welcome to my August reading wrap up I read six books this month including one just under the wire finishing it on August 31st but hey it counts I will say there was a lot of kind of mediocre reads this month it was a lot of threes threes and a half a couple of standouts but a lot of books that were fine but not amazing but let’s get into everything that I read I did start the month off strong with Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis this was an arc from DAW Books I gave this four out of five stars it is a fun and flirty space adventure there’s no spice here but you have a con artist and a government secret agent who are both trying to get to the same object on a crashed ship they’re working both together and against each other as they’re trying to kind of out maneuver each other and end up with the prize at the end of the day and there’s definitely some chemistry brew in between these two and I had a delightful time I immediately requested the sequel novella that is coming out in December How to Steal a Galaxy and I definitely recommend if you just want a bite size fun adventure pick this up it was a great time after that I picked up my arc of Mistress of Lies by KM Enright thank you to Orbit Books for this one this I ended up ultimately giving it three out of five stars it had a really strong start and I did like the main character of Shan who is just morally gray and willing to do just whatever it takes to get the job done I did find her co lead Samuel to be kind of a wet blanket very helpless just a moral line that he would just completely throw out the first time somebody leaned on him and there was a lot of stuff that happened off page that I wish it happened on page they’re supposed to be hunting a serial killer and the hunting the serial killer doesn’t really happen in the book so yeah it starts strong but kind of petered out so I gave us 3 out of 5 stars after that I read my arc of Heartless Hunter I gave this like a 3.25 out of 5 stars it is a ya fantasy I really did like the central romance between a witch hunter and a woman who is pretending to be a vapid socialite but is actually secretly a vigilante smuggling witches out of a country under revolution is very loosely inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel so I really liked that central romance the world building however was just so muddy it made character motivations just very indistinct and it kind of undermined the whole story and there was also some very late game things that I just didn’t understand character motivation wise so 3.25 I’m not sure if I’ll continue with this duology if you don’t grate on YA tropes as much as I do you might enjoy this a little more but it wasn’t as smashing as I was hoping it’s gonna be after that I did rally with Queen of Dreams by Kit Rocha this is part two in a duology that started with Consort of Fire it is a fantasy romance very heavy on the spice I really enjoyed the story in here you basically have kind of warring courts of gods one is kind of the good court where our central romance is taking place and one of the members is abducted to the evil court and is trying to understand the politics there and help undermine things from within so I really enjoyed the plot in the story I do wish the spice had been a little more evenly spread out it’s kind of bookends the story so heavy spice up front heavy spice in the back and then nothing in the middle you know the plot and everything was delightful there is a character in here Aleksei who I am very excited will to find out will be the star of the next duology along with some other characters so yes had a great time with this if you like fantasy romance with spice definitely pick this one up I also had a fun time with my review copy of The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss I gave this three and a half out of five stars it’s a perfectly fun pleasant adventure it takes place in the 1800s it is a mashup of a bunch of different female characters from things like Doctor Moreau and Frankenstein and Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde like their daughters or women loosely associated with their stories they all have kind of different alchemical gifts that have been given to them and they come together to try and undermine a secret society of evil alchemists so if you like kind of those mashup stories I think you’ll have a fun time with it it is written very much in like an 1800s style which sometimes works sometimes feels a little stiff there’s also kind of interjections here and there from the female characters as they are commenting on the manuscript that has been written about their adventures so that adds some fun foreshadowing and also just some you know comedic relief here and there so yes it’s a fun time I’m not sure if I’ll continue with the trilogy just cause I have so much on my stack but thank you to saga for sending me this I had fun checking this out and if you again if you like mashup worlds of just a bunch of literary characters running around together you might want to pick this one up and then lastly I finished out the month with The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi this is the third and final book in the Ending Fire trilogy that began with The Final Strife thank you to Del Rey for this arc I gave this like three and a half 3.75 out of 5 stars, I’m still kind of muling in my head but basically it had a really solid finale like the back half soon as the final battle hits it is just gripping couldn’t it put it down you know read that last 20% in one sitting great time getting up to that was just a little laborious part of it is I genuinely didn’t remember all of the factions that were introduced in book two and there were a lot so I was a little floundering so if some of that is on me the other half however some of the character romantic relationships just weren’t working for me they felt a little forced there was some drama that I didn’t feel needed to be there and then also it was one of those books that felt like it had a couple of spicy scenes just to have them like I don’t mind spice but they felt kind of shoved into the plot here and there just just to have them so there were just some things that weren’t quite working for me overall but I did think it has a really solid finale to the book that is what I read in August what was your favorite read of the month