I’m celebrating in my head because we’re so close to autumn. I can already feel it; the air is getting colder, some leaves are turning, and I’m starting to see Halloween products in some shops.
But with the summer ending, one of my favourite shows ended too. Nancy Drew ended too soon, leaving me sad and heartbroken that such a good show got cancelled like so many wonderful shows before it. But I got the conclusion I wanted, and it was a good season overall. I’m going to miss this mystery supernatural show. I’m also going to miss the goofy posters:
Besides being heartbroken, this month was also very intense for me, reading-wise. I feel like I’ve been to so many places while I haven’t left my town. During my lunch breaks at the office, I would read about love and war and so much forbidden magic! There were heists and spy lovers, magical letters, secret witch covens… On warm days, I read at the park, surrounded by wind and trees, and on rainy days, I read in bed with a hot cup of tea and an extra blanket.
I read nine books in August; some were great, while others… well, I wish I had avoided them.
Best book of the month
Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin
Genre: fantasy, romance
How I read it: physical copy
Rating: 5/5
I love this book so much. Rachel Griffin never disappoints; she’s become one of my favourite authors. Her books are always about witches in their most natural and realistic sense. Her stories are connected to nature with descriptions so vivid it makes you feel you’re there, and with Bring Me Your Midnight, I could really feel like I was living on a northern island surrounded by waves and the dark sea.
This witchy romance will definitely be added to my top 5 books of the year.
I’ve never been one to enjoy parties, but I love being on the outside of them, close enough to hear the notes of the music and the murmur of voices, far enough away that the sounds fade into the background, quiet enough that I can still hear my own thoughts.
You’re so connected to this place: every time you’ve accidentally swallowed seawater, every time you’ve gathered flowers and herbs for the perfumery, all the hours you’ve spent wandering this island, you’ve invited this world in, and it has taken root inside you.
YA reads
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Genre: YA, fantasy
How I read it: ebook borrowed from the library
Rating: 4.5/5
This book has everything I love in a story: magic, mystery, enemies to lovers, journalists working for a small newspaper and historical fiction. The fantasy around it was a bit hard to follow; there’s a war going on, but it isn’t clear who the enemy is or why. There’s a second book coming out in December that will probably focus on this more. I can’t wait to read it!
My favorite season is autumn, because my mum and I both believed that’s the only time when magic can be tasted in the air.
In the meantime, I hope you will find your place, wherever you are. Even in the silence, I hope you will find the words you need to share.
He found me on my darkest day. He followed me to war, to the front lines. He came between me and Death, taking wounds that were supposed to be mine.
Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
Genre: YA, romance
How I read it: physical copy
Rating: 2/5
Give me back the five hours I spent reading this, please! I won’t even spend time explaining the plot; I just don’t want to be inside the mind of a horny frat boy, I can’t read this, but it was £2 at the charity shop, and I thought the cover looked cute.
Heist Society and Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter
Genre: YA, mystery
How I read it: on my kindle
Rating: 4/5
Third time re-read. I got nostalgic this month, and I needed some comfort reading.
Just a group of professional teenage robbers, making plans and stealing things that adults thought were impossible to steal, led by Katarina Bishop, a fifteen-year-old girl who doesn’t want this life anymore, but she’s just too good at it to quit. This trilogy is short, fun and just precisely what my nostalgic heart needed.
Never live anywhere you can’t walk away from. Never own anything you can’t leave behind. These were the laws of Kat’s life – of Kat’s world.
Adult reads
The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter
Genre: romance, mystery
How I read it: on my kindle
Rating: 4/5
I love Ally Carter; I’ve read all of her books for teens multiple times, and just this month, I started rereading her Heist Society trilogy. But this is her first book for adults, for the teen Gallagher Girls now in their late twenties and thirties, and I really wanted to love it.
While I liked it, it was a fun read; as all of her books are, I had trouble getting into it. The plot was great: a woman with amnesia wakes up in the streets of Paris with no recollection of why she’s there, and she gets entangled with a hot spy who calls her by another name and promises to protect her from the mob of angry Russians and CIA spies that want to kill her. But I think my expectations were too high.
When in Rome and Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams
Genre: romance
How I read it: on my kindle
Rating: 2/5 and 4/5
I was so bored reading When in Rome, but I had heard good things about the second book, Practice Makes Perfect, so I powered through it so I could read the second part, and yes, that one is so much better.
Set in a Stars Hollow-type town, Rome, Kentucky, has crazy characters and small-town shops and traditions. Both books follow the Walkers, one brother and three sisters, and their new love interests. Each book is about a different sibling, so I guess there’ll be two more books in the series. I connected with the second story more because it followed the socially anxious younger sister with dating issues.
It seems to me, Annie, that you are just waiting for someone to give you permission to be yourself out loud.
The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
Genre: romance
How I read it: physical copy from the library
Rating: 3/5
Beth O’Leary is another one of those writers that I will read every book she writes, like Emily Henry and Claire McGowan. I enjoyed this story about three different women who seem to be dating the same man and who appears to be full of secrets. There was a very big plot twist I wasn’t expecting, which kind of put me off the story, but it was a good read nonetheless.
As a rule, she prefers plants and cats to humans these days. They’re both species with a much better track record.
I’m excited about September; it’s my birthday this Sunday, and I have an exten
sive list of books I want to buy! I’m working on a TBR list of witchy and autumnal books for the following months, which I will share on this blog soon. I can’t wait for autumn, this has always been my favourite season.
Willow in Winter 