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🌳👻🖤 Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews
Genre: YA Horror/Fantasy
Length: 336 pages
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This was my September book for our traveling book club (#sisterhoodofthetravelingb🍩🍩ks)! I had never heard of this one before and it was my first YA horror/fantasy book - it is always nice to branch out. *pun intended haha*

Summary: 
This is the coming-of-age story of Australian teenage boy, Andrew, who goes to an American boarding school with his twin sister, Dove. Andrew just wants to be left alone to write his horror fairytales, hiding from the tumults of typical high school drama, except for the one person he longs to be with, his only friend and roommate, Thomas. Thomas, with his outgoing rebellious spirit, is inspired by drawing pictures that illustrate Andrew's horrorific tales. As his affections for Thomas grow, so does something sinister in the deep woods next to their boarding school. Monsters that resemble those of Andrew's writings begin to torment and torture students and others in the night, and only Andrew has the power to stop them... but how? And will Thomas be able to help him?

Review:
I did spend some of this book a little confused to be honest. It had very vivid imagery, and the horrors of the forest were definitely what brought this book into that genre. But really, this book is about a teenage boy who is trying to have the courage to voice his feelings of affection and love, while he battles feelings of insecurity, self-deprecation, and fear of rejection. It is quite haunting, not just because of the monsters, but also because of how Andrew's insecurities are literally trying to kill him. There is a definite twist toward the end of the book that really shocked me and the end itself was also a little ambiguous, which I think was on purpose. This was a good book to read as we come into spooky season but be warned that it touches on some fairly serious topics aside from creepy forest monsters. 

❓️If you were describing the scariest monster you could imagine, what would it look like?

#sisterhoodofthetravelingb🍩🍩ks #dontlettheforestin #cgdrews #travelingbookclub
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🦊🐕🐀🐻 Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Genre(s): Literary Fiction mixed with a dash of Magical Realism, Tragicomedy, and Mystery!
Length: 368 pages
My Rating: 🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊

Thank you to @megan_reads14 for putting this book into our #sisterhoodofthetravelingb🍩🍩ks book club this year! 

Summary:
Katie returns home, not to pursuing her dream of medical school. She was born with an unusual gift of being able to heal people's small ailments by only her touch, but she has somehow lost this ability. Katie desperately tried to escape her small hometown of Everton, New Hampshire and all the drama of her family. Her father is dying of a strange brain disease, her mother is reaching wit's end with his crazy obsession with the disappearance of Katie's childhood best friend, Crystal, and Katie's brother Auggie is going nowhere as usual after his struggle with addiction. 

Living at home again, Katie must reevaluate her life and place within her family. She takes on a long-term substitute job at the local elementary school, thrown into a world of nine precocious and endearing 11 year-olds. All the while, things get worse at home with her father's condition... and with the new/sudden addition of a few pets, it is all Katie can do to keep her family (and herself) from imploding. 

Review:
Writing that summary was so difficult because this is one of the most layered books I have read in a long time. There are so many themes to unpack here- forgiveness, acceptance, starting over, believing in yourself, and never giving up. I don't really even know how to explain how I felt about this book, but I can tell you that its description as a 'tragicomedy' really hits just right. There were many funny parts, and as an elementary teacher, I laughed out loud at Katie's attempts to manage her 5th graders with zero teaching experience. My favorite aspects of this novel were the incorporation of the animals that both inspired and loved all of the Starling family and in many ways, brought them closer on a path to healing. 

Thanks to my friend, Megan, for putting this book on my radar this year. I feel so happy to have read it and now I want a pet fox. 🤣
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✨️🧚‍♀️🩸 Darling Girl by Liz Michalski
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This was my 6th book of our traveling book club reads for 2026, recommended by @queenb.steph_reads and it was a great one!

Summary:
This is a Peter Pan retelling, but two generations after Wendy Darling. Wendy's granddaughter, Holly, is a scientist who is desperately trying to find a cure to help bring her own daughter, Eden, out of an 11-year coma. Holly has suffered great losses in her life, losing her husband and one son in a car accident, and then Eden... 

All she has left is her teenage son, Jack, and a family history linked to Peter Pan that she both despises, but also needs in order to heal her daughter...

Review:
It's no secret I love a fairytale retelling, and this one really hit the mark! I loved how it took place in modern London, and many years after the original story. Holly was such a determined, and somewhat tragic FMC and I loved how she would stop at nothing to save her children. The aspect of her being a scientist/skin-care business owner was also a great addition to how Peter was interested in and entwined with Holly's past, present, and future. The added normalcy of teenage kids/parent dynamic and the aspects of spouse and child loss grief were also such gripping themes that really gave Holly depth and made me want to root for her. Excellent story and if you love fantasy, a modern fairytale twist, and a strong main character, this is definitely one to pick up!

❓️What was your favorite fairytale or child's story when you were a kid?

#sisterhoodofthetravelingb🍩🍩ks #fantasyreads
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🧠💀🚧 Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
Genre: Thriller 
Length: 380 pages
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This is my fifth book of the year for our #sisterhoodofthetravelingb🍩🍩ks traveling book club, recommended by @trishyy.reads - boy was it an exciting one!!

Summary:
27 year-old Jet Mason has just got home from helping out with her parents' Halloween fundraiser and is bludgeoned three times in the head... It's just that, she's not quite dead yet. 

Jet wakes up in the hospital with a doctor's news that a bit of skull is lodged in her brain and she will die of a certain aneurysm in one week. With this terminal and horrible news, Jet is determined to solve her own murder with the little time she has left. But as her times runs out, things become more hazy and she can only depend on her childhood friend, Billy, to help her follow the trail.

Review:
I loved how the friendship between Jet and Billy rekindled after fizzling post-childhood. It was such a unique book in that we know at the very start that the main character (Jet) is going to die before the end, but will she solve her own murder before then? I did find her outlook on life (and death) a bit frustrating at times, but I totally understand how the author needed to mold her personality for all the pieces to fit together. This was also one of those murder thrillers where we see how crazy family drama and secrets ruin like, EVERYONE'S life around them. Don't miss this one- it was really interesting (medically) and very fast-paced with Jet as a ticking time bomb!

❓️If you had to solve your own (eventual) murder, who would you choose to be your sidekick?

#sisterhoodofthetravelingb🍩🍩ks #travelingbookclub #thrillerreads
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🚁🌊 The Love Haters by @katherinecenter 🐾❤️
Genre: Rom Com
Length: 10 hrs 33 min / 320 pages
Spice Level: 🫑/🚫
My Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️!

This book was recommended by and added to our traveling book club for 2026 by @books.with.bacon and was an absolute DELIGHT to read!! 

Summary (from Amazon):
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past―now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim―but pretends that she can.

Plus, Cole and Hutch are brothers. And they don’t get along. Next stop: paradise! But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good-looking man she has ever seen . . . but maybe a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue―along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.

My Review:
I was ever so grateful for this book as I listened to it in its entirety on a long road trip on the way back from Florida! It completely grabbed and kept my attention the whole time and I found myself fully invested in Hutch and Katie's will they/won't they relationship journey. This is a rom com that had so much substance and great life lessons that would be relatable for many. Katie's path to loving herself was just as important as the one toward Hutch. The theme of body positivity was paramount to the story, as well as aspects of found family and forgiveness. Perhaps my favorite part of the story was Hutch's furry sidekick, George Bailey. I love an animal side character, especially when they are integral to the main couple's journey toward each other. This was such a great book and this will definitely not be the last book I read by this author! 😍

❓️Have you ever been in or very near a natural disaster (hurricane, tornado, flood, etc.)?
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