Another month, another set of books read! This month included a week of vacation for me, which is a surefire way to get my reading numbers up as it’s one of my all-time favorite things to do whenever I have a spare moment — of which there are a lot while I’m off work.

Fantasy

  1. Paladin’s by Grace T Kingfisher — Grace, a perfumer with a secret, and Stephen, a former berserker chosen by the Gods who now knits socks in his spare time, fall into ranks while working through the mystery of a murder. This book was surprisingly fluffy and funny despite the seemingly serious plot and the characters were so lovable; Stephen is such a sweetie. Multiple times where I audibly laughed out loud!
  2. Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey — PI murder mystery in a magical high school setting. I didn’t have super high expectations (this was a Reddit thread recommendation) but it totally surprised me and I absolutely loved it! If you’re a fan of Jessica Jones (aka a female PI with alcohol issues), you’re bound to love this one. I was suspicious of everyone the whole time and the twists still got me!
  3. Garrett P.I by Glen Cook — Another PI, this time in a magical world with goblins, trolls, and vampires. I wanted to love this more than I did, but I might give another book in the series a try before giving up.
  4. Hellblazer 4: The Family Man by Jamie Delano et al. — Is anyone surprised by the addition of more John Constantine comics to this list? There was a lot going on in this volume of issues. I liked some of them and was lukewarm on others but as always, I can’t wait to read the next installment!

Nonfiction

  1. Educated by Tara Westover — This memoir details the journey from a fundamentalist Mormon cult into high education and then some. It took a while to get started but the way Westover threads the story together, and in particular writes through the complicated realities of wishing family could be different, got me in the end.
  2. Fair Play by Eve Rodsky — It’s no secret that women do a severely disproportionate amount of managing a household and a family; Fair Play is an alleged system for dealing with that. This book, while self-aware about how heteronormative the problem even is, was really interesting and probably would be game-changing for women who are really used to “parenting” their spouse — think the moms who have to write super detailed lists and pre-cooked meals for their incompetent husband getting left with the kids for the weekend. However, I’m not a mom and my husband and I are both project managers, so a lot of this was already part of our world.

Romance

  1. Bohemian by Kathryn Nolan — My favorite romance read of the month by far. Shy Calvin is left a bookstore by his grandparents and is gearing up to sell when Lucia, a super famous model with an attention addiction, comes to stay during a photoshoot and they end up celebrating parts of themselves they’d forgotten. I really enjoyed the poetic/literary ties and the way that the characters grew together.
  2. Nerdgasm by Kimberly Reese — Nerdy Theo, a TA and swimmer with a stutter, and confident Addison, a student in one of his classes, have a college romance. Thoughts: 3/5 stars. Generally sweet but I legit feel like I could’ve knocked off 3 stars for this weird-ass scene with Theo and the professor he assists when the professor goes in-depth about how to perform cunnilingus on an orange because Theo asks for sex advice??? Very weird and out of place in the book. No TA or professor would ever do this in the history of forever.
  3. Boarlander Bash Bear by TS Joyce — Bear-shifter Sebastian and FMC Emerson meet and fall in love. The world-building was severely lacking for only being the second book in a series and tbh, the book as a whole read like bad fanfiction.
  4. King Sized by Jessa Kane — New princess gets comforted by her guard. I think I need to avoid novellas, they just never have enough build-up, tension, or development for me!
  5. Always Mine by Laura Pavlov — Vivian and Niko are childhood best friends and have been there for each other through everything. She convinced him to show her a good time in bed and their relationship evolves from there.
  6. Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas — Evie, a wallflower with a crummy family and a stutter, and Sebastian, a broke duke with a thousand women under his belt, enter into a marriage of convenience. Threats on their lives bring them together. The beginning was strong but it just kinda fell flat and didn’t feel believable to me; his transformation to reformed from rake felt a bit rushed. I really wished I had liked this more!

And that’s all folks — 13 books read this month to get to 49/100 on my yearly goal, with an average monthly rating of 3.5/5. I’ll have lots to write about next month as there was another week of vacation for me!

Till next time,
Sarah