11 Books I Read in September | Monthly Recap

Another month, another monthly reading recap. Here are all the books I read in September 2022!

Welcome to Another Monthly Reading Recap

As you may know by now, I’ve been loving sharing my monthly reading recaps with you all. It’s like our own form of a virtual book club!

• Many of my long-standing library holds came in! Woohoo!
• Made lots of progress on my Colleen Hoover reading checklist
• Target Circle 20% off ALL books – I went crazy
• Starting listening to audiobooks
• Started a book TikTok account for fun
• Learning to REALLY love my Kindle

Let’s dive right into the books. We’ll keep it short and sweet this month!

11 Books I Read in September | Monthly Recap

Romance Books

Let’s talk about LOVE, baby! This was a pretty romance-heavy month of reading. Here are all the romance books I read in September.

REVIEW:

When I first began this book, I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it. I typically don’t love high-school-aged romance books. However, this book had so much depth and meaning that was way deeper than the high school love.

This book has a beautiful story of mother/daughter bonds. It also tackles struggles with morality, grief, infidelity, forgiveness, and connection.

To be honest, I wasn’t SUPER invested in Clara’s (the daughter/main character) love story. It was cute, but I was not overly passionate about it. I did, however, love the overlapping storylines of mother/daughter, the back-and-forth perspective, and the multi-layered plot.

Overall, this book is a really beautiful story. Not my favorite CoHo by any means (we’ll talk about that one later 😉 ), but I did really enjoy it a lot.

REVIEW:

WOW.

Favorite. Colleen. Hoover. EVER.

I’m not typically one to cry while I read, but this book had me sobbing before I was even halfway through it.

Without giving too much away, this book follows Kenna as she returns to her hometown in an attempt to reunite with her daughter after her time in prison. Her daughter is living with the dad’s parents (you’ll find out why) and they are opposed to allowing Kenna into her life.

Kenna connects with her late husband’s best friend, Ledger, (unknowingly at first) who is like a father figure in her daughter’s life. Ledger is my favorite male character in any CoHo book.

This book is heartbreakingly beautiful. I was bawling – like a full ugly cry – on multiple occasions. ALL THE FEELS.

REVIEW:

“Meh” is what comes to mind when I think of this book. I feel terrible saying that since I know this book is SO loved by lots of people on BookTok. It’s not BAD… I just struggled to feel motivated to pick it up.

I found this main character really boring – I feel like she lacked depth. She felt like a very stock character.

I also felt like the plot was a little too out there for me. It was 13 Going on 30 -ish but missed the mark for me.

Again, not a BAD book… just not one I’d recommend. Unpopular opinion, I know!

REVIEW: (check TW)

I am going to make a bold statement: This is the most underrated Colleen Hoover book out there.

Seriously… why is no one talking about this book?! It’s AMAZING.

This is another book that had me in literal TEARS on multiple occasions. I was not expecting to love this book so much since it’s another high school romance (typically not my favorite).

But the plot of this book is incredible – and the characters are even more amazing. This is a must-read in my opinion.

REVIEW: (check TW)

Ugh, I’m so torn on this. This book would have been good… IF I hadn’t just read Hopeless. Essentially, this book is the same story from the male perspective (ie. Dean’s perspective, rather than Sky’s).

I knew this going into it – and I was excited. But I think that I might have read them too close together. I got bored of this book solely because it was too familiar and fresh in my mind.

Watch my review on TikTok here

There are a lot of moments when we get more insights into Dean’s perspective, obviously. But there are a lot of scenes that feel pretty much copy-and-paste from Hopeless.

Obviously, I love the plot of this story so, if I hadn’t read Hopeless, this would be a 5-star read. But, since I had just read Hopeless, the repetitiveness took it down to 3 stars. Does that make sense?

Too Late

RATING: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (3/5 Stars)

REVIEW:

This book was just okay to me. I didn’t dislike it, but I never felt excited to go and pick it up.

I got bored of the drug scene in this book. To me, it started to feel a bit redundant and, TBH, annoying.

Also, while I normally love CoHo’s alternating perspective shifts between chapters, I didn’t feel super connected to the characters here. I found myself dreading Asa’s chapters (which are essentially 1/3 of the book).

All in all, this book was okay. It wasn’t mind-blowing or life-changing. But it was entertaining enough (and I’m glad I checked it off my CoHo checklist).

REVIEW:

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I really, really enjoyed this book. There were so many different elements and deep messages told through the plot of this book.

I loved the messages on addiction, loss, sexuality, parental love, sibling connection, wealth/money, friendship, and – of course – love.

Colleen Hoover did a really beautiful job of tackling a lot of tough subjects in a truly touching way with Heart Bones.

This is a book I hadn’t heard much about, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked this story (so much so that I read it in one night!).

Thriller/Mystery Books

Getting prepared for the spooky season! Here are all the mystery and/or thriller books I read in September.

REVIEW:

The very first chapter of this book felt like I was watching an episode of Criminal Minds… and I was hooked instantly.

Aside from The Silent Patient, I have yet to read a thriller mystery with this many leads/suspicions only to be completely SHOCKED at the end. This book is incredibly written and the character development is incredible.

This book is told through multiple different perspectives, storylines, and timelines. While this sounds overwhelming, I think this helped add to the confusion/disoriented feeling that is intended with the novel. This stylistic choice worked really well in this book.

There were a couple of times when I had the “get on with it already” feeling. At moments the story felt too slow to me. But, overall, I found this book really entertaining, super well-written, and had me SHOCKED at the end.

Definitely a great read for my fellow thriller mystery lovers.

REVIEW:

This was a good book. Not a great book, but definitely kept me interested and entertained!

I really liked the overall idea and plot of this book.

The only two downfalls for me were that it felt a bit long-winded/slow and a bit predictable.

About 1/3 of the way through, I had a strong suspicion that I figured out the plot twist and I was correct.

This book lacked the “OMG” moment for me that I usually look for in a really good mystery/thriller.

That said, it was an entertaining read. I enjoyed the characters and the story. The potential was there, I just personally would’ve liked a bit more of a shock at the end.

REVIEW:

The first half of this book had me prepared to give it a 5-star rating. I was INTO it. I literally could not put it down. (Ending up reading this in one night…)

This book was WEIRD.

The characters were all super suspicious and blatantly weird. I loved it. It had me drawing about a million different conclusions and making a bunch of different theories. To me, this is the sign of a great thriller.

However, at about the 2/3 mark, I felt this book losing steam. It felt like it was getting a bit predictable/cliché and repetitive.

To sum up, this book is twisted and a bit creepy, but (maybe this is just me) felt a bit repetitive and cliché toward the end.

REVIEW:

I intentionally chose to read this AFTER watching OITNB on Netflix. In hindsight, I think that was maybe a mistake – for a few reasons.

First of all, I loved the show so much.

I’m not sure the book even stood a chance to compare. The TV characters have such a strong place in my heart and I found myself comparing the book to the show way too much.

Secondly, I expected the book to reflect the show more.

As I was reading (or listening) to the book, I was so caught up in trying to connect which person correlated to which character on the show. I was completely distracted by it!

The people and events in the book do not align exactly with the show and I found myself trying to draw comparisons that weren’t there.

Lots of romance (LOTS of Colleen Hoover), a few spooky thrillers, and a dash of memoir! That makes up my September reading recap.

What did you read this September? What are you currently reading? Tell me below. I’m always looking for books to add to my TBR!

Talk soon, book lovers!

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