What I Read October 2020
It's hard to believe we're already at the end of the year, but here we are. October felt like a really long month, and it appears I did a lot of reading. To be fair, I rarely read one book at a time. You'll find three complete series in this month's reviews, although only one of them was read entirely in March. We're also continuing our run through the Stacked Deck series, of whose predecessors I can't recommend enough. We'll end this month's recommendations with four very different stand-alones.
Despite the number of books on this edition of What I Read, my TBR list hasn't gotten any shorter. In fact, I have more than 100 samples of books downloaded on my Kindle right now, and I've lost count of the number of Prime First Reads I've bought that I haven't started yet. I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that I'll probably add to it faster than I can cross titles off.
Let's dive into What I Read for October 2020!
Authors: Anita Maxwell and K.B. Everly
After spending a lifetime in foster care with no knowledge about her family, Arsyn is determined to find answers when she moves into her late uncle's cabin. Only, the answers to her questions come with a crazy answer. Jinn, a.k.a. genies, are real and she's descended from a long line of Conduits whose destiny is to balance their chosen jinn's powers. To top it off, Arsyn's jinn are the first quad since the original conduit, meaning the five of them are extremely powerful, and with great power comes a big bad trying to corrupt it. To be honest, this series had editing issues that got worse with each book, but I was invested in the story so I mostly overlooked it. Also, it wasn't the worst editing mistakes I've ever read.
Full House, No Limits, Bluff, Seven Card Stud
Author: Emilia Finn
These are books four, five, six and seven of the Stacked Deck series. Full House is the story of Miles "Iowa" Walker, his daughter Alyssa, and Brooklyn Kincaid (daughter of Bobby and Kit). Miles and Lyss drop everything and move when Miles is given the opportunity to be a full-time fighter. His plan is to improve his and his daughter's circumstances and win the Stacked Deck tournament, in that order. What he doesn't count on is Brooklyn, successful author and daughter of heavyweight champion and Miles's new boss.
No Limits is the story of Brooklyn's brother Bryan (named after his grandfather) and Maddie. Maddie's family hates the Kincaids, all because Bryan's grandmother, Nelly, broke off an unwanted engagement with Maddie's grandfather to marry Bryan's namesake. Now, Bry and Maddie must overcome the family feud to be together. I fell in love with Bryan in book four and this one just cemented it.
Bluff is the story of Norah - the teen girl Kane saves in Pawns in the Bishop's Game and Ben Connor's friend - and Tucker Morris, aka Chuck. Chuck has been working at Angelo's garage since he was a teenager. When he temporarily moves into the apartment across from Norah's, the two are constantly thrown together. But in order to be together, Tucker has to overcome Norah's biggest fears.
Seven Card Stud is about Bean's brother, Jamie. He hasn't had a big presence in many of the other books, but he's a lot like his daddy, Jimmy. Jamie's kissed a lot of girls, all in search of his one true love. When he meets Cam at the Stacked Deck tournament, Jamie knows he's found her, but Cam and her brother are from a totally different world than the Kincaids, and they're hiding from something. This one ends in a cliffhanger, and I am waiting on the edge of my seat for Crazy Eights to hit my Kindle this month.
Author: Annette Marie
I'm lumping these two series together because they're in the same world and happen at the same time. You do not have to read one to read the other, but if you are going to read both, you need to read the Spellbound series first to avoid spoilers.
Technically, I only read the final book of the Spellbound series in October - Damned Souls and a Sangria. I started reading this series about a year ago and didn't want to review them individually, so you get a series review instead. Tori is a human who's never really fit in. After she's fired from yet another customer service job, she finds a flyer advertising a bartending job and decides to go for it. Turns out, the bar is exclusively for magical members of society, but the leader decides to fudge some details to keep Tori on. Soon, Tori makes friends with three powerful mythics and finds herself in a race against time to save one of them.
The Demonized series is a spin-off series featuring one of the characters introduced in Spellbound. Robin and her demon, Zylas, don't have the typical demon contractor agreement. She wants to go back to being a regular human girl and Z wants to go back home. The only way to do that is to work together, but along they way they uncover secrets about both their pasts and discover the fate of the world is at stake.
Author: Nicole Snow
Grace and her sick father are on the run from the mob. When one of the bad guys catches up to them during a pit stop in Dallas, North Dakota, Ridge Barnett - actor turned rancher - comes to the rescue. When he insists father and daughter stay with him until the snowstorm ends. Grace reluctantly says yes. One thing leads to another and soon Grace finds herself fake-engaged to Ridge while he and his old army buddies work to get her and her father out of the mess they've found themselves in.
Author: Robert Marsello
Set during World War I, author H.G. Wells is sent to the front lines after a strange story of St. George and a brigade of angels fighting alongside British troops gains national attention. While there, Wells discovers a wasteland that inhabited by the living, the dead, and those stranded somewhere in between, and when he returns home to London, those souls follow him and help unravel a deadly plot that could turn the tide of the war. Wells and his young mistress, journalist Rebecca West, battle secret agents and occultists to save not only Great Britain, but also the world.
Author: Elizabeth Stevens
When Avery's boyfriend dumps her for being quote "too good," she hatches a plan to date the school's resident bad boy, Davin, so he can teach her how to be not good. This book is written very ironically with intentionally over-the-top stereotypes. I smiled so hard my eyes were nearly closed, and I laughed out loud to the point of tears on more than one occasion. For all its quirks and intended light-heartedness, this book also had a surprising depth to it. I highly recommend it.
Author: Madeline Miller
This book literally took me all month to read. It's written in a traditional style that I think is intended to pay homage to the legends and myths being retold within this story. Circe is the god of the Titan, Helios, but she isn't like the other Titans or even the Olympians. After admitting she changed a nymph into a hideous monster out of jealousy, Circe is banished to a deserted island where she comes to grips with the fact that she is a witch. In this tale you'll meet famous inventor, Daedalus, the messenger god, Hermes, the famous Odysseus, and Medea and Jason, to name a few. If you like Greek mythology, give this book a shot.
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