Hello!

Another month has flown by, in the UK the summer weather was nowhere to be seen (but we’re seeing 27 degree weather in the first week of September because obviously) but I felt like I had a really good reading month! It was my first month with a proper tbr (ish) and I managed to read everything on my list! So let’s jump right in.

Bright Ruin (Dark Gifts #3) – Vic James ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed the entire trilogy – it was a take on magic that I hadn’t seen before and I thought was done really well, I loved the political aspect to the story (which is ironic because I actively avoid politics in real life) and the character’s were generally cleverly designed and well written.

There were a few things that irked me throughout the whole trilogy (the consistent use of ‘bro’ and ‘sis’ gives me the ick), but the biggest thing in Bright Ruin was the ending – the last 30 pages were a whirlwind and tensions were left to run high until the last second, but the act that brings around the resolution was written very confusingly and the last chapter felt like it didn’t definitively answer anything or help me understand what was next for the characters. It was really anticlimactic but I would still recommend the trilogy.

A Touch of Ruin (Hades x Persephone 2) – Scarlett St Clair ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I think what confused me the most about this series is that there’s actually two interconnected trilogies (one from Persephone’s perspective and one from Hades) which will conclude in a dual-perspective story that comes out next year, but by the time I’d figured all that out and realised I was going against the recommended reading order, I was already halfway through this book and I couldn’t be bothered to swap to the other book.

I’ve literally just finished the third book (in September) so differentiating the two is a little blurry, but I enjoyed this book – I love Greek mythology so I love all the other references around Persephone and Hades story. Hermes was one of my favourite characters, Apollo’s arc was really engaging and Lexa’s storyline was fascinating, but the romance was a little frustrating – it starts with their relationship going public and then they almost immediately fight and fall out and it’s all just one massive lesson in learning how to bloody talk to each other. And the amount of smut was almost unnecessary – I’m pretty sure they were taking each other’s clothes off in literally the first chapter.

But I clearly enjoyed it enough to borrow book three from the library so everything else was engaging enough to keep me reading the series!

Red, White and Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

I don’t reread very often, but I wanted to have the story fresh in my mind when the movie adaptation came out and I have no words – it’s a six star read, it’s on my list of my favourite books of all time. It’s the sweetest love story, it’s messy and honest and authentic and the characters were all wonderful. I just love it so much. I rated the film 6.5/10 if anyone’s interested in my opinion on the adaptation.

1984 – George Orwell ⭐️⭐️

The thing with classics is that they’re generally literary fiction and I’m just not a literary girlie – I wish I was! I want to have the clothbound classics and be the kind of woman that comes across as really intelligent with opinions on books written decades ago, but I am not. I read it because it’s my dad’s favourite book and I have this beautiful hardback edition that was produced in the 70s, so I’m going to be keeping it on my shelf for the #aesthetics but I just didn’t care for it. I got what it was trying to say and the political statement it was making, but I found it so dull and boring. I listened to it on audible and Stephen Fry’s narration was fantastic, but it was so slow paced.

There was an hour and a half long chapter of the main character reading a book and I really struggled to keep my focus. But now that I’ve read my dad’s favourite book, so I don’t need to read it again and that’s nice for me. I can stop reading classics!

Codename Villanelle – Luke Jennings ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The August book club pick really took me by surprise – I don’t tend to reach for crime/mystery/thrillers and having watched some of the show (via Gogglebox) it all seems far too tense for me to be able to watch, but I went in open minded.

The writing style I found a little difficult to concentrate on, but once I’d borrowed the audiobook from my library to co-read them (cosied up in bed with my headphones and a physical book? Absolutely peak, I need to do it more) I flew through it.

Despite only being 218 pages, there was only four chapters so they were quite long! But I listened to one a night and finished it in four days. I loved the characterisation, it was surprisingly humorous, the narrative of a psychopath was unexpectedly entertaining and I gave it an enthusiastic four stars. The fact that it ended quite inconclusively and led immediately into book two of a trilogy felt a bit sneaky, cos I think all three books are pretty short so it almost certainly could have been one book (but that doesn’t make them as much money…). I do want to read the rest of the trilogy though.

Twisted Love – Ana Huang ⭐️

I really wanted to love this book. I wanted to fall in love with another popular booktok series where all four books were on KU and it was going to make me kick my little feet and fly through a romance series that was easy to read. Instead I got lies from the Internet and writing that felt like bad fanfiction.

I’ve made a tiktok on it, I’ve written my instagram review and I’m so done talking about this book now – everything about it was awful, the only good thing is that it cut two books off my tbr list because I had picked up the sequel in a charity shop and I’m never going to read it so thanks Ana Huang for making my tbr shorter!

The Man Who Died Twice (The Thursday Murder Class #2) – Richard Osman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

And my last book of the month was a fantastic audiobook – I feel like I accidentally fell into a few crime/mystery books this month, but I read the first book in this series ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ last year and really enjoyed it. I was a bit dubious going into book 2 because it had been so long since I read book 1, but Osman’s writing has a fantastic way of subtly reminding you of all the important details without doing an info dump summary.

And even beyond that, I think the humour and the characterisation of Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron is very British and it tickled me – I thought the characters were really sweet, the plot was incredibly clever and twisty and the pacing was wonderful (I love a book with short chapters! Convenient to pop on a chapter when I’ve got a 10 minute drive to get anywhere).

The only reason it’s not five stars is because it’s not one of my favourite genres, but there were moments that made my heart swell and gasp out loud – I had a wonderful time and have no regrets already being halfway through the next book!

So I managed to read everything on my tbr, reread one of my all-time favourite books and finish off a YA fantasy series! Although the first half of September is busy with plans and a birthday and such, the latter half is currently very quiet so I’m hoping to fit in lots of reading time and perhaps get a little bit further with my tbr as well!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx