I’m blown away with how many books I read this month. I credit a lot of that to rediscovering my love of romance books. I used to borrow my mom’s Jackie Collins and other romance books starting when I was in middle school and through high school. I fell out of reading romance sometime after high school and it has been a lot of fun getting back into this genre. I’ve even recommended a couple of books to my mom and it has been fun talking to her about them. Although now that I have said all that I’m pretty sure the biggest reason I read so many books is because a lot of them are short books. A couple of them are under a hundred pages and a large number were under 300. So let’s see what I am able to accomplish in September.
I’ve been spending some time thinking of what I want my wrap ups to look like and I have decided that I want them to be much more structured. So, I’m going to share them organized by what type of book (audiobook, physical copy and ebook) and at the end of the post will be all my monthly stats. I find reading stats so interesting and I want to incorporate that more into my blog.
Ebook
Netgalley Review: We Went to the Woods by Caite Dolan-Leach
This is a contemporary centering around a group of friends who are living in a commune and the reader knows from the beginning that things are not going to end well. If you love character driven stories I highly suggest this one to you.
Netgalley Review: The Perfect Wife by J.P. Delaney
If you love thrillers you will love J.P. Delaney’s books.
The Pirate Next Door by Jennifer Ashley
My first pirate romance and I loved it! I gave this book three stars because I didn’t really like the other random romance that was suddenly introduced into the book and was sporadically a part of the story. The worst part for me is that we would also read from the two lovers perspectives but I just didn’t care because it was taking away from the main story that I wanted to know about. The secondary romance should have been a novella and it would have worked a lot better. I tried reading a Jennifer Ashley book during the last round of the Smutathon and I ended up DNF’ing it so I’m happy that this book worked for me. One of her the books, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie has been recommended to me so I will definitely be reading that in the future.
Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas
My favorite read of the month. I was so invested in this romance and I shouldn’t have because on paper it sounds awful. A girl falling for her boyfriend’s dad. The longing and angst in this book was so good though!! Such a great forbidden romance and I highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of romance or just wants to try the genre. I was not disappointed and I don’t think you will either.
The Tea Dragon Festival by Katie O’Neill
I will be doing a full review of this in a couple weeks when this book comes out. Just know that this is just as amazing as the first one.
Another amazing five star read. This had some of the creepiest scenes that I have read in a long time. I was so impressed with how well Hoover writes a thriller. Of course the romance in this book was superb and I absolutely loved the element of not knowing if we could trust the male love interest, Jeremy. I figured out the twist about half way through but I still think it was really well done. And I was going to bring my rating down to a 4.5 but I really like the way the ending leaves you thinking. I think this book would appeal to both fans of romance and thrillers. Definitely the best of both worlds.
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
This is such a heartbreaking read. This book made me feel all the things and at one point I was actually crying while reading this. I teared up quite a few times but I was full on crying at one point. My poor husband was sitting next to me watching a movie and he just held me while I cried over this book. This book deals with domestic abuse and it feels so real to read about so please be aware of that going into this. Colleen Hoover based this story on the relationship her parents had while married and after you read this make sure you read her author note at the end of the book.
Netgalley Review: The Favorite Daughter
This is a decent contemporary suspense book that I didn’t love but I can see why other people do.
Enjoying the Show by Marie Harte
I was so impressed by how fleshed out this novella is. The book is only 91 pages but it felt like a complete story. The only criticism I have is that the stuff with Gage’s family takes away from Gage and Hailey’s story but I understand that it is there because we need that background for the rest of the series. If you are in the mood for a quick fun romance then I think you will enjoy this one.
Physical
August was #classicathon and these are the books that I read for that readathon.
This is my first manga and most of these stories creeped me out. This is a short story collection of 13 horror stories. A few of them were on the funny side but for the most part they creeped me out. Some more than others. Greased was the most disgusting one by far. I honestly felt sick to my stomach reading that one. With that said I gave this five stars and I borrowed Ito’s other book Smashed from my brother to read soon. If you are a horror fan than you need to read Junji Ito’s work. He is called the master of horror manga for a reason.
The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill
This is the cutest book of all time. My second favorite read of the month (tied with its sequel).
Audiobook
Besides having the longest title of all time this was a pretty decent read. It took me months to finish the audiobook though because I am not really an audiobook person but I am trying. I would just prefer to listen to music or a podcast instead. I do think that I liked this book more listening to it than I would have liked reading it. The book really shined when it was dealing with the crime aspects and it felt like a crime podcast that I would normally listen to. I really struggled when it came to all the personal stuff about her family and life that I didn’t feel was necessary to the story.
Monthly Stats
Author Genre Book Source Page #
Male: 6 Crime: 1 Library: 8 1-300: 7
Female: 10 Romance: 4 Own: 4 301-500: 9
Thriller/Suspense: 3 Netgalley: 4
Classics: 2
Graphic Novel: 4
Contemporary: 1
Release Date Star Rating Total Pages Read: Pages/Day
New: 4 2*: 1 3,790 122.3
Older: 12 3*: 2
4*: 5
5* : 8
~Cassie
Books With Cassie 