Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween Freebie 🎃👻

Happy Tuesday everybody! We’re finally in the throes of fall and on the cusp of Halloween! I’m so excited!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Halloween Freebie, so I’ve decided to do a bit of a monster mashup. A Creature Feature if you will – of an assortment of different Halloween and horror monsters.

All right, here we go!

👻 Ghosts 👻

I liked this book, and I liked its take on ghosts. Sheets is probably one of the cutest ghost stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. (I was actually gonna have The Ghostkeeper here for this one, but then I remembered that I’d just read Sheets, so I went with it ’cause I just used the former on a list yesterday.)

🐺 Werewolves 🐺

What’s a creature feature without werewolves? Now, shiver isn’t my favorite werewolf story (I don’t even know if I really have one), nor is it Maggie Stiefvater’s best, but it’s the first one I thought of.

🦇 Vampires 🦇

Speaking of stuff that isn’t my favorite in the genre – yeah, I don’t think that Twilight is a good vampire story. I also don’t think it’s a good story in general, but whatever. It is, unfortunately, likely the most popular modern vampire story, and as the ones that I prefer are either more obscure and from the ’00s, I picked this one.

🧹 Witches 🧹

I think that there are probably better witch books too (aren’t I on a roll here, lol), but I definitely think that this is one of the better ones that I’ve read that isn’t middle grade. I also think I gave it four stars when I originally read it, so there’s that.

🔥 Demons 🔥

I’ve been trying to pick books I’ve read more recently for this list if I can, and unfortunately, this is the most recent book featuring demons that I’ve read.

🧟 Zombies 🧟

I was originally thinking of putting What Moves the Dead here, but I used it on my Fall Recs yesterday. So I picked the only other zombie book I’ve read.

✨ Faeries ✨

I like books with faeries. But I especially like books that portray them properly. Not the world of hot guys and ridiculously sized… Eggplants… That Sarah J. Maas has popularized.

🐙 Deep Sea Eldritch Horror 🐙

I don’t know what to say here, honestly. This has giant horrific sea monsters and disturbing transformations. Very eldritch horror stuff going on.

🐎 Kelpies 🐎

And Stiefvater makes the list a second time! But then, she did write a book featuring a more obscure monster that I’d love to see more of. (And it’s a much better book than Shiver.) I love The Scorpio Races.

💀 Skeletons 💀

Gotta get that Spooky Scary Skeleton rep in here! I think living skeletons/walking-talking skeletons are underrated. I’d see them in a few things growing up, but they just weren’t nearly as popular as all the other monsters. And I haven’t read the Skullduggery Pleasant books, so I was having trouble figuring out a way to get them on this list. But then I remembered that I’ve been reading One Piece and one of the protagonists is a skeleton, and he’s absolutely fantastic (I love Brook), so I went with One Piece.

What books have you been reading lately? Have any of them been spooky or Halloween themed? What monsters or creatures have they featured? What are your favorite types of books with supernatural creatures?

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

See ya ~Mar

10 Book Covers With Hearts and Flowers for Love Month

I had planned to have this out by this Wednesday… but I was busy celebrating Valentine’s Day with my spouse (and other stuff), so I’m posting it today! It’s still Love Month, so it’s still okay!

This is kind of inspired by other Valentine’s Day posts that I’ve seen, but with my own spin on it. Specifically, I’m going to be showing off covers that have hearts and/or flowers on them, or that have a hearts and/or flowers theme going on. Bonus points if there’s a reference in the book’s title.

Without further ado, let’s get started! And, it’s a little late, but Happy Valentine’s Day!! 💝💐🍫💌

**1 •** **Once Upon a Broken Heart** **by Stephanie Garber**

**2 •** **Flowerheart** **by Catherine Bakewell**

**3 •** **Shiver** **by Maggie Stiefvater**

**4 •** **A Court of Frost and Starlight** **by Sarah J. Maas**

**5 •** **Heartless** **by Marissa Meyer**

**6 •** **New Moon** **by Srephenie Meyer**

**7 •** **Instructions for a Secondhand Heart** **by Tamsyn Murray**

**8 •** **Belladonna** **by Adalyn Grace**

**9 •** **Sweet Little Lies** **by Lauren Conrad**

And that’s a wrap! As always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope that you have a lovely day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Spell the Month in Books: October 2023

I actually managed to do this post on the correct day this month. Hooray!

It’s probably obvious from my featured image, but the post is Spell the Month in Books. Spell the Month in Books is a monthly post created and hosted by Jana @ Reviews from the Stacks. I started participating in it a few months ago.

Anyway, let’s spell October with book titles! This month, seeing as it’s spooky season, I decided to pick books that are creepy or unsettling to some degree. Or have vampires 🦇 or werewolves 🐺 or witches 🧹 (and probably also happen to be a supernatural romance). And I’ve actually read all of these! (I like scary stories. 😱 And ghost stories. 👻 And supernatural stories. 🎃)

O

C

T

O

The Old Willis Place by Mary Downing Hahn

B

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

E

Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer — (I swear *Eighth Grade Bites* is the title – for whatever reason the publisher puts the titles of this series on the backs of the books.)

R

What books did you choose to spell September with? Did we choose any of the same ones? Have you read any of the books I chose?

As always, thank you to anyone who read and enjoyed my post. I hope anyone and everyone has a really good day/night!

See ya ~Mar