October 2023 Book Roundup
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Reading Roundup for October
October is one of my favorite months. It’s national book month! It’s also Reformation month, and my church usually has a book that we’re reading together. I jumped on the book already and finished it in September, John Calvin’s ‘Truth for All Time’.
I have a somewhat spooky stack of books for October. But when I say ‘spooky’, I don’t necessarily mean scary or anything in the horror genre. My family doesn’t even celebrate Halloween, so I don’t get into the really scary stuff. This is more of that mysterious, ‘is it a ghost or something else that we’ll find out at the end!?’ kind of book.
I found a couple of new authors to read and introduce you to, as well. Let’s dive into my book stack for this month!
Point of Danger - Irene Hannon
3/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Point of Danger is a Christian suspense novel by Irene Hannon. This is my first book by this author, and it seems like most of her books are Christian suspense. This is book 1 of 3 in a trilogy.
In this book, our main character Eve is a conservative radio talk show personality who has quite few anti-fans for her political views (shocker lol). She stands up for the unborn, which I love. It’s rare we see an author “go there” in a Christian novel. Eve is being targeted by a listener who wants her to be silenced for good. She meets a detective who will stop at nothing to solve the case for her.
I liked Eve and I adored her sisters and the support they give her. This is not a YA novel, and I would not recommend it for teen readers. While the novel is clean and close-door romance, we do have several references to sex (between a married couple) via the thoughts of a husband and wife. There is an emotional abusive relationship between said husband and wife, and you’ll see how it develops over the story.
The main characters are kinda insta-love, and it was really obvious where that was going. I did like the main couple, and the relationship that ensued, but I wish we had taken more time with it. The following books (2 and 3) are about Eve’s sisters and not Eve herself. So it’s almost a stand-alone novel, and I don’t feel super compelled to get book 2. I also would have loved more information about what happened to the bad guy(s) and see that through a bit more.
I give this one a solid 3 stars. I enjoyed it, it was fast paced and kept me reading.
The Souls of Lost Lake - Jaime Jo Wright
5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Here’s a ‘spooky read’ for you!
Yes, this is a Christian spooky book! Jaime Jo Wright has a talent for writing stories that are a little scary, but have logical endings. So before you jump all over me for reading a spooky book, I wanted to set that record straight. There is, however, talk of a violent crime. It’s not super graphic, but you get the idea. Some people may be uncomfortable with that. I wasn’t, but I’m the daughter and wife of police officers and I’ve become somewhat accustomed to crime-talk over the decades.
Basic plot: Split time novel. We hear from Ava Coons in the early 1900’s. At 13, Ava was the only survivor when her entire family was murdered. The town believes she’s the real killer. She’s said to haunt the woods where her family’s cabin was located a hundred years ago, luring in hikers and children to their doom. Is it just a campfire story? In present day, a child has gone missing in Ava Coons’ forrest. Can Arwyn, our main character from this time period, solve the mystery of Ava Coons and find the missing child?
This book was excellent. One of my rare 5 star ratings, Souls of Lost Lake is my favorite book of the month. This book just won a Christy Award, so I’m not the only one who loved it. If you like a little scary, a little adventure, a little history and a little legend (mixed in with a possible ghost), you’ll love this book.
Side note; I’m so glad my kids made me watch Lord of the Rings. Knowing the basic plot and characters helped me to better understand the book. Lots of LOTR references here!
The House on Foster Hill - Jaime Jo Wright
4/5 Stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Another Jaime Jo Wright book! Wright is a Christian author who knows how to write great suspense novels.
Basic premise: a woman’s husband is killed in a car accident, but she believes he was murdered. She’s then stalked by his killer and runs away, crossing state lines. She purchases a house that belong to her great-great grandmother that needs serious repair. But, has the killer followed her here? Strange things begin to happen and the secrets of Foster Hill House and her grandmother come back to haunt her. She has to solve the mystery to find out what happened to bother her grandmother and her husband.
I read this in 3-4 sittings. It wasn’t as exciting for me as The Souls of Lost Lake, but still a great book! More twists and turns from Wright. I loved following Ivy’s story and her historical timeline here.
Spoiler trigger warning: references to human trafficking, rape. While not described, we do hear that they happened.
The Reckoning of Gossamer Pond - Jaime Jo Wright
4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Yes, I’m on a Jaime Jo Wright binge.
I got this book on Kindle Unlimited, so I didn’t pay for it. KU is a subscription for Kindle users, and we got a bunch of books for “free” with our subscription. It’s pretty neat!
Anywho, I’m loving Jaime Jo Wright. She writes Christian suspense novels that keep you turning the pages quickly. Those are my very favorite kinds of books. I’m sure I’ll read every one of her books soon. She also writes split-time novels, so we have two points of view again.
This book centers around Libby in 1907 and Annalise in present day. There are murders in a small town, a mystery, and a second-chance love story all wrapped up in one. We find out how much thee two women, 100 years apart, have in common, and the mystery of this small town.
The L.M. Montgomery Christmas Collection
5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It’s no secret that I am a huge Anne of Green Gables fan. For my birthday last year, my husband bought me the entire Anne book collection, and I was truly moved by that. When I saw that Smidgen Press was coming out with a new LMM Christmas Collection book, my heart skipped a few beats. They offered me a free copy in exchange for my review, which I am so thankful for. It was an early Christmas gift for me!
This is a collection of LMM’s short stories and poems from her book collections, complete with illustrations, all about Christmas and the winter season. Smidgen Press calls it an “art-story-poem book”, and that’s the perfect name for it. The illustrations are beautiful in this book. This feels like a wonderful book for reading during book-basket time or during a Christmas unit study. Charlotte Mason moms are going to love this book!
Montgomery wrote about Christmas quite often in her books, so it makes sense to have many of her Christmas stories and poems all together like this. It has my favorite part of the Anne series; when Matthew surprised Anne with a puffed-sleeved dress for the Christmas ball. This book was such a sweet treat for me.
This book includes
-The Christmas Night Poem
-Christmas at Four Winds
-If Mary Had Known Poem
-Home Again
-The Garden in Winter
-Clorinda’s Gifts
-The Christmas Harp
-A Winter Day Poem
…and more!
This is a wonderful book to get for your Advent reading. You and your children will love this book, I promise. I have a love for beautiful books, and Smidgen Press always has the most beautiful books for my bookshelf. The books they produce look like old-world style books, which I collect here at home. I frequent used book stores for gorgeous classic books for my bookshelf. I appreciate the time and care they take for their products and all the small details. There is such beauty in the details. Thank you to Smidgen Press for the beautiful book, I truly cherish it.
Follow them at SmidgenPress on facebook and instagram to see more of their books. I have the Charlotte Mason “Philosophy of Education” on my shelf already, and it’s a wonderful reproduction of it. Highly recommend!
Red Blood, Black Sand by Chuck Tatum
I started this book late one night when I saw it on my husband’s book shelf. For those of you reading this that don’t know, my husband is a Marine. He’s recently retired now. I’ve been married to the Marine Corps for almost two decades. As you can imagine, I have a lot of Marine Corps war books at home.
Before I go into the review, I want to warn my readers that this is not a book for children. As far as war books go, this one is tame. This is about the battle of Iwo Jima told by a Marine survivor. There’s some crude talk and adult themes talked about before the battle even begins (tales from bootcamp and training). Being a Marine wife for almost 20 years, you could say I’m used to hearing it, so none of it was surprising to me in the slightest. I was actually surprised it wasn’t worse 😂
This was a really interesting book. Chuck Tatum was just a teenager (my son’s age…wow I’m old) when he signed up for the Marine Corps during WWII. He tells of his tales in bootcamp through short stories that progress from shipping out to bootcamp to the shores of Iwo Jima. We hear of his losses on the battlefield, how losing his hero effected him, and his thoughts while bullets were flying around him.
Tatum is not an author, keep in mind. Go into it knowing that he’s not a skillful writer. This is more of a story that your grandpa is telling you about his war days. He italicizes words that don’t need emphasis, and some sentences are a little choppy, but keep in mind that he’s not a writer. This is still one of the most popular books of our time about the battle of Iwo Jima. So popular that Tom Hanks used his memoir to write episodes of The Pacific for HBO (a war documentary series). There’s pictures throughout the book and we see of one Hanks and Tatum together for the premiere.
This isn’t my normal kind of book, I’m more of an Anne of Green Gables reader. However, I think it’s good to read other genres. I understand a little more about my husband and what he went through in boot camp (the Corps changes little over time, and my husband was part of the “Old Corps”). I also learned quite a bit about Iwo Jima, and the harsh realities our Marines face
Happy reading!
Soli Deo Gloria,
Mandy
