August - you were a good reading month! So many books devoured as summer slowly waned and we creep ever closer to Autumn! I have to say, as much as I've loved reading curled up on my back patio or relaxing poolside with a book in hand... I am also looking forward to curling up under a blanket, with a mug of something warm nearby while I read. *sigh* Reading is incredible no matter the season!
Glow of the Everflame by Penn Cole - The threat of war has arrived at Diem's doorstep, along with a new discovery that could save her people. To use it, she must survive the next thirty days by forming a devil's bargain with the people she hates most: the royal family of House Corbois. But as she dives into the world of the Descended elite, Diem quickly realizes good and evil aren't as simple as they seem. Old prejudices are challenged, and new loyalties blur the lines between friend and foe.
Meanwhile, her mother is still missing, and the secrets she left behind can no longer be ignored - and neither can the Guardians and their demands. Caught between an old flame and a sizzling new spark, Diem must confront the truth about who she is and what she wants before time runs out. War is coming, and dangerous enemies wait on all sides, but the most deadly battle Diem faces may be the one for her heart.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 of five - I am hooked on this series! When I read the first one, it was kind of on a whim but I happily purchased the second book from Miss Willa's because the cliffhanger from the end of book one had me anxious to know what happens! This series has great characters, incredible world building and a really compelling storyline... so now book three (and four, when it's released) are on my list!
The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer - Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina's tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears.
Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents' farm. But for now, even deafening silences is preferable to grief. Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative that weaves together two women's stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5 of five - This book has been on my Audible queue for about three years and I was never fully able to get into it, but I finally did and it was great! The story was compelling and touching; the characters were fully fleshed out and it was set during WWII, which is always a setting I love to read about. This one was a tearjerker and a great reminder to live without regrets!
Final Girls by Riley Sager - Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie-scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to - a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding into the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.
Now, Quincy is doing well - maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog, a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won't even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.
That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐of five - *sigh* I really wanted to like this book so much more! I love reading Riley Sager's thrillers and I figured this one would be no exception. While the premise was interesting, I just never quite got into it the way I'd hoped. Maybe because I didn't really find the main character that likable... and that always makes it harder to get into a book!
The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout - Poppy never dreamed she would find the love she's found with Prince Casteel. She wants to revel in her happiness but first they must free his brother and find hers. It's a dangerous mission and one with far-reaching consequences neither dreamed of. Because Poppy is the Chosen, the Blessed. The true ruler of Atlantia. She carries the blood of the King of the Gods within her. By right the crown and the kingdom are hers.
Poppy has only ever wanted to control her own life, not the lives of others, but now she must choose to either forsake her birthright or seize the gilded crown and become the Queen of Flesh and Fire. But as the kingdom's dark sins and blood-drenched secrets finally unravel, a long-forgotten power rises to pose a genuine threat. And they will stop at nothing to ensure that the crown never sits on Poppy's head.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five - Book Three in the Blood and Ash series; this one is getting more and more interesting as it goes along! I am really loving reading the story of Poppy and the Kingdom of Atlantia. The lore in this series is really well plotted out and so it makes for a rich and diverse group of characters and the plot just continues to twist and turn, with several twists near the end of this book to set up the next...
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager - No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen's new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.
As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter, Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story - until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.
Searching for the truth about Ingrid's disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew's dark part and into the secrets kept within it's walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building's hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐of five - Another thriller by Sager that was only okay for me. It was interesting and I didn't quite see the twist coming at the end, but it also didn't ever fully captivate me the way some of his other books have. It was a good Audible read but if I had to recommend a book by Riley Sager, this one would be closest to the bottom of the list than the top!
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall - Beth was seventeen when she first met Gabriel. Over that heady, intense summer, he made her think and feel and see differently. She thought it was the start of her great love story. When Gabriel left to become the person his mother expected him to be, she was broken. It was Frank who picked up the pieces and together they built a home very different from the one she'd imagined with Gabriel.
Watching her husband and son, she remembered feeling so sure that, after everything, this was the life she was supposed to be leading. But when Gabriel comes back, all Beth's certainty about who she is and what she wants crumbles. Even after ten years, their connection is instant. She knows it's wrong and she knows people could get hurt. But how can she resist a second chance at first love?
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 of five - A recommendation made by my little sister; I really loved this book! It was an Audible selection and such a quick "read" with a great story! The setting (the English countryside) was delightful and the characters were all quite likeable, so that's always a plus for me. The love triangle and the story that unfolded was a real heart tugging tale and I loved seeing how it all turned out in the end. A great read!
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware - On a cool June morning, a woman in walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten, along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister... The next morning, three women in and around London - Fatima, Thea and Isabel - receive the text they had always hoped would never come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that only says "I need you".
The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing The Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other - ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school's eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate's father).
Rating: ⭐⭐.5 of five - I just knew I would love this book because I've never read anything by Ruth Ware that I didn't love, but alas - I've found the book. I "read" this on Audible as well and I have to confess that at almost 13 hours, I thought about giving up on it a couple times and moving on to something else! I finished it and the twists at the end weren't that impressive to me. The whole story left me wanting more - or something else entirely.
You Deserve to Know by Aggie Blum Thompson - Neighbors Gwen, Aimee and Lisa share more than playdates and coffee mornings on their tranquil street in East Bethesda. They confide their deepest secrets, navigate the challenges of motherhood together, and provide a support system that seems unbreakable.
But when Gwen's husband is found murdered after one of their weekly Friday night dinners, the peaceful quiet of their cul-de-sac shatters. The seemingly idyllic world of the three close-knit mom friends becomes a web of deception, betrayal and revenge.
As the police investigate, the veneer of friendship begins to crack, revealing hidden tensions, clandestine affairs, and long-buried jealousies among the three women. With suspicions mounting and the neighborhood gripped by fear, Gwen, Aimee and Lisa must confront the chilling truth about their husbands, and the sinister undercurrents in their own friendship.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5 of five - This was a recommendation by my co-worker Kristen and was a juicy, suburban thriller that kept me guessing! Just when I thought the story couldn't get more outlandish, there was another twist that had me eager to see how the story played out! The suburban housewives in this tale were crazy and the conclusion was thrilling - it was also a quick read too!
These Summer Storms - by Sarah MacLean - Alice isn't like the other Storm siblings. While the rest stayed to battle for their parents' approval, attention, and untold billions, she left, building her own life beyond the family's name and influence. Nothing could induce her to come back, except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Now back on the family's private island off the Rhode Island coast, she plans to keep her head down, pay the last of her respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over.
Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and their grown children a final challenge - an inheritance game designed to humiliate, devastate, and unravel the Storm family in ways both petty and life-altering. The rules of the game are clear: stay on the island for one week, complete the tasks, receive the influence.
One week on Storm Island is an impossible task for Alice. Every corner of the sprawling old house is bursting dysfunctional chaos: her older sister's secret love affair. Her brother's incessant mansplaining. Her sister-in-law's unapologetic greed. Her younger sister's obsession with "vibes". Her mother's penchant for stirring up competition between her children. And all under the stern, watchful gaze of Jack Dean, her father's enigmatic, unfairly good-looking, second-in-command. It will be a miracle is Alice manages to escape the week unscathed.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five - This was my Book of the Month pick for July and it was a great read! The characters and the storyline were intriguing and I really enjoyed getting to know the Storm siblings as they competed for their inheritance and a final sense of approval from their father. The book was an easy and interesting read, and I also want Storm Island to be a real place because it sounds dreamy!
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Nine books down in the month of August and I'm so close to finishing up ten and eleven... but I'll save The Heat of the Everflame and The Trial of the Sun Queen for my September book review. There are four months to go in 2025 and I'm 46 books into my 65 book goal, so I'm 71% there!
