Fall Bookish Bingo 2018 - Update #1 & Mini Reviews

Welcome to my first official update for Fall Bookish Bingo hosted by Bekka @ Pretty Deadly Reviews!  I haven't made a bingo yet, but I have managed to tackle eight books so far since the challenge began last month.  I'd say I'm off to a pretty good start!  Read on for my mini reviews of these books:

Made into a Movie: 

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ 

I loved seeing this story on the big screen and I'm glad that I finally got the chance to listen to the audio book. The narrator does a fantastic job of bringing the wide cast of characters into full living color. I'm not usually into romance and soap operas (and this is very much both), but I was thoroughly engrossed in the entire spectacle. There are some elements that I think I preferred how they handled it for the adaptation, but I did prefer that we got to know the characters a bit more than in the film. Colin and Oliver are my favorites of the supporting cast. I did like movie Peik Lin more than her book counterpart in particular though. I will definitely need to continue this series on audio and I can't wait to see the movie again now that I've read the book it's based on.

I listened to this audiobook from September 18 - 26, 2018 and my review is also on Goodreads.


Pretty Spine:

❋ ❋

Well, I liked the book cover design... Overall, though, I didn't expect this to be quite so irritating even though I've seen quite a few middling to negative reviews of the story. There's not much of a plot, and the characters were so despicable, psychotic, and/ or idiotic. I was hoping for We Were Liars meets The Accident Season, but that just didn't happen for me. I guess, though, that I could appreciate the fact that Wink is a reader - she's read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and she even mentions The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair in her villains list. You can't go wrong with The Gentleman.

I read this book from September 15 - 16, 2018 and my review is also on Goodreads.


Fall Release:

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ 

My review of this ARC can be found here.

Witches:  

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ 

I don't know why, but I didn't expect to like this series opener quite as much as I did. I was particularly interested in the historical fantasy setting of an alternate New England of 1896 where witches are real and in constant danger from society. Unfortunately these days it feels a bit too on the nose. I'm going to have to read book two soon.

Also 10 points if you understood that reference!

I read this book from September 27 - 30, 2018 and my review is also on Goodreads.


Scares You:

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ 

My review of this ARC can be found here.


Less Than 300 Pages:

❋ ❋ ❋

Not bad, just underwhelming. I was really hoping for more fantasy than romance which is what it really became. I would categorize this as more New Adult romance than fantasy in the long run. The only character I was interested in reading about was Kit and while I liked what we got to see of him, but I think I would have preferred if the story were told completely from his perspective. Also I might have been hoping for something along the lines of this:

I read this novel from September 5 - 6, 2018 and my review is also on Goodreads.

Legend or Myth:

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋

Riordan is one of my favorites authors and I have to say I love his take on Norse Mythology. So unique and inventive yet it totally works. It's also cool that we get to see Annabeth - and I'm so pleased that it looks like we'll be meeting Percy in book three. By the way, Kieran Culkin is a fantastic narrator for the audiobook. I can't wait to read The Ship of the Dead and I will have to read The Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo.

I listened to this audiobook from September 1 - 4, 2018 and my review is also on Goodreads.

Set in Another Country:

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋

I'm glad I had the opportunity to read Blameless right after I finished book two. Have I mentioned how much I love that Alexia is so logical and practical given her preternatural status? I love that she's able to compartmentalize everything that's going on with Conall in order to figure out what's going on with the vampires and what it means to be pregnant. I also liked that we get to see a little more of the wider supernatural / preternatural world on their jaunt to Italy. Madame Lefoux is still a real standout. I can't wait to start in on book four, Heartless.

I read this novel on September 5, 2018 and my review is also on Goodreads.


Congrats if you made it this far!  Have you read any of these books or are you doing bookish bingo this season?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!