Today’s post covers the second half of the books I read in October 2024. I shared what I read in the first half of the month here. I shared my five star reads here. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Title: The Flip Side
Author: James Bailey
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Harper Audio, 10/23/20
Source: Publisher (Print), Library (Audio)
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 4 Stars
I checked off another book from my 24 in ’24 list by listening to the audio of The Flip Side by James Bailey. I had received this one in 2020 from the publisher. I found this book amusing as we follow Josh after a break up, as well as losing his home and his job, leads him to flip a coin to make all of his decisions.
“To coin a phrase, Josh is suffering a quarter-life crisis. He just broke up with his long-term girlfriend, lost his job, and moved back home with his parents (shudder). Welcome to rock bottom in Bristol. As Josh starts questioning all his life choices, he has a mad thought: Maybe he would just be better flipping a coin. After all, careful planning has landed him homeless, jobless, and single. What starts as a joke soon becomes serious and Josh decides to start putting his faith in the capriciousness of currency. He doesn’t have anything to lose. But when the chance of a lifetime and the girl of his dreams are on the line, will the coin guide him to a rich love life or leave him flat broke?”
Josh goes on the most hilarious dates and his family made me laugh as well. I enjoyed his friends and their pub quiz team too. Josh meets a girl who he likes a lot and proceeds to lose her in a crowd without even getting her name. So he goes on a quest to find her, with his trusty coin guiding him on his way.
Title: Fall For Him
Author: Andie Burke
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Griffin, 9/3/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This is a romance between two males – Derek and Dylan – written by a female author, which makes me curious as a reader whether it is her story to tell. Dylan’s apartment is directly above Derek’s and when he crashes through his floor, he lands on Derek’s bed. The two don’t get along at first and eventually go from enemies to lovers.
“Dylan Gallagher’s hot neighbor loathed him from the second he moved in, and causing a flood, falling through the floor, and landing directly onto that same neighbor’s bed probably means that’s unlikely to change. The poorly timed ‘It’s Raining Men’ joke didn’t help. Meanwhile, ER nurse Derek Chang’s life is a literal when-rains-it-pours nightmare. A man he hates dropped into his life along with an astronomically expensive problem originating from Derek’s own apartment’s plumbing. Also, the local HOA tyrant has been sniffing around trying to fine him for his extended, illicit banned breed dog-sitting. Since Dylan also wants to keep the catastrophe quiet, he offers to fix the damage himself. Dylan’s sure he’s not Derek’s type, so he focuses all his ADHD hyper fixation energy on getting the repair job done as quickly as possible―avoiding doing anything stupid like acting on his very inconvenient crush. Meanwhile Derek tries to ignore that the tattooed nerd sleeping on the couch is surprisingly witty, smart, and kind, despite the long-term grudge Derek’s been holding against him. But will squeezing all their emotional baggage plus a dog into a tiny one-bedroom apartment be a major disaster…or just prove they’re made for each other?”
Both of the characters have large families and at times I had a hard time keeping track of who went with who. I appreciated the ADHD representation and the mix of romance with family issues made the story interesting to read.
Title: Giddy Barber Explodes in 11
Author: Dina Havranek
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Penguin Teen, 10/15/24
Source: PR for Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This YA book is the 3rd I read recently which focuses on a teenager having too many expectations placed upon her. I thought that it read more like a middle grade book, but Giddy is 15 and in high school. Her parents expect her to take care of her younger siblings even though getting them to their bus makes her late for school herself. Giddy decides to do an experiment where she does the opposite of what is expected for 11 days in hopes that the pressure on her will ease.
“Giddy Barber knows with certainty she’s going to become a mechanical engineer. What she doesn’t know is the last time she smiled. With her parents overworked and unavailable, it falls to Giddy to make sure her siblings stay on track. But she’s exhausted. When you’re the person everyone else turns to, what do you do when you hit a wall? Giddy finds an answer online—if you can’t handle how things are going, shake them up. Is it sound advice? Unclear. But is Giddy willing to try anything? Absolutely. Putting eleven days on the clock, she’ll change her routine. But soon it becomes clear that some problems are bigger than what an online column can fix—her family is fracturing, her anxiety is mounting, and all she knows is this: Something. Has. To. Give.”
Giddy learns that she can do well in the classes that are harder for her and that she can have interests of her own, but there are issues that arise from her not doing what her parents expect. I hated the way her parents blamed her for the behavior of her siblings and I wished that Giddy would have argued back!
Title: Hello, Goodbye
Author: Kate Stollenwerck
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Spark Press, 8/2/22
Source: TLC Book Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
I read Hello, Goodbye this month and I’ll be reading its sequel Don’t Let Me Down soon as well. Hello, Goodbye is about Hailey, whose parents ask her to help out her grandmother Gigi over her summer break. Hailey doesn’t know her grandmother well, but they quickly become close and Hailey is intrigued to hear Gigi’s life story. However, Hailey’s mom doesn’t believe the story and says that Gigi must be lying. Hailey meets Blake, who lives near her grandmother and who seems to be flirting, and he helps her find more information about Gigi.
“Fifteen-year-old Hailey Rogers is sure her summer is ruined when her parents tell her she has to spend a few days a week, every week, helping her grandmother, Gigi. Although Gigi only lives across town, Hailey never sees her and knows little about her. But Gigi is full of surprises—and family secrets. Throw in the gorgeous boy down the street, and Hailey’s ruined summer might just be the best of her life. Then tragedy strikes, lies are uncovered, and Hailey’s life suddenly falls apart. After unearthing clues in an old letter written by her great-grandfather, she takes off on a road trip to solve the family mystery with the only person she can trust.”
I enjoyed this YA intergenerational story and appreciated the way Gigi bonded with Hailey over books (Twilight and The Great Gatsby) and music (The Beatles). This book has a Jewish theme and a Holocaust connection. It is sad in parts and surprising in others. I am looking forward to seeing where Hailey and Blake end up in the sequel!
Title: Dog Trouble
Author: Kristin Varner
Genre: Middle Grade Graphic Novel
Publisher: First Second, 10/29/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This middle grade graphic novel was very cute and filled with the most adorable dogs! This book is about Ash, who gets into some trouble and is sent to stay with his dad for the summer. He commits to a volunteer job and begins helping out at the local shelter. Although he wasn’t a dog person previously, he gets to know some of the shelter dogs and finds he can relate to their behaviors and the care and love they need.
“Ash is a good kid at heart. But his grades are slipping, and when he gets caught vandalizing an old building, it’s the last straw. It’s decided: Ash will spend some time away from the city, at his dad’s place on Ferncliff Island. It’s bad enough that Ash has no friends on the island (just an annoying little stepsister), but his parents are also making him do community service! He volunteers at the local animal shelter, even though he’s not really a dog person. Dogs slobber! They smell! And the dogs at the shelter bark, bark, and bark. But as Ash bonds with the dogs―especially Cooper, a clever, fun-loving pointer that gives sloppy kisses―he starts to see that maybe his time on Ferncliff Island isn’t a total loss.”
I liked that definitions of rescue terms and ideas and introductions to dog breeds were included. Although there are sad parts, I really liked how Ash made mistakes and yet learned and grew along the way.
Title: Lightning In Her Hands
Author: Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio, 10/15/24
Source: Audio Publisher
Why I Read It: Liked the first book in the series
My Rating: 4 Stars
I really liked The Witch of Wild Things, the previous book in this series, and I was excited to see that book 2 was out. I listened to this one and I liked it, although not as much as the previous one. This is about Teal, whose magical gift is to control the weather, but the weather reacts to her emotions and she doesn’t have a way to regulate it, since her mother left when she was a child and took away this ability. Teal asks her former best friend Carter to accompany her to a wedding and Carter needs to marry someone for an inheritance, so a fake marriage ensues.
“Teal Flores is desperate for two things—control over her gift of weather, and a date to her ex’s wedding. The first isn’t possible until she finds her long-lost mother, but the second has a very handsome last-ditch solution: Carter Velasquez. Carter needs Teal too. His chance at receiving an inheritance is dependent on him being married by age thirty (blame his traditional Cuban grandmother), so who better to pose as his wife than Teal? But fake marriage and cohabitation prove tricky when mutual attraction charges the atmosphere—quite literally for Teal, whose volatile emotions cause lightning strikes. Together, Teal and Carter embark on a quest to find her mother and the answers she’s searching for. But along the way, they’ll discover something even better: a love that can weather any storm.”
I thought the love connection between Teal and Carter came about pretty quickly. There were some spicy scenes which have gotten harder for me to listen to on audio. Teal was previously involved in an abusive relationship and she had intrusive thoughts of what her ex said to her. These also were difficult to listen to.
Title: HappyHead
Author: Josh Silver
Genre: YA Contemporary / Dystopian
Publisher: Delacorte Press, 10/22/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars, Rounded up to 4
I enjoy the occasional dystopian book but this didn’t even seem dystopian to me really. It is about Seb, who is sent to a wellness type camp where participants are supposed to be in the pursuit of happiness. The kids are recruited for the camp and are evaluated based on contests.
“Seb has been selected for a new experimental mental health center called HappyHead, designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness. There he and fellow participants will complete in a series of assessments meant to test them, so they can better face the challenges of the real world. Seb is determined to win so he can change how people see him and make his parents proud. But then Seb meets a mysterious participant named Finn who has drawn unwanted attention to himself by resisting the program’s rules. The leaders want everyone to believe Finn is mentally unstable but as Finn exposes cracks in the system around them, Seb is left questioning the true nature of the challenges–and wondering if Finn is actually the only one he can really trust. Something sinister is at play…and as the assessments take a dark turn, it becomes impossible to ignore the voice in his head telling him that even if he wins, there might be no way out.”
I didn’t really understand the goal of the program and how the assessments related to that goal. It is the first in a set of two, so maybe things will make more sense if one chooses to read the second book.
Title: The Bitter End
Author: Alexa Donne
Genre: YA Thriller
Publisher: Random House Books For Young Readers, 10/15/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars, Rounded up to 4
In this locked room thriller, a group of spoiled kids go on a high school excursion to the top of a mountain in Colorado for a digital detox. Many characters have a viewpoint in the present, as well as in flashbacks to a party 3 years ago. As seemingly accidental deaths begin, the characters much decide who they can trust.
“The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep can’t wait for their Senior Excursion—five days of Instagrammable adventure in one of the world’s most exclusive locations. This is not your average field trip. Which is why eight students can’t believe their bad luck when they end up on a digital detox in an isolated Colorado ski chalet. Their epic trip is panning out to be an epic bore . . . until their classmates start dropping in a series of disturbing deaths. The message is clear: this trip is no accident. And when a blizzard strikes, secrets are revealed, betrayals are exposed, and survival is at stake in a race to the bitter end.”
I thought this one had a slow start, but it picked up in the middle section. The characters were mainly unlikable and hard to care about. While I normally enjoy takes on And Then There Were None, this one wasn’t a favorite for me.
There you have it, the rest of my October reading! This post included 8 of the books I read in October. 6 of these books were in print and 2 were audio. Genres included rom com, contemporary, graphic novel, and thriller. 3 were adult reads, 4 was YA, and 1 was Middle Grade.
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?
