**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: https://bookbriefs.net**Extraordinary October is a young adult fantasy/paranormal romance by author Diana Wagman. I had a lot of fun with this one. It was not without some faults, but overall it was a good read. I don't get to read too many books featuring trolls, so I liked the combination of trolls and Fairies in Extraordinary October. I also loved that the main character's name was October. I thought that was very unique, even if she doesn't like it as much as I did. (plus, I love the month of October.)

October is the daughter of a troll princess and a fairy prince, making her a very important ruler in both worlds. However, she doesn't know about any of this. The trolls and the fairies don't get along very well so there is a big fight over October, though maybe not in the way you are imagining. What I liked most about Extraordinary October is that the book did not take any of the paths I thought it would. I expected that both sides would be fighting to get October to choose them and they would all be trying to woo her, but without giving too much away, that could not be further from the truth. Sure, each side sends a guy over to try and sway her but every character in Extraordinary October has their own personal motivations. It made for a very interesting read.

And now for some of the issues I had with the book. While I liked October a lot, and I kind of liked both of the guys are different points, I didn't really love either of them. They each had their own issues and I felt them both to be a bit shallow and selfish. I did end up liking one more than the other, but I am not going to tell you which one. (unless you have read the book, then I would love to discuss it with you.) But an even bigger issue than the guy dilemma was the pacing of the story. It starts out very mysterious, and I understood why. In fact, I was totally loving this story at the start. I thought it was all setting up to be a super cool read, and I had it on track to be a 5 star book. But then the plot started unfolding and the book went from merely mysterious to overly confusing with large plot holes. It was very hard for me to follow because I felt like some key details were missing. It eventually was all sorted out, and I got the information I needed, but the middle of the book was a bit rough for me. Stick with Extraordinary October though, because the end gets a lot better. And overall, I did enjoy this one.

Bottom line: If you like paranormal creatures and a good mysterious adventure, Extraordinary October might be a great read for you. I had some plot and structural issues in the middle of the story. They worked themselves out for the most part and this book did get better towards the end. Overall, this was a fun story. I enjoyed Extraordinary October.

This review was originally posted on Book Briefs