July Reading Recap

Italian summers, faerie bargains, and amnesia plots

I enjoyed my reading life greatly in July. I started off the month by finishing Andrea Levy’s Small Island, a book whose intricacy and complexity absolutely floored me, then went on to finally conquer my pile of library books, continue with some favorite series, and check off some of the digital ARCs that I’ve been requesting. Thanks to some tips from all of you, I think I may even have cracked the code to reading on my Kindle!

My July reading goals were:

• Three sci-fi romances or sci-fi novels that have significant romantic subplots: Only Bad Options and Only Good Enemies by Jennifer Estep, Fated Blades by Ilona Andrews

• And one Women’s Prize winner: The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville

My August reading goals are:

• About half of the books I read being titles I got from Aardvark Book Club

• A buzzy summer romance

• And a Women’s Prize winner

Favorite of the month:

Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer

A young American man determined to set out upon a serious life takes a job with an imperious elderly Baronessa in her villa in the Tuscan hills and instead finds himself among a colorful cast of characters, caught up in various schemes, and having an affair with a married man. I adored this witty, wise, joyous, and sunshine-soaked novel and frequently discovered that I was laughing out loud on the subway or grinning down at the page while I was reading it. It’s a perfectly balanced piece: charming without sacrificing an ounce of emotional depth, glorying in the eccentricity of its characters and setting without ever becoming twee, exuberant and expansive despite its short span, and somehow both classic and new all at once. Greer explores how we turn tragedies big and small into triumphant comedy through storytelling and has created a book that’s pure joy.

Really liked

Fated Blades by Ilona Andrews

The heads of two powerful rival families must team up to prevent sinister off-planet forces from gaining access to a powerful technology in this action-packed, novella-length sci-fi romance. I’ve talked about my love for Ilona Andrews here before but I think they’re simply the best at crafting smart, competent main characters who form true power couples and Ramona and Matias are no exception. It’s just so satisfying to watch them problem solve and take down their enemies together. This is the third in a series but I dropped right into the story with no issues and spent a very pleasant evening with a thrilling adventure. (Open door, low steam.)

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 4 by Beth Brower

Reading this marvelous historical series feels like watching the latest episode of a top-notch, cozy period piece on PBS. I’ve been allotting myself one each month as a special treat and am already dreading the moment when I run out of installments to curl up with. Brower’s writing is witty, charming, and atmospheric but there’s a real vein of deep emotion running through. I continue to adore Emma, her indefatigable spirit, and the friendships she’s slowly forming with other residents of St. Crispian’s.

Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #9)

Miles Vorkosigan meets his clone brother Mark again when Mark launches a dangerous expedition to rescue the clones of Jackson's Whole and steals some of Miles's fleet to do it. This is one of the darkest installments of the Vorkosigan Saga--check the content warnings on this one if you’re a sensitive reader--but it never feels hopeless and the journey that Bujold takes Mark on is wildly impressive. I wasn’t sold at all on Mark at the beginning of the book and was completely invested in his character growth and fate by the end. This is a brilliant character study and portrait of someone evolving in real-time and an action-packed, twisty sci-fi adventure. Bujold has a keen understanding of both the darkest and the noblest parts of human nature and an even sharper sense of justice.

Thistlemarsh by Moorea Corrigan

After a war that killed her cousin and left her brother shell-shocked, Mouse returns to the grand manor where she grew up and discovers that her uncle has left it to her on the condition that she restore the house to its former glory in one month, a near impossible task. So she strikes a faerie bargain. This historical fantasy reminded me both of the Emily Wilde series and of the Robin McKinley books that I adored in middle school and fell exactly in my fantasy sweet spot. Corrigan perfectly captures the push-pull between the allure and the danger of faeries, as well as the scars left throughout England by World War I. There's a whimsy and an edge, a deep vein of sorrow and an equally deep strain of healing, and a gloriously slow-burn romance. And there's a house that's a character of its own, decaying yet still possessed of a gravitational pull that it exerts on these characters. (Kissing only.)

Where Have All the Scoundrels Gone by Louisa Darling

A reserved duke who secretly bare-knuckle boxes at a seedy club and the cook who accompanied his half-sister to London looking for adventure are drawn to each other almost immediately, despite the vast difference in their stations. This feels like a slightly more modern take on the kinds of classic historical romances that I devoured when I was first getting into the genre and I thought it was enormously fun. I especially enjoyed how Darling develops both the emotional and the physical chemistry between Bess and Nathaniel, who feel perfectly matched from the moment they first start arguing in a carriage. There’s also some lovely deepening of the relationship between Nathaniel and the rest of the Lively family and an extremely intriguing tease for the next book. (Open door, medium steam.)

Once, Again, Always by Amanda Gayle (releases October 6th)

A gorgeously yearning second-chance romance between former academic rivals that had me glued to the page. The amount of pining on display here is fabulous. We're in Molly's head throughout, as she wakes up without her memories and tries to figure out how she wound up married to her one-time rival, but the little moments where we get glimpses of the depth of feeling churning through Aster are perfect insights into their relationship. Watching Molly fall in love with him all over again is downright swoony and although it's a slow, slow burn, it only makes the payoff all the more satisfying. I also loved their group of loyal, loving, occasionally interfering friends and one very good cat. Gayle's prose has a lovely lyricism to it, especially when it comes to describing how Molly slowly, tentatively tiptoes back towards loving her husband.(Open door, low steam.)

The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville

Two outsiders meet in a small Australian bush town, one a curator and artist there to develop a heritage museum and one an engineer sent there to demolish an old bridge that's part of said heritage. This is a depiction of two people who have given up on love finding each other in awkward fits and starts, of an eccentric, incurably nosy, and ultimately welcoming small town, and of the beauty that can be found in the unexpected. I found this funny, moving, and beautifully written, although perhaps not the book for any readers who suffer from severe secondhand embarrassment. (I recorded several quotes from this in my quote notebook and wanted to festoon it with page flags.) Grenville is exquisitely aware of the agony of being human and all the petty comedies and tragedies that make up everyday life.

For the Bride by Becca Grischow

Alice is sober, slowly rebuilding her friendships, and still grieving her musician dad when her best friend, and ex-girlfriend, Ginny asks Alice to be her bridesmaid and she's thrust into close proximity with the wildly irritating, wildly attractive Renee Roberts. This smart, complicated enemies-to-lovers romance won me over completely. I loved how slowly Alice and Renee open up to and fall for each other and then how absolutely smitten Alice is with her. The secondary storylines about Alice grappling with her grief, her sobriety, and the complexities of friendship are equally lovely and layered. I particularly liked the way that Grischow uses imagery to capture Alice's emotional state and how precisely she writes about feelings. (Open door, low steam.)

Small Island by Andrea Levy

Gilbert and Hortense Joseph, a Jamaican couple, arrive in London after World War II in hopes of a new life and instead find a country still scarred from war and hostility everywhere they turn. Their landlady Queenie Bligh, who started taking in lodgers when her husband vanished after the war, is hiding secrets and struggles of her own. This novel is a long, slow, often challenging build that’s worth every page. Levy crafts both a sprawling look at a crumbling empire and a deeply personal study of these two couples. All four main characters are carefully, fully drawn, both their best and their worst traits on display, and Levy switches between POVs and time periods expertly. I thought the way she brings all the plot threads together in the last 75 or so pages was particularly fantastic, surprising and fitting. Another gem from the Women’s Prize.

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

On a peninsula in a remote corner of Ireland still bearing the scars of the Great Hunger, a map maker and his family all have different relationships to the land they live on, as life tears them apart and brings them back together. This historical novel demands the reader's full attention and long, uninterrupted stretches of time to read it in. I could probably pick at some of the craft elements here, like the uneven pacing, and struggled to fall into the rhythms of the story at first but found myself enraptured by it more and more as it went on. The nature writing is beautiful, the history heartbreaking, and the family keenly drawn in her luminous prose. It's a rich depiction of the way that family dynamics shift, how grief is passed down from parents to children, and how we lose and keep our faith, themes that she's circled over and over again in her work. It's a rich, layered text endlessly ripe for discussion and it's a story both epic and intimate.

Mina’s Matchbox by Yōko Ogawa

A woman looks back on the year she spent as a young girl with her aunt, uncle, and frail cousin Mina in their grand house and the world of secrets and storytelling she inhabited with Mina in this charming and wistful novel. Ogawa writes about memory so beautifully. Tomoko’s recounting of that eventful year feels like a shimmering soap bubble that could pop at any moment and there’s a slightly heightened unreality about everything that happens in the sprawling house. This perfectly depicts the moment of being poised between childhood and teenagerdom and the intensity of childhood bonds. If you liked Ogawa’s The Housekeeper and the Professor, pick this one up next.

Enemies to Lovers by Alisha Rai (Daughters of Crime #2)

A con woman trying to outrun her family drama and a man searching for his missing brother reluctantly join forces on a cross-country road trip, where they find themselves outrunning danger and falling for each other. Note that I would strongly recommend reading Partners in Crime first, since these two are closely linked. (And equally excellent!) I’ve really been enjoying Rai’s turn into adventure rom-coms. There’s a cinematic feel to her plotting and writing, a few outrageous twists and turns that feel exactly the right amount of dramatic, and incendiary chemistry between her main couples. I loved Krish and Sejal together, from the initial wild spark between them to how Rai parallels their experiences as eldest children to their small gestures of comfort for each other. (Open door, medium steam.)

Yes, Chef by Grace Reilly

A fun, sexy, summery read about an influencer longing to prove herself to her family and an all-business chef who team up to relaunch and reimagine his father figure's restaurant. This was an excellent example of the joys of dual POV. Both Jack and Poppy's emotional arcs are well-developed and satisfying and Reilly crafts two distinctive POVs that perfectly show how they complement each other. (I also liked how thoughtfully she writes about each of their experiences with ADHD!) I adored sunny, bubbly Poppy and her changing relationship with her family, as they grow to appreciate how good she is at what she does. The food descriptions and peek inside life in a restaurant kitchen are a delightful added bonus. Especially recommended for anyone who enjoyed It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey. (Open door, high steam.)

Good People by Patmeena Sabit

A remarkably propulsive literary mystery about an Afghan immigrant family who seems to have achieved the American Dream and then is plunged into tragedy and controversy when their beautiful and rebellious teenage daughter dies. Sabit tells the story through a chorus of people involved, including the family's friends, family, and neighbors, Zorah's friends and teachers, and key figures in the case that ensues, and as a result, we're left to draw our own conclusions about what happened. I flew through this in a day and was especially impressed by the polyphonic narration and how Sabit is constantly playing with what the reader believes to be true.

Liked with minor quibbles

Only Bad Options and Only Good Enemies by Jennifer Estep (Galactic Bonds #1 and #2)

A lab rat on the run from the company whose secrets she exposed and an infamous warrior meet on a battlefield and find themselves tied together by an unwanted magical telepathic connection in this blend of sci-fi adventure, fantasy, and historical romance-style ballroom intrigue. Estep throws a little bit of everything together here and it makes for a delicious space opera that I zipped through. Kyrion and Vesper are the perfect pairing of brooding hero and heroine who’s coming into her true badass nature and the story gives them time to learn to trust each other and open up emotionally before they so much as kiss. I did sometimes want a little more world-building and a stronger sense of exactly what's technology and what's magic in this world and Estep does have the tendency to overuse certain phrases but I’d recommend this if you’re looking for an action-packed sci-fi romance. (Open door, but not until book two!)

By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin

After her mom's death, Luna Starr buys a house in a small Texas town sight unseen and moves there to live out her cowboy romance dreams, then finds herself falling for brooding local handyman and high school football coach Tate. Luna's narrative voice is so strong, funny, fresh, and sparkling with personality. I also really enjoyed how Martin writes about small town dynamics and the cast of charming supporting characters she creates, including a few characters who I'm hoping get a book of their own. Where I found my enjoyment slowing was around the third act breakup, where Luna's actions and feelings don't line up with the person we've seen her be for most of the book and which might have benefited from getting a little more insight into Tate's emotional state. (Open door, medium steam.)

Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa L. Sevigny

The true story of two dedicated female botanists who floated the entire length of the Colorado River and braved the waters of the Grand Canyon to catalog never-before-seen species. This is a fascinating and proudly feminist work of nonfiction, as Sevigny recounts both the physical dangers and the sexism that the two women faced. The nature writing is especially beautiful and I was particularly drawn in by the descriptions of how the Colorado River landscape has been shaped by both natural and human forces, including the negative impact of the dams built along the river. I did occasionally struggle to keep all the secondary characters straight--the men on the raft trip all blur together--but would recommend to fans of nature-focused nonfiction.

Sweet but not quite what I wanted

The Summer Girlfriend by Kristina Forest

A stand-in bridesmaid who's been the victim of a string of bad luck and a business heir grappling with his family's legacy make a deal for the summer: he'll pay her to pretend to be his girlfriend for a series of summer weekends at his family's beach house and she'll use the money to finally go back to college. This is a perfectly nice, summery beach read where everyone's perfectly nice and being good to each other and working out their problems in sensible, thoughtful ways and I found myself yearning for someone to make a big mistake. Or for a little more tension or bigger feelings or just for the stakes to feel slightly higher. If you want a sweet beach read with Hallmark movie vibes, I think you might enjoy this a lot but it just wasn't what I've been craving in my contemporary romance lately. (Open door, low steam.)

Solar Eclipse of the Heart by Kate Robb (releases October 6th)

A cozy roommate romance with a dash of magical realism and the story of a woman learning to forge new connections and open herself up to chance after losing her beloved uncle. I enjoyed Annalise and Mackenzie's slow slide from friends to lovers, complete with star-gazing on their building's roof and cheesy Christmas movie nights, and was particularly fond of Annalise's burgeoning friendship with Koko, the owner of the vintage store downstairs. However, Mackenzie is almost too perfect of a love interest, there for whatever Annalise needs, and it seemed like all his character growth happened off the page. I also felt like the third act breakup was a bit rushed and didn’t give some big emotional beats the room to breathe that I crave. (Open door, medium steam.)

Let me know your favorite July reads in the comments!

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Currently reading: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, a chunky fantasy with royal intrigue, danger, and dragons.

Recommendations, miscellany, and little bits of joy:

• Properly meal prepping work lunches for the first time in forever! I made this pesto, sun-dried tomato, and chicken bean salad and although I am not a gifted cook by any stretch of the imagination, it came out pretty well.

• Fan Fan Doughnuts in Bed-Stuy, which has been on my list to try forever. I finally made it there with a friend on an afternoon walk and the mango passion fruit donut was heavenly.

• Having an impromptu two-person book club with a friend about Maggie O’Farrell’s Land. (Not to mention the wonderful Fiction Matters discussion we had about it a few weeks go!) I’ve been trying to be better about my various book clubs this past month and it’s a reminder of how nice it is to read in community.