Falling Behind (September Book Wrap-Up)

I'm not super proud of how this month went in terms of reading, but writing is a whole other story. Here we go!

Writing
I actually feel pretty good about how my writing has gone this month, which is good, because that's really my focus now that I'm out of school. Over on Wattpad I released three new chapters, which were all received well. Big things are happening in "Worlds Collide!" My current stats are 3,680 reads; 272 votes; and 130 comments.

But the even bigger news is what's happening in the world of NaNoWriMo. September marked the beginning of prep season, and tomorrow marks the beginning of crunch time! It's that time of year for planners like me - choose a novel, plan it out, map everything, and be ready to go by November 1, which is rapidly approaching! I used September to write out all of the story ideas I've had recently and give a basic synopsis for each, then revisit the list every now and again to see what was speaking to me. Last week I narrowed my choices down to the top four that jumped out at me, and from there I've narrowed it down to two this week. I've done some basic planning for each story (naming characters, developing a basic idea of the plot, etc.), but October will reveal which novel I'll write in November. So stay tuned for that!

Reading
This month was even slower than the last in terms of reading; I only completed two books cover to cover, and they were both under 200 pages. I really don't have an excuse as to why this is...I'm done job hunting, so...yeah. In any case, here's what I read:

• Beware the Harvesters by Marie Gilbert
• TMNT: Out of the Shadows Movie Novelization by David Lewman

I did a full review of Beware the Harvesters here, if you would like to know my thoughts on that. The TMNT book was interesting because it included details that were left out of the movie - some of which would have been good to know! It also ended before the full story of the movie, as a way to encourage people to go watch it, I'd imagine. But it was a fun read!

I am currently reading Of Dreams and Rust by Sarah Fine (sequel to the amazing Of Metal and Wishes). This book is taking the tension from the first book to a whole new level, and only strengthening my desire for Wen to end up with Bo rather than Melik. (For the record, I wanted Christine to end up with the Phantom rather than Raul as well. It's a direct parallel.) I'm only about 70 pages into it, and I'm hoping to have it finished sometime next week.

I am also currently reading The Amazing Book is Not on Fire by Dan Howell and Phil Lester. I love Dan and Phil on YouTube, and being able to learn about their childhoods and how they met and started their YouTube journeys both alone and with each other is really, really cool. I'm very excited to get further along in their story - right now I'm about 50 pages in. I hope to have this finished sometime next week as well, because I really want to be able to read a book I've had my eye on for a while - you'll hear about it in October! ;)

And that's all she wrote for September, folks. Moving into my birthday month now! Crazy. See you next time!

Beware the Harvesters: Book Review

Congratulations to my grandmom on publishing her third book! (I love the cover for this one. You don't even realize how powerful it is until after you've read it.) As always, I'm going to be 100% honest about what I think. Here we go.

Beware the Harvesters is the third in a saga of sci-fi / dystopian novellas that tells the continuing story of twins Michael and Lucy and their friends as they do everything in their power to survive the apocalypse and take down The Leader, whose identity has finally been revealed. Meanwhile on Solanda a struggle for political power threatens to become catastrophic when Princess Bird is sent on a mission to find the goddess Lilth, leaving her home planet at the mercy of the evil Prince Falini.

Some things I liked about this book are as follows: This book was intense, but in a good way. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. What truly amazes me about this particular installment is that there are so many subplots going on, but they are all easy to keep up with and they are all vital components of the main plot. For example, we follow the individual paths of Lucy, Michael, Patty, and Bird, all while learning different things about The Leader and how far his power truly reaches. I'm blown away that it all fit together so well! A nice plus was that the editing was on point. My review of Saving Solanda was kind of negative due to the many grammatical errors strewn throughout, but Beware the Harvesters was much better maintained and flowed more smoothly. Though there were still some errors, they were not nearly as distracting. (Also, my three cousins had roles in this book. Nice!)

Some things I didn't prefer about this book: I still don't like language. I think that's kind of a given at this point, though. Really, I think the only major quarrel I had with this book was the religious elements within. What this book suggests goes completely against my personal religious beliefs and none of it sat well with me. I'll just leave it at that.

Overall, I gave this book a 3/5 for a fantastic storyline, interesting characters, and its good pacing. Despite the elements I disliked, my hope is to be able to move past all that so I can finish off the saga with the final book next summer, which I'm very much looking forward to. Congrats again, grandmom!