Hey bookworm friends, I’m back after almost a month away and August is almost upon us! 😲 I’m just trying to grab onto summer as it flies by because I’ve been enjoying it so much. I hope your July is treating you well and you’ve read many great books! I decided to start doing reading wrap-ups on my blog so for this month I’ll share what I read on my honeymoon.
I’ll also be linking up with Marlene at Reading Reality for Stacking The Shelves
July Wrap-Up
I had made a honeymoon TBR and it looks like I only managed to read 3 books from that list, which to be fair, I think is quite decent for such a busy month! I also read 2 books not on that list because I always divert from lists one way or another 🤷♀️
Reading Stats
Total Books Read: 5
| Format Breakdown |
|---|
| 📱E-Books: 4 |
| 📱+🎧 Immersive Reading: 1 |
| Genre Breakdown |
|---|
| 🐲😱 Fantasy Horror: 1 |
| 💞Contemporary Romance: 1 |
| 🐲Fantasy: 1 |
| 💞🐲Romantasy: 2 |
The Books
🐲😱 The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White │📱
This was a buddy read with a friend we had been working on since June, but we took some breaks due to its heavy nature and life stuff. Despite the gore and body horror, I ended up enjoying this story and getting really invested in the characters. I’ll be checking out more of this author’s work.
Check out our collab post on Insta where we shared our favourite quotes from the book.
💞 Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert │📱
I have not read a contemporary romance in years, but I was pleasantly surprised when I loved this one! The representation, the humour mixed with heavier themes, and the romance all worked for me. However, I think there was a bit too much unnecessary drama at the end.
🐲 Demon Daughter by Lois McMaster Bujold │📱+🎧
I needed an audiobook for bus rides and I noticed this was immediately available from my library. I had already bought the e-book so I decided to do some immersive reading. This is book #12 of the Penric and Desdemona series and it was so wonderful to be back in that world listening to Grover Gardner’s voice 🥰.
💞🐲 That Time I Got Drunk And Saved A Demon by Kimberly Lemming │📱
I had been wanting to read this one for such a long time so I was excited when my husband chose this one to read! I had so much fun with this one and it made me laugh out loud a lot but I enjoyed the fantasy adventure/quest more than the romance.
💞🐲 The Dragon’s Bride by Katee Robert │📱
I read this one on the plane back home and it kept me entertained; I really liked the couple and the romance here. Since I read this one and ‘Saved A Demon’ back to back, I couldn’t help comparing the two love interests and I liked Katee Robert’s MMC much better!
Stacking The Shelves
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. Reading Reality posts on Saturdays but you can post any day that works for you; just don’t forget to visit the link-up on Saturday to join in on the fun!
Whenever I go on trips, I love to buy books as souvenirs so today I’ll be sharing the 4 books I got while away. I don’t currently have any books out from the library so my first entry into Stacking The Shelves is small but mighty! Inferno is one I’ve been meaning to read for ages but it’s one I’ll probably have to use study notes for as I read. I wanted to make sure the books I got while in Italy and Finland had ties to those countries in some way and I think I was successful at that!
- Inferno by Dante Alighieri (Penguin Classics)
- The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna (Pushkin Press Classics)
- Cleopatra & Julius by Joanna Courtney (Piatkus Books)
- Nordic Tales: Folktales from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark; Illustrated by Ulla Thynell (Chronicle Books)
Let’s chat in the comments!
Have you read any of these books? Or, do you pack books when you travel or do you prefer to bring an e-reader?
Welcome back! I really enjoyed That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon as well, so much fun. I love the cover of Nordic Tales. Enjoy all your new books😁
Thanks Tammy 😀
Yes that book was such a romp, I especially laughed at all the silly swear words and expressions of surprise! lol
I like the cover for Nordic Tales too and the illustrations also look gorgeous, I’m excited to look at them more thoroughly!
I’m glad you had a fantastic time away 💗 and it’s lovely to see a post from you again. I think you read a fantastic amount, especially considering how busy you must have been.
Its wonderful that you enjoyed all of your reads too. I honestly dont know when I was read a contemporary romance 😂 probably back in 2020 when I read Attachments. I’ve seen a lot of good things about the series that you read though, although it’s a shame to hear about the drama at the end. It’s lovely that you enjoyed the romantasy offerings too. And got another of the Penric books read. Whilst working on organising my tbr recently I realised I had the wrong book on my list for where to start 🤣🙈 and I hope you find more to read by Andrew Joseph White.
It looks like you picked up an interesting selection of books whilst away too. I’m definitely going to look Cleopatra & Julius up in a minute. And the folk tales book sounds super intriguing too. No Moomin books though?
I tend to take too many books on holiday then hardly read any 🙈 I did manage to read on a coach the other week though that actually amazed me as I’m terrible at blocking out distractions.
Hi Charlotte, thanks so much, I’m happy to be back too! & Thanks, I am quite happy with the amount I read.
Oh wow yeah it’s been a few years since you’ve read a contemporary romance too, I’ve never heard of Attachments, I’ll have to look it up! I just hate third-act breakup scenes with a passion and I feel like Chloe Brown kind of had 2 of them in a way?… I could have done without that. 😅
haha Yes oh I had missed Penric and Desdemona so much <3 & lol oops hehe glad you figured that out before you start and get shoved into the middle of the story hahah!
Andrew Joseph White has another book I want to read and it looks like a new one coming out this year too which is nice 🙂
No, no Moomin books 😭 I love that you remembered I wanted some but I was surprised by how hard it was to find Moomin books in English when I was able to find a bunch of other books in English, who knows 🤷♀️ I did get a Moomin bucket hat though which I love, lol.
Ahaha I know that feeling, well at least you bring options with you which is better than wanting to read and not having anything!
Yeah I just never seem to get around to picking contemporary books up in general but I do want to try to more as I used to love them. Oh wow two, that’s surprising. I’m kind of intrigued 😂 I’ve never thought how i feel about them but if you know they’ll be a HEA then I can see them feeling frustrating .
Honestly it’s just confused me as its different than publication order and what I originally read 😂🙈
Ooh that’s good then. I hope you enjoy them both
Oh that’s a shame. I guess you could always order one elsewhere as a memory from your trip. I have no idea if you like adult colour books but I had a list of them pop up in a craft newsletter and there was a Moomin one on the list. And I guess it just stuck with me as it must have been in one of our first conversations 😅 anyway I’m glad you got a hat that you love at least.
True. Although I get told off for packing so much 😂
Yeah I don’t pick them up often either but I don’t necessarily want to either as a general rule. I do hope you find some you like again though! haha yes even in movies I hate those types of scenes, I just find them cringy and unnecessary, like I don’t do well with second-hand embarrassment and those scenes are often so hard to watch for that reason lol It’s also like don’t waste my time I know they’ll forgive each other lol.
I can see that being confusing it’s probably because there’s the publication order and the chronological order and they are not fully the same thing. Either way you start with Penric’s Demon. I recommend chronological order. If you have any questions I can always help you.
Yeah exactly, I figured I can always just order them online someday so I wasn’t too bothered!
Ohh yeah I used to do some adult coloring a few years ago but I don’t anymore but that sounds so cute 🙂
hahha, Oopps XD
I don’t want to make them my main genre or anything as I adore fantasy too much for that 😂 but I would like to try and check out some of the popular ones and read some of the books I haven’t read by authors I used to love. Thank you. Ah right. Yes awkward cringey scenes aren’t great. They kind of make me want to roll my eyes 😂
Thank you. I think I have the order figured out now but if I’m lost whenever I go to start I’ll let you know 😂
That’s true, I’m sure they’re easy enough to find online. I hope you manage to get yourself some one day.
Yeah same 🙂 That’s a great idea as I’m sure there are authors I used to love that have new stuff that I don’t know about! LOL yes exactly heheh 🙄
Okay perfect, sounds good 👍
Thanks 🥰!
Mm….so there’s mean drunks, romantic drunks, singing drunks, and…saving-demon drunks! A few of those new acquisitions look interesting — Nordic Tales and the Cleopatra & Julius one. Cleopatra’s was…an interesting family, to say the least.
Ahahah that book was full of drunk antics and silly stuff but how come there are never any handsome and cool demons running around needing saving when I’m drunk? Maybe because I hardly ever am… 😂
Anyway, yes! Cleopatra is always someone I’m eager to learn more about but I’ll be honest I don’t know much about her family in general. Her story seems perfect for a dramatic historical fiction!
There are parts of Dante’s Inferno that I loved, but man, it got to be a slog at times! Hope you enjoy it — and the others too! And hope you had a very good time on your honeymoon. 🙂
My STS/Sunday Post.
Haha uh oh I’ve been warned! I mean, I never read poems and I feel like it will be very academic and I won’t have the necessary background information but I will likely read notes along with it, it’s just one of those literary challenges I’d like to undertake and see how it goes! Plus I read a historical thriller where like all the clues to the mystery were related to Dante so now I really gotta see what all the fuss is about 😂 Thanks so much Nicky 🖤
I’ll go check out your post!
I read Chloe Brown years ago and think it was the best in the series. Have a great week!
Oh nice, I am glad to hear that. Reading the synopses for both of the sequels, I think I’m only interested in one of them!