Review: October by Audrey Carlan

Posted October 26, 2016 by Lola in Contemporary, Review, Romance / 14 Comments

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OctoberOctober (Calendar Girl #10)
by Audrey Carlan

Blurb:
Silicone, surgery, and Hollywood starlets.

The land of the stars was beckoning and I answered its call. Now that I was free, well, as free as anyone could be, I decided to pursue something for me. To grab life by the horns and ride that sucker until I found my place within it. That decision brought me back home to Malibu, California, where I awaited the beginning of this next phase in my journey.

The job? Create a segment surrounding Living Beautiful for celebrity doctor and daytime television guru, Dr. Hoffman. The man was known for his cunning wit, good looks, and no nonsense lifestyle. In a city that was filled with plastic Barbie dolls, and nothing you touched was real, I set out to find beauty. And in doing so, I found a lot more that, for me, for the man I loved, and for the rest of the nation.

***
In the tenth book of the Calendar Girl serial, Mia is settled in her new home in Malibu, California. Now that her debt has been paid, and the threat from her ex is gone, she no longer has to live life as an escort. Only life has thrown her some new challenges to round out her year.

Each installment in the Calendar Girl Serial will release every month throughout 2015.

Warning: This book is designed for audiences 18+ due to language and graphic sexual content.

My Review:
This book took quite a different direction from the previous books in a sense and in another sense it also build upon the previous book quite well. I can’t explain to much as I will try to avoid spoilers, but in the last book something big happened for both Mia and Wes. And in this book they are dealing with the aftermath of that in a sense. Mia isn’t flying off to another client, but started working for a tv show from her house in Malibu.

And while Mia is working in this book, the focus isn’t on that at all. It’s mostly on Mia and Wes and how they deal with what happened to Wes in the previous book. It touches upon some mental illness issues and gets quite sad and heavy at times. It was quite the difficult book to read, seeing how broken Wes was and I still dislike what happened, but the author does manage to make Wes his mental state seem believable. And I did like how they seem to grow even closer together being able to lean on each other and working through this difficult time together.

There were some beautiful messages woven in, but I still don’t like the whole plot line surrounding what happened with Wes, it felt a bit unrealistic/ different from the rest of the tone of this series which is also why I struggle a bit reading about the fallout of it. There are a lot of sex scenes, but also some that felt a bit off, due to the context. Which makes more sense if you read the book. I am glad with what happened in the end of the book as I think they made a right step.

There also is a nice side plot line involving Ginelle, Mia her best friends, which was interesting. I do like the direction Mia her story has taken and enjoy following her journey. It’s well written and overall still a quick read and enjoyable read.

To summarize: things take a different turn in this book and I liked part of and other parts a bit less. Mia and Wes have to deal with the aftereffects of what happens in the last book and we get to see how this effects them and their lives. There are some beautiful and sweet scenes, but also some that are quite difficult to read and some that I didn’t quite care for. I still enjoy following Mia her journey and I can’t wait to see where she’ll be at the end of this series. There are some interesting plot points in this one and overall I like the direction the story took. This episode is mainly focused on Mia and Wes and the mental issues Wes struggles with, so less focus on the side characters, but I was okay with that. It just felt like the other plot lines didn’t get as much attention, but I am thinking they will continue in the next book.

4-stars-rating

Links:
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You can also find my review of October on Amazon and Goodreads

Have you read a series where each book was novella length?

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14 responses to “Review: October by Audrey Carlan

  1. Interesting to discover what her life is like when she’s free and not working on the debt. The Wes element not suiting the story line the way you’ve experienced it up until then would be distracting and dissatisfying, I’m sure. Fun that she gets time with her bestfriends and new work. Oh, and it must get exciting now that it’s coming to the end.

    I’ve not read a regular series that is all novellas, but I’ve read serials and trilogies that have been all novellas. It depends on the writing flow whether I liked that or not. A few broke things off and didn’t have good transitions between books, but others it was smooth and easy for me to keep going.
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    • It was nice to see her free of the debt and how she starts building her own life now. It just bugged me what happened and while it’s essential for the plot it just felt like a bit much for contemporary romance book. I am interested to see how the series ends.

      I’ve read a few series or serials with all novella’s, like Susan Kaye Quin her Debt Collector series and this one. Some authors can really pull this style off. I also have a sci-fi romance series in episodic format I hope to start soon.

    • I have read a few series like this where each book has novella length. And a few more of them on my to-read list. But they aren’t too common indeed.

  2. No… I haven’t read a novella length series – yet. I can see this is where a few authors are going, but I still prefer getting lost in a book, which is difficult to do when you can gulp it down a fairly short timespan. Thank you for this informative review – you do an excellent job of pointing out your concerns without lurching into spoiler territory.
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    • I like the novella length books as I normally don’t read as fast and it can be nice to read a book in a few days instead of a week. And if the author writes the short format well I can still get lost in the books. Or maybe I just got lucky and read some good series in this format. This series handles the novella length books really well and I’ve also read Susan Kaye Quinn her first two Debt Collector seasons which were really good as well and the episodic format just works for those.

      And I am glad you found my review informative and thought I didn’t lurched into spoiler territory, which really is a challenge with long series ;).

    • Yes this series sure dips into the unrealistic part a few times. I think my issue is that Wes his situation would fit more with a romantic suspense, I usually don’t like twists like that in contemporary romances, especially when it’s not hinted at before. Not sure why, but it always feels a bit off to me.

      But overall it’s still a fun series if you accept the unrealistic parts.

    • I hope you get the chance to read it eventually. I am enjoying this series so far, although there were a few episodes I enjoyed less. Overall it’s a fun series. I wasn’t too happy with what happened to Wes, but besides that this was a good episode.

      There sure are some good series with books in novella format out there. I have read a few when each episode released, although it’s also nice to wait till the whole series is released first. And even though here all the books were already released it still is taking me a whole year to read them all 😉

  3. I feel like, from reading your reviews, every book in this series takes a new turn lol, or at least the recent ones? But that’s good that it keeps you on your toes and doesn’t get monotonous! But aww, now I want to know what happened to poor Wes. I know you don’t like heavier stuff though, and it doesn’t seem like the kind of series that would be heavy, so I can see why you wouldn’t enjoy that. Maybe the next books we be lighter 🙂
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    • Yes the recent ones have been al taking a different turn which is interesting. especially with a series this long.
      I wouldn’t mind as much if it was supposed to be a heavy series, but it just feels off when you suddenly have this piece of darkness dropped in an otherwise mostly light series. I think that’s my main issue. The tone of what happened with Wes didn’t fit the rest of the series. I am now reading the next book, which is lighter again.

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