August TBR

I will be participating in two readathons in August- The Romance Readathon and The Amazing Readathon. I will leave links to announcement videos for both of those if you are interested. The Amazing Readathon is based on The Amazing Race and we get the prompts as we go, so it is hard to plan for. The Romance Readathon is perfect for mood readers because you get points based on the length of your book (so you can read any genre!) but you get bonus points for romance, historical romance, and books by LGBTQ+ or BIPOC authors!

The Book Check Out Book Club

The August book for the Book Check Out Book Club was voted by the community and The Mask of Mirrors was chosen by an overwhelming majority. I was so excited about this because I have been curious about this series since it is beloved by both Kristen and Maria, who are two of my co-hosts for the book club! The third and final book comes out in August, so now is the perfect time to read it. It also feels like a full circle moment since I met all of the co-host kind of randomly when we decided to do a read-along of the Memoir of Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan and she is one of the authors behind this series.

Book Clubs and Buddy Reads

So many buddy reads this month! My friend Tori from the BookTube channel Tori Between Pages just started a fantasy romance book club on the app Fable and Fear the Flames is the first book we will be reading. This book is starting to get some serious buzz and is available on KU, so I am excited about it! All I know about this is that there are dragons and that is all I need to know.

So many of my friends are starting book clubs and I cannot stop myself from joining! Hannah from the BookTube channel Hannah Blackwell started a book club on Discord called Spelled by Romance and the August book is To Bleed a Crystal Bloom, which I had not heard of before. I am definitely newer to fantasy romance, but I love it! From what I have heard, this is a dark Rapunzel retelling, which definitely has the potential to work for me.

I cannot believe we are almost done with the read-along for The Mate Games! I have been having so much fun reading this series on live streams with friends. Temptation is the final book and I cannot wait to see where this story is going. This was my first “why choose” series and I have enjoyed it way more than I ever expected to. The smutty scenes are over the top and there are some cringy yet hilarious one-liners, but that is what makes this series such a good time!

My friend Beccie has created a witchy book club called the Black Hat Book Coven and you know I have to participate because I love all things witchy. The August book is One For My Enemy, which makes me a little nervous because I read The Atlas Six in June and didn’t love it, but I do want to try more from Olivie Blake.

There are buddy reads happening on the Discord for The Romance Readathon and I was thrilled to see that Half a Soul was one of the books! I have been wanting to read this for ages and I have just kept putting it off, so I am excited to have an excuse to get to it.

I will be starting August with a buddy read with my friend Cait! We started a group chat to keep up with all of our Fairyloot books but we have been failing. We are determined to actually read Belladonna first thing in August so we will know if we like it enough to order the special edition of its sequel.

Everything Else

If you saw the post where I shared all of the books I brought with me to the beach, you will recognize these four books. I am hoping to mood read from those shelves but these are the books that are calling to me most.

Soulless and The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels are both historical romances, so I brought them specifically for The Romance Readathon. I think that I prefer historical romances to have a bit of a fantasy twist, so that is why I gravitated toward these two. Soulless is set in London in the 1800s and there are vampires. Yes, please! The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels has both magic and pirates and apparently is quite funny.

Something Wild and Wonderful is a book I bought the day it came out but was saving to read on the beach, so I hope I can make time for it! I absolutely adored Love and Other Disasters, despite its mixed reviews. I have noticed that even readers who didn’t love that one have adored Something Wild and Wonderful, which is exciting.

So many people have recommended The Dead Romantics to me and I have had it for a while, but it is another one I was saving for the beach. The premise reminds me so much of the movie Just Like Heaven and that is one of my favourite romances.

I have an eARC of Gwen and Art Are Not in Love and I have been dying to read it! Now is the perfect time since it is a historical romance. I really liked Reputation by Lex Croucher, so I am excited to read something else by them.

I have The Magpie Lord on my Kindle and it is also a historical romance with fantasy elements! I have heard so many amazing things about KJ Charles, and I also have The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen on audio, so that is an option as well.

Swordheart was on my July TBR but I didn’t have a chance to read it and I cannot put it off any longer!

The Veronica Speedwell series is so beloved and I think that the Romance Readathon is giving me the perfect excuse to finally read the first book, A Curious Beginning.

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