It’s the 15th again, which means it’s time for another Quick Lit post! Modern Mrs Darcy, one of my favorite book blogs, hosts a link up once a month for fellow readers and bloggers to share what they’re reading lately. These quick reviews offer a mid month glimpse into my reading life.
October is off to a good bookish start. I continued a highly recommended mystery series, read some more romance, and enjoyed graphic novel that wasn’t much of an illustrated experience. I’m already turning to holiday book lists to find some Christmas romances. I do love Christmas but usually not before Halloween. However this year I’m happy to embrace any comfort genres!
Hopefully I can keep the momentum going through the second half of the month this time.
What I’ve Been Reading Lately in October:
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny
This is the second book in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series. I began the series with Still Life last month and loved it!
In A Fatal Grace Chief Inspector Armand Gamache revisits Three Pines a little over a year after the events of the first book. He is called to town to investigate the murder of CC de Poitiers, a new resident who was not well liked by her family or fellow villagers. The murder takes place during the Christmas holidays in front of the entire town, yet nobody saw a thing.
This book started out slower for me than the first one. There is a lot of backstory before the murder actually takes place. I was glad to stick with it though. I loved the setting, characters, and winter atmosphere. This book touches on the events of Gamache’s past and conflict within the Sûreté du Québec. I’m really looking forward to the third book. I have a feeling these hints will have a bigger role in the next one.
One Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis
I have been in the mood for some holiday comfort. This novella has popped up on a few holiday book lists so I was happy to see my library had it available as an ebook. When I couldn’t sleep one night, this seemed like the perfect book to consume.
One Snowy Night begins on Christmas Eve in San Francisco and Rory needs to get home to Lake Tahoe to spend Christmas with her family for the first time in years. Her ride home is Max, a security guard in her office building who is from the same town and knows Rory from high school, along with his lovable doberman Carl. They struggle to ignore their attraction and past when the journey home turns slow going due to a snow storm.
This novella was short and sweet delivering what it promises. Carl was the funniest part and stole the show for me. This was my first Jill Shalvis book and I would check out more of her romances. I also think novellas may be the way to go to get a little more holiday romance this year.
How to Pass as Human by Nic Kelman
How to Pass as Human is written as a first hand account of an android, Zach, as he tries to blend in with the human population in hopes of passing a test to meet his creator. The book is described as a graphic novel and it has a couple of illustrations but mostly is structured as sections of story text followed by graphs, charts, and tables about irrational human nature.
Zach doesn’t know why he was created but his goal is to successfully pass as human in order to meet his maker and get the answers. In case he fails, he compiles tons of observations that may help the next android blend in with humans. Along Zach’s journey, he meets Andrea, a human female and they take an interest in one another, something the android struggles to make sense of. As Zach runs out of time, they work together facing danger and obstacles to find Zach’s creator.
The story started out slow for me likely because I was trying to make sense of the structure. I thought I was checking out a graphic novel. The hilarious and for some possibly offensive observations of humans kept me reading. I especially enjoyed Zach’s observations on money, religion, and technology. The structure did interrupt the storyline too much for my liking toward the end. It dragged in the middle and the ending felt a bit rushed. The insights into human nature and existence while not positive or flattering for humans rang true to me. It’s definitely a book that makes you ponder.
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
This romance is everywhere! Everyone has seemed to have read it and it’s generally highly recommended. When I started reading more romance again, this seemed like an easy must read. But then I saw it hadn’t worked for some of my IRL reading friends.
In The Hating Game, Lucy and Joshua share an office as assistants to the co CEOs of a recently merged publishing company. Since day one, they have hated each other and play all sorts of games to get under the other’s skin. Things really become heated when they learn of a newly created position and have to compete with each other for the promotion.
I liked this book more than I thought I would. I can understand where some readers were frustrated by the lack of maturity of two supposed professionals. This was more of a cute romantic comedy when I was expecting a steamy enemies to lovers story. There is a great deal of chemistry between these two though considering there’s not a lot of action. Not a lot of hate. When I readjusted my expectations, I found their love story to be pretty adorable. I also wish I’d realized ahead of time that Sally Thorne is Australian. I kept trying to place the city and state where this was taking place but nowhere in the U.S. made sense.
What have you been reading lately?
