Hocus Pocus Read-a-thon Wrap-Up

This is the first year that I have heard about the Hocus Pocus Read-a-thon. Basically, there are three teams with different reading challenges they must complete between the 1st of October to the 13th of October. You can read more in the original post on twitter here. You can find this post on my Adult Blog here.

I am on the Team Sanderson Sisters. And my challenges are below:

Read a Book with a Witchy Main Character

I read Bone Witch because Tea is a Bone Witch, and it was thoroughly disappointing. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it, and the reason I was disappointed were because my expectations were really high for this book. Sadly, it didn't live up to those expectations. You can find my review by clicking here.

Read a Book with a Female Protagonist

For this challenge, I picked Lonely Dead because it's a mystery with a paranormal twist, perfect for this challenge. I really enjoyed this book, giving it 4 stars, but I've always enjoyed April Henry's novels. You can read my review by clicking here.

Read a Book that is Spellbindingly Atmospheric

I read Witchtown because what is more spellbindingly atmospheric than a book set in a town full of witches. This was a decent read, and I really enjoyed it. I ended up giving it 3 stars, and you can find my review by clicking here.

Read a Book that Frightens You

So initially I was planning to read a True Crime novel for this challenge, but then I stumbled upon this book, and I figured outside of True Crime, what is the thing that scares me: deadly diseases. I found this book to be very informative and interesting, with historical information about the history of rabies. I ended up giving this book 4 stars, and although I am not planning to write a formal review for this book, I highly recommend this if you are interested in this type of nonfiction books.

Read a Book with a Powerful Villain

For this challenge, I read Renegades picked out because it involves heroes and villains. I thought it was a really good book, and I ended up giving it 4 Stars. You can find my review by clicking here.

Read the Group Book

So I ended up reading Serpent & Dove for this challenge. And I am so glad - this book was so amazing, and I absolutely loved reading it. This is definitely one of my favorite reads this year, and you can find out ore about how I felt by clicking on this.

Watch Hocus Pocus

I ended up watching Hocus Pocus before starting my reading, rather than after I had completed my reading because I had to return it to the library.

Review: Witchtown by Cory Putman Oakes

Witchtown by Cory Putman Oakes

When sixteen-year-old Macie O’Sullivan and her masterfully manipulative mother Aubra arrive at the gates of Witchtown—the most famous and mysterious witch-only haven in the world—they have one goal in mind: to rob it for all it’s worth.

But that plan derails when Macie and Aubra start to dig deeper into Witchtown’s history and uncover that there is more to the quirky haven than meets the eye.

Exploring the haven by herself, Macie finds that secrets are worth more than money in Witchtown.

Secrets have their own power.

Pages: 320

Format: E-Book

Published By: HMH Books for Young Readers

Genre: YA - Fantasy

Rating:

✮✮✮

Review:

Witchtown is a spellbindingly fantastic story about a young girl, Macie O'Sullivan, who with her very manipulative mother travel from town to town, finally landing in Witchtown with a single goal in mind every time - which is to rob the towns of all their money. But there's something different about Witchtown, and Macie digs deeper to find out what it is.

I really enjoyed this novel - it wasn't my favorite by any means, but for someone (Me) who doesn't like reading books that are witch-centric because witches aren't my favorite literary character, I was pleasantly suprised by how much I did like it.

The thing I enjoyed most about this novel is how it drew me in, and how quickly I was able to fly through the story. I also really enjoyed Macie, and her two friends, Kellen and Talya. I thought they had all very distinct personalities, but I felt like their relationships weren't as developed as they could have been. A big thing I didn't like in the story was Rafe. I thought the parts involving him were unnecessary and didn't add anything to the story. They could have been removed and more focus could have been on the rest of the story and adding more detail to that. I also really hated her mother - which was to be expected, but rather than her be a strong villain, I just found her to be overly annoying as a character.

There were three major plot reveals. Two of which didn't get a lot of focus from the main character throughout the novel, just a couple of quick mentions so when they were revealed, I hadn't figured it out, but they weren't a huge focal point. The other plot reveal which was the largest and most important, I had figured out halfway through the book.

All in all, I did enjoy the book, and if you are into witchy novels, this might be a novel to pick up.

July, August, and September Wrap-Up and October TBR

So it's been a few months since I did my last wrap-up, but I've had a busy summer with work and life that my reading and blogging have been relegated to the backburner in my life. I am trying my hardest as I have said previously to jump back in but it's hasn't been as I have planned.

Anyway over the course of July and August, I only read 3 books (and three other books that I will be mentioning on my Adult Blog). Two of which were children's books and the other a YA novel. The two children's books were Creepy Carrots! and Show Way. The YA novel was In Another Life.

But I stepped up my game some during the month of September. I read 13 books (not including the six adult books I read). I read four children's books, three middle grade books, and six YA books: Lovely War, Dream a Little Dream, Charlie the Choo-Choo, Dream for Three, Challenges, When the Glitter Fades Away, Shark Lady, Raven, Tea Dragon Festival, Uni the Unicorn, In An Absent Dream, We Told Six Lies and Oracle Queen.

So for the month of October, I am actually planning on participating in two different read-a-thons. You can find more about them here and here. So I have some planned books for them, but the rest of the month if I have time to read any more, is just to read thrillers, mysteries, or horror novels. Two of the seven I probably won't read because they are just extra options for two of the categories.

Here are planned books for the read-a-thons:


Here are some other books I would love to get to this month (and if not this month, next month):

Review: We Told Six Lies by Victoria Scott

We Told Six Lies by Victoria Scott

Remember how many lies we told, Molly? It’s enough to make my head spin. You were wild when I met you, and I was mad for you. But then something happened. And now you’re gone.

But don’t worry. I’ll find you. I just need to sift through the story of us to get to where you might be. I’ve got places to look, and a list of names.

The police have a list of names, too. See now? There’s another lie. There is only one person they’re really looking at, Molly.

And that’s yours truly.

Pages: 322

Format: Audiobook

Narrator: Nick Mondelli

Published By: Entangled Teen and Dreamscape Media

Genre: YA - Mystery

Rating:

✮✮

Review:

We Told Six Lies was probably my most disappointing read so far this year, which might be because I rushed into this novel because it was by Victoria Scott. I absolutely loved her Fire and Flood duology, and saw her name on this book and automatically assumed I was going to enjoy it.

I love mysteries, and this one just didn't do it for me. I really didn't care much about the story. I didn't like the layout, although I will say, I understand why the novel is written the way it is because the parts of the story that are in the past lead up to the parts of the story that are in the present.

I didn't connect with the characters either - which was probably the biggest reason I could not get into this story or enjoy, because what is a story when you don't care about the people in the story. One of the characters is an unreliable narrator, but I didn't think it worked - I never suspected anything other than how the story played out in regards to the narrator of the story.

To be honest, I think a different ending would have made the story better. With the unreliability of the narrator having more of an impact in how the ending transpired than the way it actually did. I will say that I was not suspecting how the story was going to end because I honestly would never have assumed that, which was a nice touch (although I would have preferred a different ending).

I hope that if you pick up this novel that you are able to enjoy it much more than I was able to. If you like YA mysteries with unreliable narrators than this might be the book for you.

Spookathon (October 14th-20th) TBR

Last year, I had planned to participate, and I can't recall if I did or not, but this year, I am definitely planning to get around to it. Here is the link to the Spookathon. You can find this post on my Adult Blog here.

The prompts for this readathon and my planned TBR is as follows:

Read a Thriller

I have a lot of options for this prompt, but the one I picked up is Mother-In-Law. I plan to listen to the audiobook version.

Read a Book with a Spooky Setting

The book I have chosen for this prompt is In a Cottage In a Wood, because that would be a spooky location. If for whatever reason while reading, this book ends up not fitting the setting, I have a few other books that could fit.

Read a Book with a Spooky Word in the Title

The Spooky word I chose for this prompt is Ghost, so my book is Gap Year in Ghost Town. I randomly stumbled upon this book at the library, so I hope that I end up liking it.

Read a Book with Red on the Cover

Another prompt that I have many options for, but what I ended up going with is Doll House.

Read a Book that I Normally Wouldn't Read

I don't have a book picked out for this challenge.

Hocus Pocus Read-a-Thon (October 1st - 13th) TBR

This is the first year that I have heard about the Hocus Pocus Read-a-thon. Basically, there are three teams with different reading challenges they must complete between the 1st of October to the 13th of October. You can read more in the original post on twitter here. You can find this post on my Adult Blog here.

I am on the Team Sanderson Sisters. And my challenges are below:

Read a Book with a Witchy Main Character

For this challenge, I have picked the Bone Witch because Tea is a Bone Witch, and I have been dying to read this book for awhile now. I am listening to the audiobook version to fill in at times when I can't physically read.

Read a Book with a Female Protagonist

For this challenge, I picked Lonely Dead because it's a mystery with a paranormal twist, perfect for this challenge. It is my shortest book that I picked up for this challenge, being only 240 pages, so hopefully, I can read it in a day.

Read a Book that is Spellbindingly Atmospheric

For this challenge, I am reading Witchtown. I happened to stumble across this book randomly, and I decided to pick it up since it's a town full of witches... I mean what could be more of a spellbinding atmosphere.

Read a Book that Frightens You

So this challenge was kind of hard to pick a book for because I don't really get scared when reading. So I took it a different route, and decided for this challenge, I am going to read a nonfiction book with events that are scary. I am planning on reading Most Dangerous Animal of All, but I'm basically looking to read a True Crime novel for this challenge if I don't get to that book.

Read a Book with a Powerful Villain

For this challenge, I currently have Vicious picked out because I heard that the main character is a villain if I remember correctly. This one is the one that is most likely to change if I do change any book that I read for this challenge.

Read the Group Book

For this challenge, there are two group books: Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel and Serpent & Dove. I want to read Serpent & Dove for this challenge, but I don't currently have it, so if it comes down to it, I will be reading Hocus Pocus.

Watch Hocus Pocus