November Wrap Up

The month of November has flown by. I'm still immensely missing the vibrancy of the trees' leaves and the cool autumnal breeze. My November TBR initially consisted of five books:

• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
• Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
• Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Girl At Midnight by Melissa Grey
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

I never ended up reading An Abundance of Katherines, which was a read for my school book club, because it just didn't appeal to me. So my total books read in November was three; The Girl At Midnight, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and Passenger. I'm currently 54% of the was through A Little Life, (which I'm currently reading and loving) but have yet to finish it which is why it isn't included in this wrap-up.

1. The Girl At Midnight by Melissa Grey

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 2 stars

This was the first book I read this month and I was quite eager to read this due to its gorgeous cover and intriguing synopsis, but sadly was completely disappointed by it. I have a full review on why I immensely disliked this book. This is an urban fantasy novel set in New York City that follows Echo, a runaway pickpocket, who is taken in by the ancient bird like race Avicen, who are at war with Drakharin, who are descendants of dragons. Echo has set off to find the Firebird, something that has been lost for centuries, but if found has the potential to stop the war. I wish I could have enjoyed this novel more, but the writing felt very cliche and the overall plot was really choppy to read. Not to mention that there were too many parallels to Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone.

2. Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Rating: ★★★★★ 5 stars

This book definitely brought me out of my reading slump. Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the third book in Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle quartet, with the first book being The Raven Boys. I read the first two books in the beginning of the year and also started this, but I out it down for some reason and never got back to it. I decided to pick it back in November and immediately fell in love with it. The Raven Boys is essentially about Blue Sargent, daughter of  psychic who befriends a group of boys from a nearby prep school and soon becomes entangled in their quest to find a lost king. Not only is the plot of this novel spectacular, but what really sold me are the characters. I love reading about Blue, Gansey, Noah, Ronan, and Adam. All these characters are individually so well developed and their interactions with each other feel genuine which is all the more endearing. The third book definitely did not disappoint and I am overly excited for The Raven King.

3. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3 stars

The final book I completed this month was Passenger by Alexandra Bracken. I was very eager to read this novel when I received the arc back in October. After completing this book I gave it three stars because I just found this book to be okay. Passenger is the story of Etta Spencer a violin prodigy, who inherits her mother's ability to travel through time. Nicholas Carter, another traveler who only wants to finish cutting his ties from a powerful travelling family sets off with Etta in search of a powerful object that could change the game of travelling, and help her get back home. I went into this with previously loving Bracken's Darkest Minds trilogy, but this wasn't the case with this novel. I adore the concept and some of the characters, but I didn't feel an exact connection to this novel and it did seem to get a bit insta-lovey near the end. Overall I enjoyed the story even though it seemed to drag in parts and feel rushed in others. I still will be reading the next book in this duology, Wafarer, when it releases. Full review of Passenger here. This book releases January 5th, 2016.

My reading month in November was pretty much all over the place, but I'm glad that I managed to get more reading done, which has been hard since school started. Looking forward to whatever December brings.

I recently uploaded a November favorites playlist on 8 tracks, which you can listen to here. It's essentially a compilation of all my favorite songs I've been listening to in the month of November, a majority which I listen to while reading. Will be uploading more book playlists on there soon.