The Story Graph, where I track my reading, has released a new fun monthly graphic that I’m obsessed with! This is going to change the format of my blog posts for sure. How cute is thaaaat!?
Anyway, there is a lot of transition happening at work and my brain can’t hold onto a book to save my life. So I only read three books in July–as you’ll see in the graphic I just fully stopped reading in the middle of July. Which is very, very fine by me. My brain is being used in other ways.
Even though I only read three books, they were all 5-Stars from me. I loved them all a lot!
As always, any sales made through links on this blog post will go to help support my bookstore, Twice Told Tales in McPherson, KS!
Daydream by Hannah Grace
Pre-Order here. Or pick one up at Twice Told Tales when it releases on 8/27/24
Download the audiobook here.
This is the third book in the Maple Hills series. I didn’t read Icebreaker or Wildfire but I could tell that it wasn’t crucial to have read the first two to vibe with this one, so I just dove in. I will say that there are a lot of characters and if I’d read the other books I probably would have had a better feel for who everyone was but ultimately it wasn’t a big deal. Atria sent me this ARC and I was hooked just by the cover (the ARC looks a little different than the finished book) so that’s what sold me if I’m being honest. I know everyone says you’re “not supposed to judge a book by its cover”. Okay, but that’s literally someone’s job. So, I do.
Reading about very young people in romance books isn’t usually my favorite because their relationships are soooo immature. But this one was incredible. Halle is a people pleaser to the max and Henry is some undiagnosed version of Neurosparkly and they work together to help one another out in life and in their college classes as well. As time goes on they obviously fall for one another and as someone who is currently living in a friends-to-lovers romance herself, this is my FAVORITE trope.
SPICE LEVEL: Everyone told me that Icebreaker was just… tons of sex start to finish. And this book didn’t have that–to the point where I decided I must’ve completely misunderstood what people were talking about with Icebreaker. Until about the 2/3 point. But once it started… it was abundant.
The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest
Order the paperback here.
Download the audiobook here.
I learned about this book through someone who has become an Instagram friend and is in the process of opening her own brick and mortar romance bookshop in Portland, Oregon! She put out a call for book recommendations and I asked for an epistolary romance by a Black author and she told me about The Neighbor Favor.
This book has a plot twist in Part 1 that had me audibly gasp. And for that reason, I’m struggling to come up with how to tell you what this book is about. So I’ll just share the copy for this book, “A shy bookworm enlists her charming neighbor to help her score a date, not knowing he’s the obscure author she’s been corresponding with, in this sparkling and heart-fluttering romance” Isn’t that the cutest?! Helloooooo! I highly recommend.
SPICE LEVEL: Not a whole lot! This is going to be great for folks who love a romance but do not need to learn allllll the intricacies of the bedroom. There’s some but it’s not a focus of the book.
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
Order the paperback (with sprayed edges!) here. Or pick up your copy at Twice Told Tales next week when they’re released!
Download the audiobook here.
Be. Still. My. Heart. Casey McQuiston is my favorite romance author of all time and One Last Stop has always been one of my favorite books of all time. But they, as an author, are just getting better and better and better. This book, The Pairing, has so much depth and heart. It made me feel things in a really big, heart-wrenching way.
There’s a discussion about gender in this book that left me sobbing on my bed. And hilarious lines like, “You look like they shoot you out of a cannon at a circus for gay people.” That made me laugh so hard I backed up the audiobook multiple times just to hear it again.
Kit and Theo are so much more than just exes. They used to be childhood best friends, too. But five years ago when they were in love, they booked a European Food and Wine tour and broke up in the airport on the way. The tour wouldn’t grant them a refund but they gave each of them a voucher that granted them access to the tour at any point in the next five years. Well, it just so happens that both Theo and Kit unexpectedly decided to choose this summer to cash in their voucher and now they’re stuck on this super romantic vacation together pretending to be fine with it. They pretend so hard that they’re cool with each other that they challenge each other to a friendly Hookup Competition. This whole book is Bisexual Chaos Takes a European Vacation. I’m obsessed. I would like to see Jonathan Bailey (Kit) and Mae Martin (Theo) cast in the movie version.
SPICE: The spice was plentiful and… enlightening in terms of gender. I’ve read gay romance and even non-binary romance but I’ve never read a book that explored sex and gender in this particular, whole-hearted, very real way. Thank you. More please.
XOXO, Lib 