Goodreads Reading Challenge 2025 [Updated 9/30/25]

September has been a productive reading month for me! I have added a few fall- and Halloween-themed cozy mysteries to my TBR list, preparing myself for my favorite time of the year. And, of course, I’m still sticking to my original plan and going for the classics that I have yet to read (though I did not finish one this month).

Here are the books I read in September.

Hour of the Pumpkin Queen (Megan Shepherd)

Rating: 3/5

Sacrificial Magic (Stacia Kane)

Rating: 3.5/5

Lock Every Door (Riley Sager)

Rating: 2.5/5

They All Fall Down (Roxanne St. Claire)

Rating: 3/5

It Began With a Lie (Michele Pariza Wacek)

Rating: 3.5/5

Killer Content (Kiley Roache)

Rating: 4/5

The Girls Are All So Nice Here (L.E. Flynn)

Rating: 4.5/5

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I am currently reading The Girl From Rawblood (Catriona Ward) and Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë).

Progress: 57/75

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2025 [Updated 4/30/25]

Hello! I hope you have had a fantabulous April. Mine has been…well, I guess I’d say wash, rinse, repeat. Lol. Same shit, different month. However, I did read six books, so that’s at least one improvement, right?

Here are the books I finished with my ratings.

Every Summer After (Carley Fortune)

Rating: 4/5

A Peach of a Murder (Livia J. Washburn)

Rating: 3/5

The Stranger in Her House (John Marrs)

Rating: 4/5

The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Rating: 2/5

Murder in Cottonwood Springs (Dianne Harman)

Rating: 2.5/3

Home Before Dark (Riley Sager)

Rating: 3.5/5

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I am currently reading Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte), No Place Left to Hide (Megan Lally), and The Cheerleaders (Kara Thomas).

Progress: 22/50

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2025 [Updated 3/30/25]

March has been a slow month for me. I’m not really sure why, but I’ve only finished four books over the past thirty days. Here they are, with my ratings, and may I do better in April!

We Used to Live Here (Marcus Kliewer)

Rating: 4/5

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

Rating: 3/5

The House Across the Lake (Riley Sager)

Rating: 4/5

The October Society: Season Two (Christopher Robertson)

Rating: 4/5

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I am currently reading The Stranger in Her House (John Marrs) and Every Summer After (Carley Fortune).

Progress: 16/50

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2024 (10/30/24)

It has been a doozy of a month, and not in a good way. That’s very unfortunate, since October is typically my favorite month of the year. I still found time to read, though. I’ve been on a streak of interesting books, but I actually had one that I quit without finishing. The story was shaping up to be okay; however, the author couldn’t leave their personal opinions about racism out of the equation – which is fine to an extent, I just don’t need to read about it once every freakin’ paragraph.

Here are the books I did finish in October. I’m in a rush as I write this, so I will rate them but won’t bother with a short review.

Rune (Christopher Fowler)

Rating: 4/5

The Only One Left (Riley Sager)

Rating: 5/5

The Dead Children’s Playground (James Kaine)

Rating: 4/5

As someone who is from Alabama, I had to read this novel that focused on the stories surrounding Maple Hill Cemetery and the Dead Children’s Playground. Let me tell you – it did not disappoint.

The Cotton Candy Massacre: Part Treats (Christopher Robertson)

Rating: 5/5

Buried in a Good Book (Tamara Berry)

Rating: 4/5

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I am currently reading One of Us is Lying (Karen M. McManus), Finale (Stephanie Garber), and Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop (Emmeline Duncan).

Progress: 70/75

Update: Goodreads Reading Challenge 2023 (4/4/23)

I missed posting an update for March. Whoops! I have no excuse other than a lot of things have been happening at work and I’ve been scheduling the bare minimum of posts.

Since I last shared anything about my 2023 Reading Challenge, I finished Emilie Autumn’s The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, Danielle Valentine’s How to Survive Your Murder, Riley Sager’s The Last Time I Lied, Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen, Paula Morris’ Ruined, Kim Harrison’s The Drafter, and Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I’ll put my ratings below.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about why I gave these ratings, because many of you likely won’t agree with why I gave lower ratings to a couple of them. Let me just say that the twist in The Last Time I Lied was good, but possible to figure out if you’re really trying. The twist in How to Survive Your Murder was actually really solid, I just wasn’t crazy about the characters. Red Queen was a little too typical for me; it was well-written and is worth reading, but I’m not sure I’ll continue the series. Ruined was readable, just not overly interesting. Same with The Drafter, which is a shame because I typically like Kim Harrison’s books. And American Gods was too long (good story, though).

I have now started Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone, and Silent Child by Sarah A. Denzil.

As always, feel free to tell me about any books you’re reading and offer up some recommendations! I have only read 13 of my 35 book goal, so I need some suggestions.

Update: Goodreads Reading Challenge 2023 (2/13/23)

I didn’t intend to do this exactly one month from the last update, but maybe I should actually start scheduling them this way. Haha. Once a month is enough, right? 🙂

I finished A.M. Shine’s The Creeper, and while it was an eerie tale (reminiscent of The Bye Bye Man, in my opinion), I didn’t love it overall. The twist at the end wasn’t terrible, but…the story lost something with the revelation. I enjoyed Shine’s writing style, though, and I still intend to read The Watchers.

Rating: 3.5/5

I also read Poltergeist by Kat Richardson. It has been sitting on my bookshelves since I found it in an apartment my friends and I cleaned out. I’m not sure if I’d have gotten more out of it if I’d read the first book in the series, well, first. However, I didn’t love this book. I think there is potential for Richardson to build an interesting fantasy/supernatural world, so I will certainly try at least one more from the Greywalker series.

Rating: 3/5

The third book I completed since my last post is the final in Katherine Arden’s Small Spaces series, Empty Smiles. This was my least favorite of the four. The build-up was so promising, but the ending was rushed and fell flat. I still say these books are worth the read; I just wish the conclusion had been…more.

Rating: 4/5

I am currently reading two books. (I’m the world’s worst to start a second book before finishing the one I initially started.) I finally decided to check out Emilie Autumn’s The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, and I also dove into my second Riley Sager novel, The Last Time I Lied. I’ll let y’all know my thoughts in about a month!

Any recommendations for me? Please leave them in the comments!