Monthly Wrap Up | September 2021

Happy Sunday and welcome to my Monthly Wrap Up post! I link these posts up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimberly over at Caffeinated Reviewer; The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at ReaderBuzz; The Best of the Bunch hosted by Jessica at A Cocoon of Books; Monthly Wrap Up Round Up hosted by Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction; It’s Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date and a children’s/middle grade version hosted by Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers; Mailbox Monday, hosted by Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit and Martha of Reviews by Martha’s Bookshelf; and Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality. For my Monthly Wrap Ups, I’ll recap what I posted, read, and watched this month, plus I’ll let you know about any current giveaways I have up. I’ll also tell you about recent updates on my TBR and new books I received and/or bought. Okay, time to see what happened this month!

Hi! I’ve been pretty good at posting my weekly wrap ups, but this is my first monthly wrap up since… June 2019! Here’s what happened since my last update…

On the Blog

Here are the links for everything that was published this month on Kait Plus Books:

• Can’t Wait Wednesday | September 1, 2021
• Blog Tour: Pahua and the Soul Stealer by Lori M. Lee (Excerpt + Giveaway!)
• Blog Tour: The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities by Rick Riordan Presents (Excerpt + Giveaway!)
• First Line(s) Friday | September 3, 2021
• Blog Tour: Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain (Interview!)
• Weekly Wrap Up | September 5, 2021
• Blog Tour: The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland (Aesthetic Board!)
• Top Ten Tuesday | September 7, 2021
• Can’t Wait Wednesday | September 8, 2021
• Blog Tour: Take Me With You When You Go by Jennifer Niven and David Levithan (Excerpt + Giveaway!)
• First Line(s) Friday | September 10, 2021
• The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• Blog Tour: The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh (Interview!)
• Top Ten Tuesday | September 14, 2021
• New to the Queue! | September 14, 2021
• Can’t Wait Wednesday | September 15, 2021
• Blog Tour: The Raven Heir by Stephanie Burgis (Interview!)
• First Line(s) Friday | September 17, 2021
• Blog Blitz: The Hideaway by Pam Smy (Spotlight + Giveaway!)
• The Eye of Ra | Interview with Ben Gartner
• Blog Tour: Black Panther: Spellbound by Ronald L. Smith (Excerpt + Giveaway!)
• Top Ten Tuesday | September 21, 2021
• Can’t Wait Wednesday | September 22, 2021
• Blog Tour: Bluebird by Sharon Cameron (Excerpt + Giveaway!)
• Blog Tour: Beasts and Beauty by Somani Chainani (Spotlight + Giveaway!)
• Blog Tour: To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames (Reading Journal!)
• First Line(s) Friday | September 24, 2021
• Blog Tour: The Wolf’s Curse by Jessica Vitalis (Interview!)
• Blog Tour: For All Time by Shanna Miles (Aesthetic Board!)
• Weekly Wrap Up | September 27, 2021
• Blog Tour: As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson (Reading Journal!)
• Top Ten Tuesday | September 28, 2021
• Can’t Wait Wednesday | September 29, 2021
• Spotlight Book: My Journal About Life by Erin Yun (+Bookstagram!)

Off the Blog

• my hair is now purple, pink, and blue!!! (image to come, hopefully)
• I am now a Youth Services Assistant and attended the New Hampshire YALS Conference a couple weeks ago!
• my book recommendations are available in print and online at Foster’s Daily and Seacoast Online!
• I signed up for a bunch of upcoming blog tours, and I’ve had more #bookmail this week than I think I’ve ever had (other than like, Christmas)!!!

Currently Reading: I’m still reading The Throwback List by Lily Anderson, plus I started Journey to the Heart of the Abyss by London Shah!

Currently Listening To: I’m listening to Now Entering Addamsville by Francesca Zappia, after having it on my #tbr for three years! (and I mean putting it on my October book list EVERY YEAR for three years!) It’s AMAZING, and I’m so glad I’m finally getting to read it!

Just Finished Listening to: I finished The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah the other day!

Books: Once I finish reading The Throwback List and The Heart of the Abyss, I’m going to read Broken Wish by Julie C. Dao!

Audiobooks: I’m honestly not sure what I’ll listen to next. I have a lot of really great options, so I might run a twitter poll or something to help me narrow it down!

No new library books this week (although I do have a hold on one that’s currently being processed), but I added a few books to my #tbr and omg do I have #bookmail to share! Here’s some of what I stacked my shelves with lately:

new to the queue

Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin
Published on March 1, 2022 by Scribner
Genres: Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Thriller
Pages: 448
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What if you once had a painful memory removed? And what if you were offered the chance to get it back?
Tell Me an Ending follows four characters grappling with the question of what to remember—and what they hoped to forget forever.
Finn, an Irish architect living in the Arizona desert, begins to suspect his charming wife of having an affair. Mei, a troubled grad school drop-out in Kuala Lumpur, wonders why she remembers a city she’s never visited. William, a former police inspector in England, struggles with PTSD, the breakdown of his marriage, and his own secret family history. Oscar, a handsome young man with almost no memories at all, travels the world in a constant state of fear.
Into these characters lives comes Noor, an emotionally closed-off psychologist at the memory removal clinic in London, who begins to suspect her glamorous boss Louise of serious wrongdoing.

Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino
Published on April 5, 2022 by Scholastic Press
Genres: Contemporary, Middle Grade, Neurodivergent, Queer
Pages: 176
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Sam is very in touch with their own queer identity. They're nonbinary, and their best friend, TJ, is nonbinary as well. Sam's family is very cool with it... as long as Sam remembers that nonbinary kids are also required to clean their rooms, do their homework, and try not to antagonize their teachers too much.
The teacher-respect thing is hard when it comes to Sam’s history class, because their teacher seems to believe that only Dead Straight Cis White Men are responsible for history. When Sam’s home borough of Staten Island opens up a contest for a new statue, Sam finds the perfect non-DSCWM subject: photographer Alice Austen, whose house has been turned into a museum, and who lived with a female partner for decades.
Soon, Sam's project isn't just about winning the contest. It's about discovering a rich queer history that Sam's a part of -- a queer history that no longer needs to be quiet, as long as there are kids like Sam and TJ to stand up for it.

Nightwatch on the Hinterlands by K. Eason
Published on October 19, 2021 by Daw Books
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller
Pages: 416
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram

Set in the universe of Rory Thorne, this new standalone sci-fi mystery follows an unlikely duo who must discover the motive behind an unusual murder.
THE TEMPLAR: When Lieutenant Iari hears screams in the night, she expects to interrupt a robbery or break up a fight. Instead she discovers a murder with an impossible suspect: a riev, one of the battle-mecha decommissioned after the end of the last conflict, repurposed for manual labor. Riev don't kill people. And yet, clearly, one has. Iari sets out to find it.
THE SPY: Officially, Gaer is an ambassador from the vakari. Unofficially, he's also a spy, sending information back to his government, unfiltered by diplomatic channels. Unlike Iari, Gaer isn't so sure the riev's behavior is just a malfunction, since the riev were created using an unstable mixture of alchemy and arithmancy.
As Gaer and Iari search for the truth, they discover that the murderous riev is just a weapon in the hands of a wielder with wider ambitions than homicide--including releasing horrors not seen since the war, that make a rampaging riev seem insignificant...

#bookmail

For All Time by Shanna Miles
Published on September 28, 2021 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genres: Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Romance, YA
Pages: 368
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram

Tamar is a musician, a warrior, a survivor. Fayard? He’s a pioneer, a hustler, a hopeless romantic.
Together, Tamar and Fayard have lived a thousand lives, seen the world build itself up from nothing only to tear itself down again in civil war. They’ve even watched humanity take to the stars. But in each life one thing remains the same: their love and their fight to be together. One love story after another. Their only concern is they never get to see how their story ends. Until now.
When they finally discover what it will take to break the cycle, will they be able to make the sacrifice?

Journey to the Heart of the Abyss by London Shah
Series: Light the Abyss #2
Also in this series: The Light at the Bottom of the World, Journey to the Heart of the Abyss
Published on November 9, 2021 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Genres: Dystopian, Futuristic, Science Fiction, YA
Pages: 384
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Author Links: Website, Goodreads, Instagram

Leyla McQueen has finally reunited with her father after breaking him out of Broadmoor, the illegal government prison—but his freedom comes at a terrible cost. As Leyla celebrates his return, she must grapple with the pain of losing Ari. Now separated from the boy who has her heart and labeled the nation’s number one enemy, Leyla must risk illegal travel through unchartered waters in her quest for the truth behind her father's arrest.
Across Britain, the fallout from Leyla's actions has escalated tensions between Anthropoid and non-Anthropoid communities, bringing them to an all-time high. And, as Leyla and her friends fight to uncover the startling truths about their world, she discovers her own shocking past—and the horrifying secrets behind her father’s abduction and arrest. But as these long-buried truths finally begin to surface, so, too, do the authorities’ terrible future plans. And if the ever-pervasive fear prevents the people from taking a stand now, the abyss could stay in the dark forever.

The Throwback List by Lily Anderson
Published on October 5, 2021 by Hyperion Avenue
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Queer
Pages: 400
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram

Welcome to Sandy Point, Oregon: a sleepy beach town that's home to a giant anchor statue, a sometimes-karaoke-bar, and Frosty's questionably legendary Sunday Sundae Surprise. A town Jo, Autumn, and Bianca thought they'd left far behind when they graduated high school, finally moving on to greener pastures than the midway point for tourists heading to the Goonies house. But life seldom goes according to plan.
Bianca Boria-Birdy, former prom queen and valedictorian, has always been an overachiever. As she juggles managing the family tattoo parlor, caring for her grandmother, and adjusting to a new marriage, Bianca's schedule becomes stricter than ever, with no room for disruption. What she really needs is a vacation, but not even Bianca Boria-Birdy can achieve the impossible.
Autumn Kelly used to be an actress. Now she teaches drama at Sandy Point High. She may have had to kiss her movie-star dreams goodbye, but molding the next generation of performers has given her life meaning in a whole new way. Until the sudden reappearance of her ex-best friend throws everything off-balance.Jo Freeman has it all together. With a cool job in Silicon Valley, connections at the trendiest fitness studios, and a down payment on her dream condo, she's well on her way to reaching every one of her goals before thirty. Or she was, before she got fired and landed right back home with her parents and teenage sister.
When Jo finds an old bucket list in her childhood bedroom, it sets the three women on a path that brings them closer to one another with each task. And it just might lead to a life none of them could have planned.

The Falling Girls by Hayley Krischer
Published on October 5, 2021 by Razorbill
Genres: Contemporary, Thriller, YA
Pages: 320
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram

Shade and Jadis are everything to each other. They share clothes, toothbrushes, and even matching stick-and-poke tattoos. So when Shade unexpectedly joins the cheerleading team, Jadis can hardly recognize who her best friend is becoming.
Shade loves the idea of falling into a group of girls; she loves the discipline it takes to push her body to the limits alongside these athletes. Most of all, Shade finds herself drawn to The Three Chloes--the insufferable trio that rules the squad--including the enigmatic cheer captain whose dark side is as compelling as it is alarming.
Jadis won't give Shade up so easily, though, and the pull between her old best friend and her new teammates takes a toll on Shade as she tries to forge her own path. So when one of the cheerleaders dies under mysterious circumstances, Shade is determined to get to the bottom of her death. Because she knows Jadis--and if her friend is responsible, doesn't that mean she is, too?

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud
Published on October 5, 2021 by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade
Pages: 432
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram, Tumblr

Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, a bank robber and a sharp shooter--a girl of formidable skills. Fueled by a tragic injustice in her past, she travels the broken kingdoms of England alone, carrying out daring heists in the surviving towns and fending off monstrous beasts in the wilds outside their fortified walls. Her life is dangerous, free, and simple--until she finds a wrecked bus on a lonely road. Albert Browne, the sole survivor of the accident, is a seemingly innocent and harmless youth. Against her better judgement, Scarlett agrees to escort him to safety.
This is a mistake. They are soon pursued by men with dogs and guns and explosives. Scarlett is used to running from the law, but these trackers are the most skilled she's ever encountered--and they don't seem to be after her. Just who is this Albert Browne Scarlett must uncover his shocking secrets if either of them are going to survive.

Briarheart by Mercedes Lackey
Published on October 5, 2021 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Genres: Fantasy, Retellings, YA
Pages: 368
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon

Miriam may be the daughter of Queen Alethia of Tirendell, but she's not a princess. She's the child of Alethia and her previous husband, the King's Champion, who died fighting for the king, and she has no ambitions to rule. When her new baby sister Aurora, heir to the throne, is born, she's ecstatic. She adores the baby, who seems perfect in every way. But on the day of Aurora's christening, an uninvited Dark Fae arrives, prepared to curse her, and Miriam discovers she possesses impossible power.
Soon, Miriam is charged with being trained in both magic and combat to act as chief protector to her sister. But shadowy threats are moving closer and closer to their kingdom, and Miriam's dark power may not be enough to save everyone she loves, let alone herself.

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani, Julia Iredale
Published on September 21, 2021 by HarperCollins
Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Retellings
Pages: 336
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You think you know these stories, don’t you?
You are wrong.
You don’t know them at all.
Twelve tales, twelve dangerous tales of mystery, magic, and rebellious hearts. Each twists like a spindle to reveal truths full of warning and triumph, truths that capture hearts long kept tame and set them free, truths that explore life... and death.
A prince has a surprising awakening...
A beauty fights like a beast...
A boy refuses to become prey...
A path to happiness is lost... then found again.

Tristan Strong Keeps Punching by Kwame Mbalia
Series: Tristan Strong #3
Published on October 5, 2021 by Rick Riordan Presents
Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Mythology, Retellings
Pages: 400
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram, TikTok

After reuniting with Ayanna, who is now in his world, Tristan travels up the Mississippi in pursuit of his archenemy, King Cotton. Along the way they encounter new haints who are dead set on preventing their progress north to Tristan's hometown of Chicago. It's going to take many Alkean friends, including the gods themselves, the black flames of the afokena gloves, and all of Tristan's inner strength to deliver justice once and for all.

Absolution by Rachelle Storm
Series: Absolution #1
Published on July 24, 2021 by Self published
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Pages: 371
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Author Links: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram

Chris Harris's destiny was bestowed on him before birth, just as it was on his two brothers, John and Randy. Not human but the physical embodiment of elemental water, earth, and fire, they've been burdened with protecting Earth and freeing the world from the Ultimate Evil. However, unlike their elemental forms, their human selves have desires of their own. After being hidden away in the remote town of Anderson, North Dakota, Chris and his two brothers hoped that their problems would end, but they've only just begun. Now their individual destinies are intertwined with the unpredictable McNamara sisters, Joanie, Victoria, and Stacie, and the Ultimate Evil is drawing ever nearer. Forced to choose love or duty, regardless of their decisions, nothing will ever be the same.

Frankie & Bug by Gayle Forman
Published on October 12, 2021 by Aladdin
Genres: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Queer
Pages: 288
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram, TikTok

It’s the summer of 1987, and all ten-year-old Bug wants to do is go to the beach with her older brother and hang out with the locals on the boardwalk. But Danny wants to be with his own friends, and Bug’s mom is too busy, so Bug is stuck with their neighbor Philip’s nephew, Frankie.
Bug’s not too excited about hanging out with a kid she’s never met, but they soon find some common ground. And as the summer unfolds, they find themselves learning some important lessons about each other, and the world.
Like what it means to be your true self and how to be a good ally for others. That family can be the people you’re related to, but also the people you choose to have around you. And that even though life isn’t always fair, we can all do our part to make it more just.

Shattered Midnight by Dhonielle Clayton
Series: The Mirror #2
Also in this series: Broken Wish, Shattered Midnight, Fractured Path
Published on October 5, 2021 by Disney-Hyperion
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retellings, YA
Pages: 304
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram

Zora Broussard has arrived in New Orleans with not much more than a bag of clothes, a beautiful voice, and a pair of enchanted red shoes. Running from a tragic accident caused by her magic, Zora wants nothing more than to blend in, as well as to avoid her overbearing aunt and mean-spirited cousins. Music becomes Zora’s only means of escape, yet she wonders if she should give it all up to remove the powers that make her a target, especially as a Black woman in the South.
But when Zora gets the chance to perform in a prominent jazz club, she meets a sweet white pianist named Phillip with magic of his own, including a strange mirror that foretells their future together. Falling into a forbidden love, Zora and Phillip must keep their relationship a secret. And soon the two discover the complicated connection between their respective families, a connection that could lead to catastrophe for them both. In the era of segregation and speakeasies, Zora must change her destiny and fight for the one she loves . . . or risk losing everything.

I’m back on #bookstagram (sometimes, at least)! Here’s what I posted recently:

I’m still watching Ted Lasso (and continue to be sad that I can only watch one episode a week now), and I’m excited that Big Sky is back! My family all watches that one together, so it’s nice to have something to look forward to every week. What have you been watching lately?

The giveaways widget is always the most current and accurate way to tell what giveaways you can find on my blog, but since you’re here…

So that’s everything! What have you been up to this month? Anything important happen? Did you have any posts that didn’t get a lot of attention? I’d love to check them out! Leave your links in the comments below and don’t forget to have a splendiferous month!