**Sweat clings to my neck and I have to tie back my hair, gently pulling it back, to keep it off my skin. I have a blanket spread across a field of wildflowers and I journal with the paper in my lap and the quill in my hand, letting the ink dry before moving to the next line. I smudge a bit on my cheek after I spilled some on my hand and scribble away to track all my thoughts. I write of my slow mornings, afternoon reads, and lazy evenings. I write of sitting by the lake during the worst of the heat and sipping on glasses of lemonade to stay cool. I write of the long days that summer brings and the sense of freedom that always comes with the season. I will miss that when autumn comes. But for now, I let my quill scratch everything onto my ink filled page, word by word.**

I read a total of 8 books in July. I read a range of genres and listened to some audiobooks as well. One thing about reading challenges and bingo boards is that you can read a lot of books off your TBR or ones you’ve wanted to read for a while, as well as titles you never even thought of picking up. So it has been very interesting to go through this, and I actually did read a book I had never seen that I ended up really enjoying. So here are all the books I read in the month of July.

• A Night to Remember by Morgan Matson

I have wanted to read this since it came out, but the catch is that it was audio only. It’s just about 3.5 hours but I didn’t want to spend the money to buy it and I couldn’t find a way to borrow it anywhere, so I never got to it. Then at the very end of June I saw that Amazon was doing a three month free trial of Audible, so I took that opportunity and listened to the audiobook. It follows a girl named Poppy Pullman who is interviewing to get into Stanford, but she wakes up the next morning with no memory of anything that happened the day before or how the interview went. So Poppy is working to retrace her steps and learn about the missing 24 hours lost from her memory. It was very short, but I think Matson did a great job with not making the story feel too fast or two slow, or like there was too much or too little happening. I think the pacing and the amount of things she had to figure out worked well for the story to keep the reader engaged. I’m not a huge fan of short books, but I think it was entertaining and well done so I am glad I finally read this.

• Morgana and Oz Vol.1 by Miyuli

This one is a graphic novel following a witch and a vampire. Their families are feuding and the witch, Morgana, accidentally turns Oz, the vampire, into a cat, so she is trying to figure out how to help him while the two families take action against the other. I liked the illustrations in this one and I did enjoy the story. I believe there are four volumes of this currently out so I kind of want to go back to this story and read the rest. It wasn’t a favorite or anything, but it made for an entertaining read.

• Hollow by Shannon Watters, Branden Boyer-White; illustrated by Berenice Nelle

Hollow was another graphic novel I read in July and this was the one that I actually really enjoyed. Our main character Isabel Crane just moved to Sleepy Hollow where she is immediately noticed by her last name due to the famous tale. It is there she befriends athlete and prankster Croc as well as Vicky Van Tassel, who is not her biggest fan at first. Together, the three of them work to break a curse on the town involving magic and the headless horseman. I actually really liked this book. Some of the panels were extremely well illustrated and the story was so entertaining. I have a hard time with graphic novels because I usually find the story a bit lackluster. I know we rely on the graphics for storytelling, but I feel like a lot of times the story doesn’t feel too developed or it’s just not something I love. But I think the writers did a great job developing this story into something worth the read.

• When In Rome by Sarah Adams

I just started reading Sarah Adams last year after being interested in her books for a few years, and I have been making my way through her books since. I got really in the mood to read When In Rome, which is the first book in her quartet, and her most popular book. It follows pop-star Amelia who gets stranded on the side of the road after she reaches her destination in Rome, KY. It’s there she meets Noah who owns the local pie shop. Noah lets her stay with him while his car gets fixed and the two of them really get to know each other while Amelia is able to get away from the spotlight for a bit. I liked this one, but it’s probably my least favorite Sarah Adams. I think it was a good book, but I feel like her older titles have more heart to them and just more elements to the story. Something I don’t like about adult romance is that it can feel like literally nothing is happening other than the fmc and love interest interacting and the two of them thinking about each other as we read their internal dialogue. I like when there is more to the story, which is why I think The Match will forever be my favorite book by her, since we had the epilepsy representation and service dog aspect. It added an extra plot point and layer to the story instead of feeling like nothing was going on. I did enjoy When In Rome and I am looking forward to reading the other books, but it wasn’t my favorite. I think I will like the rest of the series better though.

• Passing by Nella Larsen

I listened to this one on audio and for the sole reason being that I needed a classic. I wanted to read one of those ones I’ve been eyeing for a while, like Little Women, but I decided to go for something short because I didn’t want to spend too much time on a single book. Which led me to searching for short classics which led to this one. It follows two women who are white passing and the different decisions they have made in how to live their lives. I quite honestly was not a huge fan of this one. I think the concept of this was very interesting and I really do think there was potential. However, I feel like nothing actually happened. It was a lot of mundane life moments with the two main women just talking or the main character we follow not wanting to actually be friends with the other woman. The ending of this also kind of confused me and I’m not sure why the fmc was so mad at the other woman. Anyway, this was just not for me but the idea could have been interesting.

• Meet Cute

This was an anthology written by a group of ya authors following different romances. I have realized that I am not a fan of anthologies. I had such a hard time finding one and finally landed on this, but wasn’t a huge fan. Some stories were definitely better than others, and some I actually found myself enjoying, but they are so short that you can’t get overly invested in what is going on.

• She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

The fact that these two authors are married is so sweet! I love when co-authors have some sort of connection, but the fact that they wrote a romance together is adorable. As for the book itself, I thought it was good. It follows Molly who has some social anxiety but is trying to get her crush of four years to notice her, and Alex who is a bit of a flirt and trying to get her girlfriend to see that there is more to her than that. The two of them make a deal that Alex will help Molly get her crush’s attention so Molly can tell Alex’s girlfriend about her progress and prove that she can make friends and not be such a flirt next time she is in town. I like the relationship Molly and Alex form and the way they work together to help the other. It builds slowly but I think it worked well, and I also liked when we could see Molly come out of her shell a bit. Overall, not a bad book. This wasn’t really a stand-out book for me, but I thought it was engaging enough to hold my attention the entire time and it was cute.

• The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Iron King has been on my want-to-read list for a while now. It follows a girl who learns she is a fairy after her brother is kidnapped by them, which leads her to travelling to the land of fae to rescue him. I was soooo incredible bored with this one. Maybe bored isn’t the right word, but I just did not like this. There was hardly a second when this book actually held my attention. I can’t even explain what it was because I am still trying to figure out what didn’t work. I think I just wasn’t interested and didn’t like the writing. It started picking up a bit towards the end but I would not be able to continue the series with the about ten books that are part of this world. I’m very sad to say that I did not enjoy it and will not be continuing on.

Outside of these books, I did decide to DNF The Rise and Ruin of Everwood, which I was debating at the end of June. I just was not enjoying it and decided to commit to the DNF. I’ll probably hold onto it for a bit in case I change my mind and want to go back, but I just wasn’t a huge fan of it. I also DNF’d Summer Reading by Jenn McKinlay. I think I made it 15 pages in before I realized I wouldn’t be able to make it through. Just in that short time I found our FMC extremely annoying and knew I couldn’t take it. I did briefly start Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo as well, but wanted to read books that would be a bit quicker so I want to continue in September.

I have a few very full reading months and I look forward to seeing what August brings. I will definitely be back to slower reading and reading more of what I want in September, so I am a bit excited for that. But I have a few more books to get through in the meantime. Until then, I’ll be making my way through my August TBR.

xoxo,

Just another reader