Books Read in September

Yikes - the 27th already - I lost some ground with my monthly summary this month! But, September was a good reading month with a lot of books read & reviews to write, so that's what took so long. Here's what I finished reading in September:

• Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth, audio teen/YA fantasy 
• Overpowered by Mark H. Kruger, teen/YA sci fi thriller (CO)
• Hear the Wolves by Victoria Scott, middle-grade/teen adventure (AK)

• Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson, adult fiction (CA)
• In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware, adult thriller (UK)
• Hollow City by Ransom Riggs, teen/YA fantasy (UK)

• Masterminds: Payback by Gordon Kormon, audio middle-grade thriller (WY)
• A Cold and Lonely Place by Sara J. Henry, adult literary suspense (NY)

That's a total of 8 books read in September, which is a lot for me. All but one of them counted for my R.I.P. Challenge (suspenseful stuff for the season!). Two of the eight books were audiobooks (Carve the Mark was a long one). I read a good mix of adult, middle-grade, and teen/YA, but it was all fiction (I plan to get some nonfiction in next month). I really enjoyed this month packed full of suspense and thrillers - it was a lot of fun reading! I enjoyed all of these, but my favorite is - oddly - the only non-suspense novel among the bunch, Be Frank With Me, which was warm and moving but also very, very funny and a favorite with my book group.

Progress on 2017 Reading Challenges:
This is my favorite part of my monthly summary - updating my Reading Challenges! Five of my eight books were from my own shelves for my Read Your Own Damn Books Challenge - woohoo! For the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge, September was Creepy, Chilling & Frightful - most of my books last month would fit that one, so I chose Hollow City as the creepiest. No classics last month for the 2017 Back to the Classics Challenge, but I am reading one now! Nothing new to add to the Well-Rounded Challenge because the categories are almost filled now. No new countries for my Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge. For my 2017 Literary Escapes Challenge, I added just one more state, Alaska. I added one last book over 400 pages for my own Big Book Summer Challenge, finished Labor Day weekend, just in time! And, of course, I added 7 books to my R.I.P. Challenge.

Finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month. I filled in 23 squares on my Bingo card last month - possibly my best Bingo month ever!

Spaces filled in:

Carve the Mark - royalty, friends to lovers, verb in the title, audio book
Overpowered - set in a school, free book
Hear the Wolves - new to you author, physical book, 
Be Frank with Me - loved it, contemporary, library book
In a Dark, Dark Wood - coffee or tea, no kids, gregarious
Hollow City - hunter (demon/vampire/other), creature mythical or not
Masterminds: Payback - naive/inexperienced, water on the cover, betrayal, in a series
A Cold and Lonely Place - accident, shelf love (TBR book) 

What was your favorite book read in September?