Hey everyone,

Hope you are well, the weather obviously has been great and this month I celebrated my birthday. I didn’t purchase many books this month, but I have been trying to give my debit card a break. I had booked off two weeks off from work and I might be repeating myself, but it felt odd that I was going back to work a couple of days beforehand.

There haven’t been many books that I read this month, it feels like a chill month but I have also tackled the challenge to start The Wheel of Time. If you have ever been interested in Fantasy, then you know what series I am talking about. The much love Fantasy series was almost incomplete until a man named Brandon Sanderson swooped in and finished the series into completion.

On to the books, I read this month

a touch of darkness

this is a Hades and Persephone retelling and considered a spicy book on Tiktok. Yes, I caved. I bought the damn book and I regret it, but I did return it and got my money back (not bragging, but something you can on Kindle). Firstly I have to say, yes there is spice, the sex scenes were very passionate and descriptive which I do enjoy in a romance book. But I didn’t enjoy the overall arch of the story. (if you have not read it, I will be including some spoilers) Persephone is such a shit and entitled character, firstly she has always been obsessed with Hades but freaks out after spending a game of poker or something, secondly, she thinks Hades is an awful leader when making his deals in the throne room, belittling him in front of his staff and thirdly, she just gets upset over everything and takes things too far with her mother, her job and her relationship with Hades.

This book felt like a typical paranormal romance that I would have read years ago, I probably would have liked it years ago but somehow this book just really wanted me to throw it in a swimming pool.

howls moving castle

this book was a re-read for me and I finished it in about a day, I love the movie and I felt like reading the book again. There are so many things that were left out in the movie (typical stuff) but at the same time, it was nice reading the book and not comparing it to the movie as it’s like two different worlds of the same story.

able, Katee Robert

I could not stop hearing about Katee Robert on TikTok and yet again I am here to mention that I got sucked into it again. I know she has a Disney villains retelling romance which I have purchased but haven’t started yet but I wanted to read some of her other work before committing to her most popular series.

This series has just started with two books out of seven. (I have a review for book 2 in this post further down) Abel is the older brother of seven and their home was taken away from the people in their hometown. They return after three years to enact revenge by hurting the people who killed their father and destroying their home. Abel challenges to fight 7 rounds and each time he wins one of his brothers chooses their bride which is an oath that no one can break. Abel wins and he selects Harper with the attachment of Eli, so Abel has two brides.

I will be honest, I didn’t know what I was expecting when I picked up this book but I never thought much of male and male romance before, I thought it would be something I wouldn’t like but I couldn’t stop enjoying it.

neon gods

another retelling of Hades and Persphone.

I think I preferred this one more than the other personally. One of the things I liked was reading the chapters from Hade’s perspective, I think that it was something more interesting to read. I enjoyed the relationship and the setting of the world. It reminded me of a Jennifer L. Armentrout book that I read years ago, I liked how Roberts created a world that was easy to understand, especially with the map at the beginning. I believe there are more to come in the series but I am not sure if I’ll pick them up.

Broderick

this continues after Abel.

To be honest, I felt this book to be predictable and I wasn’t invested like I did with Abel. I didn’t have an issue with the ffm dynamic, I saw this book with a broody man who loves one woman but has to be with this other woman, while he is not sure if he cares about but doesn’t know what to do when both women are having seggs together.

kakuriyo bed and breakfast for spirits vol 6

I started this series years ago and I caught up with the released volumes and Vol 6 was the recent one. I would recommend this series because there is a supernatural element and also delicious Japanese food that you would really want to try. I don’t know when Vol 7 is released but hopefully, it will be soon.

spy x family vol 5

I adore this series so much, I love the family dynamic and the mission. Anya is the centre character that you adore so much, she works so hard to help her dad and stay on assignment but things happen. I love how her abilities don’t work on a full moon which means she is unable to get the answers on the test.

the midnight library by Matt Haig

I needed a fantasy break and picked up the midnight library. I have heard of Haig for a couple of years but I don’t gravitate to self-help books.

I really liked the concept of reflecting on your life decisions and look at them in an alternate life. I like how Nora’s was a library and Hugo, who is in the same boat, was a video game store. Can you imagine what other concept ideas there could have been? It did get me emotional which was expected from me, but it’s so relatable and understanding on the what if’s of your life.

jujutsu kaisen vol 10

this series continues to get better and better.

I am enjoying how much this manga is developing, I like how new characters just blend in easily and also seeing our recurring characters just excel with the strength of powers. I admire the detail Akutami has made on the page, you can see the artist flare in his strokes.

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I hope you are well, It’s hard to belive that we are nearing Autumn which is my favourite season. I love the rainy days and warm mugs of coffee.

Happy Reading xx