OCTOBER READING CHALLENGE

HELLO OCTOBER!!!

My favourite month of the year is here!! With it, it brings Autumn weather, beautiful nature, my birthday, Halloween and lots of new adventures and new books.

As you can tell, I love everything about this month. I can already see myself wrapped up in a cosy jumper, a mug of hot chocolate in hand and a good book to read... that's all I need ! What do you like the most about October?

And with a new month, there is time to explore new worlds. I was trying to themed this month's reading list and somehow managed to put 4 different book series on the list. All together, we are reading 5 new adventures.

Enough talking, it's time to introduce you to my October TBR list.

*****

OCTOBER READING CHALLENGE

THE GODDESS WAR series by Kendare Blake

THE MORTAL GODS

Ares, God of War, is leading the other dying gods into battle. Which is just fine with Athena. She's ready to wage a war of her own, and she's never liked him anyway. If Athena is lucky, the winning gods will have their immortality restored. If not, at least she'll have killed the bloody lot of them, and she and Hermes can die in peace.

Cassandra Weaver is a weapon of fate. The girl who kills gods. But all she wants is for the god she loved and lost to return to life. If she can't have that, then the other gods will burn, starting with his murderer, Aphrodite.

The alliance between Cassandra and Athena is fragile. Cassandra suspects Athena lacks the will to truly kill her own family. And Athena fears that Cassandra's hate will get them all killed.

The war takes them across the globe, searching for lost gods, old enemies, and Achilles, the greets warrior the world has ever seen. As the struggle escalates, Athena and Cassandra must find a way to work together. Because if they can't, fates far worse than death await.

UNGODLY

For the Goddess of Wisdom, what Athena didn't know could fill a book. That's what her opponents said. So she was wrong about some things. So her carefully planned assault on Olympus left her team beaten and scattered and possibly dead. So they have to fight the Fates themselves, who, it turns out, are the source of the gods' illness. And, yes, Athena is stuck in the underworld, holding the body of the only hero she has ever loved.

But all is not lost. Hermes is still topside, trying to power up Andie and Henry before he runs out of time and submits to his death, or the Fates arrive to speed it along.

And Cassandra is up there somewhere , too, on a quest for death... with the god of death himself.

Just because things haven't gone exactly according to plan, it doesn't mean they've lost. They've only mostly lost. And there's a big difference.

DOROTHY MUST DIE series by Danielle Paige

DOROTHY MUST DIE

I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know? Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. But I never expected Oz to look like this. A place where Good Witches can't be trusted and Wicked Witches just might be the good guys. A place where even the yellow brick road is crumbling. What happened? Dorothy.

My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas. I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, and I've been given a mission :

REMOVE The Tin Woodman's Heart.

STEAL The Scarecrow's Brain.

TAKE The Lion's Courage.

And then - DOROTHY MUST DIE.

THE WICKED WILL RISE

My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas.

After a tornado swept through my trailer park, I ended up in Oz. But it wasn't like the Oz I knew from books and movies. Dorothy had returned, and she was stealing magic from the land. The Wizard was back. Glinda could no longer be called the Good Witch. And the Wicked Witches who were left? They'd joined forces as the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, and they wanted to recruit me.

MY MISSION? KILL DOROTHY.

Except my job as assassin didn't work out as planned. Dorothy is still alive. The Order has vanished. And the home I couldn't wait to leave behind might be in danger. But in a place where the line between good and evil shifts with a strong gust of wind .... who am I supposed to trust? And who is actually Wicked?

FIND Dorothy.

DESTROY The Road of Yellow Brick.

SAVE her home.

THE WICKED WILL RISE.

THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black

Coldtown was dangerous. Tana knew. A glamorous cage. A prison for the dammed and anyone who wanted to party with them.

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called ColdTowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. It's an eternal party, shown on TV twenty-four hours a day - gorgeous, glamorous, deadly.  The problem is, once you pass through ColdTown's gates, you can never leave....

BAD GIRLS DON'T DIE series by Katie Alender

BAD GIRLS DON'T DIE

When Alexis's little sister, Kasey, becomes obsessed with an antique doll, Alexis things nothing of it. Kasey is a weird kid. Period. Alexis is considered weird, too, by the kids in her high school, by her parents, even by her own goth friends. Things get weirder, though, when the old house they live in starts changing. Doors open and close by themselves, water boils on the unlit stove, and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough for the girls to see their breath. Kasey is changing too. Her blue eyes go green, and she uses old-fashioned language, then forgets chunks of time. 

Most disturbing of all is the dangerous new chip on Kasey's shoulder. The formerly gentle, doll-loving child is gone, and the new Kasey is angry. Alexis is the only one who can stop her sister - but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?

FROM BAD TO CURSED

Alexis is the last girl you'd expect to sell her soul. She already has everything she needs  - an adorable boyfriend, the perfect best friend, and a little sister who's finally recovering after being possessed by an evil spirit. 

Alexis is thrilled when her sister joins a club; new friends are just what Kasey needs. It's strange, though, to see how fast the girls in the Sunshine Club go from dorky and antisocial to gorgeous and popular. Then Alexis learns that the girls have pledged an oath to a seemingly benevolent spirit named Aralt. Worried that Kasey's in over her head again, Alexis and her best friend, Megan, decide to investigate by joining the club themselves. Soon, Alexis trades in her pink hair and pinky clothes for a mainstream look, and quickly finds herself revelling in her newfound elegance and success. 

The club's connection with Aralt seems harmless, and before long, Alexis can hardly remember why she joined in the first place. Surely it wasn't to destroy Aralt... Why would she hurt someone who has given her so much and asked for so little in return?

AS DEAD AS IT GETS

It's been three months since Alexis helplessly witnessed Lydia Small's violent death, and all she wants is for her life to return to normal. 

But normal people don't see decaying bodies haunting photographs. Normal people don't have to deal with regular intrusions from Lydia's angry ghost, sometimes escalating to terrifying attacks. 

At first it seems that Lydia wants revenge on Alexis alone. But a girl from school disappears one night, and Alexis spots one of Lydia's signature yellow roses lying on the girl's dresser the next day. Soon it becomes clear that several of Alexis's friends are in danger, and that she's the only person who can save them. But as she tries to intervene, Alexis realises that her enemy is a much more powerful ghost than she's ever faced before... and that its fate is tied to hers in ways she couldn't possibly imagine. 

Not even in her worst nightmares. 

MISS PELEGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs

HOLLOW CITY

September 3, 1940.

Then peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters.

And only one person can help them - but she's trapped in the body of a bird. 

The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom.

LIBRARY OF SOULS

A boy with extraordinary powers.

An army of deadly monsters.

And epic battle for the future of peculiardom. 

The adventure that began with Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and continued in Hollow City comes to a thrilling conclusion with Library of Souls. As the story opens, sixteen-year-old Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he's diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a god with a nose for sniffing out lost children. 

They'll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil's Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It's a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all. Like its predecessors, Library for Souls blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience. 

*****

So there is my TBR list for this month. I am quite looking forward to the spookiness these stories will bring. What are you reading this month?