Hi everybody, happy September and welcome to my August 2023 monthly wrap up!

August has been… a lot (more on that below) but in terms of books, it was pretty good! I re-read some favorites and discovered some new faves as well. I also discovered a new favorite music artist just 5 minutes away from home AND watched some great TV. So overall, not too bad. Without further ado, let’s dive in.

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab (Re-read)

I LOVED this book just as much the second time around (surprisingly, I forgot a lot more about it than I thought I did, so this reread came quite in handy). It was unputdownable. I just love all these characters so much and I am now even more hyped for The Fragile Threads of Power coming in September!

Rating: 5 stars

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

I highly enjoyed this book. The premise really caught my eye as pretty unique as it features a ghostwriter who meets a really great guy she then proceeds to have a terrible one-night-stand with… only to realise the next day he’s the actor she’s helping write his memoirs by following him around for a few months. When she admits their night together was pretty… bad, he asks her helps to get better and she agrees. But pretty soon, they’re finding it difficult to separate business and pleasure. This was so fun, quite steamy and sex-positive but also super adorable!

Rating: 4 stars | Read full review

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

While this was not my personal Ali Hazelwood favorite and I had trouble connecting to the main characters and the romance, it was still a nice and quick read. While I won’t be re-reading it any time soon, I’m still happy I read it and am very eager to try her next release!

Rating: 3,5 stars | Read full review

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

I first read this rom-com about two people who hate each other, but unexpectedly go on a honeymoon together when the bride and groom (and the rest of the bridal party) get sick from a seafood buffet gone wrong, a few years ago and loved it. Now there is a sequel novella out as audiobook only and I wanted to listen to that one but do a re-read of this first installment beforehand. So now that I’m properly refreshed (and yes, I still love this one) it’s time to start the sequel!

Rating: 4 stars

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q Sutanto

This is such a funny cozy mystery about a 60-year old tea shop owner who one day finds a dead body in her tea shop. Since she feels like she could do a better job than the police, who don’t see any reason for foul play, she immediately starts investigating and it isn’t long until she has a list of suspects… And then those suspects become like a family. I highly enjoyed this read. It’s light-hearted and funny and endearing and I loved Vera so much.

Rating: 4 stars

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

Though I’ve seen this book around the blogosphere before, it had never really caught my attention. Until I saw a TikTok raving about it and I found out that the story was a gothic murder mystery romance between a girl who can’t die and Death… of course I picked up that baby right away! It was everything I wanted: hauntingly beautiful writing, an intriguing mystery and a swoonworthy romance.

Rating: 4,5 stars

Top Ten Tuesday

Book Series I’m No Longer Interested in Finishing
10 Books I Want to Read Because of Top Ten Tuesday
10 Most Recent Books I Added To My TBR
5 Romantasy Books I Read and Love & 5 I Still Want To Read
Watery Book Covers

Can’t Wait Wednesday

Bride by Ali Hazelwood {Can’t Wait Wednesday}
A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall {Can’t Wait Wednesday}

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday: 16 August 2023
WWW Wednesday: 30 August 2023

I did not listen to a lot of new music this month, but one artist did stand out:

Laurence Jones – You’re Not Alone

Storytime: the next town over from us organizes a yearly Blues festival. We’ve never been, though we were always saying it was worth checking out. This month it was held again, but we kind of forgot and were already settled in for the night in our PJ’s… until a friend mentioned they were there and so we quickly went after all. We didn’t know anything about any of the bands playing and we were there just at the start of an artist called Laurence Jones. A few notes in and both me and my husband were hooked! It was an amazing set, and I wholeheartedly believe Laurence Jones is one of the top artists out there. So my playlist for the rest of the month consisted of Laurence Jones and more Laurence Jones 🙂

Not much TV this month either, but what I did watch was pretty amazing!

Red, White & Royal Blue

This was one of my most highly anticipated movie adaptations of the year, as the novel by Casey McQuiston is one of my all-time favorite feel-good reads. And while I admit that I was a bit hesitant at first (movie adaptations are always a scary thing), I have to say that I really loved the movie! I thought the casting was great and the chemistry was amazing. The most important scenes from the book were all there and while I missed some more development of the side characters (and June who was missing completely), I understand that they had to cut some things. The vibes were all perfectly right though. It’s a rom-com I’ll definitely be rewatching on a regular basis.

Good Omens (Season 2)

Ah I was so happy to be reunited with my favorite angel and demon! I love this duo so much, and this was a short but great season. I’m just sad that it’s over and also sad about that ending and sad that we now have to wait probably quite a long time for season 3. Guess I’ll have to rewatch these first two seasons until then.

August was… a month. I’m not gonna lie, it’s been an utterly exhausting month and I need a break. Between work (super hectic because we launched a new website this month and I needed to prep for my upcoming holiday), home (lots of home projects to do while the weather is still nice enough), trying to maintain a regular workout routine again, family, friends, and of course blogging, it’s been A LOT. Like, crying-on-a-daily-basis-a-lot. But I have just started a 3-week holiday and I’m planning a little blog break, so that needed break is finally here!

Things that made me happy this month:

• Discovering Laurence Jones’s music!
• Some great TV and books
• Sunny weather
• Doing (semi) regular workouts (I’m loving GrowWithJo and ToneItUp!)

THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:

• 3 WEEKS OF HOLIDAY!!!
• 1 WEEK TRIP TO MALLORCA!!!
• Exciting book releases: Things We Left Behind, The Wake-Up Call, The Fragile Threads of Power
• The Little Mermaid movie releases on Disney+
• Catching up on the second season of Heartstopper
• One month closer to October AKA the best month 😉

How was your August? What did you read? What did you listen to and what did you watch? What are you looking forward to in September?

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