July was the month that i finally came out of a reading slump! i finished “iron flame” by rebecca yarros around mid-june and honestly, that book was pretty hard for me to get through. according to my goodreads, i started it on may 27th and finished on june 14th. the book isn’t necessarily long, i just really didn’t enjoy it. i ended up rating it one star, and i was really slumped after that. i wanted to love it so much, especially since i really enjoyed “fourth wing,” and “iron flame” was the sequel. it was just such a mess and took me so long to get through. but! We persisted!
and thank god we did, because the july reads were some of my favorites of the whole year.
#1 – “A Shadow in the Ember” by Jennifer L. Armentrout
I’m a massive fan of JLA. this novel was the first in the “flesh and fire” series. it tells the story of the maiden, seraphena, who follows the prophecy told to her since she was born, and offers herself to the primal of death, nyktos, as his consort in order to save her kingdom. but nyktos is not quite what she expected.
this novel was easily a 5-star read, and i devoured it in four days– which is quick for me! this series is intertwined with jla’s other series, “from blood and ash,” of which i am four books deep. i’m following the recommended reading order, and the characters are so similar to each other. Sera and nyktos’ love story is so well-written, i love reading about a sheltered female character who grows to be a badass. this was a super easy read for me, a page turner, the characters were great and the plot was enthralling. i can’t wait to read the next one.
rating: 5/5
#2 – “Daydream” by hannah grace (releases in october)
This was my introduction to hannah grace. I never read ‘Icebreaker’ or ‘wildfire,’ but the arc* for ‘daydream’ ended up in my hands and i opened it because the girl on the front was wearing a folklore cardigan. boy, was i in for a treat! halle is the most relatable character i have ever been introduced to. her battle with anxiety, her relationship with her family, her search for validation. i just love her so much. i relate to her so much. i relate to how she always feels the need to juggle everything while simultaneously feeling like she never can.
plus, henry reminds me so much of hayden. seeing the two of them get their happy ending was so healing for me. seeing two characters that remind me so much of my own life working everything out was so gratifying. i just loved this world so much.
rating: 5/5
#3 – “slow dance” by rainbow rowell
rainbow rowell’s “fangirl” was one of the first books i ever finished all the way through. i know. i’m not particularly into young adult books, so when i came across an adult fiction rainbow rowell alc*, i had to listen. cary and shiloh deserve to have their story heard. i loved that they were so incredibly human. they mess up, they don’t get it right, they have always loved each other but they don’t know how to cope with that. i loved all of the side characters, i loved the dual timeline, i loved the relationships and friendships and the messiness.
this novel was a page turner. there were some subplots that felt a little awkward and unnecessary, and some parts of shiloh and cary’s story felt anticlimactic, which is why i bumped the rating down a little. but overall, this book was so fun and cute and human. i’m so glad i got to listen to it before it came out (it’s out now, as of july 30th!)
rating: 3.5/5
#4 – “the war of two queens” by jennifer l. armentrout
remember when i talked about that “from blood and ash” series, of which i am four books deep? this is the fourth book! i hate that this will be my blog’s first impression of the fbaa series. i have loved it so much so far, and poppy and casteel are some of my favorite characters ever. i just adore both of them. but this book was kind of a letdown for me. i will try to keep the reading recaps on my blog generally spoiler-free, so i won’t spoil anything that happens. however, though this book was a letdown, i still highly recommend the fbaa series.
some of the characters felt like they are starting to lose their personalities a bit. the plot in this book wasn’t doing it for me, i think there was probably 3 things that happened– and this was the longest book in the series so far! Plus, the ending was not for me at all. more on my goodreads if you’re interested!
rating: 2.5/5
#5 – “the wedding people” by alison espach
and thus, today, on the last day of july, i finished my fifth book of the month! this was another alc that i decided to tackle at the last minute. and it was so worth it. i did not expect to love this book as much as i did. i love phoebe so much. i loved the side characters so much. this book is about the power of human connection– it is so essential. we want it, we crave it, we need it, literally, to survive. it’s what pulls us from the dark holes we dig for ourselves, what ignites a light in us that dimmed long ago.
i just really loved this novel. there was so much hype around it before its release, i decided to read it last minute, not thinking i would actually finish before it came out, but i couldn’t put it down. i’m so glad i read this.
rating: 5/5
my tbr* is becoming more and more scattered as the days pass. at the beginning of the year, my goal was to read 20 books this year. once i started working at a bookstore in april, i added a goal to read 6 arcs this year (not included in the original 20!)
as of today, i have read 17 books and 4 arcs! 3 of those arcs i read in july alone! august, i’m ready for you!
— mal
*arc = advanced reader’s copy. months before some books come out, publishers send out paperback arcs to bookstores to try to get them to buy the book when it does come out. we get these at the bookstore where i work. you cannot sell them, so we get to just take them home and read them/keep them/give them away if we want!
*ALC = advanced listener’s copy. essentially the same thing but with audiobooks.
*tbr = to-be-read. basically, your list of books that you want to read
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