For the first time since I started writing monthly book wrap ups I forgot to write one. Yes, I’m posting my August wrap up near the end of September because I completely forgot to include one in my schedule. I’m actually a little in shock about this.
Now you’re probably thinking, “if you forgot to do one, why have you suddenly remembered?” well, I finished reading a book yesterday and it occurred to me that I couldn’t remember what I’d read in August. I know I didn’t have a great reading month but I genuinely couldn’t remember a single book I picked up. I then realised I didn’t remember writing an August wrap up and here we are.
This is actually a pretty short wrap up as I didn’t read many books I’d actually want to talk about. It wasn’t a very fun reading month all round – the highest ratings I gave were three stars yikes.
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
Read: 31/7/26 – 4/8/26
My lowest rated Ali Hazelwood book ever. I was genuinely quite disappointed to not love this. All of her full length novels I’d read so far have been five star reads so this was a real let down. The constant mention of how old the characters were got really annoying really fast. Like 23 and 38 isn’t that huge of an age gap, they’re both consenting adults, it’s not weird. What would have been weird was if he was an active part of her life when she was a child, but he wasn’t really. Yeah he was around, but he didn’t like look after her or anything.
I did really love the setting of this one though. It is a very summery read and as always, the characters have the Ali Hazelwood charm we all love so much.
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Synopsis: Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life.
Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him.
It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count, and Maya should just get over him. After all, he has made it clear that he wants her gone from his life.
But not everything is as it seems—and clichés sometimes become plot twists.
When Maya’s brother decides to get married in Taormina, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week. There, on the beautiful Ionian coast, between ancient ruins, delicious foods, and natural caves, Maya realizes that Conor might be hiding something from her. And as the destination wedding begins to erupt out of control, she decides that a summer fling might be just what she needs—even if it’s a problematic one.
If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales & Cale Dietrich
Read: 20/8/26 – 26/8/26
Another book I felt a bit let down by. This book was genuinely quite depressing, not a single character was happy at any point. I’m so tired of queer media being sad, hence why I love Heartstopper so much.
It’s very obvious which real life boyband members this book is based on, two people that I genuinely don’t like very much. Well one of them I hate and the other I’m indifferent to – I’ll let you guess which is which.
I’m actually surprised I made it through this book. I thought about DNF’ing it multiple times but I forced myself to finish it. Which in hindsight was probably a mistake as it definitely took me longer to read than what I had tracked on Goodreads.
Synopsis: Eighteen-year-olds Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are two members of the boy-band Saturday, one of the biggest acts in America. Along with their bandmates, Angel Phan and Jon Braxton, the four are teen heartbreakers in front of the cameras and best friends backstage. But privately, cracks are starting to form: their once-easy rapport is straining under the pressures of fame, and Ruben confides in Zach that he’s feeling smothered by management’s pressure to stay in the closet.
On a whirlwind tour through Europe, with both an unrelenting schedule and minimal supervision, Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more, and their already close friendship evolves into a romance. But when they decide they’re ready to tell their fans and live freely, Zach and Ruben start to truly realize that they will never have the support of their management. How can they hold tight to each other when the whole world seems to want to come between them?
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