Hello!
What a long month it has been – I’ve felt super busy with new work stuff and I’ve managed to completely fall off making videos on TikTok and YouTube and I even missed a couple of blog posts which I haven’t done in years I don’t think!
But I did manage to read a lot of books – thanks to wanting to finish my current reads before the Summerween readathon started, the Summerween readathon itself and a lot of audiobook driving time, I managed to finish 8 books in July and I finished over half of my monthly TBR! Considering it was 10 books long, I’m really proud of myself.
Did I finish all five of the books on my Summerween TBR in the week of the readathon? No. Did I catch up on reading all of the Famous Five books I needed to be on track for finishing that box set? Also no. But I did mostly stay on track and I read more than I’ve read in any month so far this year, so let’s jump right in.
The Hardest Fall by Ella Maise is a book that I only read because it was in the Audible Plus catalogue and on my physical TBR and I love it when I can listen to an audiobook without paying for extra credits and it helps me work through my physical TBR.
The summary of the book makes it sound like a light, fluffy, easy cheesy romance and in some regards it is, but it’s also a sports romance with a love interest who is really passionate about his sport and making it professionally and addresses some really complex family relationships and dynamics of men in power and it really tugged on my heart strings! I felt so immersed in this story and I was rooting for the characters so much I actually felt myself getting close to welling up when I was listening to the end in my car. It was a really lovely story that I would actually recommend.
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Then we have the June book club pick that took me over a month to finish – my first (and so far only) non-fiction read of the year, A Sense of Freedom by Jimmy Boyle was a book I did enjoy. I felt the author’s voice came through so strongly in his narrative and his story of growing up in poverty and how turning to criminal activity was such a normalised part of the neighbourhood he lived in was fascinating. The parts where he described the torturous conditions of the prison system and how if prisoners are treated like animals then they’ll behave that way was a hard read but really interesting.
I’m not sure if it was the formatting of the book or the subject matter, but I started this book on literally June 1st and didn’t finish it until the first day of Summerween on July 5th. It was a really slow read and by the end I felt a little unsatisfied. It was insightful but I don’t think I’ll rush to read it again.
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One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus was my first read of the Summerween readathon and I really threw myself into reading that first weekend – I listened to the audiobook whilst finishing off a cross stitch project and it was so lovely to just sit and listen while doing something so creative.
I loved the four perspectives from very distinct characters who each had their own voice actors and the plot itself was intriguing. I liked that, at least for the first half, there felt like there was an element of unreliable narration because the title implies that one of them actually committed the murder. As I started to get towards the end of the book I had my own theories about what the ending would be and the entire reason I rated this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because I was right, which made the ‘final twist’ feel a little anticlimactic, even though I felt a bit clever because I figured it out.
But I did really enjoy it. I have absolutely no idea what could possibly have extended this into a trilogy, but I have the sequel audiobook on hold from my library so as soon as that comes in I will be finding out!
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This is where the Summerween success came to an end because whilst I did have a very reading heavy weekend, the following four days of the next week were just a normal week with things to do and places to be. I did start one of the other books from my Summerween TBR which was You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry! I listened to this one as an audiobook as well and I really enjoyed it!
I went in with hesitant expectations because I’d seen so many people say this was their least favourite Emily Henry, but I think my brain overanalysed that to think that it was bad. It definitely isn’t but I can see why people would describe it that way. This was my third read from this author and it’s the first one I’ve rated less than 5 stars… I still rated it 4 stars but it didn’t make my giddy in the way a 5 star book does.
I loved the dialogue between our protagonist characters – Poppy and Alex spend a lot of time travelling together, from their first road trip home to long airplane rides and their conversations were so funny and authentic. I hate the word ‘banter’ but they did bounce off each other so nicely, they really spoke each other’s language in terms of the level of sarcasm, matching each other’s weird and finding a way to fit nicely together even though they were very different people. The biggest issue I had was that this amazing communication was then flipped totally on it’s head and the major conflict was because they were both talking but neither was understanding each other. How could they go from being so on the same wavelength to fighting in an airport because Poppy (the travel writer…) can’t find the right words and Alex (the English major and high school teacher) completely misinterprets what she’s trying to say. It just felt forced and the conflict was such a non-issue.
I liked it, but it’s definitely not my favourite Emily Henry.
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This is another book that was on my Summerween TBR that I started during the readathon but didn’t finish in time. The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan was my book club pick for July and I really didn’t enjoy this at all.
When I was writing my book journal review, I wrote that I felt like 5 chapters were missing from the beginning that gave the protagonist and the world building any kind of context – we were dropped in and expected to care about Jebel, a presumed-teenager of undisclosed age who is so hard done by because he’s the runt of a well respected family, so he takes on a ridiculous quest to find a God who can make him invincible and travels across a fictional South West Asia with a slave who he must sacrifice to get his powers.
From the author’s dedication, we know that the locations and a lot of the names are inspired by the country of Jordan, but I feel like the naming conventions aren’t given any context so to me they were confusing. The titles given to those in positions of authority weren’t given any explanation at all and everything just felt so surface level so I didn’t care about Jebel as a protagonist or his quest in any way. Then the ending was really rushed and anticlimactic and the whole thing just wasn’t a pleasant reading experience.
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Then I caught up on the Famous Five book I should have read in June, Five On Kirrin Island Again by Enid Blyton. Book 6 of 10 and I’m mostly just bored – I can wholeheartedly see that a child (the target market of this series) would love these stories and love coming back to these characters, but I do not. I’ve found I’m turning to the audiobooks just to be able to get through them as fast as possible. I listen on 2x speed (which I very rarely can comprehend that speed) and just get through it.
But now I’m six down with only four to go – a very average 3 stars for this one.
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Of Jade And Dragons by Amber Chen was one I was really excited about – another audiobook read, I started this on a three hour drive up north and I was looking forward to having an exciting YA fantasy to keep me company on the drive there and back.
But what I’ve found since finishing the book is that it’s mostly forgettable – I keep getting it confused with ‘To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods’ by Molly X Chang because the dynamic of the protagonist characters is quite similar, except I thought that book was rubbish and I didn’t hate Of Jade And Dragons, but I have to keep reminding myself of that fact.
I would argue this isn’t a fantasy book – there’s no magic, no real dragons and not even a mythological God system. The protagonist Ying is based in a historical Asian-inspired culture where her father is an Engineer and she finds him murdered in his workshop. In an endeavour to figure out why he was targeted and fulfil her dreams of following in his footsteps, she takes on her brothers identity to enter into the male-exclusive Engineer’s Guild Apprenticeship – an academic type competition to pass three tests to prove to the Guild you are worthy of a place. I would argue this is historical STEM, there’s no fantasy here.
It was fine. It was too long. I’m glad I had the audiobook because I would have mispronounced so many of the names, places and things, but also this is meant to be the first book in a series and there was nothing really left to tie in a sequel?
All round I was confused, unimpressed and disappointed at the lack of dragons. May or may not pick up the sequel when it comes out.
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And on the last day of the month, I had to decide whether I wanted to finish a book I was actually enjoying, or finish a book so I didn’t have to spend any more time reading it. I went with the latter – Cross The Line by Simone Soltani is perfect for fans of ‘The Cheat Sheet’ by Sarah Adams if you don’t mind a little bit of spice.
I hated ‘The Cheat Sheet’ by Sarah Adams.
This book firmly solidified that I don’t like the childhood friends to lovers trope, but even writing that – I don’t think I do hate the trope, but I hate it when both participants of a romance book are in love with each other from page 1, because then the following 400 pages just feel so boring. The audiobook narrators for this book were not good, they felt like people reading a script rather than actually embodying the characters and everything about it was so cringy. I genuinely think this book made me unsafe to drive with how often I was rolling my eyes (I am obviously being sarcastic, I’m a very safe driver, but I did roll my eyes a lot).
I love reading about people falling in love and Dev and Willow were already in love with each other. They’d already known each other for maybe two decades, their reason for not getting together was pathetic and the whole thing was a chore of a read. I only gave it two stars rather than one because I think at least some of my dislike for the book comes from the tropes I don’t like and a writing style that wasn’t for me – I think there’s probably other people out there, the ones who like Sarah Adams writing style, who will like this book. I’m just not one of them.
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And those are the eight books I read in July. I apparently did way more driving than I thought and got through a lot of audiobooks, but I’m going into August with no Audible credits and none of my August tbr in audio format so we’ll see how well my August reading goes!
And another achievement, this is my 1000th blog post! I vividly remember hitting 500 posts while I was in my second year of uni, sometimes in 2016/2017 and now, seven or eight years later I’ve written 500 more.
I started this little blog 10 years ago this year and a lot has changed in that time – I have two degrees, I’ve gotten married, I’ve lived in four different towns and cities in many more flats and houses, and I think I’ve really grown as a person. I’m not going to stop any time soon, but I just wanted to mark this milestone!
Thank you so much for reading,
Sophie xx
sophie counts clouds 
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