July and August were active months. We had family visits and birthdays. Festival season and BBQs. Visited friends in London and went swimming in the sea. Housework and DIYs.
I think I was still in a personal reading slump after finishing the Throne of Glass series, so I read less than I have been recently.
When it comes to how (or even if) I share books I didn’t particularly love, I still haven’t figured out where I stand. I think debates and discussions about books is good, even if it’s not all positive. But, I equally understand that every author has put so much of their time and soul into every book. Stomping on it seems unfair.
I also do believe that not every book is good or right in every season for every person. What I don’t like, you might love. Vice versa. And that is amazing! I won’t stomp, but I will share a couple books I read during this time that just weren’t for me, for whatever reason. Maybe they are totally right for you though!
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black has been on seemingly every fantasy list on social. The premise / plot was so promising (a young human is thrust into the Fae world and must survive) and I was so excited to dive into another Fae world, especially after finishing ToG.
Holding my hands up: when I read this I was in a massive Throne of Glass hangover and I like my Fae worlds to be enchanting, midnight blue dark, naughty, and sexy. I felt the characters in The Cruel Prince were unnecessarily mean, the Faes were cruel and not sexy, and it felt really dark. Just not for me.
In what will absolutely shock and horror people is that I also couldn’t finish The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. The writing is beautiful. I just got bored. Again, I think this is a me problem as I’m very much in my Fantasy Era.
Speaking of my Fantasy Era, I absolutely devoured Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Did I start it after dinner and stay up until 4am to finish? Absolutely. Did I regret my decision at work the next day? Absolutely not. It lived up to its TikTok hype - fast paced, fun, and high stakes (literally). There are dragons, but they’re incorporated and written so differently than any book I’ve read before. I loved them as characters. There’s also an enemy turned lovers trope, but again, it’s done so differently.
Another enemy turned lovers trope that I loved was in Ledge by Stacey McEwan. Dawsyn, the protagonist, is a fierce, not to be fucked with survivor. I loved her razor sharp sides and unabashedness. Set on a literal ledge in the mountains between death and Glacians, Dawysn is literally plucked from her home for the annual culling. It’s cold, it’s intense, it’s mysterious. McEwan is also a part time teacher in Australia who makes absolutely hilarious reels / TikToks featuring her most human husband. She’s hilarious and a bad ass.
I had booked a ticket to see Samantha Shannon at Edinburgh BookFest. The theme of her talk was about ten years of The Bone Season, a series that was new to me. Spoiler alert: I loved it. Shannon literally throws you into the deep in this new world, and only really starts to explain it 100+ pages in. It’s something that could go terribly wrong if not done right. She did the same for Priory of the Orange Tree, so clearly she’s an expert.
What I find interesting about The Bone Season is that she did a rewrite of it ten years later. I’m not a published author (yet), but I’ve always heard that authors could tinker with their work forever and still never be completely satisfied with it. Shannon’s reasons were that she was really hampered down with her decreasing mental health space when the book originally launched. Knowing she could do TBS more justice has haunted her for ten years. The fact that her publishers backed her need to revise and spent resources to re-launch it (and the other four books in the series) is really incredible, and speaks volumes about her as an author.
Another series I started that is so fun and whimsical is Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber. It pressure tests the protagonists deep belief in love and happy endings. Every fairytale troupe or story is turned on its head in this, and I really enjoyed it. One thing I absolutely love is when series are connected (a la Sarah J Maas multi-verse). I heard through the grapevine that this series is connected to her first series, Caraval *Immediately puts that series in her cart*.
If you’re not into Fantasy, thank you for sticking around this long. I did read other non-fantasy books that I really enjoyed. The first one that I devoured was Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. Science and smut. What more do you need to be intrigued? If the title or cover throw you off, I get it. But trust me that this is the type of entertaining, disconnect from life read that you need.
In the UK, Dolly Alderton has turned into a millennial female celeb. It started with her best-selling memoir, Everything I Know About Love (5 stars), which became a series this past year. Ghosts was her first fiction novel, and I finally got around to reading it. If you’ve ever dated in a city, in your 20’s, specifically between 2010 - 2020, you will resonate so hard with this book. It’s an honest, funny and uplifting account of looking for and dealing with all types of love.
Looking outside, summer is officially over. Fall is here. Shining in all her yellow, red, and orange glorious hues. Though this book is set in a muggy August, the vibes it brings are much more reminiscent of November. The Cloisters by Katy Hays is about a group of art researchers looking and a 15th century tarot deck. It’s about moving to NYC alone, as an escape. It’s about dark academia. It’s about shaping a future, whether it’s set in the cards or not. It’s thrilling and twisty.
That’s it for my summer reading. What do I need to add to my fall and winter reading list?
Here for the energy of, I'm not a published author YET! Can't wait to read your work :) And very much looking forward to digging into The Cloisters!