I actually read ALL of the books on my August TBR, so I don’t have anything for this section! Yay!
New Releases
I think for New Releases, I should put them on my TBR as ‘Possibles’ or ‘Bonus’ books, since while I intend to buy them, I may not, or they may not release in enough time for me to pick them up and read them.
Version 1.0.0
Fake Skating by Lynn Painter is on my list as coming out September 2026, but it appears that it was published last year? I think this is one of those times where a certain edition is published, and maybe it’s the deluxe paperback with sprayed edges that is the September release. I pre-ordered this book, so I shall find out shortly! I adore the banter in Lynn Painter’s books, so I’m quite eager to read this one, as well. Dani and Alec were best friends as kids, but then she had to move away. When she moves back to town, her geeky teen friend has transformed into a hot hockey god. With fake dating in the mix, I’m interested in seeing what kinds of conflicts the author will introduce to add some tension and spice to this friends-to-lovers story. My copy should be here on September 3rd!
Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison is the second book in the Ghosted series after Good Spirits, and follows a grim reaper, Darcy, who is sick of death and is determined to save the next person on her list, and an angel, Gabriel, who is standing in her way. Traditionally in the Catholic Church, November is reserved as the month in which we reflect on the Four Final Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell, so I think I will want to reserve this book for that month. It’s expected to be published on September 15th, but my pre-order isn’t set to arrive until the week after.
I’m a fan of John Green’s work, and even more so after meeting him in person at Go Wild Indy. So, I don’t think anyone is surprised to hear that I pre-ordered his upcoming book as soon as I heard about it. Hollywood, Ending is a love story between two upcoming actors, Kai and Juniper, and also a commentary about the price of fame. It compares their experience to that of Andy Warhol, so I’ll have to do some catching up on that story. It is expected to be released on September 22.
There’s something special about the Wizard of Oz stories, and something a bit nostalgic for me as I read many of the books growing up. In early adulthood, I came across the books by Gregory Maguire and was again transported to Oz, this time finding a new perspective. Galinda is the latest addition to these stories, telling of the childhood of Glinda the Good Witch. This book is due out on September 29.
Probably a book on a lot of people’s Most Anticipated list this year, Threshing Day is a collection of 13 short stories in the Empyrean series and is labeled as book 3.5. It is scheduled for release on September 29. I have a pre-order for this book as well.
Trust Fall by Lynn Painter comes out at the very end of the month, and looks like it will be the perfect cozy October read. Billed as a rags-to-riches romcom, Julia and her family inherits everything from their secretly wealthy next-door neighbor. When they move into his house and she starts attending a prestigious school, she runs into the neighbor’s great-nephew, Damion, who wants to know why the guy he saw as a father-figure left everything to this family.
Book Club Picks
For my brother’s Moon Lit Bookclub selection for September, we will be reading Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne. Torian bought an abandoned starship so old, it was covered in moss. When she finally gets it to take flight, she learns that the moss is sentient. The moss also has a grudge against the alien who built the starship. Unfortunately for Torian, they run into this alien, who promptly accuses her of stealing the starship. I voted to read this book this month because it was advertised to fans of All Systems Red and I adore Murderbot!
For my brother’s Welcome to the Apocalypse book club, we will be reading The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman, which Book 3 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I had anticipated that we would likely continue to read this series, so I’m actually quite a bit ahead of schedule for this book club, having just finished reading Book 5. There are three books that are currently published (with, I think, 2 more books to come to finish out the series), and I’ll likely continue reading until I run out of books. My brother has been collecting the paperbacks, and I think that I’ll like to have physical copies for myself, but I haven’t decided if I’d prefer hardcover or paperback versions.
Other Picks
Football season is finally here! So, I will be reading Chasing the Rush by Lauren Rowe. I had been saving this book for this month! It is the sequel to Chasing the Ring, and follows Chelsea, a statistic-loving girl who dreams of being the first female head of analytics for the NFL, and Luca, a player hoping to make the cut with his latest team. Chelsea’s dad is also Luca’s coach, and he gives Chelsea the task of helping Luca out during training camp. What Coach doesn’t know, is that Chelsea and Luca have met before.
Final List
My final initial TBR for March consists of 2 books, and 6 bonus books:
August was mostly low-key, but highlights included Donald’s and Clint’s birthdays, a work project completing, and attending our first Ed Sheeran concert!
TBR Reads
My official August TBR consisted of 4 books. Of those, I have read all 4:
I’ve been excited about reading In Stormy Weather since I first heard about it and added it to my Anticipated Books spreadsheet. It was a Book of the Month selection, so I acquired a copy that way and it stayed in a prominent position on my desk until I read it. I really liked that Quincy and Sebastian each had valid reasons for their actions and honest thoughts and doubts about their careers. I would even put this one on my re-read shelf.
The best part about The Tempest Blade was that all of the POVs from the series came together to tell the final installment of the series. I appreciated how the author was able to highlight each character’s unique personality and show how this informed their actions.
It’s hard to believe that it was only this month that I cracked into the second book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I feel like I’ve been reading them forever. By forever, I mean non-stop like a chain smoker. Carl’s Doomsday Scenario features Carl and Donut’s exploits on the third floor of the dungeon. The first stop is race and class selection. If you’ve ever played DnD before, this is foundational to your whole strategy on playing the game. I appreciate that Carl and Donut were given a chance to see what the dungeon was like before having to decide.
Resist Me is the second book in the Harden Heights series, and was just recently published. I enjoyed it and I liked the dynamic between Ford and June. However, there were some things that were a little … distracting? … to my enjoyment of the story. I’m all for body positivity and showing main characters of all sizes, but this was an odd mixture of June always thinking that she’s less than because of her size, rivals and antagonists always picking on her for her body, and her friends always not understanding and just saying that she doesn’t understand that she’s an absolute smoke show. The other part was the Harden brothers’ finances. Ford is the money guy for their organization, so this was elaborated on more than in the first book. They have an underground betting business, some kind of ties to the company their mother owned, and trust funds that have been frozen by their father. Throughout the book, they are both displaying a lot of disposable income and are also worried about their financial future when their businesses are threatened in different ways. I’m not sure how to reconcile the two. But there is enough intrigue and loose ends to keep me busy and coming back for more.
Random Reads
My non-planned reads include:
On August 1st, Donald and I went to the second annual Pages of Glass: Romancing the Glass City event. The night before, we attended the Meet & Greet event where we had the opportunity to talk with a selection of the authors that were going to be selling their books at the event the next day. Little did Charissa Gracyk know when she sat at our table that she was sitting with two ex-Navy Nukes! She described her books as featuring classic Protector-type male leads who often had military backgrounds. I picked up the first book for two of her series, and started with Reactivated: Oz. It is a mix of a military thriller, a mysterious death, a mysterious organization who did some experimentation on the ex-SEALs, and some paranormal abilities that they had gained via the experiments. The series was available on Kindle Unlimited, so I was able to binge all seven books within the week! They were a solid mix of action and romance with good characterization.
I picked up Not Bad For a Girl at an indie bookstore near the Pages of Glass event. The store, Gathering Volumes, had been mentioned as one of the best indie bookstores in Toledo, so I had wanted to stop by while I was in town. I picked this one up because it followed a girl in IT who works in a male-dominated office and she has to deal with people not taking her ideas seriously due to her sex. (The whole ‘women are “bitchy” with a negative connotation, and men are “assertive” with a positive connotation’ thing – I’ve run into this countless times in my own professional life.) She is moved to a team that works remotely and there’s a incident that leads her team to assuming she’s male. The shenanigans that take place are frankly wilder than I had anticipated!
In All the Wrong Plays, Will was caught up in a scandal involving his team owner’s wife and exiled to a soccer football club in Europe. He’s hoping to do well here so that next season a team in the US will be willing to take him back. It’s one thing to be a great soccer player in the US, but quite another to try and break into an established European football club. Even more difficult is navigating personal relationships when the cute girl you met is the daughter of the new club owner and sister to the team’s star player. Sophia is the only member of her prestigious family who does not care about football whatsoever. She just wants to be a photojournalist, which her family sees as a cute hobby. Unfortunately, her intern assignment is to be the stand-in photographer for her family’s football team when the normal photographer is out on medical leave. Both forced into situations they are not comfortable in, Will and Sophia find each other. I thought this was a really cute story. Technically, it was the second book in the series; the first one covering Sophia’s brother’s romance, but you could read this as a standalone. I agree with some other reviewers that this ending was a little bit rushed, and I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the family dynamics between all the characters in the end.
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook follows Carl and Donut on the fourth floor of the dungeon, where the have to navigate the tangle that is the floor’s subway system (featuring all kinds of different trains). I think this book has the largest growth in Carl’s capabilities; he becomes more strategic and comes up with some brilliant and unhinged solutions to the challenges of the level. It’s gory and gross at times (all the time), but that’s more than made up for by the fast pace and fun vibe. Carl’s sensitivity to the other crawlers and NPCs make him a very likable character, even when he has to do unspeakable things or make morally grey decisions.
After bingeing the Reactivated series and getting immersed in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, I decided to take a bit of a palate-cleansing break after The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook and pivoted back to romance with This Summer Will Be Different. I’ve been enjoying Carley Fortune’s books and this one is no different. Lucy is our main character and she has a gem of a ride-or-die best friend in Bridget. Bridget is her rock and has been keeping Lucy together through some rough times. Lucy is in full-on maid on honor duty with the last minute details of Bridget’s wedding when Bridget suddenly drops off the radar, then asks Lucy to drop everything and meet her in her childhood home on Prince Edward Island – no reason given. This story is told in two timelines: present and past-catching-up-to-present, where we find out that years ago, Lucy broke one of her BFF’s cardinal rules, Do not fall for my brother. I won’t spoil anything for you, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised with one of the twists in the book, where Lucy and Felix make a very mature decision about their relationship. I’m also in awe of Lucy’s patience with Bridget. I love my BFF, but guaranteed I would have cornered her down faster and made her tell me why she suddenly needed to blow up our lives right before the wedding.
The Gate of the Feral Gods is – in my opinion – the most chaotic installment so far. There are these bubble things that contain each contain four different biomes: air, land, water, and subterranean. All of the crawlers are divvyed up amongst the 1,000+ bubbles. You can’t go to another biome before you conquer your biome’s castle, and you can’t help out crawlers in other bubbles before you conquer all of the biomes in your own bubble and it “pops.” This book has the same madcap fun and mayhem of the other books in the series, but also is a bit more… of a grind? I haven’t quite put my finger on what it was about this book that was less entertaining than the others. Carl feels more responsibility for the NPCs and their plight feels a bit heavier in this book. I feel that we spend most of our time in one biome, a little bit in another, and next to zero in the other two biomes. Carl has a much better grasp of what’s going on than the reader, and we find out along the way that he’s been doing a lot more scheming and planning off page than you might expect. Do not miss the epilogue.
Ah, The Butcher’s Masquerade. This installment did not disappoint! Mayhem, creativity, and crawlers coming into their own as they face Hunters for the first time on the sixth floor of the dungeon. We finally get to see the outcome of that jaw-dropping epilogue from Book 4. I think what truly made this book special for me was the growth in the relationship between Carl and Donut. So tender and heartfelt. And Mongo is just his own loveable ridiculousness. (If you want to be super technical, I finished this book on September 1st. I could have finished it on August 31, but I wanted to get this blog post written and published on time for once, so I painfully put down my book with less than 100 pages to go and got to writing. You are welcome! The book won’t be counted in my stat’s and I’ll likely include it in next month’s wrap-up post, but I was so close to completion, I wanted to mention it here, too.)
My Thoughts on This Month’s Reading
August brought a lot more of the fantasy/supernatural element to my reading than usual. I enjoyed having a few good series to devour. I know that my media consumption comes in waves; I’ll be really into reading all I can for a while, then really into watching things on YouTube, or become absorbed in a TV series. Eventually, I make my way back to all of my different media habits, but I’ve been enjoying this book-heavy summer so far.
Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.
Reactivated: Oz (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Charissa Gracyk – Review
Reactivated: Dom (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Charissa Gracyk – Review
Reactivated: Jericho (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Charissa Gracyk – Review
Reactivated: Max (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Charissa Gracyk – Review
Reactivated: Cassian (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Charissa Gracyk – Review
Reactivated: Deacon (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Charissa Gracyk – Review
Reactivated: Aidan (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Charissa Gracyk – Review
In Stormy Weather (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Chelsea Curto – Review
Not Bad for a Girl (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Anastasia Ryan – Review
All the Wrong Plays (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by C.W. Farnsworth – Review
The Tempest Blade (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Danielle L. Jensen – Review
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Matt Dinniman – Review
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Matt Dinniman – Review
This Summer Will Be Different (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Carley Fortune – Review
The Gate of the Feral Gods (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Matt Dinniman – Review
I want to bring over the two new releases from last month:
In Stormy Weather was introduced in the July TBR, so I won’t rehash the premise, but I did want to talk a little bit about why I’m excited to read this book. I do love a good rivals-to-lovers story, because usually they are familiar enough with each other to have a lively banter. Not only was this a women in STEM romance, but it takes place in Florida (and Quincy lives near Orlando, which is where I was based for my Nuke A school). Donald and I both have ties to Florida, and – as he will attest – I am the girl who is cheering on the hurricane. Not that I want there to be people hurt or property damaged, but I do love a good storm.
Resist Me is the sequel to Ruin Me and I enjoyed the nostalgia for an underground gambling ring romance, if that’s a thing. A little bit of danger spices things up every once in a while. In Ruin Me, we saw a little bit of the start of Ford’s infatuation with June, and I’m ready to see where it goes. I’ll be honest, I keep getting flooded with Kelsie Rae’s ads on social media and they are what made me pick up the first book.
New Releases
This month, there were only two new releases that I pre-ordered:
However, I’m not going to be reading either of these in August.
Adversary to the Villain is the fourth book in the Assistant to the Villain series, and while I have the other books in the series, I have not read books 2 or 3 yet. I’m trying not to read the blurb on the back of this book, so I don’t accidentally spoil myself for those books.
Chasing the Rush I am saving for September, since that’s when the NFL football season officially begins and this is a football sports romance. I like to stay on-theme when I can. This is also a second chance romance because Luca and Chelsea met previously when she was a Mathlete going to an event. Something happened and they didn’t actually get into a relationship at that time. Now, she runs into him again when she starts doing statistics for her father’s new team. He’s a player who needs babysitting and Chelsea is saddled with the job.
Book Club Picks
For my brother’s Moon Lit Bookclub selection for August, we will be reading The Tempest Blade by Danielle L. Jensen. This is the sixth book in The Bridge Kingdom series and I can’t believe the book club is completing an entire series! In this finale, Ahnna is on the run because everyone believes that she killed Good King Eddie. Since it is the final book, we have chapters with POVs from all six of the main characters from the series.
For my brother’s Welcome to the Apocalypse book club, we will be reading Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman, which is the sequel to last month’s Dungeon Crawler Carl selection. It picks up where Book 1 left off, with Carl and Donut entering the third floor.
Amazon First Reads and Book of the Month Selections
Generally, I make my Amazon First Reads and Book of the Month selections on the first of the month or close to it. Since I don’t really pay for the Amazon reads, I set them as “Bonus” books on a list I maintain of books I acquire each year. My goal every year is to read all of the books I buy (or at least a decent percentage of them), but I allow myself to skip ones that are free or gifts or books that I buy for Donald.
I totally forgot about making these selections, and by the time I went to BOTM, the window for making August selections had ended. So nothing new to see here for August.
Final List
My final initial TBR for August consists of 2 books:
In July, I was fully invested in conquering the 22 Silent Book Club locations for the Metro Detroit Summer Passport event. Donald quickly found that if he attended with me, we would generally end up eating at a new-to-us restaurant, so he had NomNom Motivation to attend, and we treated it like a bonus Date Night.
TBR Reads
My official July TBR consisted of 4 books. Of those, I have read all 4:
The Endless War was okay. It was mostly Zarrah being in prison with some really questionable people and then a whole political mess. I felt that it dragged in places and I just wasn’t feeling the chemistry between Zarrah and Keris (granted their relationship was in a rocky place for much of the book).
Rocket’s Red Glare was a fun read. You follow an ex-Special Forces guy who invites his team to his place on Nantucket for a little R&R after a tour. He has a difficult time getting to his house because a presidential candidate decided to set up his campaign office next door. When the candidate is captured, everyone is a suspect and no one on the island is safe. I had to exercise a fair amount of “suspension of disbelief” for this story, but it was entertaining.
The Twisted Throne is Book 5 in the Bridge Kingdom series and once again we switch protagonists to show Ahnna, King Aren’s twin sister, and James, the brother to Ahnna’s fiancé, William. She is sent to Harendell to fulfill her part of the 15 Year Treaty and hopefully, to get Harendell to provide favorable trade agreements to help the Ithicanian people. There are a lot of court politics and intrigue, and a lot more of Ahnna falling for the “wrong” brother. Surely, that’s not going to cause any problems, right? This was another case where I didn’t particularly want to pick up the book to read it, but once I did, I didn’t put it down for hours.
Dungeon Crawler Carl was a surprise. It was funny and witty and I really liked it! Aliens come to Earth and flatten all of the buildings, squishing most of the people who were not fortunate enough to be outside at the time. For those who are left, they can either become a dungeon crawler and try to be the last person standing who can then reclaim the planet, or die. It’s an absolute comedy of ridiculousness from beginning to end. I really hope that Clint’s book club will continue reading in this series.
I read 0 of the 2 bonus TBR books.
Final Result was that I read 4/4 (100%) of my planned books and 0% of my bonus books. I’m really happy that I could keep up with my brother’s book clubs this month!
Random Reads
My non-planned reads include:
I don’t know why it has taken me so long to read Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. It has women in STEM, and this one involves thermodynamics! Of course, I’m going to love it! Elsie is a brilliant physicist, but is currently is struggling as an adjunct professor spread across three separate campuses. She wins an interview for a position she desperately wants – doing what she loves, a real salary, and health insurance. Unfortunately, one of the people on the hiring committee is the nemesis of the theoretical physics academic world and single-handedly responsible for a huge blow to her mentor’s career and credibility. It was really cute and well done.
Mate is Ali Hazelwood’s sequel to Bride. We are returned to a world where there are vampires and werewolves living in a tense peace. This time, we are following Misery’s best friend, Serena, who recently found out she’s one of the only human-werewolf hybrids. She has a bit of PTSD from the events in Bride and seeks refuge from the world in the Pacific Northwest among Koen’s pack. Her being Koen’s mate doesn’t endear her to his pack. In fact, they see her as a threat to their way of life. It took me a bit to pick up this book, despite having had it on my bookshelf for almost a year. It surprised me in a few ways and there was more to unpack in the story than I had anticipated. Bride seemed to be a bit more fast-paced, and Mate seemed to be more introspective and questioning of characters’ motives.
Lauren Blakely is an author who writes hefty romance novels, and I generally find them pretty entertaining. She tends to write on the spicier side, so buyer beware. It Seemed Like a Good Idea is a cute story about a bodyguard and the girl he is protecting. Although – plot twist! – she’s not the famous person, but her twin sister is. Her sister, Haven, brings her movie crew to the small town where she grew up and filming will be taking place on the lavender farm that Ripley now runs. Banks and his partner are relatively new to the security business, and he really needs this job to go well. Falling in love with his principle is not something that is recommended. This was a good read and I like how it took some common troupes and flipped them just a bit.
Okay…. for this next bit, I’m going to do a bit of consolidating. What happened was I found the Amazon series, Off-Campus, and decided that I wanted to read the book (Hahaha, little did I know there were so many in this universe) before watching it. So, I proceeded to absolutely decimate Elle Kennedy’s series: Off-Campus, Briar U, and Campus Diaries. That took the whole rest of the month, with a brief interlude where I finished The Twisted Throne and Dungeon Crawler Carl. At first look, they seem a bit fluffy, but as I read through them, there was a lot of character development and layers to the issues that came up in the plot that kept me engaged. Also, I love a good family dynasty moment, and the fact that these books came with a family tree and there was a lot of former main character cameos in subsequent books made it so much more enjoyable. I will leave links below to individual reviews for each of the books in case you want to read my thoughts about them, but just a quick warning that if you are reading this post close to the publication date, I may not have completed this part yet.
My Thoughts on This Month’s Reading
Wow. 21 books! That’s a LOT! I regret nothing!
Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.
The Endless War (⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Danielle L. Jensen – Review
Rocket’s Red Glare (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann – Review
Love, Theoretically (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Ali Hazelwood – Review
There are two books that I want to carry over from last month’s TBR:
The Endless War was a selection for my brother’s book club. I did start reading it in June, but I didn’t manage to finish by the end of the month.
Rocket’s Red Glare just seems like the perfect thing to read on the Fourth of July, so that will be my choice for the day’s reading.
New Releases
Both of the New Releases on my radar for July are going on my TBR as ‘Possibles’ or ‘Bonus’ books, since they will be releasing later in the month.
In Stormy Weather features Quincy and Sebastian, who have been fierce rivals for all of their academic and professional lives. Sebastian also happens to be Quincy’s best friend’s brother and a permanent fixture of her friend group. Sebastian has a high profile job for a news agency, and Quincy has a highly successful social media channel where she uses her PhD to inform the public about weather phenomena. Pursuing a challenge, Sebastian convinces his boss to allow him to spend hurricane season in Florida, throwing him in close proximity to Quincy. This book releases on July 14.
Resist Me by Kelsie Rae is Book 2 in the Harden Heights series. I read the first installment, Ruin Me, which gave me similar vibes to Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire. Ford is one of the Harden brothers who run an underground gambling ring. He crosses paths with June during the events of Ruin Me, develops a crush on her and starts pursuing her. This book releases on July 21.
Book Club Picks
For my brother’s Moon Lit Bookclub selection for July, we will be reading The Twisted Throne by Danielle L. Jensen. This is the fifth book in the Bridge Kingdom series. So far, it’s a bit of an odd experience, where I have resistance to wanting to pick up the book to continue reading, but once I am reading it, I enjoy myself, even though the series is a bit slow and a bit more political than I would prefer.
For my brother’s Welcome to the Apocalypse book club, we will be reading Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. I have seen how much hype this book has, but I’ve been a bit skeptical. It has been pitched to me as a cross between Blade Runner and a Dungeons & Dragons game.
Final List
My final initial TBR for March consists of 4 books, and 2 bonus books:
The Endless War by Danielle L. Jensen
Rocket’s Red Glare by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann
June was actually pretty busy, with end-of-school-year activities for the girls, various events, and the start of the Metro Detroit Summer Passport program through the area’s Silent Book Clubs. If you haven’t heard of a Silent Book Club before, it’s where people gather together for a little bit of community and then spend an hour reading, silently. You can read whatever you would like. It’s just a space for you to have some uninterrupted time to focus, maybe find a new cozy cafe to check out, and maybe make a bookish friend or two. For the Summer Passport program, 22 Silent Book Clubs from the Metro Detroit area have come together. From June through August, you can collect stamps and sign in at each of the locations. As you gain more stamps, you get more entries for a bookish prize. I’m really excited to participate and see a lot more SBCs than I would have otherwise!
TBR Reads
My official June TBR consisted of 5 books. Of those, I have read 3:
Maple Mayhem in Indiana Dunes is a solid novella. A park ranger and a … tree researcher? Sounds like they were made for each other! Except, he is the very LAST person that she wants to see – after all, he was the reason she was bullied so hard in school. But now, she is assigned to do research at the National Park he works at and they can’t help but run into each other. Sometimes, even bullies deserve a second chance, and it’s never too late to see yourself from a new perspective. I wish we had more time with these characters, but it was quite enjoyable!
My Forever Girl follows Gracie and Cutler, who have been best friends forever, and haven’t quite ever tested whether they are compatible as romantic interests. The clues are there, however. Cutler would drop everything to be there if Gracie needed him, and Gracie calls him every day and looks to him for advice and support. It was a fun story and I liked them both as characters. Getting this book out of the blue, I wasn’t familiar with the author and didn’t know until the end that it was a second-generation romance. I do like series where you get to meet different people from the same world and seeing how different generations came together would be an interesting dynamic, so I’ll have to see about picking up the related books at some point.
I really loved The Courage to Commit. I would say that most people will buy this book because Shawn and Andrew are well-known elite athletes and social media personalities, and they will want to hear more about their lives. They will not be disappointed, as each chapter includes anecdotes that underscore their message. However, they are also very skillful about turning their experiences into wisdom that they can share with their readers, with both positive and negative examples. You absolutely could speed through this book, because it is written in an engaging and personal tone, but you should also read it slowly and savor the life lessons they are giving out. Or read it several times. With a highlighter.
Bonus Books
I read 0 of the 9 bonus TBR books.
Final Result was that I read 3/5 (60%) of my planned books and 0% of my bonus books. I didn’t manage to read either of Clint’s book club selections during the month of June, but I did start The Endless War and hope to finish it up in early July.
Random Reads
My non-planned reads include:
S’more of You is the first in a summer romance series by Amazon. Margot is a camp counselor at Dean’s family’s camp. They’ve been at the camp together every summer for years, and for years Margot has been harboring the biggest crush on Dean. However, she expresses this by being a thorough pain-in-the-butt and pranking him at every turn. There was something playful and fun with this short story that I enjoyed, even though I was a bit put off by the idea of a girl pranking this guy so hard for so long, but it ended up being a bit sweet how that was explained in the end.
In Save a Horse, Keep the Cowboy, Jodie is a country music star who returns to her hometown to officiate her brother’s wedding. Josie and Weston were once a thing, but Weston chose his family’s ranch over her. Now, she has to run into him again as her brother’s best man. I’m not sure what to rate this one. I liked it well enough in the moment, but here I am a couple weeks later and I don’t even remember reading the book. I know that I did, but I had to read through a bunch of other readers’ reviews to even recall the climax scene. And it was a bit…. cheesy. I guess it was good for the brief time I read it, but clearly nothing stuck.
I read Glow of the Everflame via audiobook, so it took longer as I only listened to the story while I was driving somewhere. Luckily (I guess, lucky for the book?), since I was participating in the Silent Book Club Summer Passport event, I was driving around more than usual. This is Book 2 of the Kindred’s Curse series, and Diem is now Queen. She needs to figure out how court life works and who – if anyone – she can trust. This book was a bit more political than Spark of the Everflame and that’s just not quite my cup of tea. I generally like more action and banter than world-building and complicated nuance. What can I say, I’m reading for entertainment and my attention span has gotten selective in this soundbyte/short form content world we live in. It was good to see how Diem and Luther’s relationship grew, and the struggles she faces between the human world she grew up in and the Descended world she must now engage with.
It’s been ten years since Lucy last saw her best friend, Sara, in One Hot Summer Wedding. Then, out of the blue, she gets an invitation to her wedding. Sara’s brother, Beckett, is there and they are forced to share a hotel room. I thought this short story was pretty cute.
I have been really enjoying Melanie Harlow’s writing. She’s a local author and I’ve had the privilege of meeting her in person a couple of times. Most of her books are located in a fictional city in the northwest of Michigan’s lower peninsula. I was really excited to read this book, and also can we mention how gorgeous the cover and sprayed edges are? Hart’s Landing is a solid romance with some personal emotional growth, characters with real childhood wounds they need to work through, a decade-old mystery, and a surprise paranormal element! I think this is my sixth Melanie Harlow book I’ve read, and they keep getting better!
Ah, Girls Just Wanna Have Sun is rated fairly low on Goodreads: 2.86. This is another short story in Amazon’s Summer Lovin’ collection and follows Morgan and Juliette. Morgan is pushed into some watersports when she just wants to lay on the beach. The only upside is that she runs into Juliette, someone she shared a few flirty encounters and a kiss eight years ago. Ummm….. I don’t know. I didn’t really feel the attraction between these two, even though the author clearly pushed them into a tragic case of insta-lust. The one girl was clearly uncomfortable in outdoors environments, but willing to put herself out there a little bit, even though it still wasn’t her jam. The other girl was a nature enthusiast and wanted to be alone and outside all of the time. I get that people can compromise, but these too just didn’t seem to have enough of a spark or enough in common to actually make a relationship last without one of the partners completely deleting their personality.
My Killer Vacation was just wild. Taylor’s brother is recovering from an emotional upset, so the elementary school teacher takes her meager savings and splurges on a fantastic vacation to Cape Cod for the two of them. Almost as soon as they arrive, she discovers a dead body in their rental house. For her whole life, Taylor has been told that she’s the type of girl to sit in the background and make the safe choice, but after taking the dead body incident in stride, she’s starting to think that she may be tougher than everyone thinks and maybe she can put her sleuthing skills (entirely gained from listening to true crime podcasts) to good use. Myles is a bounty hunter hired by the victim’s sister to get to the bottom of the murder. He definitely doesn’t want a partner, much less a perky schoolteacher who doesn’t know what she’s doing. I was actively grinning most of the time while reading this book. Taylor is a super sweet and maybe a little too cautious second grade teacher, and she is an absolute, adorable Pokémon of a character. I loved their banter and how stubbornly they clung to their annoyance, even when their mutual attraction hinted at a deeper relationship.
My Thoughts on This Month’s Reading
This was definitely a month of highs and lows! I really appreciated the Summer Passport program for getting me out of the house and giving me dedicated time to read books. I’ll have to follow up with a post about my experience at the end of the summer. I think one thing that the Amazon Original Stories cemented for me is that I’m just not a short story girl. I need time with the characters to be able to really get to know them so that I can root for them to get their happily ever after. I love wit and banter and books that feature that in a playful and not destructive way will win my heart every time.
Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.
Maple Mayhem in Indiana Dunes (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Olivia Hope McCarthy – Review
I actually read ALL of the books on my May TBR, so I don’t have anything for this section! Yay!
New Releases
I think for New Releases, I should put them on my TBR as ‘Possibles’ or ‘Bonus’ books, since while I intend to buy them, I may not, or they may not release in enough time for me to pick them up and read them.
The Magic of Us by Beth Merlin and Danielle Modafferi follows Elliot, who has built a career around trashing love and relationships. However, after someone casts a spell on her, she wakes up to find herself in an alternate reality where she never broke up with her boyfriend.
I’ve been really enjoying the National Parks series by Olivia Hope McCarthy, so I’m excited to read Maple Mayhem in Indiana Dunes. Jayce has always been a part of the popular crowd. The same crowd who tormented Ana throughout her school years. When she’s assigned to his National Park to conduct research, she can’t seem to get away from him, and he can’t understand why she keeps him at a distance. I’m definitely going to read this book this month!
In My Forever Girl by Laura Pavlov, Gracie and Cutler have been best friends since childhood. She left to chase her dreams and follow her boyfriend to another country. Cutler’s the one who flew to her rescue once that relationship ended. He’s always been there for her, but can he convince her to give him a chance at turning their friendship into something more? I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher, so I’m excited to dive into it!
Rocket’s Red Glare by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann looks like the perfect book to read on the Fourth of July. Ex-special forces operators functioning as a covert privatized unit. This book will be saved until July, obvs.
My most anticipated new release for this month is The Courage to Commit by Shawn Johnson East and Dr. Andrew East. I was fortunate to be part of their launch team and go to preview a few chapters and provide feedback ahead of publication day. They show the benefits and varied meaning of commitment – in your activities, professional life, and relationships.
Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben is a thriller, which is normally not my preferred genre. But this one involves an Army combat surgeon who has lost her medical license finding her way back as a plastic surgeon for wealthy customers wanting absolute discretion. When a patient disappears under her care, everything goes sideways. I bet her Army combat training will come in handy.
It seems that I am always looking out for the next Tom Clancy. He was an amazing storyteller and the pinnacle of the military thriller genre. I’ve also found the Vince Flynn books to be enjoyable. Both universes, while still enjoyable because I’ve become attached to the characters, have lost that special spark since the original authors have passed away. The Most Dangerous Man by Jack Murphy is a book that I’m interested in trying to see if it will fill that niche. In this book, Jeremy Lopez is an ex-Army Ranger who is kidnapped and released into an environment as a target for an elite hunting party.
Ashley Poston books always have that dash of magical realism to them. In The Someday Garden, Sophie takes a summer job in Maine at an estate with a secret garden that has a trapped man inside. Outside of the garden is the owner’s nephew. The garden itself is proving to be a challenge, as the plants do not want to respond to her care. The rest of the plot…I will just have to see when I read it. I get that they don’t want to give too much away on the blurb, but to just say a secret garden and two guys…. Maybe just a little bit more?
Sports romance seems to be my jam lately. I’m not exactly sure what about it is so compelling, but I have been eating them up! Abby Offsides by Anna McCallie follows Abby, a woman who leaves her whole life after finding out her fiancé has cheated on her, and lands in the UK, where she finds a job with a football club. There’s an attractive player with a mysterious (and apparently absent) wife. Add a bit of forced proximity and see what happens.
Hoping the make the switch from wedding photographer to landscape photographer (and still pay the bills), Sloane spends her spring chasing tornadoes to capture the perfect shot in Chase Me If You Can by Heather Frances. This shot will win her a cover contest for a well-known nature magazine and secure her career switch. However, someone else in in the hunt for the cover prize. Wes and Sloane have been longtime rivals, but as the tumultuous season keeps tossing them together, will something else emerge?
Night Witch by Jaymin Eve is the sequel to Spellcaster. From what I remember of Spellcaster, it has a bit of a Romeo and Juliet theme, in that Logan and Paisley’s fathers are bitter rivals. They are in a magic school and since Paisley recently discovered that she is a Spellcaster, she’s been connected with Logan, who is a strong spellcaster for development of her magic. Night Witch brings us Paisley’s second year at Weatherstone College.
The Winged Game by Sophie Kim bills itself as “fantasy meets sports romance,” which honestly seems like my cup of tea. Rugby on winged beasts. Yes, please. Taissa was a great player, until Kion destroyed her career. Now, he’s offering her redemption as a part of his team. Fake relationships and mysteriously sick winged creatures… Will this end up being a wild romp or a bitten off too much moment?
Book Club Picks
For my brother’s Moon Lit Bookclub selection for May, we will be reading The Endless War by Danielle L. Jensen. This is the fourth book in the Bridge Kingdom series and the second book focusing on Zarrah and Keris. Zarrah has been imprisoned on Devil’s Island by her aunt and Keris will do anything to save her, while balancing the responsibilities of a being a new king whose kingdom has been warring with Zarrah’s for endless years.
For my brother’s Welcome to the Apocalypse book club, we will be reading Cold Storage by David Koepp. This is Book 1 in a series and is pitched to people who love Andy Weir (which would be me). Roberto is a “bioterror operative” (is that really a job title?) who once found and contained a highly mutative organism. Now, that organism is loose and only Roberto knows how to stop it.
Final List
My final initial TBR for March consists of 5 books, and 21 bonus books:
Maple Mayhem in Indiana Dunes by Olivia Hope McCarthy
My Forever Girl by Laura Pavlov
The Courage to Commit by Shawn Johnson East and Andrew East
The Endless War by Danielle L. Jensen
Cold Storage by David Koepp — Bonus —
The Magic of Us by Beth Merlin and Danielle Modafferi
Rocket’s Red Glare by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann
Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben
This was objectively a bit of a tough reading month. So far this year, my average rating is 3.99 – just a hair below my “I really liked it” rating. However, this month only earned an average rating of 3.38 – between “I liked it” and “I really liked it.” So, for the most part, the reading was good, but maybe not particularly memorable or impactful long-term.
TBR Reads
My official May TBR consisted of 3 books. Of those, I have read all 3:
I read 3 of the 21 bonus TBR books.
Final Result after TBR pruning was that I read 3/3 (100%) of my planned books and 14% of my bonus books. I’m really excited about that 100%! And I beat my bonus book percentage from last month! I was happy to have also completed both of the books for Clint’s book clubs, although I’m not super excited to continue the After the Pulse series.
Random Reads
My non-planned reads include:
If All Else Sails is a super-cute enemies-to-lovers romance. Josie’s brother is the golden child of their family and maybe a bit self-absorbed. She’s used to going along with whatever he has planned for their vacations together – after all, it’s usually the only time she can tear him away from his busy life as a sports agent. But when she arrives at a derelict murder cottage and her brother’s nowhere in sight…. All Wyatt wants to do is hide away from the world in his recently deceased uncle’s cottage and reminisce about the fun times they used to have here while he recovers from a hockey injury. His peace is interrupted by what seems to be paparazzi, so he calls the police to the property. The cops toss Josie in the back of their sweltering cruiser and forget about her while they are trying to get autographs from Wyatt. When Wyatt realizes that Josie is his best friend and agent’s sister, and not a paparazzo, he has the cops remove her from the squad car…. a little too late, as she can barely glare in his direction before passing out from the heat. The beginning of this story was delightful and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the story.
Katie is facing unemployment in The Love Haters. Her job as a video producer is on the line as the new owner is making radical cuts to the staff. A coworker pushes her to take a job profiling Tom, a Coast Guard SAR swimmer who went viral recently for saving a celebrity’s dog. She needs to save her job, so she agrees – even though she cannot swim. She is set up to stay at her coworker’s Aunt Rue’s house, without knowing that her coworker and Tom are estranged brothers. Her entire time in the Keys is one comedy of errors after another, and a truly fun story to read.
Navy Brat was originally written in 1991 and it really shows its age. The FMC works for a woman-empowerment non-profit and that hard feminism flag-waving clashed with the MMC’s heavy-handedness. There were so many red flags. She stated clearly and repeatedly from day one that she didn’t want a military lifestyle and didn’t want to date him and he chased her (literally) and harassed her until she relented. At one point, she said repeatedly that she didn’t want to kiss him and he was like, well, then I’ll just kiss you anyway. Her dad calling her a fool because she didn’t give in to this guy. Just horrible. I didn’t find it sweet at all. But I guess we are just a different society with different values 35 years later. Would not recommend.
In The Little Cafe at the End of the Pier, Jo’s grandparents ask her to leave her job to move back home and start taking over the family cafe. As she reacclimates to small town life, she gets invested in her customer’s love lives and starts serving up some matchmaking along with the coffee and scones. It was kind of cute, but with so many characters and only a little bit of time with each couple, I found it difficult to become invested and ended up skimming through most of the book. It hit solidly between “It’s OK” and “I liked it.”
My Thoughts on This Month’s Reading
May was a bit of an odd reading month. The first full week was dedicated to a work trip to Las Vegas, so I didn’t get a ton of reading done and didn’t finish any books. The middle of the month was where I read my “Official TBR” books. And then came my favorite part of the month: May 25-31, with the Books Ahoy! Readathon created by my friend, Monica! I absolutely adored the theme, Navy girl as I am, and was onboard faster than you could say “Anchors Aweigh!” So while some of the books capsized and sunk to the bottom of the ocean, others were glittering marvels of nautical prose.
Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.
The Inadequate Heir (⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Danielle L. Jensen – Review
I actually read ALL of the books on my April TBR, so I don’t have anything for this section! Yay!
New Releases
I think for New Releases, I should put them on my TBR as ‘Possibles’ or ‘Bonus’ books, since while I intend to buy them, I may not, or they may not release in enough time for me to pick them up and read them.
One of my favorite topics to watch on YouTube is aviation, but in particular accidents and incidents. My nerdy brain loves the puzzle of figuring out what when wrong with the complex machinery, human factors, atmospheric influences, and other contributing factors, and the challenge of taking each story and seeing how it can be used to make flight safer. I wish this kind of investigation and self-reflection were a part of the culture for every industry, to be honest. In addition to Mentour Pilot, 74 Gear, Disaster Breakdown, Green Dot Aviation, Mayday: Air Disasters, and Pilot Debrief, I have been following Captain Steeeve for a while. Captain Steeeve’s 13 Rules for Life is marketed as a “flight plan for life.” I like to support the people that I spend so much time watching (there’s some kind of emotional connection created when you pay attention to someone’s story closely), so I’ll likely pick this up and give it a go. I have this marked as releasing on April 30, but it actually looks like it was published back on February 26.
Fury Bound is the sequel to Dire Bound, which was recommended to me by my friend, Kelly. I haven’t managed to read Dire Bound yet, so I’m trying not to spoil myself by reading the blurb of sequels too closely, if I haven’t read the preceding book. I think I will put Dire Bound on my TBR as a Possible. It is expected to release on May 5.
Also releasing on May 5 is Our Perfect Storm. This is a friends-to-lovers trope where the friends part seems like it’s pretty volatile. So much so that Frankie isn’t sure that George is going to show up as Best Man at her wedding. He does, and the next day she’s left at the altar. Hmmm…. Then, George convinces her to still go on her planned honeymoon… with him. I have enjoyed Carley Fortune’s books. Several of her previous ones have been set in Canada at cabins on the lake (which feels very much like summertime Michigan, so nostalgic, in a way, for me), while this one takes us to a new location of Tofino. Yes, I had to Google that. It’s a small town in the Vancouver Islands. It’s kind of fun that they are going to be honeymooning in the area where I got engaged. It’s not necessary for me to relate quite this hard to characters in order to appreciate a story, but I have to say, I don’t think it hurts!
Another May 5 release is Sweet Vengeance, which is Book 3 in The Calder Academy series. I binge-read the Crave series a few years ago, and this series is a spin-off from that. It’s kind of that guilty pleasure YA romance/thriller type of series that is entirely fluffy and enjoyable. I know that I’ve read Sweet Nightmare, which is Book 1, but somehow I missed Sweet Chaos, Book 2… Hmmm… Goodreads says that it’s expected publication date is November 3, 2026; Amazon says it’s November 2, 2027. I’m confused…. Book 3 is being published before Book 2???
Broken Dove is the sequel to Silver Elite, another book that I haven’t read yet. Ugh! I have a copy of Silver Elite, right? Somewhere? Now I have to search the house…. Yes! There it is! I got it as a Book of the Month selection, so it’s on my BOTM bookcase. You can get your copy of Broken Dove this Tuesday, May 5.
First and Forever! This book officially releases on May 12, but I was lucky enough to read an ARC version in February and loved it, 4.5 stars! After being harassed by a team mascot at a game and accidentally hurting him, Duffy is hated by the other fans, who only saw her being mean to the beloved mascot. On the other side, the team’s management is worried about the harassment part of the encounter and try to patch things up with Duffy by setting her up with a private meeting/date with one of the players.
Also coming out on May 12 is Hart’s Landing by Melanie Harlow. Melanie is a local author that I’ve had the privilege of meeting in person. I’ve read her Cherry Tree Harbor series (5 books) and enjoyed them, so I am looking forward to this new book. This book will be offered on Kindle Unlimited, so I could read for free, but I will likely pick up a physical copy – the sprayed edges look so cute on it! The story follows Mila and Everett. Mila left town after a huge fire, leaving behind a lot of suspicion and her former crush. Everett, now the mayor of the small town, runs into the girl that got away, but there are still questions remaining about the reason she left in the first place. So, maybe a bit of mystery with our romance in this one.
The Ballad of Falling Dragons – what is it with the new releases this month?! Why are they all calling me out with sequels to books I have not read yet (but meant to)?! This book is the sequel to When the Moon Hatched, which I own and which has a lot of great reviews, but also which I have not yet managed to read.
Sigh. It’s looking more and more that my TBR will be filled with a lot of backlist titles – probably as ‘Possibles’ instead of actually fully committing to reading them. I’d rather be pleasantly pleased that I made progress on my list of Bonus books than disappointed in myself for not accomplishing a goal. Thankfully, this is just my personal TBR and I will not be graded on it and it’s not cheating if I architect it to my advantage!
Book Club Picks
For my brother’s Moon Lit Bookclub selection for May, we will be reading The Inadequate Heir by Danielle L. Jensen. Last month was the first time that his book club had selected a sequel as the monthly choice, and this month is the first time we have selected a third book in a series! I started reading it as soon as I finished The Traitor Queen, but have only made it to page 14 so far. In this sequel, we leave Lara and Aren behind and follow her brother, Keris, and Zarrah, who is the General of the country his people are at war with. I think this book is mainly a prequel to the first two books in the series, but it may go up to current events or beyond. It’s always questionable for me when a series changes focus from one set of protagonists to another set. I get invested in the original characters, and for me, if I’m not attached to the characters, I will not generally enjoy the book.
For my brother’s Welcome to the Apocalypse book club, we will be reading Resistance by Mark Tufo, which is the sequel to last month’s Reset from the After the Pulse series. I also started reading this one in April, and am 42 pages/11% in. It starts out 3 years from the events in Book 1 and is narrated like you know what’s been going on the whole time, so it’s a bit jarring and confusing at the beginning. But through the device of a journalist doing interviews with the characters, we start to learn what happened in the intervening years. Apparently, there are now aliens who have invaded. I swear I just finished Reset and I do not recall this from the end of the book. Did I miss it?
(Overdue) Library Books
Okay, I don’t have any overdue library books at the moment, but I did place a couple holds last month. I read Star Shipped last month. The other is for Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune. I didn’t realize it when I put in the hold, but the Carley Fortune’s book isn’t going to be released until May 5. I’ll add it as a ‘Possible’ for the TBR, because I don’t know if I’ll get ahold of a copy this month due to the sheer number of people who are in the hold queue ahead of me.
Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune – I think this is a standalone book. It features Frankie and George, childhood friends who have always had a volatile on/off relationship. Frankie invites George to be her best man at her wedding, not knowing if he will actually make an appearance. He does, but then her fiancé calls it off the next morning. Confused and heartbroken, she agrees to George’s request to go on her planned honeymoon with him, as a last chance to repair their friendship.
Random Selections
Everybody’s Favorite Guy by Katherine Center – Lily fell in love with her childhood friend, Walker, who ended up rejecting her. Seven years later, they are trapped together in a snowed in cabin in the Rockies.
Books Ahoy Readathon
My friend, Monica, is hosting the Books Ahoy Readathon in her Facebook group, Let’s Peanut Butter Taco ‘Bout Books. It will take place from Monday, May 25 – Sunday, May 31, 2026. The prompts are:
Bon Voyage (a great first line)
Sailor’s Delight (bestseller’s list)
All Aboard (includes a boat)
Make Waves (water on cover)
Anchor (main character returns to hometown)
Whatever Floats Your Boat (favorite genre)
Smooth Sailing (a book you can sail through)
As a Navy veteran, how could I not participate in this readathon?! (I mean, obvs, I would participate anyway….)
Monica also sells coordinating stickers for the readathon via her Etsy shop, PeanutButterTaco, so I will be certain to pop over there and place an order.
Here are some nautical considerations:
Love Overboard by Kandi Steiner – This is a book that can be read for free via Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription. It is a second-chance romance between Ember and Finn, who end up working together on the same yacht. To complicate things, Ember is starring in a reality TV show, so their interactions will be on the air for the masses.
Return to Me by Kelly Moran – A second-chance romance that starts out the way that so many of them do: two kids, one rich (the other presumably not), fall in love, some catastrophic event occurs that breaks them apart, fast-forward to present day. Now, Cole is back from the military and Mia returns to their small, coastal town as a private nurse in charge of Cole’s care.
Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans by Joanne DeMaio – Maris leaves her life in Chicago’s denim fashion industry for a coastal New England experience where she reconnects with old friends and savors a different pace of life while she settles her father’s estate.
Breathe by Abbi Glines – Forced to stand in for her pregnant mother as a domestic servant for the summer, Sadie is surprised to find her new boss is Jax, one of the hottest teen rockers in the world.
The Little Bookshop by the Sea by Eliza J. Scott – Florrie lives an idyllic life by the sea as a bookseller, until tragedy strikes and she has to work with her bookstore owner’s grandson, Ed to try to save it. She finds some mysterious, yellowed letters in the back room, but these are not the only secrets she has to contend with.
Summer on Lilac Island by Lindsay MacMillan – Newly unemployed Gigi finds herself living with her mother on Mackinac Island. Summer resident James works as an author, but Gigi swears his main job is irritating her. This is as much a story about Gigi’s relationship with her mother, as it is a romance.
My Greek Island Summer by Mandy Baggot – House-sitter Becky and Businessman Elias are thrown together when their plane to Greece has an emergency landing. They are more surprised when they run into each other again at the same villa.
Hearts Overboard by Becky Dean – STEM-loving Savannah is dumped by her boyfriend for being too boring, so she embarks on an Alaskan adventure to prove that she knows how to have fun… except, she kind of doesn’t. Insert Tanner, her long-time nemesis, who agrees to help her expand her horizons.
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant – What if mermaids are real? What if they hate humans? After some filmmakers go missing at sea while making a “mockumentary” about legendary sea creatures, one of the crew’s sister returns to find out exactly what happened.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty – Amina is a famous Indian Ocean pirate who is looking forward to retirement and the good life, when a colleague’s mother asks her to retrieve her granddaughter for a princely sum. However, the girl’s disappearance is more complicated than first anticipated.
The “Possibles” List
The Replacement by Liv Constantine – The Amazon First Reads program (where Amazon Prime members get a free Kindle book every month) has recently been offering a bonus short story as well. There’s no downside to also selecting the bonus, so I pick it up every month. A Hollywood A-lister, who has fallen out of the limelight, but is trying to make her way back falls in with an up-and-coming costar who becomes her protege. But, this is a thriller, so bad things are coming…
Two Lives with You by Lauren Ho – This follows Dana and Nigel, a couple each struggling with their work situations, who receive a magical reprieve from their lives to explore what might have been if they had not married. What will happen when they run into each other in this alternate reality? And what does it mean when their magical wish has a catch?
Seek the Traitor’s Son by Veronica Roth – Elegy is a soldier fighting against the Talusar. One day, she is brought together with one of the Talusar’s generals to hear a prophecy: one of them will lead their people to victory over the other, but they don’t know which. Also, there is a man central to both of them whom Elegy is told that she will fall in love with.
Final List
My final initial TBR for March consists of 3 books, and 21 bonus books:
The Inadequate Heir by Danielle L. Jensen
Resistance by Mark Tufo
Everybody’s Favorite Guy by Katherine Center — Bonus —
Captain Steeeve’s 13 Rules for Life by Steve Scheibner
Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen
Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune
Sweet Chaos by Tracy Wolff
Sweet Vengeance by Tracy Wolff
Silver Elite by Dani Francis
Hart’s Landing by Melanie Harlow
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker
Love Overboard by Kandi Steiner
Return to Me by Kelly Moran
Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans by Joanne DeMaio
Breathe by Abbi Glines
The Little Bookshop by the Sea by Eliza J. Scott
Summer on Lilac Island by Lindsay MacMillan
My Greek Island Summer by Mandy Baggot
Hearts Overboard by Becky Dean
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Overall, I feel that I read less this month, but I also have been very distracted with playing Pokemon Pokopia (LOVE this game!) and I officially returned to work after my medical leave, both of these meant that I had less time for reading. I’m not mad at it. I think that I’ve enjoyed the books that I did read fairly well.
TBR Reads
My official April TBR consisted of 6 books. Of those, I have read all 6:
I read 1 of the 14 bonus TBR books.
Final Result after TBR pruning was that I read 6/6 (100%) of my planned books and 7% of my bonus books. I’m really excited about that 100%! I even managed to read both of Clint’s book club selections this month!
Random Reads
My non-planned reads include:
Ruin Me is the first book in a series about a set of brothers who run…. an underground betting business? It’s more than just a fighting ring, although that is mostly how Jagger participates in the brothers’ endeavors. They do also run other contest-like events that people can enter to win prizes and others can attend for the spectacle and to place bets on contestant standings. Jagger and his siblings live in a wealthy neighborhood and are children of a difficult, remote, but successful father. Violet is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks whose father has a gambling addiction and a penchant for violence and thievery, especially when it comes to Violet herself. Living conditions at home being unbearable, and losing hope to escape her situation after her father steals her down payment for an apartment, Violet reluctantly enters one of the brothers’ events to try and win some prize money. Butting heads at every turn, will these two ever reconcile enough to build a relationship?
Books Read
While I still feel that I’m in a Romance Era, there were some new twists added to the mix. I think that Star Shipped is my first M-M romance and I really enjoyed the book club discussion that we had at Love & Other Books (even though most people there didn’t feel that the book was a highlight of their monthly reading). A dystopian and a fantasy were completed, and I enjoyed my time there, too. Next month, we will be reading the sequel to Reset and the third book in The Bridge Kingdom series (The Traitor Queen was Book 2).
Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.
The Girlfriend Zone (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Lauren Blakely – Review
Paroxysm of Giggles / Critical Mass 