Check out what I’ve been reading with my fall reads book reviews.
My reading slowed down in August and September, but I picked it right back up in October. I’m so excited to share all of the things I’ve been reading with y’all, and I’m happy to report that my Alphabet Reading Challenge is going strong! I only have a few more letters left before I complete the challenge, and I’m high-key proud of myself. I’m also just excited that I’ve been able to experience books that I may not have read otherwise because I had to seek out books that start with certain letters.
I’m also finished reading all of the books on my fall reading list. You can check out my Goodreads to see all the books I’ve read this year.
Here are my thoughts on all of my fall reads this year!
THE UNHONEYMOONERS by CHRISTINA LAUREN
Completed on August 20, 2019 | Published on May 14, 2019
5 stars
I have become of Christina Lauren fan this year, and I’ve been slowly making my way through a lot of their novels. The Unhoneymooners follows the main character, Olive, who is unlucky in every sense of the word, the antithesis of her twin sister, Ami. On Ami’s wedding day, things take a turn when everyone at the wedding gets food poisoning, apart from Olive and the best man, Ethan, who had specific dietary needs. Now that Ami and her husband can’t go on their all expenses paid honeymoon that she won and can’t reschedule, Olive and Ethan find themselves on a plane to Hawaii to enjoy a free vacation in paradise.
Olive and Ethan are not fans of each other, so in spite of all that, they’re determined to have the time of their lives on their free vacation, separately. Things get a little sticky when Olive and Ethan are forced to act like newlyweds for a couple of unfortunate reasons, but maybe Olive’s luck will start turning around.
I absolutely adored this book. It had me laughing at loud during certain parts. I can also 100% relate to Olive and her feeling of just being unlucky and living in the shadows of people who seem to have it easier than you. I love how this book unfolded. There were so many layers to it and so elements of the storylines that intertwine and come together. Finishing this book got me more excited to read even more of Christina Lauren’s books.
LITTLE WOMEN by LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Completed on September 20, 2019 | Published in 1869
3 stars
Little Women is obviously a classic, but I actually never read it until recently. I’m one of those people that prefers to read the book before I watch the movie, and the trailer for the new Little Women movie looks so intriguing that I couldn’t resist adding this book to my TBR.
For those that don’t know, Little Women follows four young sisters living in New England during the Civil War. I love how much we got to know each of the March sisters, and I found myself switching favorites the further along I got into the book. While I did love the characters, overall, I thought the book was actually kind of boring. There was no action or build-up or any kind of stressors that kept making me want to keep reading. I can appreciate the book for the classic that it is the story it paints of the author and her life while she wrote the book, but I’m not sure that this will ever be a reread for me. I just felt like nothing really happened, and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to.
FINAL GIRLS by RILEY SAGER
Completed on October 10, 2019 | Published on July 11, 2017
4 stars
Final Girls is about a girl named Quincy Carpenter who went on vacation with her college friends, but everyone was murdered, leaving her as the sole survivor. The incident through Quincy into a club she didn’t want to be a part of called the Final Girls, along with Lisa and Sam who lived through tragedies of their own. Ten years later, Quincy has shed the Final Girls label and is living a full life with her fiance, a popular baking blog, and Xanax. When one of the other Final Girls turns up dead and the other turns up on her doorstep, Quincy’s life is turned upside down and she’s forced to relive the night that her mind has since forced her forget.
Y’all. This book Stressed. Me. Out. I had to stop reading it at one point because I was getting too wound up in the stress of it all. This book leaves you questioning everything until the very end. I honestly didn’t see the end coming.
I originally wanted to read this book because I wanted something spooky to read for Halloween, and boy did this book deliver. The way everything plays out is absolutely crazy, and I’m glad I pushed through my anxiety to get to the end.
YEAR OF YES by SHONDA RHIMES
Completed on October 17, 2019 | Published on October 20, 2016
5 stars
Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder. I love them all, and I’ve been so excited to read about the woman behind all of these incredible shows for a long time. Shonda Rhimes is truly a force to be reckoned with, and she further proves that in her book, Year of Yes. I honestly had never done any research about Shonda Rhimes, so the only thing I knew about her was that she was the mastermind behind some of my favorite shows. Reading Year of Yes not only made me love Shonda Rhimes more, it also inspired me to want to start saying “yes” to things that scare me and may ultimately lead to a better version of myself that is stronger than my anxiety.
As soon I finished listening to this audiobook, I wanted to start it over again and re-listen to all of the wonderful tidbits of inspiration in the midst of her revelations, humor, and incredibly interesting life. I loved this book, and I will absolutely read it again one day.
THE KISS QUOTIENT by HELEN HOANG
Completed on October 24, 2019 | Published on June 5, 2018
4 stars
The Kiss Quotient is about a woman named Stella who is super successful at her job working with math and algorithms. She also has Asperger’s and the thought of kissing makes her queasy. Stella decides to do what she does best when a problem is presented to her – research. She hires an escort named Michael to teach her how to properly French kiss and have sex and check off all the things on her lesson plan to help her become more experienced in the bedroom.
This book was definitely steamy. I’ve actually never read a proper romance novel. I think one reason I like YA is that is glosses over the sex stuff because it has to be PG. I dove head first into The Kiss Quotient, and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. While it does have some pretty descriptive sex scenes, it also balances out with the adorable (and sometimes frustrating) love story. The storyline is intriguing by itself, without all of the sex, but those scenes are necessary to understand the relationship the two are forming and to keep the storyline going. Plus, Michael is an escort. It’s pretty much unavoidable.
Another thing I loved about this book is that it features main characters that are Asian American, and it also puts a spotlight on Asperger’s. Both Stella and Michael come from Asian American families with their own very different backgrounds, and I enjoyed reading about their family dynamics and how their separate upbringings instilled importance on certain things in their lives. I also really like how the author described Stella’s experiences dealing with her Asperger’s, going into her mind and detailing why she reacted the way she did to certain situations. One big aspect of Stella’s Asperger’s is her distaste for being touched. Over and over again, Hoang kept bringing home the message of the importance of consent in general, but also in the way that it related to Stella’s Asperger’s.
I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. The storyline made we want to keep turning the pages, and even though my naive little brain got squirmy during some of the more intimate sex scenes, overall I genuinely enjoyed this book. I’m excited to continue the series and see how things continue to develop, especially with Stella.
What books have you been reading this fall?
