August 2025 Wrap Up

There were some FANTASTIC reads for the month of August, mixed in with some not-so-great (for me) reads. I know I might take a little heat for my views on The Enchanted Greenhouse, but maybe I’ll give it another go in a few months, I’m a big mood reader, and it just wasn’t doing it for me.

Of course we see my usual favourites, there was some Dungeon Crawler Carl (I’m finally on book 7) along with some T. Kingfisher (a huge favourite of mine) and I finally stepped back in to Melissa Caruso’s worlds. Plus, a new to me author that was apparently a big thing on tiktok a few years back that came highly recommended by a good friend. I was also looking for a casual cozy book in the middle of the month that popped up at my library (finally) because sometimes that’s just exactly what we’re looking for.

4/5 Star Read: The Wonder Engine, by T. Kingfisher

This was a fantastic ending to the duology, but it really felt like just the beginning. It was incredibly tragic that one of the main characters dies. Amazing writing as always by Kingfisher. I’m so glad I stumbled into this author. The very ending didn’t feel as satisfying to me though. Maybe it was a bit rushed?

4/5 Stars

5/5 Star Review: Assistant to the Villain, by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

This was a fantastic read – suggested to me by my best friend. The characters were hilarious, real, and awkward in all of the best ways. The story was surprising, and well written. The book did get negative feedback because it went viral on TikTok, but I really enjoyed reading it and I’m glad it was suggested to me. I will absolutely pick up the rest of the series to read, but it might be some time as there is a huge line of other books to get to!

5/5 Stars

2/5 Star Review: The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, by Laurie Gilmore

This book was supposed to be a cozy comfort read, but it was just a bad book with no hooks to keep me interested. I borrowed it from the library on a whim as it was promoted to me (and now I see it everywhere, go figure) and at least it was a fast read, so nothing lost. The characters were bland, the situation unrealistic. I forgot it was on my library list.

2/5 stars

5/5 Star Review: The Last Hour Between Worlds, by Melissa Caruso

I’ve read Melissa Caruso before, and I am familiar with her style even though it was a fantasy series, so I was pretty sure I would enjoy this one. Zero regrets. I loved the world building, and the characters. I loved how messed up each echo got the further they fell. It was a unique (to me) setting, with a pretty unique world of Hounds, and Cats. The main character was a new mother, and the God characters were amazing. I’m not sure if I’ll continue with the series right away, but I will eventually stumble back to it (there’s just so many other books to read right now).

5/5 Stars

July 2025 Wrap Up

It doesn’t look like I got a lot of reading done this month, but the books I did read were fantastic – plus I have a few more on the go that are amazing.

July is the month where I realized that the book club I was participating in was just not for me. Out of 7 months of reads, I only completed two, and I had missed out on a bunch of the in-person discord chats about some of the books, too. I’d like to continue looking for a book club that will appeal to me a bit more. I love reading outside of my preferred genre, but I’d like one that at least leans in the general direction. We’ll see how that search goes.

So my DNF (did not finish) for the month was “The Dose Effect” and that was a book club read. Honestly I just had such an issue trying to find this book in a non-Amazon location. For those unfamiliar, I stopped purchasing books from Amazon and using my kindle earlier this year, and I swapped over to Kobo, where I’ve been ever since.

I finished the audio book to the next Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and started the next one. I love Princess Donut, what can I say.

4.5/5 Stars – The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

I finally finished book 6 (audio book) of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series – first, it was VERY LONG. Such a good listen though, probably one of my favourites so far. The adventurers are on a new floor, which of course means new mechanics. This floor involves cards almost like Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon, and they’re used in combat.

There wasn’t enough Princess Donut in this book, and I wasn’t especially engaged in the card fight mechanic for the floor. Carl goes through some brutal memories and scenes involving his step brother and Dad. The AI is messed up. Mordecai was OK. The nun was creepy.

This book was completely off the wall in a way that I’ve come to expect from Matt Dinniman, except I have NO IDEA how he does it. The entire book is filled with action, horror, humor, and drama. The more you listen to it, the more everything that seems over the top and ‘too much’ clicks exactly into place, and you’re just left standing there thinking “woah, holy shit.” and the amazing (to me) part of it is – IT MAKES SENSE. Matt Dinniman has created an incredibly over the top messed up world that logically makes sense in my brain when he describes it, despite the fact that it is completely made up bonkers nonsense.

This book held more emotional scenes than the previous ones (IMO), and I was there for it. I can’t wait to start the 7th book.

4.5/5 stars

4/5 Stars – Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

This book was recommended to me by all sorts of friends, and I started seeing it pop up on my feed here and there – so when Kobo offered it on sale, of course I had to grab it. This was the very first book I bought for my Kobo Clara, and it was a lovely read. Things started out a bit slow, but as I progressed through the book and learned more about the two characters, I got deeply involved in the story. My only reason for giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I didn’t really enjoy how this book ended, it felt a bit rushed compared to the overall feel of the rest of the book.

The more I read, the more I started liking Wendell Bambleby (Emily’s colleague / rival) and the less I liked Emily! She started getting on my nerves. I did love how well we came to know the main character, the book came complete with footnotes and it was pretty unique. I saw some reviews mention the ‘dryness’ of the book, but honestly I think it suits the academic feeling of things, and I found the deeper stories to be just perfect. Overall, a lovely cozy read, and I’m sure I’ll be picking up the others before too long.

4/5 stars

June 2025 Wrap Up

After a very slow May, I’m glad that June showed a lot more promise, with four books completed, and four others on the go. I did have to pause ‘No Country for Old Men’ as I was just not in the right frame of mind to continue with that one. It is VERY dark. I’m undecided if I’ll continue to read it in the future or if I’ll just mark it as DNF and clear it from my TBR pile, we’ll see. Some fantastic reads this month, and some not-so-great, but at least I finished them. I did also have ‘The Dose Effect’ as my BBBC read, and I am pretty sure that one is going to be added to the DNF pile because I am simply not interested. I mentioned last month that I need to look for another book club, that still rings true.

Happy reading!

5/5 Stars – Clockwork Boys

This is Clockwork Boys, by T. Kingfisher. Wow. I’m so glad I read the Paladin series first, even though it’s out of publishing order as far as these books go. I loved this book so much but I think it also helped that I already knew the history involved. Kingfisher is brilliant, her characters came to life (as always), and I can’t say enough good things about this read. It was an absolute joy in every aspect.

There’s a ton of ‘unique’ aspects of this book that make it so much more than your basic fantasy read. The carnivorous tattoos, the ex-demonhunter paladin, a smart ass assassin. I’m very excited to read the next book because of course it ended on a massive cliffhanger.

5/5 stars