Hello Readers! I’m a little late with my TBR for this month, but I’m still catching up on blogging and non-blogging tasks from August. After my readathon reading last month, I’m looking forward to enjoying my “normal” amount of reading, when I’m able to really absorb books at the pace I like. I like the challenge of a readathon, but I always enjoy the month after, as well. 

This month I’ll be tackling a few ARCs and trying to read the last five books I need to complete my yearly Popsugar Reading Challenge. It will be the earliest I’ve ever finished, if I’m able to make it happen. But whatever I don’t get to, will probably appear in next month’s TBR. The last three books will be holiday themed, which will be strange for this seasonal reader. I feel like I should be starting spooky reads. But they are three of my most-anticipated!

Here’s what I hope to get to this month!

The Traitor (Alias Emma, #2) by Ava Glass

Last summer Alias Emma was an unexpected surprise hit for me. I had so much fun reading the thrilling spy novel, and I was so happy to get the next one. This is my current ebook read and so far I’m loving it! You do not have to read the first one, but I recommend that you do because it’s awesome.

Synopsis:

British spy Emma Makepeace goes undercover on a Russian oligarch’s superyacht, where she’s one wrong move away from a watery grave, in this electrifying thriller from the author of Alias Emma .

An MI6 operative is found dead, locked in a suitcase inside his own apartment. Despite an exhaustive search, no fingerprints are found at the scene. Emma Makepeace and her handler, Ripley, know an assassination when they see one, and such an obvious murder can mean only one Someone is sending a message.

As she digs into his past, Emma discovers that the unfortunate spy had been investigating two Russian oligarchs based in London. He’d become obsessed with the idea that the two were spies, aided by a third man—whose identity he had yet to uncover. When he shared his findings within MI6 in the weeks before he died, the response came back fast and Drop the investigation and move on. Had he uncovered a secret that cost him his life?

To pick up where he left off without ending up in a suitcase of her own, Emma goes undercover on one of the oligarch’s million-dollar yachts, scheduled to set sail from the Côte d’Azur to Monaco. Under other circumstances, this would be a dream vacation. But if Emma’s real identity gets discovered, it’s a death sentence.

As Emma’s work reveals secrets she’d be safer not knowing, the danger ratchets up. The killer may be closer to home than any of them imagined, and Emma won’t be safe until he—or she—is caught.

Goodreads
Expected September 19, 2023

---

Beach Read by Emily Henry

I’m finally re-reading what may be my favorite romance ever. I’ve been meaning to re-read it since I finished it in 2020. (My Review) I’m over halfway done, and it’s still a favorite! For me, it’s perfection.

Synopsis:

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
 
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.

Goodreads

---

Forever… by Judy Blume

When I needed to read a book published the year I was born for my Popsugar Challenge, I was happy to see this would work. I recently (re)read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which I really enjoyed, so I’ll be excited to see if this one strikes my memory, too. Surely I read it in my teens?? I’ll be reading it via Libby.

Synopsis:

Katherine and Michael meet at a New Year’s Eve party. They’re attracted to each other, they grow to love each other. And once they’ve decided their love is forever, they make love.

It’s the beginning of an intense and exclusive relationship, with a future all planned. Until Katherine’s parents insist that she and Michael put their love to the test with a summer apart…

Forever is written for an older age group than Judy Blume’s other novels for children. It caused a storm of controversy when it was first published because of its explicit sexual content.

Goodreads

---

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Another book to fulfill a specific Popsugar prompt: A book written during Nanowrimo, I have a feeling I’ll wonder why I haven’t read this one sooner after I finish it.

Synopsis:

In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her large, painfully empty house nearly a year after her husband’s death in a car crash. Everyone in town, even her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them.

Meanwhile, in New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. As the media storm heats up, an invitation from Andy to stay in Maine seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button on Dean’s future.

When he moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie’s house, the two make a deal: Dean won’t ask about Evvie’s late husband, and Evvie won’t ask about Dean’s baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken—and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. To move forward, Evvie and Dean will have to reckon with their pasts—the friendships they’ve damaged, the secrets they’ve kept—but in life, as in baseball, there’s always a chance—up until the last out.

Goodreads

---

A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2) by Sabaa Tahir

It’s been two years since I read the first book, but it’s one that has stuck with me, which is rare. I’m determined to get to the next one. And it will fulfill the Popsugar prompt: A book with a map.

Synopsis:

Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.

Goodreads

---

Love, Holly by Emily Stone

My first holiday book is the next one by Emily Stone. I’ve read and enjoyed her first two books (My reviews of Always, In December and One Last Gift), so I have faith I’ll like this one, too.

Synopsis:

A young woman tries to heal a rift in her elderly pen pal’s family in time for Christmas, all while falling in love—and maybe even reuniting with her own family—in this dazzling romance from the author of Always, in December and One Last Gift.

Sometimes it takes a stranger to bring you back to yourself.

Ever since a car accident tore her family apart, Holly has been part of a lonely-hearts holiday letter–writing club. Each December, she writes to a stranger who is also spending Christmas alone, and receives a letter from another lonely person in return. 

Usually, the letters go unanswered. That’s the point—the letters are anonymous, and the senders write whatever is in their heart. But this year, the letter Holly receives is different; not only is the letter full of a grief she knows all too well, but its writer, Emma, mentions a place that Holly has visited. When she realizes that she might actually be able to find the letter’s author, Holly becomes determined to reunite Emma with the estranged grandson, Jack, with whom Emma is desperate to reconnect.

When Holly finally tracks him down, she remembers that she’s met Jack once before . . . and the connection was electric. The spark between the two of them is still there—until a misunderstanding risks their burgeoning romance and his strained relationship with Emma, too. But Holly is determined; if she can fix Emma’s family, she might also be able to fix her own. Though as it turns out, Holly might have less time to put things right than she thought.

Goodreads
Expected September 26, 2023

---

The Christmas Wager by Holly Cassidy

This will be my first book by the author, but I couldn’t resist this invitation. Especially when I’ve see so many of you enjoying it!

Synopsis:

From a bestselling Canadian author comes a delightful enemies-to-lovers holiday rom-com set in the quaint town of Maple Falls, about a city girl and a small-town boy who compete in the town’s annual holiday games in order to win the right price for a Christmas shop, perfect for fans of The Hating Game and One Day in December.

One rivalry. Eight days until Christmas. Let the holiday games begin.

When LA-based real estate developer Bella Ross arrives in the sleepy, mountain town of Maple Falls, she has one mission: to acquire the local failing Christmas shop, Always Noelle, securing the promotion of her dreams. Nothing can get in her way. Except the shop owner’s stubborn grandson, Jesse Harrison.

Both refuse to budge, until an unlikely wager is struck: Bella and Jesse will compete in the Maple Falls Holiday Games, an annual tradition of eccentric feats of strength and skills. Winner decides the selling price. They’ll give each other a run for their money, but as the competition heats up, Bella and Jesse’s icy feelings toward each other begin to thaw. It’ll take a Christmas miracle for them to admit there’s a spark, but what if it’s just another game?

Goodreads
Expected September 26, 2023

---

A Winter in New York by Josie Silver

One of my favorite books of the year last year was Silver’s book (My review of One Night on the Island), so I was very happy to be approved for her follow-up. I’m trying not to get too overhyped, but it’s hard.

Synopsis:

A young chef stumbles on a secret family recipe that might lead her to the love—and life—she’s been looking for in this stunning novel.

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice. 

But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?

Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?

Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.

Goodreads
Expected October 3, 2023

Have you read any of these books yet? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!