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#SpookyEdition
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Yuki_Onna
Halloweenland | Al Sarrantonio
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My #HauntedShelf Check-In: 5422 points total.
Team #HexesandCrows @Catsandbooks
🧡🍂
Participated in:
#Spookoween @TheSpineView
#31by31 #readathon goal: read for 31 hours in October
#TwinPeaksReadingChallenge #TPRC
#GottaCatchemAll #SpookyEdition - completed prompts for Misdreavus & Spectrier; caught: Cubone
#PumpkabooHunt caught: 2 small, 1 medium, 1 super
@PuddleJumper
#BirthdayBashReadathon @TheAromaofBooks
#PSReadathon @bookwormjillk
🍂🧡

PuddleJumper 🎉🎉 Brilliant! 1mo
Bookwormjillk 🎉🎉🎉 1mo
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 1mo
Catsandbooks Awesome job! 👏🏼 🧡🖤 1mo
26 likes4 comments
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TheAromaofBooks
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Had so much fun with #HauntedShelf this month, especially with these four month-long readathons!! I had set a goal of averaging 210pgs/day for the #Spookoween readathon and ended up at 216pg average, so I was pretty stoked!! I completed 24 books/short stories, so not quite 31 but close!!! This also means 24 Pumpkaboos captured (8 short, 8 medium, 6 large, 2 super!!). And finally I also captured 8 Pokemon for the #SpookyEdition challenge.

TheAromaofBooks Thank you all for hosting!!! @TheSpineView @Catsandbooks @PuddleJumper

And also a thank you to @Bookwormjillk for the bonus weekend readathons!!
1mo
PuddleJumper Whoop whoop! That's an amazing month! 1mo
TheSpineView YW! Congrats on an awesome month! 1mo
Catsandbooks Awesome job! 👏🏼 🧡 1mo
43 likes4 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
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Pickpick

Fifteen years ago, Emma's three cabinmates at summer camp disappeared in the night without a trace. Em is still haunted by that event. When the camp's owner decides to reopen the camp, she invites Em to come as an art instructor and Emma agrees, wondering if this could bring her the closure she needs. But of course instead things get really scary haha As with the other Sager books I've read, when I got done I still had a few questions, but ⬇

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) while I was reading it I was completely engaged. The pacing is great, and despite not being sure what Emma was holding back as a narrator, I still liked her.

#HauntedShelf #DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620
#SpookyEdition (Ghost) #AfterDarkBingo #BodyCountBingo #Pumpkaboo (Large) @PuddleJumper
#AtoZ @Texreader
#31by31 (20/31) @Catsandbooks
#Spookoween @TheSpineView
#LongNightsReadathon @Bookwormjillk
#BookSpinBingo
1mo
TheAromaofBooks This one is on its way to you @bookandbedandtea !! Hope you and @Jerdencon enjoy it. 😁 I mailed it yesterday, so technically during the month I was SUPPOSED to mail it, which has to be a first for me 😂 1mo
OriginalCyn620 Love Sager! 🖤 1mo
TheSpineView Fantastic! 1mo
DogMomIrene Loved this one too! 1mo
48 likes5 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
Dracula | Bram Stoker
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Pickpick

This month's #HashtagBrigade pick was kind of a reread for me. I read it last year with #DraculaDaily which, while super fun, is also not exactly the best way to read this book for the first time. So I liked reading it in order and in one month instead of six 😂 Now I might do Dracula Daily again next year lol Anyway, while there are places where the action bogs down a little, and the ending feels a little rushed, this book still has some ⬇

BarkingMadRead I‘m glad you liked the format! Dracula daily sounds intriguing but I wonder of i would last long that way! 🧛🏻 1mo
PuddleJumper I've been receiving the Dracula Daily emails for 3 years and I've still not finished it 🤣 1mo
See All 7 Comments
TheAromaofBooks @BarkingMadRead @PuddleJumper - I love the concept of Dracula Daily, but when you get into October sooooooo much happens on certain days that it really gets bogged down. Combined with the fact that you go WEEKS in the summer without anything happening, so I would kind of forget what was happening 😂 I think I may try it next year now that I know how the story goes and who all the characters are. 1mo
OriginalCyn620 🖤🖤🖤 1mo
TheSpineView 🖤🧛‍♂️🖤📖🖤 1mo
inthegreensandblues I agree; last year I went to the book launch for Dracula Daily but ultimately decided to read it the old fashioned way for my first read. Some of the out of order entries work best the way Stoker wrote them. This year, I've re-read through DD (still going!) and it's fun to revisit this way. 🖤 1mo
50 likes1 stack add7 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
Eclipse the Moon: A Novel | Jessie Mihalik
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Pickpick

I really enjoyed the middle book of the Starlight's Shadow trilogy. If you want romance with a scifi setting, Mihalik is a great pick. Fluffy, but there is some action, too. In this series, the setting is a few years after a war has finally ended. It seems like someone is trying to eradicate the uneasy truce. This crew of people from both sides of the war are working together to prevent it... all while falling in love haha

45 likes5 comments
blurb
TheAromaofBooks
Untitled | Untitled
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An old Scholastic Book Club book from 1935 that isn't in the database. Another soft pick, this was perfectly fine but somewhat boring fare. A brother and sister at the seaside on vacation meet up with a local boy with a semi-tragic backstory involving a lost inheritance. In the end, they find the long-lost will and happy endings are handed out all around. There's birdwatching, too, so I probably would have loved this when I was younger haha

Bookwormjillk 😻😻😻 2mo
OriginalCyn620 Cute kitty! 😻 2mo
See All 12 Comments
TheSpineView Awesome!❤️🐾❤️ 2mo
PuddleJumper 😻 😻 2mo
Texreader ❤️🐈‍⬛❤️🐈‍⬛ 2mo
Gissy 😻🖤🖤🖤 2mo
Ruthiella 😻😻😻 2mo
AnnCrystal 💕😻🐾💝. 2mo
dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 2mo
Catsandbooks Sweet kitty! 🧡🐈‍⬛ 2mo
CatLass007 😻🐾🐾🐾 4w
61 likes12 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
The Little Grey Men | B B, Denys Watkins-Pitchford
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Pickpick

This story, about the last three gnomes in England, seems like it should have been a book I loved. Three brothers traveling to try and find their lost brother and running into plenty of adventures and animal friends along the way. However, it somehow just didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the random murder in the middle? I liked it but didn't love it. Soft pick.

Bookwormjillk Random murder will sometimes put a damper on things 😂 2mo
OriginalCyn620 Random murder 😂 2mo
TheSpineView Excellent! 2mo
Catsandbooks 👏🏼👻💚 2mo
52 likes5 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
The Last Close Call | Laura Griffin
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Pickpick

A traveling book that I was supposed to read in September, whoops. This one was borderline so-so for me, mainly because the two MCs were inconsistent and kind of annoying. Also it felt like the overall message in the end was that in the nature vs nurture debate, you can't escape nature (more details in the spoiler), and I didn't care for that. However, the use of forensic genealogy was intriguing and I enjoyed the secondary characters.

TheAromaofBooks The criminal in this one is a serial rapist. He was given up for adoption by his 16-year-old birth mother. At the end, you find out that she had gotten pregnant because she had been raped, and there is this overall vibe that the reason this guy was a rapist was because his dad was a rapist, and that was just the way it had to be, despite him being adopted and raised in a loving home. This isn't stated explicitly, but combined with the fact that ⬇ 2mo
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) after they capture the criminal the reader never gets any explanation/viewpoint from him at all - we never find out what his motivation was, if something triggered him to start this, why he left Texas for five years, why he came back, whether or not his girlfriend was remotely suspicious, etc. NOTHING. So all we're left with is “his birth father was a rapist so“ and that just didn't sit well with me. 2mo
See All 13 Comments
TheAromaofBooks @Jerdencon @Bookandbedandtea - FOR REAL I am also going to finish my pick for October and then mail them both to Paula before the end of October 😂 I would be interested to hear if you had any thoughts on the nature vs. nurture aspect of this book - was that just me reading too much into it?? 2mo
PuddleJumper 🎉🎉 2mo
Jerdencon @bookandbedandtea honestly I do believe nature plays a part (I work as a school psychologist so seen this happen) - kids are raised in a wonderful home but still have issues BUT I‘ve also seen the other side of it too - think it‘s one of those mysteries of life and genetics. Also my books will be in the mail beg of next week! (edited) 2mo
OriginalCyn620 🖤🖤🖤 2mo
bookandbedandtea @Jerdencon @TheAromaofBooks I did feel this leaned a little hard on nature because I've always wanted to believe nurture weighs heavier in that balance. I'll send my books out next week as well. 😄 2mo
TheAromaofBooks @Jerdencon @bookandbedandtea - It seems like nature has to play a substantial role because, like Denise said, you see kids raised in lovely homes and still turn out troubled. Just looking at myself and my five siblings (including one adopted) all raised by the same parents, but all really different as adults, it's obvious that nature is there haha But it felt weird that the conclusion was kind of “oh his birth dad was also bad, that explains why ⬇ 2mo
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) this guy was also bad“ without any real nuance or exploration of other influences/aspects of the bad guy's life. Anyway, it was an interesting book and I didn't dislike it, but I felt like the ending dragged out kind of purposelessly haha 2mo
bookandbedandtea @TheAromaofBooks I think you have a good point, Sarah, about the lack of nuance regarding the bad guy and that more explanation about him would have made for a better story. I could have stood for more if that and less of the romance between the leads. 2mo
Jerdencon @bookandbedandtea I agree about the romance part 2mo
Catsandbooks 👏🏼🦇🖤 2mo
56 likes13 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
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Mehso-so

I know going into it that this type of romantic suspense is going to need me to gloss over a lot of ?!?!?! moments to make it work, but this book was really pushing the limits haha Pretty ridiculous on the whole, but sometimes that's what you need. A long while back someone gave me a box of random thrillers/romantic suspense, and this was one of them. Mildly entertaining, but off to a new home now.

#HauntedShelf #DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620

50 likes5 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
The Willows in Winter | William Horwood
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Pickpick

The first book read for my #BirthdayBashReadathon was a bit of a random choice - a sequel to The Wind in the Willows, written by not-the-original-Willows-author. I'm always somewhat leery of people piggy-backing off of someone else's work, but I think Horwood makes it work. It's obvious that he has a great deal of love and respect for Grahame's original characters, but says he was always a bit saddened by the ending of Willows, which reassures ⬇

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) the readers that Toad was “indeed an altered Toad.“ Horwood says he could never believe that a rascal like Toad could ever be completely reformed, and from that thought, this book was born. It's a soft pick for me, and I'm perhaps able to be more generous with it because while I like Willows, it isn't a heart-book for me, so the fact that Horwood doesn't *quite* get the tone right doesn't horrify me haha The pacing is a little uneven ⬇ 2mo
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) but for the most part this is a warm, respectful sequel to a beloved children's classic. Horwood went on to write three more books about the Willows characters, which I seem to have collected over the years, so I'll hopefully be reading them this year as well.

#HauntedShelf #DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620
#SeriesLove2024 #Spookoween @TheSpineView
#100YearsofBooks #192025 (1993) @Librarybelle
#WickedWords (Winter) @AsYouWish
#AtoZ @Texreader
2mo
See All 8 Comments
Librarybelle Oddly, I‘ve never read The Wind in the Willows! 2mo
PuddleJumper 🎉🎉 2mo
TheSpineView Excellent! 2mo
OriginalCyn620 🖤🖤🖤 2mo
Catsandbooks 👏🏼🐈‍⬛💜 2mo
54 likes8 comments