November monthly wrap up and book tag!

Well. Another month of virtual school, another month of being stuck inside ALL THE TIME and another month of the pandemic. Happy nine months, people. We’ve been in this pandemic for as long as a woman is pregnant on average (why was that the first thing that came to my mind? I am now concerned for my mental state).

I’m back with my second monthly wrap-up tag! I’m not sure how well my last wrap-up tag went but you know what? I’m going to do it again because it’s fun and hey maybe one day someone will actually decide to do something that I post on my blog. Who knows?

Now. What is a wrap-up tag?
Well, a wrap-up tag is a book tag…as well as a monthly wrap up! But I know that everyone has their own monthly-wrap ups to do as well which is why it’s extremely short. You can add it onto the end of your own wrap-up or make a new post just for it–whatever works! Now, a wrap-up tag is a little different than any other tag because….it’s sort of on a time limit. You don’t necessarily have to do it at the end of November or soon after but the books you read will be fresher in your mind. So I like to do this as three quick questions about books you read this month!

Here are the rules of the wrap-up tag:

• Link back to the original creator, Phoenix @Books With Wings
• Thank the person who tagged you
• Answer all questions
• Tag at least 3 people
• Enjoy….and this will be enforced

And now for the November wrap-up tag!

A book you read this month with a strong bong (friends, family, etc.)

The book that instantly comes to mind when I think of a strong bond is a book I actually just did a post on–Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee. If you read my post, you probably know that that book was not one of my favorite books. But something I did love from it was the bond that Sirscha and Saengo had. The two of them were very close friends and while they did develop an actual bond, as in ‘they were connected to each other by magic,’ their friendship was amazing and I loved to see how much Sirscha cared for Saengo. Their friendship was definitely one of the best parts about this book.
Find my blog post about this book here.

A book you read this month in which the characters feasted

Okay well this one is easy. Whenever you have trials or a contest or, you know, maybe just a magic school, chances are that your characters will feast. This was the case in the book ‘House of Dragons’ by Jessica Cluess. I’d been looking forwards to reading House of Dragons for a long time and when I finally did read it it slightly disappointed me (you can find my goodreads review here). However, I do vividly remember a scene in which there was a delicious feast described, Hunger-Games style.

The characters that you would love to invite to your house for thanksgiving (pre-covid)
(If you live in a different country and don’t celebrate thanksgiving, just make it a feast at your house)

This one took some thought. I read mostly fantasy so most of the book characters I know are kinda cold-hearted, stab-happy people or just people who wouldn’t be very dinner-friendly. After a while I decided that the characters that I would want to invite to thanksgiving dinner at my house would be the main characters from ‘Sorcery of Thorns’ by Margaret Rogerson. I would invite these characters because I actually really liked all of them. First of all, Elisabeth lived in a library for most of her life. A library! With magical books. Plus, Nathaniel is just…awesome, I dunno, he’s great, and SILAS IS THE BEST OF ALL OF THEM. I think they would just be a really fun trio to have dinner with (Even though Silas doesn’t actually, you know, eat).

Well that’s it for this month’s tag! I’m going to tag a whole lot of people, just to spread the news of this tag! You by no means have to do this tag, I just thought that it was a nice way to spice up the end of the month! I’m going to tag:

Katie @The Storybook Sisters
Sunny @Revolution Reading
Sibella @YA Book Reviews
Madeline @The Bookish Mutant
Cherelle @Cherelle the Bibliophile
Lilly @Lilly’s Little Library
Em @Cats, Bibliophobes and Baguettes

Want to participate but weren’t tagged? That’s completely fine! Please, join in the fun! Don’t let the lack of tag scare you away, I promise that you are allowed to do it. Actually, please please please do it!
Don’t want to do it because you hate me? That’s alright, I understand that time isn’t always on our side…or maybe this just isn’t in your agenda for what to post. I’ll just….cry here in the corner…😭😭😭

And now for the rest of my monthly wrap-up:

I read a pitiful 9 books this month, which, you know, would be impressive if 3 of them weren’t middle grade, one a graphic novel. The books are as follows. (asterisk means middle grade, double asterisk is adult)
Links are to my blog review or my goodreads review.

• Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim. This book was not what I expected which made me not like it as much than if I’d gone into it with no expectations whatsoever. 3.8 stars
• The Tower of Nero (Trials of Apollo #5)* by Rick Riordan. It was a great end to the series and you always gotta love a Rick Riordan book. 4 stars
• Ruin and Rising (Shadow and Bone #3) by Leigh Bardugo. The series was better than I expected and I sorta enjoyed this book. The ending was slightly disappointing but it was definitely better than the first. 3.4 stars

• Spy School Revolution (Spy School #8)* by Stuart Gibbs. This series does not need to keep going. It could and should have ended a long time ago. 2.6 stars
• Class Act (New Kid #2)* by Jerry Craft. Jerry Craft is an amazing writer and an amazing artist. I absolutely love his art. His stories are really important as well, as they talk about racism in ways that are very easy to understand. 5 stars
• Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. Elisabeth lives in a library full of magical books. I really think that’s all you need to know to pick this book up. 3.6 stars

• House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess. I was really excited for this book and I think that it let me down a little. Still, it was a very interesting concept. 3.25 stars
• Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee. This was a pretty interesting world and plot and concept but I feel like the beginning was pretty slow and once it got going it was over pretty fast. 3 stars
• We Ride Upon Sticks** by Quan Barry. Guys, adult books are slooooow. Still, I liked the fact that it was about girls in sports, plus there was a good amount of LGBTQ+ rep. And it was a fascinating plot in general.

Here are my monthly wrap-up awards:

Best character: Silas from Sorcery of Thorns. I don’t know what it was about him, I just really, really liked him.
Worst character: Mal from Ruin and Rising. Mal is just…I hate his and Alina’s relationship and he’s just insufferable.
Most interesting character: Elisabeth from Sorcery of Thorns. I’ve said it and I’ll say it again: she grew up in a library with magical books.
Funniest character: Apollo from ‘Tower of Nero.’ Rick Riordan just has such an amazing way of writing that’s funny and all-around awesome.

Best villain: Ronin from Forest of Souls. His power was a very interesting concept and the fact that all the kingdoms rely on him is so fascinating. Not that Sirscha cares about what the kingdoms rely on.
Worst villain: Villains in House of Dragons (will not name due to spoilers). I didn’t like how they acted and what they were doing and how they treated Emilia and just everything.
Most original villain: I don’t seem to read many books with original villains in them so I’m gonna say nothing for this.

Best plot: House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess. The plot was the best part about it. The rest was just meh.
Worst plot: Spy School Revolution by Stuart Gibbs. It was, like, the exact same plot as the last seven books.
Craziest plot twist: Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee. For spoiler reasons, I’m not going to say what the twist was.
Most original plot: I think that a lot of plots these days are really original but this award goes to ‘We Ride Upon Sticks’ by Quan Barry. It was a story about a girl’s fieldhockey team in 1989 and their quest to win the state championships and I just thought it was such a fascinating and different book than most I read.

Best Worldbuilding: Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim. I loved the world building in this book. There was never an info dump and yet the world was described perfectly. I loved how descriptive everything was.
Worst Worldbuilding: House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess. I don’t think this world was described very well. There were different estates. There was a capital. There was an ocean and an island. I have no idea where each of these things are related to each other.
Most Interesting World: The world in Sorcery of Thorns. There were magical books and demons and library maids had to be warned that their job could come with a loss of fingers.

Best Romance: Elisabeth and Nathaniel from Sorcery of Thorns. They seemed cute together. Cuter than most straight couples I think?
Worst Romance: Alina and Mal from Ruin and Rising. Because Mal’s just no thank you.
Most Unexpected Romance: The most unexpected romance was probably Mel and Coach Mullins from We Ride Upon sticks because throughout the book we’d heard rumors of him and then at the end, bam, he’s only 6 years older than them and was getting married to Mel.

Best Representation: We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry. This book was both racially diverse and had great LGBTQIAP+ diversity.
Worst Representation: Spy School Revolution. All the main characters are white and there is no LGBTQIAP+ representation. Also, the villains are all not white.

Best Book Overall: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. Let me repeat. Library with magical books.
Worst Book Overall: Spy School Revolution. For the representation reason and because it was very repetitive of the last one…and the one after…and the one before…long story short, all seven books basically told the same story.
Most interesting book overall: We Ride Upon Sticks. I think I’ve said this before but it’s just such a fascinating concept and just such a new thing for me to read. I really enjoyed reading about a girls’ sports team.

Wait! Don’t go yet!
A few more things:

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! I hope you have a lovely and safe feast on Thursday and don’t forget to say thanks! Here’s what I’m eating:

• Pumpkin pie
• Mashed potatoes
• Cranberry relish (better than cranberry sauce 100%. Fight me)
• Cheese puffs
• Spinach appetizer things (don’t give me your thoughts till you try them. They’re spinach, but they’re D E L I C I O U S)
• Probably some artichoke thing that I don’t want to eat, because ya know, parents. Always trying to make you be healthy.

What will you be eating for thanksgiving? Will you be seeing any family or friends?

My tbr for December
Okay so I don’t normally post a tbr or really think about what I’m going to read next. Usually I’ll just pick a book that I want to read from my tbr and get it from the library. Sometimes I’ll read something that a family member got from the library or a friend suggests something that I read immediately. So lots of times if I do have a plan to read a specific book, that gets derailed (I was gonna read ACOTAR months ago and haven’t yet. I’ve heard a lot of awful reviews though, so I’ll probably hold off for a bit). However I will almost certainly start reading/finish reading these books in December:

• Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron. Buddy reading with Katie @The Storybook Sisters (hopefully)! I’ve been wanting to read this for a while and it sounds really good. I’ve heard very mixed reviews about this book–some people love it, some people hate it. We’ll see where I fall.
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. This one looks really interesting. I’ve read The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune (see my interview with the author here) and it was very good and very funny. I can’t wait to read something else by him.
• Fence by CS Pacat. I literally cannot wait for this. I actually got volumes 2 and 3 from the library but volume one is still on hold 😭😭😭. I NEED this. I need my queer boys fencing….

Last but definitely not least:
I feel like I’m not a very big part of the book blogging community. That is, I blog about books, but I don’t know many people! I would love to get to know you guys more! Please, don’t be afraid to talk to me in the comments, tag me on a book tag or do anything to get to know me better! Yeah, it may be weird to tag a person you don’t even know in a book tag, but I promise that I won’t be weirded out by it. As long as it’s about books, I’m good! Don’t be shy, please stop by to talk if you have time! And never hesitate to participate in one of my book tags! I would love for some people to do them!

Okay, seriously now, I’ll stop talking. Sorry for boring you.

Well, there’s the tag and the wrap-up! Please, if you can, participate in the tag! It’s very short and I’d love to see some of your responses–it’s just a fun way to end the month! And of course if you would like to use my wrap-up tag template sort of thing, please just leave a comment ⬇below⬇

Did you like this post? Please, drop a comment, leave a like! I always love talking with other bookish people! Have you read any of these books? Do you agree with the things I said or do you think something different? I always love to hear your opinion on my opinion – as long as you are respectful! Maybe you have something to say about the post in general. Or even the blog in general! Don’t be afraid – I don’t bite! (reiteration: I don’t bite people) As always, thank you for stopping by and reading this post and my blog–it means the world.
Stay safe and keep reading!