My July reading started strong with A Court of Wings and Ruin, the third and final installment of the Thorns and Roses fantasy series. I devoured most of this tome while on vacation in Nebraska. If you like to read about hot fairies going on satisfying, world-saving adventures, then I highly recommend the entire series.

I still read aloud to my ten-year-old Pippa, and I intend to keep reading to her for as long as she allows it. We are currently working our way through the Hunger Games series and finished Mockingjay, the third book in the original trilogy, when we got home from our Nebraska trip. So far, Pippa has loved the series and would let me read to her all night if my voice could handle it, She loved the ending of Mockingjay so much, she reread the final chapter the next night. We are currently deep into the prequel.

I listened to the audiobook for Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Earlier in 2023, I listened to the audiobook for Sutanto’s more recent novel, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, which was utterly delightful. Dial A for Aunties was good, but I didn’t love it as much as Vera Wong. Still, I’d recommend it if you enjoy madcap antics involving a corpse at a wedding on an island.

Then I listened to the audiobook for It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, and I’m mad at that book because it bills itself as a love triangle but is actually a disturbing story about domestic violence. This book gave me a lot to think about regarding domestic violence, but the book blurb duped me. I don’t expect a trigger warning for every difficult issue tackled by a novel, but 2023 has been kicking my ass and I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth for this book. Still, I finished it, so there’s that.

But seriously, look at the cover for the audiobook! It looks like a cute romantic story! Now that I’ve read the book, I see that the flowers are shattered BUT IT’S A MISLEADING PINK COVER THAT SCREAMS CUTE.

Then I read Network Effect, the fifth book in the Murderbot Diaries, and I can’t say enough good things about that series. It’s about a sarcastic robot who has some cloned human anatomy and there’s tons of satisfying adventure in a well thought out world. I hope this series is turned into a tv show, and I hope Martha Wells keeps writing the Murderbot Diaries until her dying breath, because I can’t get enough. I have the sixth book on deck and am saving it for when I really need something good.

My friend Sarah picked My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress for our book club’s July meeting, and this book prompted a fantastic discussion. I highly recommend this memoir for book clubs. It’s like Sex and the City, except Carrie is friends with a con artist, and the audiobook is read by the author.

Finally, because I needed some brain candy, I read Assailants, Asphalt & Alibis, the eighth installment in the Camper and Criminals murder mystery series by Tonya Kappas. I happened upon this cozy mystery series last December when I listened to the audiobook for one of the Christmas installments. Since then, I’ve gone back and devoured the first eight audiobooks and I already have the ninth teed up for August. The main character, Mae West, owns an RV camp in a small town in Kentucky that she inherited from her late husband, and I’m here for all of Mae’s wry observations. So far, there are thirty-two books in this series, so I won’t be running out of cozy mysteries any time soon.