Hi and welcome to the reading world!
This is probably a first for the blog, but today I’m sharing a monthly TBR! I am definitely a mood reader, but I want to try out setting TBRs this month because of two readathons I’m excited about!
The first readathon is September 5-12 and is themed around Stranger Things! There are multiple hosts for this one, and one of the prompts is to read a host’s pick based on your favorite character. Nancy has been my favorite Stranger Things character since the beginning, so I’m excited to be reading that pick!
Prompts:
- Lights on the cover
I took this prompt quite literally and picked a book with “light” in the title!
An International Bestseller! Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known. Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else. Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Published by Tom Doherty Associates on November 2, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Gaslamp, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Fantasy / Romance, Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Gay
Pages: 384
Winner of the 2022 Romantic Novel Award in Fantasy!
Locus Award Finalist!
An Indie Next pick and LibraryReads pick—with four starred reviews!
A Best of 2021 Pick for NPR | Amazon | Kobo | Barnes & Noble
Red, White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in debut author Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light, featuring an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies.
2. Psychological thriller
"Alice Feeney is great with TWISTS and TURNS." —Harlan Coben The NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of Rock Paper Scissors returns with a locked-room mystery when a family reunion leads to murder in a delightfully twisty and atmospheric thriller, as seen on the TODAY show. “A dysfunctional family meets Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None with a truly gasp-inducing twist. This is the book you've been looking for.” —Catherine Ryan Howard, bestselling author of 56 Days Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart. Now after years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. When the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. But at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows... Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide goes out and all is revealed. As seen on the TODAY show and picked by Book of the Month, Daisy Darker's family secrets and Alice Feeney's trademark shocking twists will keep readers riveted.
Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
Published by Flatiron Books on August 30, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Gothic, Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 352
3. Multiple POVs
This one is a sequel so I’ve left the synopsis out to avoid spoilers for book 1!
The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
Published by Orbit on August 16, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Epic, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Lesbian
Pages: 512
4. Game or competition
Based on some of literature’s horror and science fiction classics, this “tour de force of reclaiming the narrative, executed with impressive wit and insight” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) debut is the story of a remarkable group of women who come together to solve the mystery of a series of gruesome murders—and the bigger mystery of their own origins. Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents’ death, is curious about the secrets of her father’s mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father’s former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capture…a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes. But her hunt leads her to Hyde’s daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherin Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein. When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
Published by Gallery / Saga Press on February 27, 2018
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / General, Fiction / Historical / General, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths
Pages: 432
5. Favorite Character: Nancy
The New York Times bestseller from the acclaimed author of A Northern Light, Revolution, Stepsister, and Poisoned. This thrilling mystery is perfect for fans of The Cellar and Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls. It's a story of dark secrets, dirty truths, and the lengths to which people will go for love and revenge. Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon--like all the girls in her class--she'll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo dreams of becoming a writer--a newspaper reporter. Wild aspirations aside, Jo's life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. The story is that Charles Montfort shot himself while cleaning his revolver, but the more Jo hears about her father's death, the more something feels wrong. And then she meets Eddie--a young, smart, infuriatingly handsome reporter at her father's newspaper--and it becomes all too clear how much she stands to lose if she keeps searching for the truth. But now it might be too late to stop. The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and this time the truth is the dirtiest part of all. Praise for These Shallow Graves "Lovely prose, historical intrigue, unique characters and setting. I devoured this book!" --Ruta Sepetys, New York Times bestselling author of Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea "A splendidly hair-raising tour of the brightest and darkest corners of Victorian New York." --Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity and Black Dove, White Raven "A fast-paced Gilded Age crime thriller." --Julie Berry, award-winning author of All the Truth That's in Me
These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Published by Ember on September 1, 2022
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Girls & Women
Pages: 512
★ "Action-packed chapters propel this compelling mystery...[and] the injustices Donelly highlights remain all too relevant."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
The other readathon this month is Bookoplathon which runs the entire month, hosted by Becca and the Books!
I did 5 rolls for this one! One of my rolls was a free pick so I’ll be saving that for a mood read. Otherwise, here are my picks!
- Pattern and Text on the cover
"Dazzling. . . . A hard-won love letter to readers and to booksellers, as well as a compelling story about how we cope with pain and fear, injustice and illness. One good way is to press a beloved book into another's hands. Read The Sentence and then do just that."—USA Today, Four Stars In this New York Times bestselling novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors. Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention," must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning. The Sentence begins on All Souls' Day 2019 and ends on All Souls' Day 2020. Its mystery and proliferating ghost stories during this one year propel a narrative as rich, emotional, and profound as anything Louise Erdrich has written. 
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Published by HarperCollins on November 9, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Ghost, Fiction / Indigenous, Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Women
Pages: 400
2. Features a Mystery
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! - Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise--undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music world--when a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather's heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world. "I loved The Violin Conspiracy for exactly the same reasons I loved The Queen's Gambit a surprising, beautifully rendered underdog hero I cared about deeply and a fascinating, cutthroat world I knew nothing about--in this case, classical music." --Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian's life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream--he's determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can't afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music. When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition--the Olympics of classical music--the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he's lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself--and the world--that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
on September 1, 2022
Genres: Fiction / African American & Black / General, Fiction / African American & Black / Mystery & Detective, Fiction / Coming of Age
Pages: 352
3. 3rd person perspective
I’ve counted this one with one of the prompts from the Upside Down Readathon and I’ll be using A Marvellous Light for both!
4. Lowest rated
I picked the lowest rated from some of my to-read on Goodreads, which actually ended up being 3.65 because I have very few books on that shelf.
"A five-alarm fire of a situation…the surprises keep coming." —The New York Times Secrets, obsession and vengeance converge in this riveting thriller about an online dating match turned deadly cat-and-mouse game, from the New York Times bestselling author of Confessions on the 7:45 She met him through a dating app. An intriguing picture on a screen, a date at a downtown bar. What she thought might be just a quick hookup quickly became much more. She fell for him—hard. It happens sometimes, a powerful connection with a perfect stranger takes you by surprise. Could it be love? But then, just as things were getting real, he stood her up. Then he disappeared—profiles deleted, phone disconnected. She was ghosted. Maybe it was her fault. She shared too much, too fast. But isn't that always what women think—that they're the ones to blame? Soon she learns there were others. Girls who thought they were in love. Girls who later went missing. She had been looking for a connection, but now she's looking for answers. Chasing a digital trail into his dark past—and hers—she finds herself on a dangerous hunt. And she's not sure whether she's the predator—or the prey.
Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger
Published by Harlequin on October 5, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Crime, Fiction / Thrillers / Domestic, Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 429
These are definitely possible to change since I do mood read, but I’ll share what prompts I complete with certain books at the end of the month in a wrap up!
What are you reading this month? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Thanks for stopping by!
Rae
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