Weekly Wrap-Up: 11/3 – 11/16

Ughhh, late with this again. Gotta get my act together. Getting back into the swing of things has been harder than I thought it would be.

Still haven’t really read anything – well, regarding books at least – but hopefully this week I’ll finally start another one. My blogging could also be better, so hopefully I’ll get on that, as well.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get on with the Weekly Wrap-Up!

Saturday 11/15: The Most Interesting Looking New Books of November 2025

Last Saturday, I posted a list of the books that I’m looking forward to this month. Or, at least the ones that I think look the most interesting. It was the Most Interesting Looking New Books of November 2025. As always, it’s basically only fantasy and science fiction, as those are the two genres I primarily read. This time there were only three books that looked interesting to me.

Sunday 11/16: October Reading 2025

On Sunday, I posted my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up for October 2025. It was, unfortunately, posted a little bit later in the month than I’d have liked, though. For those who don’t know, monthly wrap-ups are when I go over the books I read over the past month, as well as my stats over on The StoryGraph.

Books I Read Last Week

Wrapping It All Up

So yeah, I didn’t blog much or read any novels in the past couple of weeks. Which sucks, but that’s just how it ended up being – can’t change it now. Hopefully, the remainder of November will be better.

As I mentioned in my last Weekly Wrap-Up, I have quite a few books on my TBR, and I wasn’t sure what I was gonna read next and how many of those books were gonna stay on my To Be Read List. I believe I have since chosen my next read, which I’m happy about. I acquired several books recently, and I’m kind of itching to read at least two or three of them right off the bat. I’m also still thinking of getting back into the Dresden Files in like December or something. We’ll see what happens with that, however.

Regarding stuff outside of books and blogging, a big reason why I didn’t get any reading done, is because a new Zelda game came out. We’ll, Zelda-adjacent is more accurate, I suppose. I guess I should say Hyrule Warriors came out, since that’s what it is. But this time it’s canon to Legend and Zelda lore, and it specifically tells the story of what happened in the past during The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

I haven’t played it, since I don’t have Switch 2, but I have watched the entire story campaign and cutscenes, so I know everything I need to know. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is awesome though, with a fantastic story and characters, great visuals, a ton of aura farming, and even a little bit of innovation regarding the hack-and-slash gameplay that Warriors titles use. I was pretty impressed with it, and I’m so glad we have the full story of the Imprisoning War spoken of in Tears of the Kingdom. I’m a little miffed that it was in a whole other game, but that’s neither here nor there.

Concerning other stuff with life outside the blog, there’s really nothing else that went on the last couple of weeks. I guess that my spouse and I have still been kind of watching what we eat a little, and I took the Halloween decorations down, but nothing else.

Anyway, as always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night! As well as a much better week than I’ve been having!

See ya ~Mar

Monthly Wrap-Up: October Reading 2025

Ugh, this is so late. Oh well, what can you do. I’m still trying to get back into things, but it’s been a little rough. Anyway, reading wrap-up for October 2025 incoming!

Last month was pretty decent, especially compared to the last six months. I read two books! Yay! I hope I can either keep it up or get better before the end of the year. If not, then I’m gonna strive for better next year.

Anyway, let’s just start talking about my StoryGraph statistics from last month! (Edit: Shoot it didn’t post when I wanted it to again. Ugh. Oh well, I fixed it.)

October Reading 2025

I read 2 books and 515 pages

😐 MOODS: I had three Moods in October, which is the same as the month before. The Moods from this past month were: AdventurousMysterious and Tense.

👢 PACE: The books I read last month were medium and fast-paced.

🔢 PAGE NUMBER: The novels I read were between 179 and 336 pages.

📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction. As usual.

🎭 GENRES: There were several Genres on the graph this past month. They were Mystery, Horror, Contemporary, Young Adult and LGBT+.

📄 FORMAT: This pie chart was incorrect for the first time in ages. One novel I read was digital and one was a physical copy.

⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.75.

📉 PAGES READ DAILY: My reading spiked in the first half of October, before dropping off during the second half of the month. My highest peak was on the 9th.

The Books I Read in October

★★★✯☆ • my review

★★★★☆ • my review

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So yeah, my reading in October reading was definitely an improvement over the few months preceding it. I hope I continue to read at least a decent amount for the remainder of the year. We’ll see, though.

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to read next, and I’m not going to force it. I do have a general idea, however, and once I officially pick which book I want to go with next, I just have to ease myself into reading. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get into a new novel soon. I’m still recovering from the past few months of stuff. I’m definitely planning on getting reviews out for the two books I did read last month out soon, though.

Anyway, as always, thank you for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my October reading in 2025. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Birthstone Book Covers: October 2025

Hey everyone and Happy Halloween!! 🎃👻

I’m barely making it, but I’m determined not to miss a month for my favorite monthly post. (This month has been very difficult for me, unfortunately.) So here’s Birthstone Book Covers for October 2025.

Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.

October has two birthstones – Opal and Tourmaline.

This month is sometimes difficult for me, and so many of the covers I end up picking end up being romance novels. I guess that’s what happens when the birthstones of the month are mostly pink and white (I’m not gonna get into opals – they’re weird and complicated when it comes to this kind of post). So I light pink and bright pink covers again.

Rules:

📚 Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Black) and link back to her so she can check out your post.
📚 Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone.
📚 HAVE FUN!
📚 Nominate people if you want!

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
So This is Ever After by F.T. Lukens
Prince Charming by Rachel Hawkins
Bunny by Mona Awad
Emiko by Chieri Uegaki
The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

What are your favorite books with pink and/or white book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this October?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most awesome day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 9/29 – 10/5

It’s the start of a new week, which means it’s time to wrap up the last one. And look – I’m on time this week!

Last week was still a bit rough for me, particularly during the first half. And it’s also why I didn’t post at all until Thursday. There’s just been some stuff going on outside the blogging part of my life that’s been hard on me, which is why updates aren’t what they could be. I’m hoping that will change coming up, but it’s more of a wait-and-see what happens kind of thing.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get on with the Weekly Wrap-Up!

Friday 10/3: The Most Interesting Looking New Books of October 2025

Last Friday, I posted a list of the books that I’m looking forward to this month. Or, at least the ones that I think look the most interesting. It was the Most Interesting Looking New Books of October 2025. As always, it’s basically only fantasy and science fiction, as those are the two genres I primarily read. This time there were only three books that looked interesting to me, which isn’t what I had last month, but it was still something!

Sunday 10/5: Bewitching Book Covers

Yesterday, I posted another Bewitching Book Covers for the first time in two months. Wow, and I thought last time’s gap with this post was big.

Anyway, Bewitching Book Covers (formerly known as Majestic Mondays and Tasteful Tuesdays), is when I gush over a book cover that I like as well as analyze it (sometimes). I also typically give the book covers funny rating systems – not the usual blank out of five stars kind of thing.

Books I Read Last Week

Wrapping It All Up

So yeah, last week wasn’t the greatest in terms of blog activity, but it could’ve been worse. I’m also feeling better than I was early last week, and have finally started reading books again. So I’m very happy about that!

This week, I want to do a decent amount of posts. I want to do my monthly reading wrap-up for September 2025, participate in a couple of the usual posts that I usually engage in and definitely do at least one book review. I really want to get back in the groove of things in regards to books and blogging.

Concerning my reading of books, I finally started reading A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro. I’m not quite finished with it yet, but I’m hoping to do so by the end of tonight. Then, I’m planning on starting The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah. It’s one of my most anticipated reads of 2025, and it’s almost a crime that I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. So I want to rectify that as soon as I can. And then after that, I want to get back into the Dresden Files. And then after that, probably the next arc in One Piece. And maybe somewhere in between all that, I might possibly read a new release – like something that came out within the last few weeks to the last couple of months.

Regarding stuff outside of books and blogging, this past weekend I finally started switching and putting out our Halloween decorations. I don’t switch out the fall decor that much really – I just add to it and complement the autumn decorations with Halloween stuff for a month. Usually I’m a bit more on top of things, but the last month and a half has been a lot – I was late with getting the fall stuff out too, when I swapped out all of the summer stuff for autumn last month.

My spouse and I are still working on being healthy. It took a little bit of a dive for a few weeks with everything going on in real life beyond the blog, but we’re trying to get back into it.

Anyway, as always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night! As well as a much better week than I’ve been having!

See ya ~Mar

The Most Interesting Looking New Books of October 2025

Hey there everybody! Another month, another bunch of new books that are coming out! Yep, it’s The Most Intriguing New Books of October 2025. I know this is about a week later than I usually do it – I like to get it out by the first Tuesday of the month – but there was a lot going on last week, so I’m doing it now.

This used to be a quarterly post, but I’ve recently decided to do it monthly instead. Also, even though this post is about new releases, it’s primarily focused on fantasy and science fiction, as those are the genres I tend to prefer to read. (Not to say other genres won’t ever appear on these lists – it just isn’t super likely; it’s likely to be a very rare occurrence if it happens at all.)

If you’ve seen this post by me before, you know the drill; I’m only interested in these books – there’s no guarantee that I’m gonna read all of them. There’s not even a guarantee that I’m gonna read even half of them. We shall see. Anyway, let’s get going! This month there are only three books that have caught my eye. A bit of a step down from last month, but most months aren’t like that anyway, haha.

RELEASING: October 7th

A teen girl with the power of resurrection must venture into the afterlife, but to survive the death realm, she’ll need the help of her two mortal enemies–both of whom she is inexplicably drawn to–in this romantic, gothic fantasy inspired by Wuthering Heights.

When Jia Yi finds herself alive again after being killed by an enemy’s sword, she realizes she possesses a rare power: the ability to move between life and death. With her new gift comes the discovery of a mysterious spirit realm teeming with ghosts like herself—and Lin, the boy she once loved before his betrayal tore them apart.

At first Jia wants nothing to do with any ghosts, metaphorical or otherwise. But when her beloved grandmother dies under suspicious circumstances, Jia is forced to follow in an attempt to save her. 

In the death realm, though, even ghosts have ghosts. The afterlife is more complex than Jia ever could have imagined—and no one knows what lies at its end. To survive, Jia must rely on both Lin and her longtime enemy, the cold and enigmatic Prince Essien. The problem? She can’t trust either of them.

With tensions high and new and old connections blossoming, Jia must confront the ghosts of her past . . . or risk remaining a ghost herself.

RELEASING: October 14th

A wannabe witch tries to break a curse on a clueless client in this laugh-out-loud debut for fans of queer fantasy like TJ Klune and Tamsyn Muir.

Mateo Borrero has ninety-nine problems, and all of them hinge on the fact that his terrifying and currently-missing bruja mother trapped a demon in his body when he was born. His mother forbade him from ever using magic, but now that she’s gone, magic’s his only marketable skill, and he’d really like an exorcism—which costs money he doesn’t have. What’s the harm in making a quick buck by calling himself an Occult Specialist and chanting a few half-remembered spells in his crappy Spanish?

Enter Topher, a naive nepo baby with a curse that keeps killing people around him. Most importantly, he’s rich, and too clueless to clock that Mateo–and his (absolutely-not-the-assistant) astral-projecting best friend Ophelia–have never actually had a client before. Lifting Topher’s bad luck curse should be simple, but as luck would have it, nothing is simple, and Topher–who Mateo sort of, kind of likes–might be at the center of a deadly magical conspiracy. 

To make matters worse, the more magic Mateo does, the stronger the demon inside him grows and the more he wants to eat people. But would caving to the urges of an ancient evil really be that bad if it helps him get a payday?

Legends and Lattes meets A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer in this hilarious and charming contemporary fantasy readers won’t want to miss.

RELEASING: October 28th

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

So yeah, these are all of the books releasing in October 2025 that I’m at least a little interested in. What books are coming out soon that you’re looking forward to? Do we share some of the same ones?

As always, thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar