Caroline's Book Club: Storylines to die for

It's book club day! October is my favorite month to do book picks because anything can go. Murder, romance, adventure, mystery. You wouldn't normally put books like that together but October is the exception because in my mind, the month is as versatile as those genres. Enjoy October's picks!

#5: The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan
So fun fact! In fifth grade, I was flipping through the scholastic book catalog (who remembers those) and two things happened. #1: I saw one of my favorite book series' that I had yet to own. #2: There was a new book released by the same author and it was called The Hidden Oracle. Eventually, it would also span a few books, becoming the Trials of Apollo series (Hint: It's all based around greek mythology). Because I enjoyed his last series and the Percy Jackson series, I asked my mom to please buy me both the set of books and the single. Now jump forward five years later and the final Trials of Apollo book came out and I read it in a day and a half, obviously. Since there's four books ahead of it, I won't spoil much but I will say that the ending was very satisfying, there was plenty of action which kept the pace going, and I may or may not have almost cried when I read the last few lines.

#4: The Romanov Ransom by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell
This book is adventure, historical fiction, mystery, and murder all rolled into one. It's all based on the hunt for the rumored Romanov Ransom, a whole lot of very expensive jewels that were intended to be used to free the imprisoned Russian Imperial Family (Google them if you want to know more, it's very interesting). Instead of being used as payment, the collection is hidden away for decades. In World War II, the Nazis found the treasure and decided to hide it somewhere only known to them as a way to fund another war should this one not end favorably. Decades after that, the hunt begins again and there is no shortage of twists or surprises.  
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#3: A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci
This book also belongs in a series but if you go back a few months, I write about the first one. Being a sequel, this novel picks up pretty soon after where the first book left off. The premise of this story, which is touched upon in the first book, is the kidnapping of the main character's twin sister when they were 6. It's written very nicely and constantly throws you for loops. The one thing that irritated me was that the story continues into the third book and that doesn't come out until November! Something to look forward to at least.

#2: Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M. McManus
The great thing about this and why I love it is because the story is both engaging and interesting but also fast so the possibility of getting bored halfway through is greatly reduced. A good thing when reading creepy murder mystery novels. The cool thing about this book is that it's actually a teenager trying to solve this girl's disappearance. So often, it's centered around a detective solving things, the change is nice. Some parts were a little cheesy but the overall story was a quality mystery and you really have no idea what actually happened until the last five chapters or so.

#1: The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
I had to include a romance novel this month! I realized that most of these were pretty gruesome options so for those of you who enjoy a more light-hearted story, here you go. This novel is loosely based on Will and Kate's romance (if I have to explain them to you, we are not friends). It's very easy to get into and I found myself staying up well into the midnight hours to finish it. If you have trouble falling asleep before bed, I recommend reading this because it's probably one of the most entertaining books I've read and there is absolutely no violence or anything disturbing. There is a sequel called The Heir Affair and yes, I ordered it. Actually, I was still in the middle of this one when I ordered the next book. I've never ordered a sequel before finishing the first book before so that's when you know it's good. For more context, I was physically reading this book while placing my amazon order. Multi-tasking at its finest!

That's all for this month! I hope you enjoyed October's book club picks. Let me know if you've read any of them or want to in the future. I'm also thinking about adding a section all about the book that I'm currently reading. Because I tend to read a book in a whole day, each review would probably be up for about a week. Or to be more interactive, I'd pick my favorite out of each month's "Top Five" and if you guys have read it, are reading it, or want to read it, we can all have a place to talk about it together. Kind of like an actual book club minus a reading schedule. Let me know if this would even be interesting to you and if it is, what option you prefer!
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-Caroline:)
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