In October, Mary & I decided to join the Book of the Month club & we couldn’t be more excited to share this with you! We’re going to be sharing our favorite books of the month from October. We both love reading and have been wanting to join a book club forever. So we figured – why not start our own & invite all of you guys?
*To see our pick for November, scroll to the bottom!* 😉
Every month, we’re going to each pick a book to read & review, then share our reviews with you on the blog. If you’ve ever been a part of Book of the Month, you know that you get to choose between 5 book selections each month. So Mary & I may pick the same book or we may choose different books, depending on our options & personal preferences for the month.
This month, we both chose the same book, but Mary’s came in much later than mine, so she didn’t have time to read it this month. I’ll be taking over the Book of the Month review this month, but we will both be here to share our thoughts in the future. 🙂
A few years back, I was a member of Book of the Month club and decided to stop because 1. I was busy with school & 2. I wasn’t making time to read. Being a part of this book club is so fun & exciting to me because every month is like Christmas. I love monthly subscription services of any sort because it feels like a fun present is being delivered to your door every month. In this case – it’s just a fun present that also helps you with personal growth and educating yourself (or to just relax with an enthralling fiction).
Without further ado, curl up with a cup of coffee (or pumpkin spice latte) & let’s get into our book selection for October!
Our October Pick(s): Books of the Month
This month, we both chose the book Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman. Magic Lessons is a historical fiction set in 1600’s Salem.
Here’s the Book of the Month synopsis:
“Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Unnamed Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.
When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters.”
Erin’s Book of the Month
I absolutely adored this book, as I do with anything magical, including astrology, witches, the supernatural, and Harry Potter. 😉
I’m not going to lie, it drug a little bit midway through. But the beginning of the book was captivating and it lured me back in for the second half.
It’s a book you don’t want to put down (and will probably end up staying up til 2 a.m. on a few occasions if you’re anything like me).
Book Selection
Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman, a historical fiction set in 1600’s Salem
Summary
Magic Lessons told the story of Hannah Owens, her adopted daughter, Maria Owens, and eventually Maria’s daughter, Faith. All 3 of these women are witches, which in 1600’s Salem was a very dangerous thing to be.
Hannah, Maria, and Faith are all empowered beyond their time, confident, and unafraid to speak their minds. They know the dangers of openly being who they are (they could be burned or drowned for being witches), but they are still fearless in the face of any man who tries to bring them down or scare them.
They all use their powers to heal other women’s problems when they sneak to their door in the middle of the night. But the government (and other citizens who believe they have more power than they should) think of them as evil women who are out to terrorize innocent citizens. Basically, others are afraid of these women because they don’t understand them or their powers, so they are out to destroy them to “protect themselves.”
This is a story about love (unrequited at times), abuse of power, the love between a mother and daughter (& adopted daughter), and the difficult balance between using your talents for good vs. revenge.
Rating & Review
4.5/5 stars
I adored this book, but am knocking it 1/2 a star because of the boring middle section. Other than that, I would read it again & recommend it to anyone who loves magic and/or historical fiction.
How to Join Our Book Club
If you’re a book lover (or would like to start reading more)… & if you’re anything like us & have always wanted to join a book club, but never actually acted on it. We would absolutely love for you to join us in reading these books every month.
At the beginning of every month, we’ll post the 5 book options and which one(s) we are choosing to read. If you’re part of book club, you can pick the same book as one of us or read another option. Either way, we will discuss our opinions on the books we chose at the end of the month. 🙂
Throughout this year, it’s been easy to feel lonely and separated from our friends, family, and people in general. We wanted to create this book club to bring people together in a fun way, where we can all connect on a mutual love of reading.
Even if you haven’t been much of a reader before, we’d still absolutely love for you to join! Part of the reason I wanted to start this was that I have been off my reading game this year. I felt unmotivated to pick up a book (let alone finish one) & definitely wouldn’t consider myself an avid reader lately.
By joining a book club and connecting with all of you over books, it makes it so much more fun & motivating to want to read instead of doing other activities (like watching TV, etc.).
If you have any questions at all on how to join, comment with them below or send us an email! We would love for anyone interested to join, so we want to answer any questions you guys have.
Join Book of the Month (& $5 Off!)
If you want to join our book club and start picking out books of the month with us… You can join Book of the Month for just $10 through our referral link.
We are not Book of the Month affiliates and this is not sponsored by them in any way. We will simply receive a free add-on if you use our referral link.
We hope you guys are into this idea and want to start reading more with us! We’re so excited about keeping up with this every month. So we can’t wait for any of you who are interested to join in on the reading fun. 🙂
November’s Pick!
For November, we are going to read Untamed by Glennon Doyle! We didn’t like any of the Book of the Month options for this month, so we skipped and chose a book on our own.
We are going to give this one until mid to late December to do our review, so everyone has the chance to give this a read.
The book club is still new, so we’re still working out the kinks. If there are any suggestions you guys have, please let us know! We’re totally open to making changes so that everyone is happy with the way we’re running this book club. & like I said, we’re total newbies at this point so we will take all the suggestions we can get! 😉
So snatch up this book soon (it’s flying off the shelves & I’m not sure if it will constantly be in stock with the holidays coming up). I started reading the first few chapters this weekend and it’s FANTASTIC already.
Let us know in the comments if you bought it and what you think once you start reading it!
We will be back in mid- to late December to chat about this one. 🙂
Come connect with us on:
- Instagram: @vitalityvixens (we will post our monthly book updates on here first!)
- Pinterest: Vitality Vixens
- Facebook: Vitality Vixens
Comment below with:
- What is your favorite genre(s) of books to read?
- What was the last book you read?
- Have you ever been part of a book club?
Samantha says
Love that you ladies are doing this! This book actually sounds right up my alley as I’ve always been intrigued with Salem in the 1600s. I’m so bad and have made zero time to read. I’ll honestly just fall asleep lol. I’m open to genres but it has to be captivating for me to want to read it. I’ve been tempted to swap to audiobooks. Can’t wait to see what you pick next month.
Erin Notz says
The book was so good! You would absolutely love it if you’re intrigued by that time period – that’s exactly how I felt before reading it. I have been the same way about not making enough time for reading lately, but that’s the main reason why I wanted to start this. It’s kind of keeping me accountable to try to read (almost) every day.