August was not all bad #MonthlyWrapUp

August hasn’t been much better than July with festival, mini trip, and sick husband and daughter that disrupted all progress in her, giving us hard time with her tantrums and uncooperative moods but August was not all bad, in fact, it was better than July in many aspects.

Highlights

I tried writing my travel experience this month. It was fun and I enjoyed writing it. I might add a section on my blog for these non-bookish posts in future. I would also like to try TV series review, maybe in future, but only book adaptations and not this year

I was beyond the moon when I received email of getting ARCs from the publisher after ages but that too created some issues as the publisher mailed the book under my blog’s name. Now I was thrilled to get mail in blog name but apparently the DHL custom wasn’t. I was having hard time convincing them it’s me behind the blog. ( I don’t understand why Indian system is so hard when it comes to receiving international packages!) Once I got the package I emailed publisher about the issue and asked not to send books in blog name, turns out blog name should be there on package, the printing was set in that way and they don’t have control over it! I hope next time they do change the printing.

I also received a couple more books from authors and got another DM for request, and I’m not counting regular NetGalley widgets. Yup, I’ll be busy for next few months. I’ll post reel on Insta which books I received today and another one including eARC later this month.

I could finish the 20 books of summer challenge.

I also finished my literary embroidery bookmarks (Pic 1). I started another project, this time with a wall frame of the hobbit house and LOTR quote. I’m not really good with drawing (at such time I really wish I had a printer) but I tried my best after checking many hobbit house designs on Pinterest and combined three of them into this- (Pic 2)

In terms of reading, it has been a really good month as I didn’t expect to read 8 books and I enjoyed most of them.

Reading Stats

Books Read – 8
Pages Read – 2784

Books I read in August

(Click on title to read full review)

The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden, is meaningful, touching, emotive, and bittersweet contemporary with touch of magical realism. I loved the concept of the story. The story is about regrets, life choices, burden of responsibility, sacrifices, family, love, second chance, and life journey. I liked the realistic approach with all the details and close look on emotions and feelings but at the same time it also made the story so very slow.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Just Another Love Song by Kerry Winfrey, is lovely, charming, heartwarming small town second chance romance with full of summer vibe and nostalgia. What made me keep reading was setting, characters, and community. I loved secondary characters more. Romance is slow burn, lovely and nostalgic with second chance trope. I didn’t feel the chemistry. I wish there was Hank’s perspective. Let’s just say author’s previous book, Waiting for Tom Hanks, set high standard for me. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin, is atmospheric, gripping, and enjoyable crime thriller with interesting concept of rare amnesia. I loved the concept of repetitive amnesia. First half of the story is slow but it sure creates tension and suspense. Second half picks up the speed with more revelations. At some points story is dragging, also repetitive because of Liv’s amnesia which made it slow. I sure recommend this if you don’t mind pace. I loved previous books by the author more. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships (Love, Lists & Fancy Ships, #1) by Sarah Grunder Ruiz, is refreshing, fun, commendable #debutnovel with equal parts of family, friendship, romance, entertainment, and sentiments. I loved 30 by 30 bucket list, characters and their job on superyacht. Romance is slow burning with Alex’s confusing signals but I loved the banter, sparkling sexual tension, and those cooking scenes that felt sexy without involving sex. There wasn’t anything wrong with this, it’s just I picked this book at wrong time and so didn’t feel wow. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Curse of Kuldhara by Richa S. Mukherjee, is refreshing, entertaining, gripping, well-written, and fast-paced cozy murder mystery with many quirky characters and lots of Indian feel. I loved introduction of characters in the beginning, especially of Prachand Tripathi and his quirky and adorable family. I enjoyed their bickering, love and support for each other. The setting is my most favorite part. Kuldhara has a haunted site reputation not just in the book but also in reality and I liked how author created a paranormal angle in the mystery by perfectly weaving legend and folklores of Kuldhara and ruins of the deserted village. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ten Years by Pernille Hughes, is touching, emotive, and beautifully written contemporary about second chance to life and happiness with enemies to lovers trope. The plot is emotional rollercoaster dealing with serious subject of death, loss, grief, and struggle of small actors with layers of abandonment issues, loyalty, and second chance to life and happiness. Characters are heart of the story. Both characters are realistic, relatable, flawed and complex. Even with all the complexity that came with lots of switch from enemies to friends to back to enemies and then to lovers, I cheered for both characters. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Map and the Scissors by Amit Majmudar, is extraordinary, thought-provoking, and beautifully written historical fiction that brought back this painful nightmarish historical time period to life with its accurate details, facts, and representation. Writing is beautiful, poetic, vivid, and touching, perfectly reflecting the life of Gandhi and Jinnah keeping very close to true historical accounts. Even though I knew the end result of these two men’s lives, it was super interesting to see how a similar dream of a united free India was divided into partition, who exactly came up with that idea, why Jinnah insisted on Pakistan, and why Gandhi was against it when whole India was burning with civil war. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Luck and Last Resorts (Love, Lists & Fancy Ships #2) by Sarah Grunder Ruiz , is heartwarming and entertaining sequel. This is Nina and Ollie’s complicated story about commitment issues, trust, betrayal, friendship, family, love, taking chances, and being open to loved ones.  There was lots of angst, confusion, sexual tension, and banter that made me go through a rollercoaster of emotions. I loved this more than first book even though I wanted to scream at Nina more than often. ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

Challenge Update

Goodreads challenge : 57/70 (I think I can read 30 books by the end of the year, more than 70 but I’m not going to change/update the challenge number)

Blog Stats

Views : 4893
Visits : 3253
Comments: 177

Now that is something! Probably best views I got so far.

Plans for September

Last month I couldn’t blog hop as effectively as I would have liked so I hope not to repeat that this month and I don’t forget to take note of links I enjoy this month.

Read at least 8 books.

Finish that hobbit frame.

Thank you for reading! Let’s chat..,

How was your month?
Have you read any of these books or plan to?
What do you plan to read in September?

Sign up to receive email whenever I publish new post-

How was your month?
What do you plan to read in September?

Check out my month in reading and life my #bookblog #BooksTeacupandReviews ⬇️ https://t.co/4OCtm9wpN1

— Books Teacup and Reviews (@BooksTnReview) September 1, 2022

---