BOOOOOOOOOOOO! 😛 Happy Halloween!

I can’t believe October is already over! I feel like it just started, but it was a pretty busy month for me. Some good things and some not so good things. As far as reading goes though, this month was one of my better reading months even though I was pretty busy with life. Last month I only read 3 books, but this month I managed to read 4 books and listen to 6 audiobooks! I didn’t read a whole lot of books from my Halloween themed TBR like I had hoped, but like I mentioned, it was a busy month for me and I was still battling a slight reading slump.

Onto my recap! You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. *sadly I majorly slacked on reviews this month*

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read by myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of October.

a monster calls by patrick ness – 5 out of 5 stars. – REVIEW.
I am so glad that I finally read A Monster Calls. It was such an amazing book and it had me crying quite a bit. The story was so beautifully written and the illustrations that went along with it made the reading experience even better. I can’t wait to see the movie! Feel free to check out my review for more.

dark matter by blake crouch – 5 out of 5 stars.  – REVIEW.
Seriously one of the best books I’ve ever read. The writing itself was so good. The story itself is really relatable and a main character that you will love and continue to root for. It’s so fast paced and action packed. It was so hard to put down. It definitely lived up to all the hype. Feel free to check out my review for more.

sanctum by madeleine roux – 4 out of 5 stars.
I read Asylum last October and decided to read Sanctum this October. It was really good and it was cool being back into this world. I was a bit disappointed with the pictures in the book, because I was hoping for a lot more creepy pictures like Asylum had. I still enjoyed the book though and can’t wait to pick up the third one.

lily and the octopus by steven rowley – 4 out of 5 stars.
This was one of the saddest books I ever read and I kept trying to put myself into the main character’s shoes with my own dog and just couldn’t do it. It made reading it even harder, because I kept thinking about my dog. I cried A LOT! I don’t think there was a time where I didn’t have tears in my eyes. The story was really good and I enjoyed it so much even when it was sad the majority of the time.

Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of October.

nightmare city by andrew klavan – 2 out of 5 stars.
I wasn’t really sure what was happening, eventually it came together and it wasn’t that great. The suspense was annoying and it wasn’t that exciting.

i am not a serial killer by dan wells- 3 out of 5 stars.
I was thinking I Am Not A Serial Killer would be similar to I Hunt Killers (one of my favorite books and I am sure you guys seen me talk about it a lot), but it took a completely unexpected turn and got weird lol. I still liked it, but it wasn’t awesome or what I expected.

christine by stephen king – 5 out of 5 stars.
I’ve never read a Stephen King book before, but I decided to give a couple of his books a try this month to get into the Halloween spirit and theme I was trying to go for with my TBR. I ended up LOVING Christine so much. It was the perfect amount of creepy and the story itself was so good.

acceleration by graham mcnamee – 3 out of 5 stars.
I’m not really entirely sure what to say about Acceleration. I liked it and it was pretty enjoyable. It didn’t blow me away though.

carrie by stephen king – 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.
I was kind of disappointed with Carrie, because I loved Christine so much. I think I had my hopes set way too high. I still really enjoyed this book though and it definitely had some creepy aspects to it.

the outsiders by s.e. hinton – 4 out of 5 stars.
I read The Outsiders when I was in school and I liked it then. I honestly completely forgot everything that happened in the book, so I decided to do an audiobook reread. It was so good! I am sad I forgot everything when I read it years back, but it did feel like I was reading it for the first time again and I loved it. I teared up quite a bit and it had me laughing at times too.

What books did you read this month? Feel free to link me to your wrap up/recap posts!

I was Harry Potter for a couple Halloween parties.
On the second picture that’s my older sister.
She was a cat, so I said she could be my house pet cat. 😛

And just because it’s Halloween, here are some orange and white books.
I am also wearing my Hocus Pocus shirt today!
I can’t wait to go home and watch the movie tonight.

In case you missed it:
Book Haul| October
Monthly Subscriptions.

I hope you have an awesome Halloween or if you don’t celebrate then I hope you have a good day!

Hey!

I’m so sad that October is almost over. It’s one of my favorite months! On a happy note though, I got some books that I am really stoked about! I’ve been trying to be a little pickier when it comes to buying books and it’s starting to work out better for me. I ended up getting several books this month, but books that I am very happy about and can’t wait to read.

Last year I went book buying crazy and bought anything and everything and what has that done for me? It gave me an OVERWHELMING amount of books on my physical shelves and my Kindle shelf. Some books I don’t even know if I really even want to read. At the time I got them because they sounded interesting and I’m like “BOOOOOOOKS” and now I’m like “WHAT IS THIS AND WHY DO I HAVE IT?”.

I decided to do some math yesterday and with my physical books and e-books combined, 70% of those books are UNREAD! That’s an insane number! So now I am being picky about what I buy from now and I need to get that 70% waaaaaay down. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Onto my October book haul!

Amazon/Target:

Replica by Lauren Oliver
Sanctum by Madeleine Roux
Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

Replica was one of my preorders for the year and it’s finally here! I can’t wait to dive into it. I read Asylum last year and loved it, so I decided to order Sanctum to read this year and it was really good! I seen that Holding Up the Universe was getting a lot of good reviews, so I seen a signed copy at Target and decided to buy it. It sounds like it’ll be a good read.

Doctor Who Dot-to-Doc by Price Stern Sloan (linked to Amazon)
Where to Eat Pizza by Daniel Young (linked to Amazon)
After the End by Amy Plum

I had to order the Dot-to-Doc book! It’s dot-to-dots, but Doctor Who! I haven’t had the chance to do any yet, but I know it’s going to be fun! Each one has over a thousand dots! I want to get a ruler before I start. My older sister bought me this Where to Eat Pizza book. It tells you the best places to eat pizza around the world! This book is REALLY important. Pizza is life and I am stoked to have it, lol. My friend Shelbie from Book Shelbs sent me After the End. I read it and loved it, so I am glad I own my own copy now!

Goodwill:

Slated By Teri Terry
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I found these two books at Goodwill. I’ve read Shiver and really enjoyed it, so I figured for a $1 why not own it. I have Slated on my Goodreads TBR, so it was cool finding it at Goodwill.

Book Outlet:

It wouldn’t be a proper book haul without a couple Book Outlet orders, lol. I’ve been trying to be good this month and not get so many books, but I did get several.

Half Lost by Sally Green
The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray

Now that I have Half Lost and The Winner’s Kiss, I can start binge reading these series! I started A Thousand Pieces of You, but didn’t get far into it. I seen Ten Thousand Skies Above You and had to get it, because pretty cover! 😛

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine
Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan

I am so glad I found these two on Book Outlet. I’ve been really wanting to get my hands on them, so at about $5 each that’s pretty awesome. I’ve been trying to hold off on getting books until they show up on Book Oulet.

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
Frozen Tides by Morgan Rhodes

I ordered the Jane Steele book last month, but there was so many complications with the book being delivered to me. I finally got it after like a month of the mail being screwed up and them having to send me a new book. I’ve been slowly collecting the Falling Kingdoms series as Book Outlet gets them and I finally got my hands on Frozen Tides. I love this series so much. I am now just missing book one. I may break down and buy it on Amazon if Book Outlet doesn’t get the hardcover by December when the 5th book is released.

E-Books:

Once again I have been pretty good on the e-book front. I haven’t gotten a ton this month, which is a good thing considering I have so many to read already.

Sabriel by Garth Nix
Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas
Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood
The Fall of Butterflies by Andrea Portes

ARCs/Review Books:

Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist

The Novl sent me an ARC of Love and First Sight. I am so stoked to read this one! It sounds like it’s going to be really good and it’s one of the books that I am really stoked about.

The Ugly Teapot by Fred Holmes

The author for The Ugly Teapot sent me a copy of his book to read and review, which I plan to read in November. It sounds SO good and I can’t wait to dive in! Goodreads description below.

“Fourteen-year-old Hannah Bradbury loved her father so much that she worried about him constantly. After all, he was a photographer who traveled to the most dangerous places in the world. To allay her fears, each time he came home he brought her silly gifts, each one with supposed magical powers: the Seal of Solomon, the Ring of Gyges, even Aladdin’s Lamp. It was that lamp Hannah found the most unbelievable, for it looked like an ugly teapot. Nevertheless, her father assured her it was real, and made her promise to save her three wishes for something very special. Then . . . six months later . . . the unthinkable happened. Her father was killed while on assignment to Baghdad. And so on the day of his funeral Hannah did something she never thought she would ever do. She took out that teapot and gave it a rub . . .”

Last, but not least, I got these really cute bookmarks from HappyHelloArt.

Stranger Things! I binged the first season in a day and completely fell in love with it and I couldn’t not resist buying these bookmarks when I seen them. Eleven even has a waffle! YES!

What books did you get this month? Have you read any of the ones that I got? Feel free to link me to your haul posts, so I can check them out!

In case you missed it;
Monthly Subscriptions.
Tag|| Netgalley.

I’ll have my October wrap up posted on Monday! 😀 I hope you have a great day!

Hey! 😀

I am back to share a couple of the subscription boxes/envelopes I got this month. I’m actively subscribed to the Craftedvan Read Happy Plan and from time to time when I see a box theme that I think I’ll love, then I will purchase that.

Craftedvan Read Happy Plan:

Craftedvan makes and sells magnetic bookmarks on Etsy and they came up with a new subscription service called the Read Happy Plan and every month you get a set of bookmarks and an art print.

I got a really spooky vibe from this month’s Craftedvan package! I am loving all of these bookmarks. It was the first time they tried googly eyes on a bookmark, which was so cool! Look how cute the little googly eyed monsters are! I think my favorite would definitely been the bath reading a book though. This is my favorite one so far!

Appraising Pages: The Hocus Pocus Box:

Appraising Pages does the monthly subscription box called The Bookish Box, but sometimes they’ll have a fandom one-time themed box. They are the ones that I received my Supernatural box from in the past. This month they were selling a Hocus Pocus box. It’s one of my favorite Halloween movies, so I knew I had to have it!

Winifred Pin from Jar of Buttons
Candle from Cherry Pit Crafts
T-Shirt – “it’s just a bunch of Hocus Pocus” from Appraising Pages
Bracelet with words from the song Sarah sings from Authored Adornments
Travel Mug – “oh look, another glorious morning. makes me sick” from Drop and Give Me Nerdy

The bracelet is definitely one of my favorite things in this box. I love the glass bubble bracelets. I am so stoked about both of these subscription boxes that I got this month! I am really glad that I continued to stick with Craftedvan and that I jumped on the opportunity to get the Hocus Pocus box. I think I would have regretted it if I didn’t get these two!

Next month I’ll have another Craftedvan package to share and I decided to get OwlCrate‘s Wonderland themed box, because I LOVE Alice in Wonderland. I am pretty sure I already know what the book will be, but it’ll have an exclusive book cover just for OwlCrate and I’m stoked to see what that cover will look like!

In case you missed it;
Tag|| Netgalley.
Thoughts|| Dark Matter.
Random|| Update & Bookish Pictures.

I hope you have a great day!

Hey!

I have hardly posted anything this month and I’m sadly not getting through my Halloween themed TBR like I had hoped either. 😦 It’s been a busy month for me and kind of a crazy one too, especially the stress factor of it all. This weekend I’m supposed to be having a Halloween themed engagement party and hopefully that’ll be fun. I get to make all the dessert for the party, which I am stoked about. I just hope they turn out okay! I figured I would do another picture post update since I haven’t really been updating my blog much this month. I hope you enjoy!

I mentioned my engagement party that’s this weekend and I got some wedding gifts early! I thought I would share them, because I love them so much! The fiance’s parents got us this armadillo lamp and this stag head wall decor. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! You have no idea. I had them on my registry and I am so glad I got them. My cousin/bestie got one of my engagement pictures blown up and framed for us, which is so awesome. It’s one of my favorite pictures we took.

Celebrated the fiance’s 3oth birthday earlier this month. I surprised him with things the entire weekend. On Friday I gave him some birthday presents, Saturday we had pizza, and then Sunday I decorated our bedroom door with balloons and banners.

Sunsets will forever be my thing. I am obsessed with taking pictures of them and I’m sure I have said that a million times on here, lol. Here are a few I’ve taken recently.

The furbabies! I tried to get a “Fallish” picture of Dax, but he wouldn’t really sit for the picture. The only reason why I have any of the cats is because they like to get in my way when I take pictures for my bookstagram, LOL.

More furbaby pictures, because I love these guys so much. ColbyJack and October playing with a treat toy. Dax and October laying together.

Trying to get back into the gym. I don’t have that much longer to lose some pounds and shape up before my wedding. I feel like time is flying. My wedding is in FIVE months and I feel like I’m drowning in things to do. To relax and take away some of the stress, I picked up coloring again. My cousin got me some new adult coloring books.

I am currently reading Sanctum, which is the second book in the Asylum series. I really enjoyed Asylum and Sanctum is pretty good as well. It’s taking me awhile to get through it though, because I feel like I haven’t fully gotten out of this lame reading slump I’ve been in for months. I did also decide to take a break from this to read Dark Matter since it was going to be returned to the library in a few days.

So I was taking a picture for my bookstagram and I was using these books, because I needed books with maps. Well after taking off my book sleeves, I discovered that my A Court of Mist and Fury book is missing the title and stuff on the spine! WTF!? LOL. I’m a bit annoyed by that, but it’s also kind of funny. Anyone else have any problems like this with their book or any books? Someone told me they seen some people have issues with the Six of Crows book where it was printed upside down or only half printed.

Below are some pictures I took for my bookstagram and for the photo a day challenge that I am doing. Feel free to add my on Instagram! foreverbookish_ (bookstagram) & heyyitsashley (personal account). I’ll tell you the theme for the pictures below.

Green Books & Sock Sunday

Rainbow Books & Fall Colored Books

Fairytale Book & Book + Coffee

I ordered the Hocus Pocus box from Appraising Pages and I finally got it. Everything is perfect! I’ll be doing an unboxing on my bookstagram in a couple of days. I’ll also do a post at some point this week with what’s inside too. The Novl sent me an ARC of Love and First Sight and I am so stoked! It’s a book that I really really want to read!

In case you  missed it;
Thoughts|| Dark Matter.
Thoughts|| A Monster Calls.

I hope you have a great day!

HEY! 

It’s no surprise that I LOVE Halloween. Last year I made a Halloween themed TBR with some spooky books on it to read. I wanted to do that again this year. I decided to go with ten books for my October TBR. I wanted to give myself a lot of options just in case I’m not into some and I’ll still have plenty of others to choose from. There’s a good chance that I probably won’t read every single one, but it would be nice if I did! I may also find some spooky audiobooks to listen to this month as well. Here is my October Halloweenie TBR!

Physical Books:

The Merciless by Danielle Vega
Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano

I have been wanting to read The Merciless, Blood and Salt, and A Monster Calls for so long now. I have been putting it off, so I could read them in October. Pretty stoked to finally dive into them! I actually made A Monster Calls the first book that I read this month and I’m a little over 30 pages into it.

The Dark Between by Sonia Gensler
Beyond by Graham McNamee
Sanctum by Madeleine Roux
Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

Last year I read some of the stories in Slasher Girls & Monster Boys and this year I am going to read some more of the stories. I really enjoyed the ones that I read and can’t wait to read some others. I will probably read them randomly to get a break from reading full books or if I feel myself getting into a slump. I read Asylum last year as well and decided to get the sequel to read this year.

E-Books:

The Outside by Laura Bickle
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs

I read The Hallowed Ones for my Halloweenie TBR last year, so I decided to put the sequel The Outside on my TBR this year. I loved that book and I am excited to see what happens next! I really want to finally finish the Miss Peregrine’s series. I had this on my TBR last year, but I ended up not reading it. Hopefully this year I finally will. I went to see the Miss Peregrine’s movie on Saturday and I loved it! 😀

At least 5-6 of these books are books that will be able to go toward my Read My Books challenge this month as well, so that is exciting! I have been pretty much slacking with that challenge. I’m trying to read 30 older books that I’ve had for a year or longer for that challenge.

Do you plan to read any spooky Halloweenie type books this month? What is on your October TBR? Feel free to link me to your posts!

In case you missed it:
Recap|| September.
Book Haul|| September.

I hope you have a great day!

September was the worst reading (and blogging) month I’ve had in a really long time. I am quite disappointed in the fact that I didn’t read a lot of books or listen to any audiobooks. I have been in this on-going reading slump and I just have not been in the mood to read a ton of books, sadly. Not reading also really affected my blogging as well. I was also pretty busy in September with other things going on in my life, so my mind has been preoccupied with other things. I still managed to read a few books, so I guess a few is better than none! I will also say that the books that I did read I enjoyed, so that is a plus too.

Keep reading to to see the books that I read in September. You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read by myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of September.

attachments by rainbow rowell – 3.5 STARS OUT OF 5.
I really enjoyed Attachments. It wasn’t Rowell’s best book, but it was still good and it was really cute. I liked the characters and it was pretty easy to read. There were a few boring parts, but over all it was good and I am glad I finally read it. It was the only older book on my shelves that I read this month for my Read My Books challenge.

point of retreat by colleen hoover – 4 OUT OF 5 STARS.
CoHo…no disappointment there. I don’t think she has ever disappointed me yet. This was the sequel to the Slammed series. I really enjoyed this one and I loved getting to get back into the store and enjoy the characters again. I flew through this book in about a day. It was hard to put down and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book. I did enjoy Slammed a little more than the sequel though.

a bitter pill to swallow by tiffany gholar – REVIEW. – 4 OUT OF 5 STARS.
I was sent a ebook copy of A Bitter Pill to Swallow from the author in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this story. It deals with mental illness and I really think that this is an important book to read. I can’t really say why, because then it gives away the story! You can check out my review for more about my thoughts on the book. It’s spoiler free and linked above.

Currently Reading:
These are the books that I am currently reading and didn’t get around to finishing in the month of September.

lily and the octopus by steven rowley

I am halfway through Lily and the Octopus. I really like this book, but it’s also really depressing! I might put the second half of this book on hold until November, because I want to read spooky/Halloweenie type books in October and this one is so depressing and not what I want to be reading right now. I do plan to finish this book though, because I really like it and I want to see what happens with Lily, Ted, and the Octopus.

What books did you read this month? Feel free to link me to your posts, so I can check them out!

I have completed my Halloweenie TBR list and I will be posting which books I am going to read this month on my blog on Monday! If you check out my bookstagram, then you will get to check out my list a couple days early! I will be posting it over there later today for my monthly bookish photo a day challenge.

Instagram: heyyitsashley – personal Instagram account
Bookstagram: foreverbookish_ – book Instagram account

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| September.
Monthly Subscriptions.

I hope you have a great day!