firewhiskeyreader

I read 31 books in July, which is incredible, if I do say so myself. This is mostly because I spent the #24in48 hour readathon trying to actually finish the books in my currently reading shelf on goodreads that were anywhere from a quarter to half finished. But regardless, that means we do have a lot to go over so let’s hop to it.

12. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

This nonfiction book blew my mind. Like, I spent my time listening to it going WHAT and HOW EVEN and WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS? And also there was a lot of HOW DID YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS FOR SO LONG? And also some marveling that some people really can just fail upward. Like, it’s wild. Anyway, if you haven’t heard of Theranos or Elizabeth Holmes, I assure you, this book is FASCINATING and also just absolutely wild. Like, you can’t make this up because it’s unrealistic. But it HAPPENED. I can’t. Thank you, Dani, for the push to pick this one up!

And here we have my #24in48 Readathon reads so I’m just going to make you a list here and direct you to my wrap up post:

13. Marriage of Unconvenience by Chelsea Cameron
14. Her Every Wish by Courtney Milan
15. On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
16. All Through the Night by Suzanne Brockmann
17. Forged in Desire by Brenda Jackson
18. Wildfire by Ilona Andrews
19. Heartbeat Braves by Pamela Sanderson
20. Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
21. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

I wrapped up the #24in48 Readathon by starting How to Date Your Dragon by Molly Hooper, but didn’t finish it so I finished it during the Reading Rush. Before I tell you about it, let me list out my Reading Rush reads and direct you to my Wrap Up for the details on those four books.

22. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
24. Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues by Molly Harper
25. The Summer of Jordi Pérez by Amy Spalding
26. We Set the Dark on Fire by Taylor Kay Mejia

23. How to Date Your Dragon by Molly Hooper

This was a quick listen, but I definitely didn’t fall in love with a new series. This book follows Jillian, an anthropologist who gets rerouted to Mystic Bayou to write up a case study on how the only town in the world where supernatural creatures live their lives out in the open with humans as cohabitants works. This is Jillian’s first real solo assignment so it’s a pretty big deal. She meets a whole cast of characters, but our love interest is Bael, a dragon shifter. He’s an interesting love interest. I think the world building was really interesting and the cast of secondary characters were certainly engaging, but it just felt like something was missing.

27. This Wicked Gift by Courtney Milan

I finished this book on my way to the airport and I didn’t like it as much as Courtney’s other novellas, to be honest, but I did still enjoy it. This novella follows Lavinia Spencer, who is working in her family’s lending library, and is very attracted to William Q. White, a man who is working for some gentleman but is still struggling to make ends meet. William sees his chance to get with Lavinia when her brother announces that oh by the way, he’s in debt 10 pounds to some bad dudes. It’s… interesting. I think this was Courtney Milan’s first novella and it’s definitely not as strong as her others. But it’s Courtney, so it’s still pretty good. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend starting here.

28. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This book and my brain really did not want to work together. I found this writing style extremely difficult to get through and it took me significantly longer to read than I felt like it should have. That said, the storyline itself is fascinating and I am glad I read it. Essentially, Casiopea Tun accidentally wakes the Mayan God of Death, Hun-Kame, and winds up tying her life to his and they have to race around Mexico to complete a quest. Meanwhile, Casiopea’s mean cousin is trailing after them, serving Hun-Kame’s twin who is currently–wrongfully–sitting on the throne. I loved that I was learning different mythos, but I remain very glad I read The Storm Runner by J. C. Cervantes last year because otherwise I imagine my confusion would have been even more intense.

29. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Alright, y’all, another romance novel with a cartoon cover, which means some of us have questions. I’m going to try and address those first: 
1) Yes, this is absolutely a romance. It has a central love story, that truly is the main focus of the book, and an HEA. 
2) Steam Factor: Explicit on page sex, no fade to black here; on par in my opinion with the books in Hibbert’s Ravenswood series! 
Now, to actually tell you what I think and what the book is. Chloe Brown is a black woman with fibromyalgia who after a close call with death decided she’s got to return to living her life to the fullest and creates a list of ways to get a life. Cue Red, an artist currently serving as a building superintendant (of the place Chloe moves). Chloe and Red don’t exactly like each other, but that changes somewhat when Red comes back to the building and finds Chloe in a tree trying to rescue a cat. As for my thoughts? I adored this. I love Talia. I think this book was great, though, no, still not better than Wanna Bet? or Damaged Goods, but still extremely excellent. I’m also very excited for the next books in the series!

30. A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

I finally continued my quest to complete other books sitting on my currently reading shelf after I finished up with #24in48 and thank goodness I did! I had felt like the first bit of A Study in Scarlet Women was slow and I stand by that. I think it’s a bit slow and also it made me feel a bit dumb. But eventually Charlotte decides to make Sherlock an actual persona and from there on, I was hooked! Actually, probably I was hooked from the time Mrs. Watson is introduced, but semantics. As soon as I finished this one, I went straight into the second. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, Charlotte Holmes intentionally ruins herself for the sake of freedom from society and then runs off. This takes up the first bit of the book and was mildly exhausting to read. But it definitely gets better from there! Charlotte turns herself into Sherlock after meeting Mrs. Watson and it’s truly a delight.

31. A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas

Wow!!!! This book starts off with quite a bang and then just doesn’t really let up. I loved everything about this one. I mean, there’s some slight issues with the fact that Charlotte’s love interest is married, but set that aside because the mysteries unfolding as a part of this book and in the evolution of the series are incredible! I loved this one and picked up book three immediately, though I’m making much slower progress in it at the moment.

Alright, there you have it! All the books I read in August! I think my favorites (aside from my rereads because if we counted them, I think we know) were A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas, Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Teach Me by Olivia Dade, and Breaking Point and Force of Nature by Suzanne Brockmann. What were yours?

xx