even the ending, which was really great, couldn’t make up for the rest of the book.

Noor by Nnedi Okorafo

After tragedy strikes each of them, the augmented AO and herdsman DNA must make their way across the unforgiving Nigerian desert, which has undergone its own cataclysm. This African Futurist novella was great. I really enjoyed the world-building here and the character writing was top-notch. I have a full review here. This was a 4 star read!

A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

Noah’s dad sees monsters. Noah and his family run the horror park his dad built. The difference between Noah and his dad? Noah lets the monsters in. I’ll be honest, I didn’t like this one. I couldn’t connect with the story and the writing was just kinda meh. I DNF’d it.

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Imanuelle is the outsider of outsiders in her puritanical society where the Prophet’s word is law. When an accident causes her to go into the woods she has been forbidden to go in, she finds her mother’s diary and finds out she had taken refuge there herself. The secrets the diary unlocks may be the only thing that can save Imanuelle, and Bethel. I DNF’d this one too. The way the author described even mundane things made me cringe. No one in my book club liked it. So I don’t feel too bad.

Child of Light by Terry Brooks

Auris escape the prison she has lived in since she was 15, which is as far back as her memory goes. Her desperate escape takes her deep into the wastelands and straight into Elven hands. Oh, and she might be an Elf? I wrote a review for this one. You can find it here. I had to look up my own review to find out the synopsis because I had blocked it out. This book was so bad that, even though I had been sent the book to review through Net Galley, I had to DNF it.

Breach of Peace by Daniel B Greene

Officers of God are called to investigate the horrific bothering of an imperial family. What they uncover is a conspiracy that runs far deeper than murder. This novella is the first offering from YouTuber Daniel Green and I think it turned out pretty well. Well enough that I gave it 4 stars.

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales With Fresh Bite by Various

A YA short story collection that is all about vampires. It covers everything, from becoming a vampire to reflections to vampires in the modern era. It had some good stories, some great ones, and a bad one. That being said, I gave this intriguing collection 4 out of 5 stars.

Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper

Emmy Harlow hasn’t been back home in years, but she’s been called back to do her duty as the arbiter of the town witch’s tournament. Of course, that’s when she finds out that her high school ex was dating her best friend, Linden, and was cheating on her with Talia, both of whom are children of powerful with families. Naturally, the scorned women hatch a revenge plot. I really liked this book. I think I’m getting into contemporary romance. Go figure. 4 stars.

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

Silver Borne is the 5th book in the Mercy Thompson series. This one involves an ancient fae relic and an angry fae. I won’t go into more detail because it would spoil the last book. But it should come as no surprise that I love this series. 5 stars.

As far as my TBR for the month is concerned, I only missed it by two books. That’s not bad considering there were 7 books on there. I seem to have read every book but those two though. Oh well. It happens.

On to the stats!

It would appear that, as always, my mood was adventurous. By 8 books.

I’m never exactly surprised by this particular stat. It always seems to match what I think the pace of the book actually is.

If you are surprised I read 10 fantasy books, then it’s like you don’t even know me and I’m gonna take that personally! Just kidding, it’s fine if you are surprised, it just means you’re new here. Welcome!

I find it weird that I very rarely ever give a book a 2 star rating. Oh well. But this was the month of 4 star books. I’m not mad about that.

I must admit, I thought I read more books over 300 pages than I did. 6 seems small.

You can tell where I slowed down my reading last month. I started the month off so strong, and the just stopped. Oh well. There is always this month!

I love sharing my stats with you. It’s one of my favorite parts of the month. If you want to see your stats, you can start using The Storygraph. It’s based out of the UK, so if you are an American user, the page counts are usually off by about five to ten pages, but other than that, it’s great! You can also upload your Goodreads library to it, so it’ll have your stats for months or years past, as long as you updated Goodreads regularly. I did not before I started blogging, so that was my issue. This is not a sponsored post, I just really love this site.

Anywhoo. Have a good reading month!