Goodbye and Hello: July Wrap-Up/August TBR
July Books:
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
I’m so glad I reread this before reading The Rose and the Dagger. It reminded of everything I loved about the story and was a good reminder of everything that happened before jumping into the second book.
The Rose and the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh
I really enjoyed the second book of this duology. Check out my full review here!
Wrecked by Maria Padian
I picked this one on NetGalley because the topic was really relevant. It’s about an alleged rape on a college campus, and the crazy that ensues afterwards. It seems to address several topics of situations like this very realistically, and the book definitely addressed college campus rape culture. This one comes out in early October, so my full review will be out at the end of September. I definitely recommend it!
The Hazards of Skinny Dipping by Alyssa Rose Ivy
I picked this one up for fun, while I was wading my way through the beginning of A Clash of Kings. It was a quick and easy read, but I got super annoyed with it at times. You can check out my mini review of it in my WWW Wednesday post from last week.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
I’m about halfway through this one, but I’m on a retreat with a bunch of high school students this weekend that I am super excited about, so I don’t think I’ll be getting much reading done, but a review will be coming for this one as soon as I finish it.
August Books:
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.
Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.
Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.
Why I want to read this series?
I love everything that Sarah J. Maas writes. And I’ve heard nothing but good things about this series.
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Time is out of joint. The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast. Two great leaders—Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon—who held sway over an age of enforced peace are dead…victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.
As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky—a comet the color of blood and flame—six factions struggle for control of a divided land. Eddard’s son Robb has declared himself King in the North. In the south, Joffrey, the heir apparent, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King’s Landing. Robert’s two brothers each seek their own dominion, while a disfavored house turns once more to conquest. And a continent away, an exiled queen, the Mother of Dragons, risks everything to lead her precious brood across a hard hot desert to win back the crown that is rightfully hers.
A Clash of Kings transports us into a magnificent, forgotten land of revelry and revenge, wizardry and wartime. It is a tale in which maidens cavort with madmen, brother plots against brother, and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside.
Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory may be measured in blood. And the spoils of victory may just go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel…and the coldest hearts. For when rulers clash, all of the land feels the tremors.
Audacious, inventive, brilliantly imagined, A Clash of Kings is a novel of dazzling beauty and boundless enchantment;a tale of pure excitement you will never forget.
Why I want to read this series?
I love the TV show, and really enjoyed the first book, so I thought I would continue with the series.
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.
Why I want to read it?
This one has been on my TBR for awhile. I had a student recommend it to me last school year. This upcoming school year, which starts in just under a month, I am leading a discussion group on this book as part of the summer reading program.
Jack by A.M. Homes
In Jack, A. M. Homes gives us a teenager who wants nothing more than to be normal—even if being normal means having divorced parents and a rather strange best friend. But when Jack’s father takes him out in a rowboat on Lake Watchmayoyo and tells his son he’s gay, nothing will ever be normal again. Out of Jack’s struggle to redefine what “family” means, A. M. Homes crafts a novel of enormous humor, charm, and resonance, the most convincing, funny, and insightful novel about adolescence since The Catcher in the Rye.
Why I want to read it?
This one is another book I’m reading in preparation for the school year. I’m working with sophomores in addition to working with freshmen this year, and this is the first book we are reading this year.
Tears of Time by Joel Lawrence
Cal State freshman Eden Ellis feels like a stranger in time, and her dreams are growing more dangerous each night. Is she really the reincarnation of a Bronze Age princess, or is that just the medication talking?
Dreams and reality start weaving together, and Eden and her friends begin to develop extraordinary powers and find themselves confronted with ancient secrets, government experiments, and the return of the same demonic force that nearly shattered the world 3,500 years ago.
Eden’s dreams hold the key to saving the future—if she can embrace her duel identity and defeat the reincarnation of the man she used to love.
Why I want to read it?
I was sent this book as an ARC in return for an honest review, so that’s what I’ll be doing. It, of course, sounded super entertaining too!
What are you guys reading during the month of August??
Happy Reading!
Erin