August Wrap-Up || 2023

Hey y’all!

August was a bit of a weird month. I was out of work for a week mid-August due to… err… technical difficulties? So I had unexpected free time for a few days… which was nice, but also meant putting in several overtime hours the last two weeks. I work in a medical office though, so it can’t really be helped that we have to play catch-up.

Regardless, having that week let me relax for a bit, so I was able to go out for lunch with my parents, go swimming, and made it halfway through Miraculous season 5. I only stopped there because I want to wait to binge the remaining episodes when the last few episodes come out later in September.

I’ve also been working on my V!WIP here and there and having a lot of fun with it. I haven’t pieced everything together in working order, but I spent most of the time writing new scenes, editing previous scenes while typing them up, and in a few cases, rewriting scenes from my main male character’s POV. Which has been a particular interest because I was most recently working with scenes of the female MC faking her death to join the bad guys, and that scene gets very emotional.

But enough of that! I don’t have much else to report IRL, so let’s get into the books I read in August!

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Persephone by Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky

This one fell a little flat for me. I don’t know, I guess I was hoping it would be more closely based on the Persephone and Hades lore, but really the names and setting stayed the same with the story and characters completely different. And while the story itself was fine, I think it would have done better not being presented as a retelling. Also the graphics didn’t really draw me in.

A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry

Oh, I had a time with this one. I was between liking it and hating it for a good while during the story, but overall, I’m glad I stuck with it because I did end up enjoying it, especially the ending. It was a little on the slow side, and I didn’t care an awful lot for our MC or his friends, but I definitely liked Isabel, and I loved the author’s writing style.

Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma

Gemma was told to never step foot in Beijing. But when her big break movie role lands her there, Gemma is immediately mistook as famous socialite, Alyssa Chua. This one was okay. I didn’t care much about any of the characters, but I didn’t hate them either. I did love all of the Chinese history, although I would have enjoyed seeing more acting or movie scenes. I thought the family interactions were done very well and were especially emotional during the later part of the book.

Whatever After: Abby in Wonderland by Sarah Mlynowski

This is the first special book in the series. In this one, Abby goes to Wonderland with her friends instead of her brother, which makes it the first time that happens! We see her becoming a little closer with Penny while also getting to learn more about her friends that are so often mentioned. This definitely had the strangeness one would expect from any Wonderland story, and I cant wait to see how Abby’s “secret” is handled in later books with more people knowing!

The Roommate Pact by Allison Ashley

I’m not a nurse, but I do work in the medical field, so that piqued my interest. A nurse who has to take care of her firefighter roommate after he’s injured? Perfect rom-com set-up. And no doubt, this is a fun story. Graham and Claire are great, along with all of their friends and family (and Gertrude!). The story is equal parts funny and heart-warming. My only issue is personal preference as I’m not used to reading adult romance/contemporary and while not overly graphic, it was definitely too much for me romance-wise. But for people who enjoy romance and friends-to-lovers, 10/10 would recommend.

The Bloodline Curse by Jamie Lee Fry

I received this through BookSiren and I absolutely adored it. It was so much fun following Izzy while she learned about her powers and family history. I already reviewed it on goodreads, but I hope to do a slightly more in-depth review on my blog this month, especially since I’ve already been approved for an ARC of the second book!

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I did actually attempt to read Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold as well, but after about 30 pages in, I couldn’t do it anymore and ended up DNF-ing. Which y’all know is a super rare thing for me, but between the extensive sexual detail and the period details that happened immediately into the book, I looked at a few reviews and decided it would be best for me not to continue. I was intrigued by the second person POV though, so I’m a little bummed it didn’t work out.

Also, I will be doing Mythothon in September, so instead of my usual TBR post, I posted my Mythothon TBR earlier today since the readathon takes the entire month. So make sure to check that out! And let me know in the comments if you’re also taking part this year!

How did your reading go in August? What non-book-ish things did you accomplish?