So, it's been a while! As seems to be the case every year, August was just not a blogging month for me. With everything starting to open up here in the UK, August was crazy busy for me as I was spending any time I wasn't at work being back out in the world again. With everything being so crazy, I had very little time to blog or read at all. I never got around to wrapping up my pretty great reading month in July or my very poor reading month in August, so let's chat about those books now.
I read 9 books in July, which is the most I have read in a month since the beginning of the year, and only 2 books in August, which is the least I have read in a month in a really long time. I'll be honest, I don't remember much about some of these books so this will not be my best wrap up.
Ever After Always by Chloe Liese -
This is the third book in the Bergman Brothers series and follows Freya, the eldest sister in the family. This is a marriage in trouble romance with Freya and her husband Aiden dealing with some big issues going on in their marriage. I love this series and this book was no exception. I haven't read a lot of marriage in trouble romances but I'm starting to think it could be something I really enjoy. I found Freya and Aiden's journey through their struggles to be really interesting and was really rooting for them throughout the book. This book also features a family trip, which was my favourite part as we get to see the entire Bergman family together. I just love this family so much.
Rating: 4/5
Dating In The Dark by Alexandria Bishop -
This is one that I picked up for free because the premise sounded so interesting. This is an enemies to lovers romance that follows a woman who is forced by her friends to go to a speed dating event, but the twist is it takes place entirely in the dark. This just fell flat for me. The speed dating premise sounded so much fun, but it was such a short part of the story and the rest was just boring. I didn't really love the relationship as I didn't really see any chemistry between the two. This is also part of a series that basically splits the one story into multiple books, meaning it ended on a cliffhanger in the middle of the story, which I didn't love. I will not be carrying on with this series.
Rating: 2/5
From Lukov With Love by Mariana Zapata -
I have been wanting to read this book for the longest time! This was on my radar before I even became a romance reader as I have always really loved figure skating and the idea of a romance involving skating sounded amazing to me. This is an enemies to lovers romance between two figure skating rivals who are forced to become skating partners. As I expected, I loved this book. It is everything I normally love in books; slow burn, enemies to lovers, sports romance. This was just perfect. I loved the enemies to lovers aspect and how long it took them to even be able to tolerate each other to becoming such close friends before developing into anything more. The family relationship was a lot of fun and I want to read a whole other book just about Jasmine and her siblings. Basically I loved this book and now want to read everything Mariana Zapata has ever written.
Rating: 5/5
Hollywood Roommates by Elizabeth Briggs -
This is another one I picked up randomly after seeing some people in the romance community reading reverse harem and wanting to try it out. This follows a woman who moves to a house with three actors and obviously enters into a relationship with all three of them. There isn't really much to this. It's minimal plot with a lot of sexy times but it was a quick, fun read.
Rating: 3/5
Being Hospitable by Meka James -
This is a super short sapphic novella that I saw recommended on youtube so picked it up. It's about a woman who's best friend's younger sister moves in with her and tries very hard to seduce her. Again, there is really not much happening in this at all other than the steamy scenes. It was fun but nothing super special.
Rating: 3/5
Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas -
This is one of the most popular books in the romance community so I was kind of scared to pick it up. This is a romance between a girl and her boyfriends father, so obviously a bit more forbidden and taboo than the romance I usually pick up. While I enjoyed this book, I think the hype ruined it a little for me. This is such a well loved book that I found myself getting disappointed when I wasn't completely in love with it. Like I said, I don't read a lot of age gap romances and this has made me think it is not going to be a favourite kind of romance for me. I liked the slow burn romance between Jordan and Pike, but it made me feel uncomfortable at times. I also found myself getting a bit bored at times throughout this book and I'm finding it kind of forgettable now. I did enjoy it, it just didn't live up to the hype.
Rating: 4/5
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne -
Speaking of a hugely popular book that didn't live up to the hype, I also read possibly the most loved book in the romance community. The Hating Game is like the original hate to love romance and everyone seems to consider it one of their favourites of all time. It is a hate to love office romance between two rival colleagues going for the same promotion. Hate to love is one of my favourite tropes but this book just didn't do it for me. I know it's an unpopular opinion but I didn't really like our main characters and wasn't that invested in their relationship. I thought it was a kind of cute, but sometimes cringey, fun romance but I didn't love it the way everyone else seems to.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Last Summer Of The Garrett Girls by Jessica Spotswood -
This is a book I had owned for a few years before finally picking it up. It is a YA contemporary following four sisters during the last summer they are all together before one of the sisters moves away for college. Each sister is dealing with their own issues over the summer that lead to them questioning their identities and trying to find themselves. This was a really sweet story of family, love, finding your place and discovering who you are. I struggled to get into it at first but soon found myself really invested in these sisters and their lives. I love books set in small towns over the summer, so this setting was perfect for me and it gave me all of the Gilmore Girls vibes. This was a nice surprise and I ended up enjoying it much more than I expected to.
Rating: 4/5
To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn -
Another month, another Bridgerton book. This is the 5th book in the Bridgertons series and follows Eloise, the second oldest Bridgerton daughter and self-imposed spinster. After the death of her distant cousin, Eloise writes to her husband with her condolences and so begins a correspondence between the two. When Eloise runs away to Sir Phillip's home in the middle of the night, the two begin a bit of a hate to love romance. Eloise has always been one of my favourite characters in the Bridgerton family and I was very excited to read her story. Sadly, this wasn't one of my favourites in the series. I didn't like Phillip at all and I couldn't see him and Eloise being a good match, which made me pretty disinterested in their romance. The one thing I did love, though, was the relationship Eloise formed with the children. I love children in books and Phillip's children redeemed this one for me. I'm disappointed as I wanted so much more for Eloise.
Rating: 3/5
The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon -
Clearly I've been in a hate to love mood recently. This is another hate to love workplace romance, this time between two rival coworkers at a radio station who are forced to be fake exes in order to present the new show which is hoped will save their struggling station. I really loved this premise and really enjoyed the beginning of this book. However, for a book about a radio show, they didn't spend a lot of time actually doing the show. I wanted to see this relationship develop through their work on the radio show but that all seemed to happen outside of the workplace. The characters felt a bit flat for me, and at times annoying, but I did still enjoy their romance. It was the conflict that ended up letting me down more than anything, with certain characters actions making me kind of angry, but that is probably more of a me thing.
Rating: 3/5
Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines -
This is a YA sports romance that I had on my Goodreads TBR since 2016 and only just got around to it. It follows a girl who moves to a new town to live with her Aunt and Uncle after witnessing her father kill her mother. Despite not having spoken a word since her mothers death, she forms a connection with the town's star football player whose father is dying from cancer. As you can tell from the premise, this wasn't exactly a light, cheery read. It was very emotional and dealt with some hard topics, but other than that it fell flat. The characters were bland and didn't have much more to them than their respective family issues. The friendship they developed to help each other through their struggles was really sweet but the development into a romance wasn't very exciting. Overall, this was fine and I enjoyed it enough while I was reading it, but I'm not sure that I'll carry on with this series.
Rating: 3/5
Those are the 11 books I read in July and August. I had one new favourite, a couple I really enjoyed and a whole lot of average reads. I seem to be incapable of giving anything more than 3 stars since the beginning of August, which I'm putting down to being slumpy, so I'm hoping that will change soon. If you have any recommendations for a great book to get me out of this slump, please let me know.
What was the best book you read recently?
Sophie :)
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