This month I read 10 books bringing my total for the year to 74, 16 ahead of my goal. I'm really stinking at slowing my reading down, BUT I am continuing to do more audiobooks to free up some time for Brent! {grin}
Legacy of the Dead by Charles Todd - Continuing on my WW1 detective series about an inspector haunted by PTSD and the ghost of a man he ordered shot during the war. The first three were fine, and I enjoyed this one more! I started book 5 a few days ago, so I like these enough to keep going.
The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros - I was nervous to read anything else by Rebecca Yarros since I have LOVED Fourth Wing so much. I thoroughly enjoyed this romance, but the ending is devastating, and at times the love story was very fraught. So I know some people would roll their eyes at it, but overall I enjoyed!
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - The subject of this seemed really interesting - a young Chinese American boy whose Japanese American friend is put in an internment camp during WW2, and it toggled between the past and present with the boy grown up. I found it SLOW, so SLOW that I struggled to get through it. When it was over, I thought it had been an interesting read, but sheesh it dragged.
Hannah: The Lighthouse Girl of Newfoundland by Don Ladolcetta - I'm not sure where my mom met this author, but she got a signed copy of this book for Drew, and we read it together. This is the story of the author's mom who grew up on a small island off Newfoundland because her father ran the lighthouse there in the decades before WW2. We both really enjoyed this story, it was well-written and we liked Hannah and her family so much!
The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson - Sadeqa Johnson is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine! This book followed 2 Black women in the early 1950s - one who is pregnant as a teenager and one who is married and unable to conceive. This was such an interesting story, and I felt it started a smidge slow but once it got going I couldn't put it down! It also had a small callback to Yellow Wife which was a fun surprise!
Wolfsong by T.J. Klune - This was July's Blog Friend Book Club selection, and there were mixed reviews. However, I LOVED it! Without saying too much, because I think this is a great book to go into without a lot of information, this is a book about pansexual werewolves. {grin}
Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan - I ADORED Nora Goes Off Script and was mildly disappointed in Same Time Next Summer, so I was apprehensive to read the newest release by Annabel Monaghan, and I loved it! It wasn't quite as good as Nora {but I don't think anything ever will be}, but this was great. It follows a newly divorced woman who thinks she's having a summer romance - but what if it seems to be so much more?!
The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine - The Last Mrs. Parrish is the gold standard of thrillers for me, so I was super excited for a sequel...and it was good, if not great. I enjoyed being back with these characters {some of them delightfully hate-able}, but parts of the story felt uneven - lots of twists and turns that just came out of nowhere but felt a little out of place or over the top? Also, this is VERY nitpicky, but there was a new character named Daisy Ann from Texas and the portrayal of the Texans annoyed me, and I struggled to stay in the story because of it. Men calling women 'little lady' and a character saying 'what in the tarnation' - people don't actually talk like that in Texas! I don't ding my review for it, but it drove me up the wall!!!
And that is July! My average for the month was 3.7, a little lower than the rest of the year, but still some good reads!
