~Happy Spooktober, Calendar Girls Participants~
Happy Spooktacular October ghouls!! This is my favorite month because it holds my favorite holiday! I just LOVE Halloween, and I am so excited for this month’s Halloween theme! I hope you all enjoyed making your picks this for this month, and I hope you all get the chance to read some fantastically spooky reads for the next 31 days!
~Hocus Pocus (Best Book with Witches)~
This was a tough one because I LOVE witches and I’ve read a few amazing books with some bad ass witches in them recently!
So let’s cover my runners up before getting in to my choice. I wish I could have chosen all of them, but alas, we can only have one choice per month.
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova
Not only did this have a gorgeous cover symbolic of Day of the Dead, but it had power, emotion, and some awesome brujas!
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
Yes this is a bit of a stretch, but anyone who loves this series has to admit that Manon was pretty bad ass in this one, and she is most definitely a witch!
Bruja Born by Zoraida Cordova
Being book 2 in the Brooklyn Brujas series, you can already tell that this one had some witches in it, but it was so much better than book 1. It had plenty of magic, mayhem, and even the undead!
Since there can only be one choice, I had to go with one of my favorites from this year.
Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson
Synopsis: Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There’s not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley’s favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.
So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone’s explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.
Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer…before the killer strikes again.
Undead Girl Gang was so incredible! I loved how it reminded me of The Craft, Hocus Pocus, AND Practical Magic (all with witches if you didn’t already know). It had a powerful story that actually focused on teaching about some real witchcraft, and had strong, entertaining characters that worked and fought together, learned lessons, and cast a spell on my heart. With an #OwnVoices representation, strong friendships, and plenty of magic, this one is one of my favorites and you are missing out if you haven’t read it yet!
You can read my full review here if you are up for more gushing!
(Theme image created by Katie @ Never Not Reading.)
(All other images found on google and twitter gifs.)
October Calendar Girls Participants:
Katie @ Never Not Reading – The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman | Deanna @ Deanna Writes About It – The Crucible by Arthur Miller |
Bird on A Shelf – Balefire by Cate Tiernan | Samantha @ Modern Witch’s Bookshelf – The Wicked Deep by Shea Earnshaw |
Lucinda @ Lucinda is Reading – The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy | Sophie @ Beware the Reader – Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins |
Dani @ Mousai Books – The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern | Jennifer @ Jennifer Reads – The Witching Hour by Anne Rice |
Flavia @ Flavia the Bibliophile – Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft | Adrienne @ Darque Dreamer Reads – Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson |
For those who are new to Calendar Girls, it is a monthly blog event, created by Melanie at MNBernard Books, and Flavia at Flavia the Bibliophile, that was inspired by the Neil Sedaka song Calendar Girl. Just like the song, each month has a specific theme, voted on by the participants, where we get to talk about a particular book we love or think fits the theme the best. The blog event was created to incite fun bookish discussions and to spread the blogger love by introducing us to new bloggers and/or books that we have not come across before.
If this sounds like something you would enjoy, make sure to head to my Calendar Girls info page! Drop a comment and let me know if you are interested in joining us, and sign up for the newsletter if you would like monthly updates on the chosen themes and blogger picks! We’d love to have you join us!
If you are joining on the fun today, make sure to link back to this post AND Katie’s post so we can add your name and choice to the list of participants for all to enjoy!
Darque Dreamer
Blogger/ Punk Rocker / Quirky
Housewife
Awesome picks! You should try reading the Mayfair Witches series by Anne Rice if you haven’t already. I absolutely love love love them. I would love to join you ladies and get to know some more book lovers like myself!
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Thank you! I will look in to the series! We would love to have you join us! Let me know if you have any questions about how the monthly event works and if you would like to be added to the Twitter DM group! ❤
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That was my first question on how it all works. You can definitely add me to the twitter Dm group!
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Just added you 🙂
And, basically, Katie and I come up with a few choices for all participants to vote on for each month and the winning choice is the theme for that month. On the first Monday of each month we all post about our favorite choice for that month’s theme, and you as a participant can link back to mine and Katie’s post for that day so we can add you to the list of participants for other bloggers to see. Then, on the 3rd Sunday of each month at 8 pm EST, we chat about the theme and choices on Twitter. Katie and I each post a question every 10-15 minutes using hashtag #CGBChat for everyone to answer and chat underneath. We just ask that you try to remember to use the same hashtag for every reply you make, that way we can collect the recap thread to share for those who can’t make it to the chat. Other than that, Katie and I will post a theme recap post on the Second Monday of each month to let you know what the upcoming theme is and to provide the voting forms for the favorite choice of the current month, and the new theme for the following month, and then we will post a recap on the last Monday of each month to make sure no one has missed anything. You can also sign up for the monthly newsletter by clicking the newsletter link in any of my Calendar Girls posts to keep up to date on everything too. It sounds like a lot but its super simple and very laid back. If for some reason you can’t post on that first Monday, you can always catch up and post another day that week as long as you link back to us so we can find your post and share it. 🙂
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I hadn’t thought of that one. Now that’s a witch saga! Lol
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Yes it is. I’ve been re-reading the Vampire Chronicles and am throwing that series into the mix.
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Haven’t read that one but it sounds perfectly suited to this month’s reading. 😊
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It’s by Anne Rice. It includes Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, The Body Theif and about 12 more books. lol
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Ahh. Okay. So then I do know it 😊😄. Just have yet to read it. Thanks!
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I thought about the Throne of Glass series too. At this point in the series Manon is the ONLY thing I am interested in! I fully expect to have several people choose it, but we’ll see!
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I would totally read a series just about Manon and the history of the clans.
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Dude, me too. As long as there was less sex. Geez.
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I am actually surprised that the scene in Empire of Storms was so graphic considering it hasn’t been over the top in the rest of the books.
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Definitely Empire of Storms took everything to a WHOLE different level. But whatever the book before that was called was preeettty steamy, so I can’t say I was shocked.
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Yeah, I remember it being steamy, but I still think it never crossed the line like EoS. Now I am worried about the rest of the books lol. And, I haven’t even read ACOTAR.
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I have zero plans to read ACOTAR, lol.
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I had plans until I started hearing about all the over the top sex scenes lmao. Just not my thing, but now I have a book sitting on my shelf that I don’t know what to do with.
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Take it to the Little Free Library!
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I don’t know if I have a place here that takes donations. I feel kind of weird donating a book like that without some warning about the content and the series, lmao.
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Haha, so true!
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OMGGGGGG Everything from your theme, to your banner, your icons, GIFs and everything in this post and on your page are making me so f*cking happy right now ❤
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Eeeek!!! Thank you so much! I am so not talented with photo shop so it took me a while to do all this and I am so happy you love it! Now I have a whole month to work on a Fall theme for November, lol.
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Uhg I’m actually super obsessed. It is absolutely GORGEOUS!
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You are so awesome! ❤
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Oh wow Adrienne now I want to read this one! Great choice and thanks for the recs…and yes Manon Blackbeak is badass!!
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Thanks Sophie! I hope you love it! And I really love that even though Manon is supposed to be a “villain” character that she really shines through the story and has an incredible character arc. She is a total badass!
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Hmmm… juicy, witchy reads!
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Who doesn’t love a good juicy witchy read? Lol. ❤
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Those are all awesome picks.
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Thank you! It was so hard to choose!
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This book sounds awesome! Also I love your spooky theme right now.
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It so is! And thanks so much! It took me a while because I am so not skilled with photo shop, lol!
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Ok…Undead Girl Gang might be THE best title I’ve ever heard. Gonna have to check that out.
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I hope you love it! It was pretty awesome!
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