I can hardly believe it, but I read five new releases in October. Suer, half the other books are rereads, but I tend to sit on new releases, either afraid they won’t be as good as I want, or because I’m not in the mood for them. Yet here I am reading four different books in the same month they were released.

Were the new releases good? Pretty much, yes! I was startled to discover Ada Maria Soto had a new Agency book coming out, and almost held off reading it, in fear I wouldn’t like it as well, but as I’d just reread His Quiet Agent, it seemed silly not to read Agents of Winter.

I was delighted to see Raquel V. Reyes had a new Caribbean Kitchen Mystery out, and was pleased by that sequel as well. And it’s not that I disliked Mia P. Manansala third book in her series, but I kept thinking was the second book in Raquel V. Reyes series, and so was disappointed it wasn’t. And the fact I read both in a couple weeks of each other isn’t going to help me keep the authors straight.

David R. Slayton‘s Adam Binder series finished off the arc started in the first book, and I was pleased with it–even if I probably need to reread the entire series, to pick up the things I missed first go round.

Although it wasn’t a new release, I was delighted by Kathryn Harkup’s A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie. I mean, science and Agatha Christie–what’s not to love?

I’m almost finished with my relisten of Ben Aaronovitch‘s Rivers of London series, and I have no idea what I’m going to listen to after that. (The books I listen to have to be fantasy or mystery and have to be one’s I’ve already read, so that makes things harder, especially since I like immersing myself with audio books, and some of the series on my want-to-reread lists are ones with authors I can’t bear to listen to.

I am still trying to finish my final post on representation, which is behind my reading of several books this month, except there is already one more book to read and always will be, so I just need to finish it and be done.

And that’s October.

Romance

A Girl Like Her (2018) Talia Hibbert (Ravenswood) 8.5/10

Agents of Winter (2022) Ada Maria Soto (The Agency) 8.5/10

Always Only You (2020) Chloe Liese (Bergman Brothers)  8/10

Damaged Goods (2018) Talia Hibbert (Ravenswood) 8/10

Can’t Escape Love (2019) Alyssa Cole (Reluctant Royals) 7.5/10

Bewitching Benedict (2017) C. E. Murphy  (The Lovelorn Lads) 7.5/10

Lucky Yellow Shoes (2020) Jae 7/10

Coffee Boy (2016) Austin Chant

Mystery

Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking (2022) Raquel V. Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) 8.5/10

Agatha Christie (Miss Marple): The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) 7.5/10, Thirteen Problems (1932) 8.5/10, The Body in the Library (1942) 8/10, The Moving Finger (1942) 8.5/10

Blackmail and Bibingka (2022) Mia P. Manansala (Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery 7/10

Fantasy

Uncommonly Tidy Poltergeists (2017) Angel Martinez 8.5/10

Deadbeat Druid (2022) David R. Slayton (Adam Binder) 8/10

Witchmark (2018) C.L. Polk (The Kingston Cycle) 7.5/10

The Great Atlantean Battle Royalchemy (2022) K.D. Edwards 7.5/10

Non-Fiction

A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie (2015) Kathryn Harkup 8.5/10

Audio Book

What Abigail Did That Summer, Audio Book (2021) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Shvorne Marks and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Rivers of London) 8/10

False Value, Audio Edition (2020) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Rivers of London) 8.5/10

Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection, Audio Edition (2020) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by: the author, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Ben Elliot, Felix Grainger, Sam Peter Jackson, Alex Kingston, Shvorne Marks, and Penelope Rawlins 8.5/10

Waiting for the Flood, Audio Edition (2016) Alexis Hall narrated by Alexander Doddy 7/10