September Wrap Up

Books I Read This Month

This month was amazing because there were a bunch of new releases, most of which I had preordered online so I was constantly getting treats in the mail. One I’m still reading and another hasn’t arrived yet because it was just released the other day so I’m hoping it will arrive next week. Anyway, here are the six books I read this month, including the four new releases…

The first book I read in September was King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard. This is the third book in the Red Queen series, which I love. Glass Sword was kind of a let down to be honest. I didn’t hate it but it was pretty dull until the last hundred pages or so. But King’s Cage has put the series back on track. The fourth and final book in the series, War Storm, comes out in 2018 and I’m pumped for it after the ending of King’s Cage.

The second book I read was the first of the September releases and the one I was the most keen for: Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas. This is the sixth book in the Throne of Glass series which is one of my all-time favourite series’. This book was easily one of the best. It’s tied for second place on my personal ranking alongside Empire of Storms, second only to Queen of Shadows. Even though Aelin wasn’t in it, this book advances the overall plot of the series. It isn’t just some money grab- there are major revelations about the Valg and the Fae and huge character developments for Chaol.

The next book I read was Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart. This is by the author of the very popular book We Were Liars. I wouldn’t say this book is better, but it’s definitely worth reading. It’s told in reverse order and you piece together more of this great mystery story about identity theft as you read it. I have a full spoiler-free review which you can check out here.

Next I read Warcross by Marie Lu. This book was so fun and exciting. It was about a virtual reality game called Warcross and a girl who hacks her way into the game and ends up becoming an undercover contestant on a mission to find someone who is messing around with the game. I loved this book so much and I did a full review on it if you want to know why which you can read here.

The next book I read was They Both Die In The End by Adam Silvera. It’s set in a world where everyone receives a phone call on the day they’re going to die, and follows the story of two teenagers who try to live their last day to the fullest. This was such a great book and I highly recommend it to young adult readers. But beware, as you can tell from the title, this book does not have a happy ending. You can read my full review here.

The last book I finished reading this month All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis. I don’t know for sure how I feel about this one. One one hand, the plot is really cool. It’s set in a dystopian world where everything you say costs money. The main character decides to stop speaking, and inadvertently starts a revolution as others begin to follow. It’s really awesome, but on the other hand, there’s lot of legal and technical stuff that made the world confusing and distracted from the story. I’m going to write a review for this in the coming weeks once I’ve thought about it more.

What I’m Reading Now

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Books I Bought This Month

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas
Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart
Warcross by Marie Lu
They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera
Geekerella by Ashley Poston
All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Books I Hope To Read In October

Pet Sematary by Stephen King
The Shining by Stephen King
Geekerella by Ashley Poston
Turtles All The Way Down by John Green
There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins (the last September release)
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass (I feel the time has come to reread the series)

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Review: Genuine Fraud

This is a spoiler-free review. I will not be giving away any major plot details beyond the premise of the book. 

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart is a young-adult mystery novel that – like Lockhart’s novel, We Were Liars, is really hard to summarise without giving too much away, so I’ll just give you the back-cover blurb:

“Imogen is an heiress, a runaway, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a chameleon, and a liar. Imogen is done pretending to be perfect, and Jule refuses to go back to the person she once was. Somewhere between the mansions of Martha’s Vineyard and the shores of Cabo San Lucas, their intense friendship takes a dark turn.”

So basically, this book is all about identity. It’s about people who want to make themselves over or become somebody else completely. This is really interesting and unlike anything I’ve personally read. But the real gem of this book is that the story is told backwards. It begins with Chapter 18 and works its way in reverse order all the way to Chapter 1, before going back to the end for one last chapter to bring everything together. There’s always a time jump between the chapters, each one being set between a few weeks and a few months before. But the story still makes sense despite it being told in reverse order. As you read it, you start to unravel the mystery that is Jule and Imogen. You discover why they did certain things or how they ended up in certain places. And there are plenty of huge reveals that leave you shocked.

Because this is a short novel and almost everything right from the beginning would be a spoiler, there isn’t much more I can say except that I really liked this book. I don’t want to compare it to We Were Liars but I will just say that I didn’t enjoy this quite as much. It’s a different story just in the same genre. If you liked We Were Liars, then I think you should read this book but just try not to compare them because the stories are quite different.

The one thing that bothered me with this book, particularly in the beginning, was that Lockhart sometimes would over-describe how places and characters looked. There were times where it made sense, but usually it just wasn’t needed – I personally prefer it when authors leave room for the reader to picture these things for themselves. But other than that, this book was compelling and a quick read. I was genuinely (no pun intended) shocked by all of the plot twists and everything tied up together and made sense at the end. So if that sounds like something you’d like then definitely give it a go.

MY RATING: 8/10

READ IF YOU ENJOYED:
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

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