Hello friends!

As usual, I’m bringing you this month’s Wrap Up! November was a great reading month and I’m thrilled about all the books I read. I feel like in the past few months I’ve been reading really “easy” books (manga, simple romances, etc.) and I wanted to get back to normal to pick more complex books – and that’s exactly what I did!

Not only did I take my TBR list very seriously this month, but I also had some room to challenge myself and explore new books. The result was an impressive 13 read books in November! I can’t believe I ended up reading so many good books this month!

Well to be fair, I still read some manga books, but it was only a small portion of my reading month! I’ve read amazing books in November, and even found a few new 5-star reads! I’m very excited to share with you all of the books I’ve picked this month, so enough rambling – let’s take a look at the books:

1. Ink (Skin Books #1) by Alice Broadway: 2.5/5⭐

Starting with the last book I read this month, we have “Ink” by Alice Broadway. This is a book that is part of my Oldest 30 books in my TBR list, and I decided to add it to my TBR this month so I could start tackling my oldest books! This has been on my TBR for years and now I finally started this series! I’m sad to say it wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be. The concept of this dystopian series is unique and different, but the book is very slow and it felt like there were only a few scenes that were important to the book – the rest is just filler. I’m going to read the second book “Spark” in December, so hopefully, it gets a little more interesting!

2. My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing: 3.25/5⭐

I’ve been wanting to read this book for years! It’s funny how I barely pick thrillers anymore, but this was probably the only one I had on my TBR that I actually wanted to read for the story. A couple that spices up their boring lives and marriage by killing women together? That sounded so different and interesting! But unfortunately, this wasn’t what I expected, and I ended up giving 3.25 stars out of 5. It wasn’t bad, but I thought the story would be better and more engaging. Oh well, at least I’ve finally read it!

3. Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma: 5/5⭐

I have to be honest with you, “Forbidden” completely shattered me and broke my heart – I’m not even being dramatic, it’s the truth. I’m still picking up the pieces and gathering my thoughts and emotions, but I have no doubt this is a 5-star read. I’ve never read a book that triggered so many strong emotions in me. Sure, I’ve cried before while reading a book, but this made me feel sadness, heartbreak, and anger on another level. Just writing about it is making me upset! I knew it would be a tough read, but it was way worse than I initially thought. It was an amazing book, even though I’m still mad about it. I’ll talk about it with you guys one day!

4. Ready Player One (Ready Player One #1) by Ernest Cline: 5/5⭐

I must tell you about “Ready Player One” because… oh my God! I can’t believe I took so long to start this series. I devoured this book like a mad woman and loved every second. It was such a fun reading experience that I believe I’ll probably reread it one day. I rated it 5 stars because it would be impossible for me to give a lower rating!

5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen: 4/5⭐

I picked this randomly this month because I had time to read it and it has been on my TBR for a very long time. I didn’t know the story or anything about it before picking it up, so I was completely in the dark – but I ended up giving it a 4-star rating! It was a fascinating and well-made story. I have to say I found the animal abuse scenes disturbing and upsetting to read, but I get why they were important to the story. Later I found out this has a movie adaptation with Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson. I might watch the movie now!

6. Best Self by Coach Mike Bayer: 5/5⭐

I’ve been eyeing “Best Self” for a few years now because I’m a huge fan of Coach Mike. So I finally read his book and I absolutely loved it! It’s a very hands-on book, which I wasn’t really expecting but it made sense because of its content. I ended up doing all the exercises and it made me reflect on my life and areas that need some help. It was the dose of inspiration I needed I plan on rereading it again in the future someday – I feel like I’m going to grab this one for the rest of my life to be honest!

7. The Guncle by Steven Rowley: 4.5/5⭐

Another book I picked randomly near the end of the month was “The Guncle”. This one in particular surprised me a lot! I admit I grabbed it thinking it would be just your average fun contemporary book, but in reality, it was super wholesome and had a great, unique story. It was way better than I had anticipated! I’ll talk to you about it soon!

8. Lovely War by Julie Berry: 3.5/5⭐

I almost DNF’ed “Lovely War” if I’m being completely honest with you. I just wasn’t feeling the theme of the book, the super slow pace, the weird connection between Greek mythology and the World War, the boring romance… but I’m glad I continued it because it got better. I wasn’t interested at first, but the pace picked up and I connected a little more to the story. It still wasn’t a 4-star read for me, but the last chapter where the author talks about the real historical facts behind the book made me like it more.

9. Twisted Hate (Twisted #3) by Ana Huang: 4.5/5⭐

This is a book I planned on reading in November, so it was part of my TBR! I almost didn’t finish this one on time, but fortunately, I finished two days before the month ended – it was a close call! I had a lot of fun reading this book and it’s my favorite from the “Twisted” series so far! I’m still missing “Twisted Lies”, so hopefully I’ll finish this series in December.

10. Tokyo Mew Mew Vol. 6 by Mia Ikumi: 3/5⭐

I’ve started my reading month by finishing the manga series “Tokyo Mew Mew”. I was missing the last 2 volumes, so one of my priorities this month was to finish the rest of the series. I thought the books were cute in general, but my interest in the series decreased with time. It started to get a little too nonsensical to me – but when the very young school kids get married at the end… Well, that was the nail in the coffin. To be fair, I believe it’s kind of normal in Japanese shojo that the MCs get married at the end… but I still think it’s pretty weird. Anyways, it’s still cute!

11. Tokyo Mew Mew Vol. 7 by Mia Ikumi: 3/5⭐

Already said everything above!

12. Woke Up Like This by Amy Lea: 4.5/5⭐

This was a random book I picked this month and I ended up loving it! I feel like it’s very difficult for a YA contemporary romance to leave a mark on me anymore, but there was something special about this book that I loved. I just had a lot of fun reading this and loved the story and characters. Definitely recommend it!

13. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys: 3.5/5⭐

After finishing all of the audiobooks I had planned for the month, I decided to pick another one: “Between Shades of Gray” by Ruta Sepetys. This was the favorite book of a YouTuber I followed a few years ago, so I was curious and it has been on my TBR since then. It’s a work of fiction based on what happened to Lithuanians (and the other Baltic countries) after the Soviet Union annexed and occupied their country. These people were deported and imprisoned, and many of them ended up in Siberia doing forced labor. It’s an interesting, but sad story as you can imagine!

I was so surprised this month – I’ve read plenty of books and found multiple 5-star books. That rarely happens! I guess that’s what happens when I finally pick up more complex books. As usual, I’ll be posting the reviews for these books soon.

What about you guys? How was your reading month? Let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading friends, I’ll catch you guys later!