In September, I only managed to read two books. Well, one and a half. I finally made it to the end of my Black Dagger Brotherhood re-read that I started back in November of last year with my friend, Annette. And to be honest, I’m glad to be done. It’s been a long road with reading not only the main BDB books, but also all the spin-off series as well. So, let’s dive into the last one, shall we?

So, the 19th book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series is Lover Arisen. (Author is J.R. Ward, by the way.) I checked this out from the library and started reading it on the last day of August. I didn’t even really want to read it, but I was determined to get through the series. The last few of these have been a bit disappointing and a challenge to get through. Plus, I’m ready to read other things. So, needless to say it took me almost the whole month of September to get through this because I just wasn’t picking it up.
I feel like these books have gotten more and more uninteresting the farther on we go. Even the romance and the sex scenes are blah. And these books used to be so hot I would fly through them. I’m also disappointed in the way things evolved with Lassiter. He deserved better. I finished this on the 19th of the month and was glad to be done. There are two more books that have recently been published (Darius and The Viper) but I’m going to hold off and come back to those at another time. Maybe.
I fully stand by my previous belief that the first five or six books in the series are fantastic and definitely worth a read for anyone that loves paranormal romance.

You are in the house and the house is in the woods.
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
You are in the house and the house is in you . . .
The next book I picked up on the recommendation of S. Elizabeth. She started a newsletter in August of this year and in the third issue she mentioned this book and that it was very atmospheric and dark academia. Say. No. More. Like her, I was a fan of this type of story (what I previously would have called very gothic) before it was labeled as dark academia. But I can’t get enough of these kinds of books, especially at this time of year. So, Catherine House seemed like the perfect gateway into my spooky reading this season.
I was honestly shocked when I found this was available through my library, and I could not hit that “borrow” button fast enough. I really loved this book. I read it slow, not because it wasn’t good, but because it had that sort of vibe. And I wanted to soak it up. It felt languid, like a dream. Like Ines was sort of floating through her studies, not quite awake, not quite asleep. I saved so many quotes in my reading journal that were just descriptive, evocative passages. Such a good book. Highly recommend. I finished this up on the 6th of October, so it did bleed into the next month, but it made sense to talk about it in my September reads.
I stepped off the path to walk across the yard. The sky was weak gray today and fat clouds hung low on the horizon. My whole body felt heavy. I walked for a long time over wide stretches of wild grass before I reached the trees. Blackberry brambles cluster around trunks that were dark and sticky with sap. As I moved on, I crouched to pick up a maple leaf. It smelled like sweet decay. Pine needles crunched beneath my feet and masses of gray weeds snagged at my legs.
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
So, that’s it for my September reads. I’m excited to be diving into my October choices and one of them most definitely hits that dark academia checkbox.