Well, I never thought it’d happen, but with these reviews, I’m now finally caught up to the end of July! Today’s mix is actually a little weird—the first two reviews I’ve actually been sitting on since February and May respectively. They were originally meant to go up later in the year for different posts, but I was sick of keeping them aside so here they are. But without further ado, let’s get into them.
Lola and the Millionaires: Part One (Sweet Omegaverse #2) by Kathryn Moon
I was extremely nervous going into this one. I’d been listening to Angel talk about it for literal years but I hadn’t made it through any of the omegaverse books I’d tried before this. I had, however, read something from Kathryn Moon before and was starting to become a little obsessed with her books. I ended up picking this one up at the end of February and I’ve been sitting on this review ever since. Kathryn Moon definitely has an accessible writing style—it’s easy to slip into her books and she definitely knows how to set up a story and keep it interesting the whole way though. Like I said, I’d never made it through anything omegaverse before this so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this and how easily I picked things up. I think that’s also partly because the romance in here is reasonably sweet—yes there’s a lot of smutty goodness, but there’s also something so sweet and wholesome about the different men outside of those scenes. My favourite was definitely Leo, though a few of the others were starting to get more and more interesting. I’m definitely excited to see where part two will go from here, especially with the way things built up at the end of this one. By the time you’re seeing this review, I’ve hopefully read part two and it’s probably part of this post too and I’ll hopefully get to talk more about my thoughts in that review.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
I read this one during Eurovisionathon but had been holding off on doing my review as it was meant to be part of another project. I’m not sure if I’m going to do that anymore, so I thought I’d better just get this review together. This was my third time reading this—I’ve considered it one of my favourite books since I read it for the first time in 2013. Rereading it didn’t change my thoughts—it’s still a favourite and I still think it’s one of the most beautifully written books ever. It was really interesting rereading it after reading Shadows on the Tundra by Dalia Grinkevičiūtė which was a real-life account of the deportation of Lithuanians into gulags in Siberia. Lina is not Dalia, but having read both now, I feel like I have a better appreciation for both books. The one thing I will say is that I didn’t find this quite as emotionally devastating, I think partly because of Shadows on the Tundra but also partly because of Sepetys’ book Salt to the Sea about Lina’s cousin which continues to haunt me. stay tuned for when I reread that one later this year too.
Vintage Murder (Roderick Alleyn #5) by Ngaio Marsh
After reading book four halfway through June, I had to pick this one up in July. I was really excited about this particular book since it’s the first in the series to take place in New Zealand. Apart from the setting, this wasn’t really that different to the other books in the series so far. It takes place in a theatre and the actors are all suspects again, but I’ve been enjoying that in all of the others and I did here too. I wish we’d gotten to see a little more of the New Zealand setting, but I know there are a few later books in the series that return to NZ so I’m excited for those. I’m almost at the end of the Marsh books that I own—hopefully, I manage to find the next few soon so I can continue the series.
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
I was excited about this one when it was originally released having enjoyed both of McQuiston’s books previously, but this was a bit of a letdown. At first, I loved the mystery element—the way Chloe, Smith and Rory are forced to work together to discover Shara’s clues was so much fun to read. By about halfway through, maybe a little more, the story changes and after that, I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. Both Shara and Chloe are completely awful people and the back and forth between them suddenly wasn’t interesting anymore. By the time I finally finished I was relieved the whole thing was over. I’m still giving it three stars because the first half was good and some of the characters were incredible and way more fun to read about.
Written (The Librarian’s Coven #1) by Kathryn Moon
This was one of the books I picked up at BABE—one of the ones I was actually most excited for, so I was so glad to get to it in July. I absolutely love Kathryn Moon—this is only my third book of hers but I get so much joy out of reading her. What I love most is the way she seems to be able to balance sweetness and spiciness in her books and this one was no exception. Joanna and her men are literally all adorable and I love them all so much. They’re just the kind of characters you want to wrap up in blankets and keep safe. I also loved the idea of this world and the different types of magic—it’s not really explained too much in this book, but even just the bits we do get are really interesting to read. I’ve already picked up book two (I’m sure my review will be in my next review round-up), and I’m probably going to just read the entire series in August.
Earl Grey Books 