July Wrap Up

July was a good reading month for me ( 17 books) but I also accidentally took almost the entire month off from blogging. At first I was just wrapped up with house projects and then we went on a couple of trips and I just decided to take the rest of the month off and start fresh in August. I definitely missed blogging but I’m feeling refreshed and ready to write and read all the posts.

Last month I took part in two readathons and I tried to focus on some library books since I have quite a bit out from the library. I do read them but then I’m always checking out new ones so it’s an endless cycle of library books hanging over me. Although, that’s not really a bad problem to have!

Jane Austen July

All three of these were five star reads for me. Reading Lady Susan right after Pride and Prejudice really showed off Austen’s range especially considering how young she was when she wrote both. A Memoir of Jane Austen is something I know I will re-listen to again and again because I found all the background info about Austen’s life and her works fascinating.

Summerween

Summerween was a weeklong readathon and I throughly enjoyed all five books that I read. Comfort me with Apples will probably make my best books of the year list and I think it was so cleverly done. It is a novella so I can see why some people find it lacking but I’m a big fan of novellas and I thought it was perfection.

Woom is an extreme horror book and I really appreciated how the author put the book together. It is a collection of stories that all culminate into a shockingly gross ending.

I have loved every Stephen Graham Jones book that I have read and I am looking forward to slowly reading every single thing he has ever written. My Heart is a Chainsaw is the ultimate read for fans of the Slasher genre (which is my favorite type of movie) and I read this over several days because I just didn’t want it to end. This would have been a five star read for me except for one aspect of the ending that I’m not too sure how I feel about. I’m reserving judgment on it until I see how it plays out in the following books. Also, the ending scene of this book is one of the most hauntingly beautiful scenes I’ve ever read and this is another book that is one of the best of the year. Depending on how the series plays out, it may be one of my favorite series of all time. Even though I know the ending I can see myself rereading this many times in the future.

Mothered is an ARC I have that doesn’t come out until February so my review won’t be out until then. This is story is set during the beginning of Covid but it makes sense since the story is almost exclusively contained to the main character’s house.

I thought I knew what The Haunting of Hill House was based on all the adaptations I’ve seen but I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a psychological horror this was. . The ending was fantastic and might be one of my favorite horror endings ever. I think if people realize this is a work of literary fiction they will appreciate it more instead of going into thinking it is a horror. I think that my reading during the week of Summerween cemented my love of literary horror and I think I will try to actively search it out in the future.

Library

Tokyo Ghoul is an interesting world and I enjoy them when I’m reading them but the story is starting to drag a bit. I will continue this series but I’m hoping it picks up a bit more in future volumes.

I am so happy I finally decided to pick up Finley Donovan is Killing It. While I wouldn’t classify it as a cozy mystery I did think it was a fun mystery that kept me fully engaged the whole way through. I went into it expecting it to be a bit over the top based on the premise, which it definitely was, but I had such a good time I gave it five stars.

The Cruel Prince is one that I’m happy to say that I read and while I had a good time reading it, I’m not sure if I will continue on with the series or not. I am intrigued to read the novella that comes after this book since it is from the perspective of Jude’s twin sister so I might give that a read and then decide how I feel about the series.

I was not expecting to love The Great Circle as much as I did but I absolutely fell in love with the character of Marian Graves. I read this because it was nominated for the Women’s Prize but based on the premise I didn’t think it would be one that I enjoyed. But I am so happy that I was wrong. This is a dual narrator and dual timeline novel. I understand that the addition of Hadley helped to tell the story in an intriguing way but I found her character to be lacking and it kept me from giving this book five stars.

Other

To contrast all the incredible reads I had last month, Hide was a total disappointment. It felt like a YA horror with characters that bonded in completely unrealistic ways. The twist was ok but by the time it came around I was already over the characters and didn’t really care one way or another how it ended.

The Promised Neverland is one of my favorite series and I love how each volume manages to shock me in some way. This story is so good and I’m looking forward to reading a couple more volumes and then finally starting the anime.

I finished It Happened One Summer on our beach vacation and I think it’s a perfect beach read. I really liked the hero but he could be too domineering at times, even though I think out heroine needs that in her life. I’m really looking forward to the second book in the duology, especially since everyone seems to love it more than this one. And I really liked this one.

Heartless was another book I was pleasantly surprised by. I’ve only read one Gena Showalter book before and I DNF’d it so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew that I was interested based on the synopsis but I wasn’t too sure about the writing style. I’m happy to say that this was a four star read and I thought it was a lot of fun. I haven’t read to many books about Fae but I’m discovering that I enjoy them. The second book in this series (duology?) is on my TBR for this month and I have my fingers crossed that I will like it just as much.