Hello!

Now, I don’t want to toot my own horn but my tbr for this month is pretty banging if I do say so myself.

To keep it brief and get straight into the good stuff, rather than choosing a tbr of seasonal or mood reads, I’ve just started making tbr’s that ensure I’m making the most of all the subscriptions I pay for so I’m not wasting money. So I pick 2 Kindle Unlimited reads, 2 Audible reads, my Illumicrate and Afterlight subscriptions as well as my book club and any pre-ordered new releases and endeavour to read them all in a month.

This is only my third month – my first month I smashed it and read everything, my second month I managed 4 out of 6 and this month is my longest month with my two new physical subscription boxes and another new release. But I am so hyped for them all so let’s jump right in.

The Rocket Book Club pick for this month was my husband’s choice (tl;dr – we asked for books as wedding gifts and we take it in turns to pick one each month in an endeavour to read them all) and he choose the beautiful clothbound edition of Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame – I never read this as a child, but I’m looking forward to reading it now not only because it’s a beloved story, but because it’s short and I’ll probably be able to finish it quickly! We love a quick win.

The two books I didn’t manage to read were my Kindle Unlimited picks for last month, so I’m rolling them over to this month – ‘A Game of Fate’ and ‘A Game of Retribution’ by Scarlett St Clair, the first two books in the Hades trilogy that accompanies the Persephone trilogy that started with ‘A Touch of Darkness’ (and concludes with the dual perspective ‘A Touch of Chaos’ that comes out next year and I’m pumped for it). With these being my fourth and fifth Scarlett St Clair books, I feel I’m quite comfortable with her writing style now so with a renewed sense of inspiration, I have faith in myself to actually read them this month.

My Audible picks this month feature a new release that I’d rather listen to and a book that I also own in physical so it works on my physical tbr simultaneously – ‘The Last Devil To Die’ by Richard Osman (the fourth book in ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ series) and ‘Legendborn’ by Tracey Deonn. I’m genuinely so excited for both of these – Osman writes really short chapters so they’re great to listen to even if I’m only doing a 10 minute drive to go grocery shopping or something and then ‘Legendborn’ I’ve heard so many incredible things about and I’m going to use it as a really mindful, relaxing experience to snuggle into bed when my husband is away with work and read with my eyes and ears simultaneously (or play stupid phone games while I listen) – doesn’t that sound wonderful?

My September Illumicrate book (my first subscription box, I’m still so excited!) was ‘A Study In Drowning’ by Ava Reid and I’ve heard nothing but incredible things about this book so whilst I’m a bit dubious about it’s literary genre because it’s not one of my favourites, I’m really excited to read such a beautiful edition of such a new and hyped book! Though actually reading one of my beautiful Illumicrate books does feel a little criminal.

My other physical subscription, the bi-monthly AfterLight box (Illumicrate’s romance sector), delivered ‘Cleat Cute’ by Meryl Wilsner and I can’t tell you how excited I am for a sapphic contemporary sports romance! I think it’s going to be the perfect palette cleanser between a lot of big fantasy and mythology stories and whilst disturbing such a beautiful book feels wrong, the sprayed edges on this edition are stunning and if I don’t read it I’m not fulfilling her life’s purpose so… yes, I am personifying a book, don’t question it.

And lastly on the pre-ordered new releases, I have ‘Wildfire’ by Hannah Grace, the second in the Maple Hills series of stand-alones that started with ‘Icebreaker’. I know that people have quite polarising opinions on the first book in this series, but personally I really enjoyed it – don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t ground breaking; it was a smutty sports romance, but if you take it for what it is I had a really good time. I rated it 4 stars and from what I’ve heard, ‘Wildfire’ is less smutty and just as divisive but sports based camp counsellors? I’m so excited! And I picked up The Works exclusive sprayed edges and I’m stoked about it – they’re beautiful.

And my bonus addition to my monthly tbr (because 8 books when my currently monthly average this year is 7, which is heavily skewed by the month I went on my honeymoon and read loads) is Fourth Wing, because my inconsistent reader husband recently finished it and is really struggling not to info dump at me about it (but he is resisting because he is a good husband). As I write this, I’m currently in Aberdeen, Scotland with him because I piggybacked onto his work trip and I’ve been binge reading it initially for his sake, but now because I’m quite obsessed – it’s so worth the hype!

Also if someone could make reading my job so I can prioritise reading as much as I have this week I’ll be eternally grateful, please and thank you.

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx