I’m struggling to reconcile with the idea that it is September already. August–like the last few months–has really flown by and I can’t believe it’s time for another wrap-up. I read a lot in August: a combination of free evenings, audiobooks, and the read 7 books in 7 days challenge I completed over the last week. My total books read for this month is 18; the highest number of books I’ve ever read in a single month.

Over the past 4 months, I’ve been writing wrap-ups in a series of mini-reviews: one for each book I read that month. I love reading and watching wrap-ups and seeing people’s thoughts on different books, and I also love writing reviews, so that has worked well for the past couple of months. However, the number of books I’m reading each month keeps going up and up, and July’s wrap up was very long. It took ages to write, and yet even I wouldn’t have wanted to read the whole thing!! So, I wanted to change up my wrap-ups so it’s both less time-consuming to write and, more importantly, less time-consuming to read. If I–and hopefully others–enjoy it, I’ll stick to this layout indefinitely (which means until I get bored and want to change it again).
The Stats
Reading Format
This month I read 18 books, broken down in:
10 physical reads
5 audiobook reads
2 ARCs
1 short story collection
Star Ratings
This month I rated:
5 books ★★★★★
7 books ★★★★
4 books ★★★
2 books ★★
The Books
Books marked with an * were kindly sent to me for review.
Full reviews for all of these books can be found on my Goodreads and The Story Graph accounts, which I will leave links to at the bottom of this post.

The Top 3
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
I don’t think this will come as a surprise to anyone. The Night Circus is pure magic. I think it goes without saying that Erin Morgenstern is my favourite author; I am slightly obsessed with her incredible writing and beautiful storytelling.
Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez
This was a highly anticipated read for me and it did not disappoint. The contents of Woven in Moonlight evoke the same adjectives as the cover: intricate, beautifully-crafted and completely captivating. I read this in two sittings; I couldn’t put it down. Isabel Ibañez weaves together Bolivian history with fantasy to create an enthralling story of divided loyalties, prejudice and romance and I would definitely recommend it.
Blended by Sharon M. Draper
This is a book I expected to enjoy, but I did not expect to fall in love with. It is the sweetest, most beautiful and heartfelt Middle Grade novel I’ve ever read. It follows an 11-year-old, Isabelle, trying to figure out her identity, come to terms with her parent’s divorce and living in two houses–but not a single home–and deal with a racial incident at her school. If you enjoy Middle Grade, this should be on your tbr.
The Books I Recommend
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah perfectly encapsulates real life into fiction. Her characters, her stories, are so well-crafted, so detailed and believable, that is hard to imagine that these characters aren’t real, that the events of their lives didn’t really happen. Love for this book crept up on me, unknowingly, and it didn’t realise that Kristin Hannah had hold of my heart until she crushed it. A full review of this will be up on my blog soon.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Such a Fun Age is an exploration of the dynamic between babysitter, parent, and child, and its intersections with race, racial history and economic status. It was incredibly interesting, gripping – at times, infuriating – and thought-provoking. I love the babysitter/parent dynamic and its influence on the child–it’s something that really interests me–so I love seeing it explored in fiction.
The Biggest Surprise
Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren
This needs to be made into a rom-com, no question. I was shocked by how much I loved this book: I thought it would be funny, but the humour in this book was just perfect for me. I was supposed to listen to the audiobook whilst getting on with a mindless copy/paste task I needed to do one afternoon, and I found myself laughing so much I had to stop working! This was definitely a surprise, but the best kind, and now I can’t wait to read more Kristin Hannah.

The Unfortunate Disappointments
The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan
This book is described as light-hearted and funny. It was not.
The Flip Side by James Bailey *
I am gutted I didn’t love this one. It’s one I will be doing a full blog post on as I was kindly #gifted this for review and, sadly, I really didn’t enjoy it. I do think it was a personal preference thing and it just wasn’t for me.

The Rest
★★★★
The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
The Woman of the Wolf and other stories by Renée Vivien *
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson
★★★
The Humans by Matt Haig
Inconvenient Daughter by Lauren J. Sharkey
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
The BBC National Short Story Award 2019 edited by Nikki Bedi *
And, that’s a wrap. Yes, my jokes are terrible. As I don’t have to worry about doing short wrap ups for every book as well as full reviews, I can hopefully put more time into posting more full-length reviews on my blog. It’s something I really enjoy writing (and reading) and I hope that other people enjoy them too. And, if I remember, I can keep updating my wrap-up with links to full reviews as and when I upload them!
Let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you thought of them. And, what was your favourite book in the month of August?
You can find full reviews for all of these books on Goodreads or The StoryGraph.

Woow you had such a great reading month! I really want to read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
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Thank you! I think I might be all read out for September though 😂 I’d recommend it; it was a fun read (despite the murder), but I think I had very high expectations because of the hype
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Great month! I like the look of Woven in Moonlight – I hadn’t heard of this. Thanks!
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It’s amazing!! Hope you decide to get it ☺️
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Looks like you had a great reading month! The Night Circus definitely is pure magic. And love that you enjoyed Dating You/Hating You – it’s one of the Christina Lauren books I still need to get to.
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I need to read the rest of Christina Lauren’s books, though I’m not sure which one to read next!
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Wow! That’s a lot of books to read in a month! Well done, you. 🙂
I have a few of these books in my TBR! Can’t wait to get reading. 🙂
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Thank you! I hope you do get round to them—so many amazing ones!
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Woven in Moonlight is on my tbr, it looks so magical and im really excited!! And The Night Circus is such a good book I’m glad you enjoyed it, she’s one of my favourites too! Her writing style is so pretty
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The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern is my all-time favourite book! I’m obsessed with her writing! And Woven in Moonlight is definitely magical, and a surprisingly quick read too!
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That is an incredible amount of books to work through, I am in awe of you!
I’ve not read any of these but it sounds like there are some I should definitely check out x
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Haha thank you—it was a pretty anomalous month! And you should definitely check out the top 3 x
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Wow – you managed to read so much! I really need to read The Night Circus as everyone raves about it! And I love the sound of Dating You, Hating You!
Tash – A Girl with a View
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You really do! It’s amazing! And Dating You, Hating You is such a fun read!
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I love these styles of posts. Well done on reading so many books. You’ve mentioned some great books which I haven’t read before.
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Thank you! There’s so many great ones from this month!
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Loving this new wrap-up format, the headings are so much fun ☺️
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Glad you liked it ☺️☺️
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Talk about an impressive month of reading! I really hope to read like this in the future. For now, I’m pretty satisfied with my 10-12 books each month 🙂 I am so glad you enjoyed The Night Circus. It’s one of my all-time favorites. And I hope to read a couple of the others on your list soon!
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Thank you! And I’ve definitely been able to read more over the past couple of months! Erin Morgenstern is my favourite author; The Starless Sea is my favourite book! So it wasn’t a huge surprise that I loved The Night Circus too 😂
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