Hello Readers! I had a good reading month in September, but if you take a look back at My September TBR, you’ll see I didn’t quite get to everything I’d hoped. I’d hoped to wrap up My Popsugar Reading Challenge for the year, but I’m one book or prompt away. The prompt is to read a book with a map. I’d had a book specifically penciled in for the prompt, but I’d also assumed I’d read another book with a map sometime throughout the year if I didn’t get to the one I’d intended. No such luck. I DO have a book I want to read in October that also has a map, so I should be able to wrap up my challenge soon!

I read 7 books in September, for a total of 2,401 pages, including 3 ARCs, 2 backlist books, 1 author invite, and 1 re-read!

I only added a few new books to my shelves, so I’ll be combining my Wrap-Up and Haul this month.

🎉On September 10th I celebrated my 4th Blogiversary, and there’s only a few more days to enter the giveaways I’m hosting. Be sure to do that right away! 🎉

Let’s see what I read and what I added to my TBR!

Be sure to check out The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction!

(Link to synopsis on Goodreads through the book title.)

September Wrap-Up

I started the month re-reading one of my favorite romances! Ever since I finished Beach Read by Emily Henry, I’ve wanted to re-read it. Three years later, I finally made it happen.

➤My Rating: ★★★★★
➤Popsugar Challenge prompt: A book you wish you could read for the first time again
➤My Review

Next I picked up the second installment in the Alias Emma series, The Traitor by Ava Glass. While you don’t have to read the first book in this mystery thriller series about a female British spy before you pick up the second, I highly recommend both books!

➤My Rating: ★★★★
➤My Review
➤Published on September 19, 2023

To cross-off another very specific prompt on my Popsugar Challenge, I read Forever… by Judy Blume via the Libby app. I fully expected to realize this was a re-read while I read it, but that didn’t happen. I don’t think I would have forgotten reading this fairly explicit (at least for the 80s and 90s) teen novel about sex. I wish I would have read it. It’s outdated now, but at least Judy Blume was having an honest conversation about sex. It’s more than my parents ever did. 🤷‍♀️😃

➤My Rating: ★★★
➤Popsugar Challenge prompt: A book published the year you were born

I’ve had Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes waiting on my shelf for a few years, so I was happy to finally pick this one up! I adored it just as much as I expected I would. Five stars!

➤My Rating: ★★★★★
➤Popsugar Challenge advanced prompt: A book written during Nanowrimo

Technically One Day at a Time by Tessa Alexandra is part of my haul, as well, but when the author reached out in early September and invited me to read her novel with a similar premise to the film 50 First Dates, I couldn’t resist taking a closer look. I read the sample on Amazon and found I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters. I knew I needed to finish it! Unique and heartwarming, I was very impressed with this debut.

➤My Rating: ★★★★
➤My Review
➤Published on August 1, 2023
➤Popsugar Challenge prompt: A book with a song lyric as its title

I’ve come to anticipate Emily Stone’s holiday books ever since reading her debut, and she made me feel ALL the things again with Love, Holly!

➤My Rating: ★★★★
➤My Review
➤Published on September 26, 2023

And finally, I picked up The Christmas Wager by Holly Cassidy! If you’re a fan of Hallmark holiday films, you should enjoy this fun and festive romance. I’m a seasonal reader, so I only wish I’d read it closer to the holidays. It’s harder for me to get into the spirit when it’s still so hot outside. 😉 But that is the challenge of reading holiday ARCs. I’m always torn on whether to accept them up or not. I feel too guilty to hold them until November or December. 🤦‍♀️

➤My Rating: ★★★¼
➤My Review
➤Published on September 26, 2023

September Book Haul

I only added two physical books and two ebooks to my shelves in September, but two of them are ARCs.

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My eARC

I’ve enjoyed every book by Sophie Kinsella that I’ve read, so I was happy to be approved for The Burnout. I’m also super excited that it seems to be set in the fall or winter, and it doesn’t hurt that I’m also seeing so many glowing early reviews!

Synopsis:

Sasha has had it. She cannot bring herself to respond to another inane, “urgent” (but obviously not at all urgent) email or participate in the corporate employee joyfulness program. She hasn’t seen her friends in months. Sex? Seems like a lot of effort. Even cooking dinner takes far too much planning. Sasha has hit a wall.

Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga, and find peace, she heads to the seaside resort she loved as a child. But it’s the off season, the hotel is in a dilapidated shambles, and she has to share the beach with the only other a grumpy guy named Finn, who seems as stressed as Sasha. How can she commune with nature when he’s sitting on her favorite rock, watching her? Nor can they agree on how best to alleviate their burnout ( manifesting, wild swimming; drinking whisky, getting pizza delivered to the beach).

When curious messages, seemingly addressed to Sasha and Finn, begin to appear on the beach, the two are forced to talk—about everything. How did they get so burned out? Can either of them remember something they used to love? (Answer: surfing!) And the question they try and fail to ignore: what does the energy between them—flaring even in the face of their bone-deep exhaustion—signify?

Expected October 10, 2023

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Book HookUp Subscription Box

My fall Book HookUp subscription box from The Strand Bookstore arrived in September. It included two new gothic/fantasy/horror YA books that seem to be getting a lot of buzz: a signed copy of The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White and an ARC of Before the Devil Knows You’re Here by Autumn Krause.

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Amazon First Reads

It doesn’t happen too often, but I had a hard time choosing between two books for my Amazon First Reads pick in September. I ended up reading a sample of both books then choosing Penelope in Retrograde by Brooke Abrams. I love dysfunctional family books set over the holidays, and this one takes place over a Thanksgiving gathering. Hopefully I can get to it in November!

Expected publication on October 1, 2023

How was your reading month? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!