August Reading List

*None of these reviews are completely spoiler free, read at your own risk! 

August was another good reading month for me, but the books I ended up reading were a pretty mixed bag in terms of quality. There was one in particular that I don't even want to think about again, and might have been the final nail in the coffin for an author I had high hopes for. Here's a rundown of the standouts and how I felt about them.

Business or Pleasure 

After a tough day at work, Chandler decides to throw caution to the wind and try her hand at a one-night stand with a charismatic stranger she meets at a bar, which goes spectacularly wrong. He’s uncoordinated, terrible at dirty talk, and immediately falls asleep. Chandler shakes it off and decides the ill-fated night is fine because she’ll never have to see him again. But when she takes a last-ditch meeting with a prospective ghostwriting client and finds out not only was her bad night with a celebrity, Finn, but that she’ll be writing his book, Chandler has to figure out how to navigate their new working relationship. 

This one was a bit weird for me. Chandler is oblivious and introverted while still being incredibly sex positive, and I enjoy that kind of duality in a character, but Finn...is an enigma. He has this charm and pull to him that Chandler clearly feels, but as soon as things get even slightly embarrassing or sexy he blushes like a schoolboy. If it were just blushing I could maybe move past it, but he also almost never stands up for himself, fumbles around when it comes to sex and dating — and then asks Chandler to teach him how to be better at sex. Not in the “we’re two people in a new relationship and need to discover what each other likes in bed” way, but the “I have no idea what I’m doing with ANY partner so maybe you could tutor me for future reference” way. One feels normal the other feels...icky.  

With all these things combined Finn just feels juvenile, like a teenage boy, so anytime Chandler expresses attraction to him it at best took me out of the narrative, and at worst made me go, “ewww...”. It didn’t help that the narrative constantly implied he was “cute” and almost docile, further infantilizing him. I tried to see if my feelings were just rooted in traditional masculinity and gender roles, but after contemplating it, even with the genders switched the whole thing would still make me feel gross. The writing is compelling and I appreciated that the third act breakup felt more about Chandler’s fears and career decision rather than plain ol’ miscommunication. The whole thing felt believable and mature, and by the end of it I was rooting for Chandler to get out of her own way. And since Chandler was the main character, my vested interest in her story kept me reading until the end. But since romance was the main component and every so often I was reminded of how childish Finn seemed and couldn't get into said romance, I’m gonna have to give this one 2.5 stars. 

 Survive The Night 

The looming guilt from her best friend’s murder two months ago gets to be too much for Charlie, so she decides to drop out of college and make her way back home to Ohio. With no one she knows able to make the several state drive for her, she turns to the campus rideshare board and meets Josh, who is willing to take her all the way. But as the ride commences, several things about Josh just don’t add up, leaving Charlie wondering who she got into a car with, and what do they want with her. 

I’m starting to think Sager may just not be for me. Lock Every Door was such an extraordinary introduction to his work that I’ve been eager to read his other books, but this one...was infuriating. The tension, as always, was brilliant, as was the writing style, despite it being a little dragged out at moments. That’s where the praise ends sadly. Why, you may ask? Because Charlie is dumber than a brick. I could write a character tripping over their own shadow onto an upright knife and I still don’t think they would be as dumb as Charlie is in the events of this book.  

Her driver, Josh, has been nothing but scary and untrustworthy from even before she gets into the car, and yet at several points where Charlie has the chance to get away she not only stays in the car, but when she’s out of the car she gets back in the car... willingly! She has the survival instincts of dodo bird! There are even points of the narrative where she believes the only person she can trust is Josh because she can’t trust her own failing mind — even though Josh is clearly lying to her AND she, by her own admission, is always sure of when she’s hallucinating because they look very different from reality and no one but her can see them. She’s gotten so paranoid that she forgets her own tells and routinely doesn’t believe things that are obviously happening are real.  

The blunders don’t stop there. She screams and falls needlessly when she should be hiding, stops to interact with what she knows are hallucinations at inopportune times (like when she’s actively being hunted and the ONE TIME she’s asking for help from a stranger to get away), and decides not to ask for help at almost every turn and rationalizes why she didn’t with the stupidest explanations I have ever heard.  

The plot twists are what really bother me though. It’s beginning to feel like Sager just loves a “good” twist without thinking of the ramifications. Several twists implemented leave little details that don’t make sense (like why Josh messed with Charlie to begin with, why Marge orchestrated her plan exactly like the serial killer would have, Why Josh said the woman at the rest stop needn’t worry because “she’s not his type”). And having a certain two characters get together in the end was just ridiculous. As interesting and infuriating as it was to read, the ending fell flat with too many twists that didn't feel thought through. For that it gets 2 stars. 

The Spellshop 

When a revolution overthrows the monarchy in the capital and burns down the Great Library, which is the only home Kiela and Caz have known for so long, the two take as many priceless spellbooks they can grab and sail away from the burning city. With nowhere left to go but Kiela’s childhood home, they set a course for the tiny outer island Caltrey. The town has a serious lack of magic problem, while Kiela has a serious lack of funds problem — and so the spellshop is born. Now Kiela must thread the needle of success and secrecy, or she might just face the capital’s wrath. 

I love a good cozy read and this one hit the spot for me. A fantasy book about jam, reading, and spellwork that saves a town is right up my alley. The townspeople we’re introduced to are fun characters and none of them feel too forgettable or inconsequential, the budding romance between Kiela and Larran is formulaic yet cozy, and the fantasy elements added a bunch of sweetness and cuteness to the story (I’m looking at you Meep and the cloud bears!) I thoroughly enjoyed myself on the read. 

Sometimes the conflicts were a bit too much though. We have a disgruntled neighbor who is suspicious, Radane washing ashore and possibly being able to blow Kiela’s cover, then the imperial inspector bit, then another imperial ship coming and doubling back after they were just saved by the town from a magic storm! The latter half of the book gets much less cozy and more unnecessarily stressful. It felt like Durst couldn't decide on the best way to bring in the central conflict of magic being forbidden and just dumped every idea she had on it instead. If it weren't for the weird scramble the characters have to do for the latter half of the book and the really fast paced romance thrown in like an afterthought in the epilogue, this one would get 5 stars, but as it stands it’s getting 4. 

I’m Not Done With You Yet 

Jane is stuck in a loveless, miserable marriage and a failing writing career when she’s confronted with her old college best friend’s successful book launch. Thalia was everything Jane wanted to be in college and Jane is immediately hellbent on a reunion with her, but when their reunion ends the same way their college days ended, Jane must figure out who Thalia really is behind her perfect veneer and how not to go down for her crimes. 

This was my first introduction to Jesse Q Sutanto and it wasn't a bad one, but it didn’t blow me away either. The premise was intriguing enough and while the writing style wasn't particularly outstanding in my eyes, it was serviceable for the story that unfolded. The twist with Thalia and her sister-in-law was a little cliche but well executed and the characters, while somewhat infuriating, were written pretty well. The mystery around what actually happened between Thalia and Jane in college AND what happened at the writer’s weekend the two of them go on together really kept me interested in finishing the story even when the story started to drag on. 

However, the storyline with Jane’s husband really annoyed me. Jane is sure that her husband makes constant digs at her and hates her, but she still stays with him for reasons that still kind of allude me. Then they go to couple’s therapy and Jane finds out she’s not a psychopath but just has social anxiety, the two of them seem to have a newfound understanding of each other and then he just...disappears. Literally. Jane just tells him to go home and to leave her alone and he’s never mentioned again. By the end of the narrative it’s unclear if they even got a proper divorce. It felt like Sutanto forgot he was a character or that that plotline would need resolving. 

Thalia is also a genuinely confusing character. She reminds me a bit of Amy Dunne from Gone Girl just in the fact that she’s positioned as this ultimate woman who’s extremely cunning and ruthless, but her plan would never work in real life because it requires such intimate knowledge of the target there’s no way she would actually possess even with extraordinary skills of deduction. There’s no way Amy would know how her husband would act under active police investigation to set him up in a way that wouldn’t immediately be found out, and there’s no way Thalia orchestrated Jane finding her again after all those years apart, and Jane looking just unhinged enough to sell the idea that she was a murderous stalker. This is based off of knowledge Thalia has of Jane from almost a decade ago who she has had no contact with since. It's just too contrived for my liking. 

Given the absurdity of it all, the somewhat lackluster execution, and the missing plotline ending it’s getting 3 stars. 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo 

Monique, a middle of the road journalist floundering in her career, is offered an exclusive interview with Evelyn Hugo, a golden age Hollywood star who has been a bit of a recluse. Evelyn won’t really tell Monique why she chose her out of all the journalists and writers clamoring for her story, but she is willing to spill. every. little. detail. about her seven failed marriages — a part of her story she has never once opened up about. Now Monique needs to juggle Evelyn’s story and the future of her career. 

I had heard a few good things about this one and I was not disappointed. Evelyn felt like a real person straight out of old golden age Hollywood, with nuance and stage presence and grit. It really felt like we were getting a behind the stage look at all the secrets that Hollywood keeps about its stars. The commentary about how the media often got parts of Evelyn’s story wrong, how they skewed things to make her look worse (or better!) than she was felt poignant and also realistic in its commentary. While I’m not always the biggest fan of epistolary elements in novels, I felt the added context worked here to show how different Evelyn’s true story was from what Monique had heard about her. The reveal about why Evelyn gave specifically Monique her story also felt salient, like it was Evelyn’s way of doing some good as she was on her way out of the world. 

Where the story somewhat fails is... I just didn't care about Monique. Her life, her feelings, her motivations, none of it was particularly intriguing to me, and whenever the narrative pivoted to focus on her I felt myself getting bored. I think the book would have been more enjoyable to me if she was treated solely as a narrator, someone Evelyn’s tale gets filtered through and partially disseminated by (since I liked the interview format), but as it stands Monique was really forgettable.  

Celia also wasn’t my favorite — at all. In fact, she felt overly judgy, pushy, and whiny. Somehow there was always something wrong with what Evelyn thought, believed or wanted to do and her constant criticism and whining was exhausting. For Celia to be Evelyn’s forever love/ love of her life, the romance fell extremely short. I can’t think of a single positive attribute for Celia or her relationship with Evelyn, which really bothers me. I want to find more sapphic/bisexual romances where I’m rooting for the main love story instead of just being indifferent or rooting against it, but I just haven't found them yet. 

Since I can see why someone might like Celia and see some nuance there (as opposed to Wyn...) my main gripe is with Monique, which earns this one 4 stars. 

Well those are my August reads, what did you guys read this summer? Let me hear any book recommendations and thoughts you have on ratings! I love having an open dialogue going. Happy reading.