July 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

Look at me posting on time! I had a great reading month in July: 16 books, adding up to about 4,600 pages. Here are some highlights:

1. Favorites of the Month:

📚 The Saint of Bright Doors - a very unusual and creative fantasy from a Sri Lankan author (I have a full review of this book on my blog)

📚 Most Ardently - a Pride and Prejudice retelling with the main character being a trans boy

📚 The Lost Year - a hard-breaking middle grade book that shines the light on Holodomor (death by starvation) enforced by Stalin in Soviet Ukraine

📚 The Art Thief - a non-fiction book that lets the reader get a glimpse into the mind of a compulsive and the most prolific art thief

📚 Every Summer After - a great beach read about young heartbreak and second chances

📚 Slow Dance - another second chance romance that is more of a women’s fiction than your run of the mill trop-y romance novel (I have a full review of this book on my blog).

📚 Delilah Green Doesn’t Care - fun queer romcom (which also made me cry the tears of joy)

2. Disappointments:

📚 The North Wind - a fantasy romance marketed as a take on the Beauty and the Beast. I gave up reading this book at about 100 pages (so 25% in). The world building was not well executed, I had no idea what was going on in that regard. The cast of characters was very limited and thus the entire world did not feel well fleshed out. In addition, I really disliked the main female character: she was impulsive, headstrong and a drunk to boot. I have a lot of problems with our culture glamorizing drinking and promoting it in films and TV shows. I do not need to see it in my books. Or, I'd rather it be presented in a realistic way as a real bane on one's existence.

📚 The Kiss Quotient - a romcom featuring an autistic main female character. It was an enjoyable read, but I definitely do not understand all the hype surrounding it. It was ok. 

📚 Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson - has all the makings of a great Sci-Fi novel. I loved the ideas in this book, however the storytelling and the characters could really use an upgrade.