August was not a great reading month for me, it was my worst so far this year. I finished 7 books, two of which I won’t mention because they are festive ARCs and honestly, I didn’t have a great time. Well, I did slightly because I had two five-star reads, but the rest were either bad or quite average.
The Alice Equation by Davina Stone
Read: 1/8/23 – 9/8/23
Fake dating is the best trope and you will never change my mind. Although I wouldn’t say it’s the main trope of this book, it’s definitely more of a friends to lovers. It was pretty decent though and I had an enjoyable time reading it.
Book Review: The Alice Equation by Davina Stone
Synopsis: Three months of fake dating your best friend?
No problem…
Unless you are an anxiety-prone bookworm called Alice Montgomery, and you’ve had a secret crush on said best friend since uni.
Aaron Blake has no intention of falling for anyone, he’s pretty sure he missed out on the love gene. And certainly never, ever Alice. She’s his only friend-who-is-a-girl and he has no intention of messing that up.
But when Alice agrees to fake date Aaron to help him land a top attorney job, (on the condition he teaches her how to flirt) Aaron soon finds out that friendship first and attraction second is an equation he’d never done the math on.
And when secrets from the past surface with dramatic consequences, both Alice and Aaron will have to re-do the sums on this crazy little thing called love…
We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han
Read: 2/8/23 – 11/8/23
I spent most of my review of this talking about how much I hate Jeremiah and that’s what I’m going to do here as well. He never deserved Belly and I’m very happy with how this ends. Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but this book is pretty old by now though.
Audiobook Review: We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han
Synopsis: If only summer could last forever.
Her whole life, Belly has been in love with the Fishers. Susannah was like a second mother to her, Conrad was her first love, and Jeremiah was her first really boyfriend. Now, after two years, Jeremiah gets down on one knee and offers Belly what she has always wanted… to be Belly Fisher.
As Jeremiah and Belly head back to Cousins Beach to plan their wedding, Conrad comes home to tell Belly he made a mistake when he broke her heart. Now Belly must confront her feelings for Jeremiah and Conrad and face a truth she has possibly always known: She will have to break one of her hearts.
P.S It’s Always Been You Part 1 by Lauren Blakely
Read: 16/8/23
This was a pretty good read considering it’s short length. There isn’t too much to say about the story right now as this is part one of three, but it had a surprising amount of depth and I quite enjoyed it.
Audiobook Review: P.S It’s Always Been You Part 1 by Lauren Blakely
Synopsis: Past loves should stay in the past.
After the way my first love took off for the ends of the earth, the last thing I want is to see him on billboards and bookstore bestseller shelves. Now my boss just handed me the project that could make my career. All I have to do is partner up with the man, the myth, the legend – adventurer Hunter Armstrong.
That’s easier said than done because when we reconnect, I learn Hunter has his own agenda on this project. And it’s not to find a treasure in art and antiques. It’s me. But what we discover shocks both of us, and we have no choice but to follow the clues….
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Read: 14/8/23 – 16/8/23
I’m kicking myself for not picking up an Emily Henry book sooner, I devoured this book and it was an excellent experience. Contemporaries are my thing right now, I’m in a huge fantasy slump, so this was really quick for me to get through.
Book Review: Beach Read by Emily Henry
Synopsis: He doesn’t believe in happy endings.
She’s lost her faith that they exist.
But could they find one together?
January is a hopeless romantic who likes narrating her life as if she’s the heroine in a blockbuster movie.
Augustus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale.
January and Augustus are not going to get on.
But they actually have more in common than you’d think:
They’re both broke.
They’ve got crippling writer’s block.
They need to write bestsellers before the end of the summer.
The result? A bet to see who can get their book published first.
The catch? They have to swap genres.
The risk? In telling each other’s stories, their worlds might be changed entirely…
The Frontier by Jacopo Paliaga & Alessio Fioriniello
Read: 18/8/23
If giving this graphic novel a zero was an option, I’d probably give it one. I do appreciate the artwork though, that was pretty good.
Graphic Novel Review: The Frontier by Jacopo Paliaga & Alessio Fioriniello
Synopsis: When the storm struck, it sowed death across the land. It soon spread to the four corners of the Earth, racking up victims and changing the face of the world forever. For the worse, in the eyes of most. For the better, in the eyes of some. All that stood between mankind and total destruction was a small band of outlaws. They were called… The Frontier.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Read: 22/8/23 – 31/8/23
The amount of time it took me to get through this book almost made me not enjoy it, but I was completely blown away by it. I knew I’d enjoy this because the Greek gods are one of my favourite things to read about, but the way this story was written was absolutely beautiful.
My review for this will be coming in the next few days!
Synopsis: In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child–neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.
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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Book Haul: August 2023
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