The Katie Chronicles

So I loooovvvvveeeeeeee reading and listening to audiobooks (which, hot take, I do still consider reading the book lol). It is such a fun activity while camping, on the beach, listening to while doing field/lab work. It makes me feel doubly productive when I am doing my field work and listening to a book haha. I use the Fable app to track the books I’ve read but I don’t actually use their features to track what and how much I am reading each day as I am attempting to use my phone less (we don’t need to talk about how that is going…). I really like the ability to connect with friends and make book clubs within the app its fun to see what my friends have been reading and gives me ideas of what to read next!

There will be some minor spoilers but I will not be going thorough the plots bit by bit just general likes and dislikes, just so you know!

Time to get into it! Here are the books I read this summer and my mini reviews and ratings!

The Awakened Fates Series – Lucinda Dark

I read all three books in this series in June! My Ph.D. project has a lot of field work so I would wear head phones in the field and listen to this series.

What I liked:

• Immediate twist at the beginning with her bff killing her dad, shocked me!!!
• I love vampires and thought that Solomon was a neat take on this.
• I thought the political commentary of the kingdom that has the son that murdered this girl’s dad (the king!!) being very blasé about their son couping her kingdom even though they didn’t agree with the son’s actions was very funny and felt parallel to some of the wars and things happening in the real world (to an extent).
• The “sidekicks” of both the MMC and FMC.

What I didn’t:

• Her enemy is not her enemy… it is literally her personal guard… they were friends before he literally WENT TO WAR then he came back and she’s all upset that he is doing his job as her guard… this made no sense to me lol.
• Very very very predictable after the initial bff killing her dad part.

Overall I liked the first 2 books more than the third. The last book was highly predictable and not as action packed as it could have been in my opinion but really picked up in the last fifth of the book!

Crown of Blood and Glass 4/5

Dawn of Fate and Valor 4/5

Wings of Sunfire and Darkness 3.5/5

Great Big Beautiful Life – Emily Henry

This was one of the summer books for my book club! I again listened to this book which I totally recommend, the writing is similar to the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I think really lends itself to being a good listen.

This book was about two writers competing to write a biography about a famous elderly woman and there are parallels in the stories the famous lady tells with the two writers lives (and obviously the writers fall in love).

This was a fluffy book, no real likes or dislikes, just kind of a meh read. This is totally just my opinion though as someone who prefers fantasy over classic romances.

Overall I give it a 3/5, I’d read more Emily Henry as they’re nice stories just not really what I gravitate to. The women I am in a book club with who do usually like Emily Henry also thought this wasn’t her strongest novel.

Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn

This was our other summer book club book. This one was intense and jarring (exactly as it was supposed to be it is a thriller!). This was ALMOST the best book I read this summer.

What I liked:

• The twist! I did not think that the killer was who they were!! I thought it was a different character until the very end.
• The doll house. That is all I will say.
• The family dynamic in the book made the story (rightfully) unpredictable and I love it when a book genuinely surprises me like this one did.

What I didn’t:

• The self harm of the main character was really disturbing (words on her skin) and I think made the story seem less “real” whenever this part of the story was mentioned it kind of pulled me out of the story in a way.
• Preteen girls being described so sexually. It seemed to be part of this town and this book is generally a shocking read it just feels gross.
• The pig barn…Especially when the little sister was there… You’ll know what I mean when you read it. That was weird and as someone that researches animals (cows not pigs but still) it just felt like an animal welfare violation so that was a personal dislike.

This book is about children getting murdered so it is a shocking and graphic read so if you give it a go just make sure you are ready for that! The other women in my book club liked this book less than me and I do think part of it was the gorier shock value and the content being about children.

My dislikes for this book all led to this book being as shocking as it was for me I think, so even though those parts were uncomfortable to read they did make the book make me feel something which is the whole point.

This lands this book at a 4.75/5. I have to spread the reading of books like this out but I do really love thrillers. I haven’t decided yet if I can handle watching the show or if I’d like to leave it in my imagination.

The Coven of Bones Series – Harper L. Woods

So technically not the whole series BUT the third book hasn’t been released yet so I couldn’t have read it anyways!

This was a witchy, vampy, romantasy and I enjoyed it! It is super sexually explicit though so, you’ve been warned if you go read it lol.

Things I liked:

• The magic balance. I like when magic has a cost, feels more energetically correct and I thought it was done well.
• The FMC has a personality! She is sassy and doesn’t go along with everything the MMC wants. She argues and does what she thinks is best.
• The twist of who the MMC actually is! I thought this was well hidden and made the story make sense with the direction they took it.
• I did like that this was college age and not high school age as many romantasies have characters that are too young for the romance part.

Things I didn’t:

• Questionable consent (headmaster/ student really can’t be consensual but he’s already a million years old and it is a fantasy novel so sometimes you’ve just gotta overlook some things)… That being said I do think a similar story could have been told with him being like student body president or something and not like a school admin.

Book 3 looks like it is going to be from two other characters POV which I don’t always love in books because I get so attached to my usual characters but I feel like their story was wrapped up at the end of book 2 that I am looking forward to the new perspective in book 3.

The Coven (Book 1) gets 4.25/5. I liked it, the second book is better than the first though and when rating books within a series I do rank them against each other.

The Cursed (Book 2) get a 4.5/5. This was action packed and I loved the direction the author took in this book I literally spent 24 hours reading this book instead of doing my school work (whoops, but don’t worry I did catch up!!!)

The Assassin’s Blade – Sarah J. Maas

I WISH SOMEONE HAD TOLD ME TO READ THIS BEFORE THE OTHER TOG BOOKS NOT AFTER THE FIRST THREE WHAT THE HECK. I LOVED HAVING ALL THE SAM CONTEXT. THIS BOOK IS MY FAVOURITE SO FAR IN THE TOG SERIES. WHY DO PEOPLE WAIT TO READ IT!?!?!?

Now that my little rant is over…

Things I liked:

• These short stories flowed really well together I was worried it was going to feel disjointed.
• So much necessary context is provided for the rest of the books omgggggg, again I wish I had read it sooner.
• The desert assassins were my favourite part of this book, if I didn’t know what I do about where the story was going I would have wished her and the boy went back to them. Such better leadership than yucky Arobynn.
• The friendships that the FMC made in this book and how they fell apart felt so real. I really like how SJM writes about relationships in general I but this book felt especially well done.

Things I didn’t:

• Too short gimme moreeeee
• Typical man getting insecure and ruining everything ugh

This was a 5/5 for me. I was feeling like I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue with the TOG series (I tried the dual read earlier this year and it was discouraging lol I can’t do it) but this brought me back in and I am just waiting until I go back to Saskatchewan for my lab work to listen to the audiobooks. I like that it isn’t an explicit romance series, I would feel yucky listening to anything sexually explicit at work (but that’s just me lol).

Those were my eight books for the summer that I’ll talk about here! I also read 3 others in a series but I like to rate series together so I’ll tell you about them later. I also DNF’d a few books this summer but I’m thinking I’ll do an end of year DNF list!

Cheers!