October turned out to be a good month for reading! My birthday was at the end of September, so I spent October reading all the books I bought with the Amazon gift card my grandmother gave me 😉 I read 10 books in all, so I’m not going to take the time to write a lot about each of them, but here are some quick recaps.

October New Releases: Wild Montana Skies by Susan May Warren and A Royal Christmas Wedding by Rachel Hauck

I was really excited about these new books by two of my favorite authors! Wild Montana Skies by Susan May Warren was everything I’ve come to expect from her: true-to-life characters with real, raw, struggles and problems; exciting action and adventure; a variety of multi-faced relationships; and sweet romance. A Royal Christmas Wedding was the fourth book in Rachel Hauck’s Royal Wedding Series, and it incorporated a lot of the characters from the previous books in the series, which I love! It’s a sweet story about a royal and an everyday American girl reconnecting and falling in love (obviously), and who doesn’t love a Christmas wedding?!?

From the Raleigh Harmon series by Sibella Giorello: The Rivers Run Dry (#2), The Clouds Roll Away (#3), The Stars Shine Bright (#4), and The Waves Break Gray (#6)

I think I mentioned last month that I read the fifth book in this series several months ago, and I was hooked! I had to find out the rest of the story (or stories), and I wasn’t disappointed. Raleigh Harmon is a great heroine, and while her story does involve romance, it definitely isn’t typical or predictable. Her relationship with her mom has always been rocky, and her work as an FBI agent and then (spoiler alert!) as a private-geologist-but-still-crime-fighter feels gritty and raw and real. I feel like I can’t quite put into words why I love this series so much, but I do!

From the Wings of the Nightingale series by Sarah Sundin: On Distant Shores (#2) and In Perfect Time (#3)

I’m not a big fan of most historical fiction, but I make an exception for Sarah Sundin! Her stories don’t feel dull or boring like some historical novels can, but they are rich with adventure, romance, and World War II drama. The Wings of the Nightingale series follows three flight nurses who were pioneers in their fields during WWII. I really enjoyed reading about all the places they went and things they saw, and getting more of a “first-hand” account of life on the front lines. This series really brings history to life!

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful by Susan May Warren (part of the Candy Cane Kisses Christmas novella collection):

I’ll admit it, I only bought this novella collection because of Susan May Warren, and I haven’t read any of the other stories (yet) 😉 Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful picks up where her Montana Fire series left off, and tells a story of healing, courage, and love for two of the smokejumpers we met in that series. Definitely worth buying the whole collection!

Destination Wedding by Jenn Faulk:

I first started reading Jenn Faulk’s books during my free trial of Kindle Unlimited, and I’ve gotten to enjoy her characters and her style of writing. This book gets into a second generation of characters; the bride and groom at the destination wedding were very young children in one of her previous books. It was fun catching up with them and their parents, and since you already know this book is about a wedding, there was also a sweet side story about the bride’s brother and the groom’s sister. Jenn Faulk is such a prolific author, she writes books almost faster than I can read them! I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

What have you been reading lately? Any favorites I should know about? 🙂