This is my wrap up of the Autumn Equinox for the Orilium Readathon (I’m actually doing a wrap up this time on this blog rather than just on paper). My TBR went all over the place, especially with the Goodreads challenge I’m doing, but I did manage to get to all the prompts I had to!
The Storygraph challenge for this is here.
(This post took so long thanks to WordPress being so very irritating.)
Elemental Studies
O – Gust of Longing – Your favourite scent in title/cover/author name
I have a vague goal of reading everything that Nora Roberts has written and when I see her books in charity shops, I pick them up. This is two novellas in one, both focused on curses and someone being trapped in an isolated house/castle. I especially loved Winter Rose because it actually touched on what it would be like if you were trapped in a completely isolated castle, not only as a Queen but also as the servants and people who live there too. That said, I did prefer the romance in In Dreams.
Animal Studies
O – Phoenix Keeping – Phoenix on the cover or in the title
I’ve been slightly put off by YA fantasy lately (or in the last few years) so I was reluctant to pick this book up. I was really glad for this readathon pushing me to pick this up because I really enjoyed this! It’s a collection of short stories all focused around YA fantasy (and some sci-fi) and all by black authors (I would say women but some of the authors don’t use she/her pronouns). I think the short story format is one I really enjoy for YA fantasy and this collection had very varied ideas.
Q – Shadow Misties – Standalone
I got this from the library. This is a fantasy romance novel about a merman and the Prince of a kingdom who has bad experience with royals with magic (and the Prince has magic). There is a little bit of political drama and assassination and lots of romance and fantasy. This was really fun but I am glad it’s a library book because I didn’t like it enough to spend money on it.
D – Recognising Morphs – Book that had a cover change
I was on a bit of a Keira Andrews kick this month (helped by the fact that so many are on the Audible Plus catalogue) and I was glad when one of them qualified for this challenge! This book is a thriller romance as two guys meet up and connect, but then the daughter of one of them gets kidnapped and they end up tracking them all through the forest. While I do think that some plot points were dropped a little too quickly for my taste (the media and the parents as an example), I loved how much Jason trusted Ben (and how Ben earned that trust) and that was the basis for the start of their relationship.
Alchemy
O – Chemical Breakdown – Read that will make you emotional
A couple of books I read this month could apply to this prompt, but while I had been warned that Soldier, Sailor was emotional, I honestly found Semper Fi more emotional for me (maybe because I wasn’t expecting it). The historical setting with all the implied homophobia, as well as the two men recovering from fighting in World War II, was far more emotional for me, especially when both the homophobia and the PTSD got in the way of their happiness.
Restoration
O – Night Dew – Night sky on the cover
I’ve been recced this author so many times that I was glad to finally get to it. This book is a space closed circle mystery as a first mate on a ship wakes up to find the AI captain out of commission and nearly thirty passengers dead. An investigator comes on board and things get weird. While I didn’t like how the solution of the mystery was introduced in the last third (so the motive and the character who did it wasn’t introduced until later), I did really like this writing style and the setting.
Q – Dangerous Plants – Poisonous Plant on cover or in title
I was so sure that I have read this collection of short stories before but according to Goodreads, Storygraph and my own Kindle, I have not. This is a collection of short stories, some of them Christmas themed, most of them not, and I did enjoy them. We got James’ detective in about half the stories but there were a couple where you saw the murders from the point of view of someone involved in the mystery. The one which stuck out the most was the story where James’ detective was solving a cold case.
