2025 Books - July!

23 books...lots of romance novels because no brain power at the moment...some really high highs, and some really low lows.   

1.  A Fire Endless, Rebecca Ross - With the first book such a delight, I was a tad nervous that the end of the duology wouldn't match up.  Shouldn't have worried.  I love this every bit as much as I loved the first book.  This duology is comfort reading for me as it's exactly the sort of fantasy that helped me fall in love with the genre in the first place.  Planning on getting the audio on Libro.fm because I'll reread it over and over.  

2.  Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books, Kirsten Miller - It can take me way too long to figure out which book to read next, so I handed my iPad to my husband and had him pick.  I'd just picked this book up on sale a few days earlier.  I'd been hearing about it for a while, and a friend recently read it.  My thoughts are that it tackles some really big and important themes in a fairly lighthearted way with way too many perfect endings involved.  Was it entertaining?  Absolutely.  Do I love a happy ending?  YES!  But maybe not when it's all this easy and this perfect.  

3.  The Life Impossible, Matt Haig (audio) - I'm so disappointed by this book.  I really, really wanted to like it because I so love the Midnight Library.  Also, our protagonist is an older woman, which usually makes me happy.  But goodness.  It's slow.  And as much as I like fantasy, something about this particular book felt a bit too far out there.  Instead of sinking into the story, I just wanted to roll my eyes about it.  Rats.  

4.  This Princess Kills Monsters, Ry Herman - Yes, Yes, YES!  Picked this up at Skylark, Carrie having ordered it because it looked like fun.  And it was.  So, so, so much fun!  I LOVE a good fairy tale retelling, and I LOVE a good fractured fairy tale.  This book managed to both honor the source material and poke fun at it at the same time.  Will be keeping an eye on Herman because I'm very impressed.  

5.  The Roommate Pact, Allison Ashley - Yes, it was super sweet and was a good time.  But I'm writing this a couple of weeks after finishing it, and find that there's not much more I can say about it.  Eek.  Good thing I think it's perfectly ok to read mindless fluff once in a while. 

6.  The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam, Megan Bannen - It's the last book in the Tanria trilogy, and I'm really sad to say goodbye to this series.  Rosie and Adam were endearing, which I expected.  They aren't my favorite couple of the series - that's Twyla and Frank - but I loved going along with them on their journey to each other.  As a bonus, I really enjoyed how Bannen tied up the series.  These books are cozy fantasy at its best, and were a joy to read.  As a bonus, my daughter and I visited a romance bookstore in KC, MO where I found signed copies of the second and third books! Bonus Bonus....Megan Bannen stopped by Skylark two weeks later and signed her books, so I was able to get a signed copy of the first! 

7.  Heir, Sabaa Tahir (audio) - Next up for a husband pick!  Heir was all over the place earlier this spring, and Tahir gets rave reviews.  I wasn't crazy about it being a YA book because I've moved away from them as I've gotten older, but heck, it was on sale and so I'd put it in my queue.  Also, I tried the audio for Tahir's big series years ago, and DNF'd the first book, so I was worried that I would hate this too.  Well darn.  Another amazing first entry in an unfinished series.  I ended up being super invested in this reading experience, and cannot wait until the second book comes out.  Tahir's worldbuilding and characters were excellent.  I'm going to have to give that other series a second try.  

8.  Is She Really Going Out With Him, Sophie Cousins - I heard so many good things about this book, but it wasn't all that to me.  Yeah, the set-up was cute, but I found myself pretty annoyed by what was happening to our FMC's career.  As a middle-aged woman myself, the idea of people being aged out of an industry just makes me mad, and there was a bit too much of that here, even though it all turned out well.  

9.  Life's Too Short, Abby Jimenez - My first Abby Jimenez.  I thought it was sweet, and I will absolutely be reading more of her books.  This is my first romcom with a baby involved, and while I was initially skeptical, by the end I was totally hooked.  I have to say that I was also really moved by the medical situation involved.  Jimenez did a really good job of incorporating that drama into the story in a way that felt realistic while not being heavy-handed.  Was it maybe tipping too far into the too cute territory?  Yeah.  But I can live with that.  

10.  Mad About You, Mhairi McFarlane (audio) - Yeah, this was more of an abused woman revenge story than a romcom, which was what I was expecting.  Even worse, the MMC love interest had no personality.  Very disappointed. 

11.  A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping, Sangu Mandanna - It's just as sweet and charming as the first book, and I loved it until the very, very end.  This is the sort of cozy fantasy that really plays up the whimsical side of things, and unfortunately, I felt that the ending took away the whimsy that had made the rest of the book so special.  I will say I liked the first book better, but that I'm still looking forward to any potential new books in this series. 

12.  The Love of My Afterlife, Kirsty Greenwood - I really enjoyed the concept of this book, which reminded me a teeny bit of a movie I loved years and years ago.  (Chances Are, which included the wonderful song After All)  It was funny and heartwarming, telling the story of a woman who's learning to truly live after she dies.  Glad I tried it.  

13.  The Fake Mate, Lana Ferguson - OK, so having read 5 romance novels in row with minimal spice at best, I was looking for something a bit - ahem - more.  Also, for some reason my algorythm on socials started to show me a bunch of bullshit ads for highly problematic shifter trash on apps.  Sooo...I looked up Ferguson, who's Loch Ness book had been such a surprise delight for me.  (Found that one because it was a Romance book club pick at Skylark.)  This werewolf shifter romcom was super fun, free of the problematic stuff, and exactly what I was looking for.  

14.  Shield of Sparrows, Devney Perry (audio) - I snagged this audio on sale on Libro.fm, having heard about the book on BookStagram/BookTok.  It was pretty popular this spring, but I take those recommendations with a grain of salt.  To my delight, I ended up loving it.  While yes, a lot of it was utterly predictable and it may have felt a bit on the younger side, it did have enough of its own spin on standard fantasy and romance tropes to keep me invested.  Annoyed, though, because it's yet another new series that I've found my way to.  I've got to knock that off.  

15.  A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, Tia Williams - I really wanted to love this book, but for some reason it just didn't hit.  This is both an NPR Books We Love and an Emily Henry recommends book that I'd heard a LOT about.  The writing was gorgeous - head and shoulders above standard romance novels - the characters were well developed and personable, and the magical realism was perfectly done.  And it was about a flower shop!  But, it didn't really pop for me, and I rushed the last 1/3 just to get through it.  I suspect it was a right book, wrong time sort of situation, and that makes me sad.  

16.  Sounds Like Love, Ashley Posten (audio) - I've liked but not loved two of Posten's other books, and I really didn't intend to read the rest of her books.  I only decided to try it because I found it on Libby, and needed something to listen to while working.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  This is by far my favorite of Posten's work - leaps and shoulders above the others.  So, so good.  Both a love story and a reflection of family and loss, this time Posten found just the right balance between both of those - and between the magic and the romance.  As a bonus, there's a quote at the end that I cannot get out of my mind/heart.  The mom says, "How do I forgive my past self for all the futures I didn't become?  I don't know."  I'm going to be thinking about that for a long time.  

17. The Deal, Elle Kennedy - My eldest (22, law student!) and I had the opportunity to spend a Saturday together in KC, MO this month, and one of the things we did was visit Under the Cover.  It was our first time in a Romance Bookshop, and we had so much fun!  While we were there, we decided it would be fun to pick out books for each other.  She's been in a hockey romance phase lately, so she sent me home with the Deal.  (I sent her home with Lana Ferguson's Under Loch and Key.)  This was a really fun read - even if it had me asking my daughter if college students were really like this these days! Way to make me feel old, kid!  No worries, I got her back with the shifter romance.  

18.  Wild Love, Elsie Silver - Also picked this up at Under the Cover on a recommendation from a friend.  Ahem.  Made the mistake of reading it during my lunch hour at work.  Will never read romance at work ever again.  I have kind of mixed feelings about it.  There were parts I loved, and parts that I'm bemused by.  Mostly, though, this is where I confirmed the fact that I hate billionaire romances - the power differential is just something I can't get around, no matter how much of a good guy Silver wrote our MMC to be.  Will probably read the rest of the series, but will be going to the library for the books instead of investing in them myeslf.  

19.  Of Monsters and Mainframes, Barbara Truelove (audio) - The third pic by my husband!  The classic monsters of horror meet a spaceship concept was really fun and cleverly done.  I feel that I should have absolutely loved it, but at the end of the day it didn't really find a way into my heart as so many other monster books have.  Still glad I read it.  

20.  P.S. I Hate You, Lauren Connolly (audio) - Because of the last few years, I really enjoy books about grief - although perhaps "enjoy" isn't quite the right word.  They resonate strongly, often help ease my own grief, and can provide a healthy dose of hope.  The subgenre of romance books that are also about grief seems to be something I've fallen into this year - this is the second such book this month - and they often stick with me a lot longer than most romance novels.  This is a book about a journey that a young man who has passed sends his sister and his best friend on, and honestly, it's a book I will probably return to from time to time.  

21.  Red, White & Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston (audio) - I watched the movie when it came out and thought it was a charming fantasy.  The book has been on my list of maybes since then, so I decided to check it out from the library. Sigh.  I liked the movie better...and I NEVER say that.  Was going to read Crazy Rich Asians too, but after this experience I decided not to.  I love that movie, and don't want to potentially tarnish that with the book.  (Seriously, who am I?)

22.  A Study in Drowning, Ava Reid - I did a very quick reread of this book, my favorite of all of Ava Reid's work, in preparation for the release of the sequel/conclusion to the duology.  I love it so, so much, and had almost forgotten just how beautifully written it is.  

23.  The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, Birigitte Knightley - Sigh.  Yeah, I picked it up because so many of my favorite Book Influencers loved it.  That was a bit against my better judgement because I knew that it began life as a Draco/Hermione fanfic, which 100% is not my thing (both the couple and the fact that it's fanfic).  Ugh.  It tried way too hard, the characters were flat as a pancake, and I found it extraordinarily tedious.  I don't even know why I finished it...