August Reads, Currently Reading, September Hopefuls and Season 2 Updates
U1
0:00
1s Hello Readers. This is Charity, your host of Booktrovert Reader. It's been a few weeks since I've had a new episode come live just because of the fact decided to take a break, have a little small vacation just because I have been constantly working. I have also been heavily inspired to pre plan the next season. So I will definitely get into those details. First off, I just and it kind of gives a list of the books I've read this month, the books I'm currently reading that I know I'm not going to finish this month and the maybe piles of my list for September. I have a lot in store and I can't wait to share with you all. So just to go over the August reads I have, I'm not going to get into the stats because I haven't finished the month out but I definitely have been tackling the Fallen Kingdom series. I'm going to finish book five by the time this audio is live and that means I will just have one book in that series. That series follows a series of characters, at least five of them. And what's interesting about this series is that the POVs, the personal point of views are constantly changing and what really can be said about the series is don't get attached to certain characters, they may or may not make it. And I'm finding that this series is quite a bit twists and turns, things that are unexpected and a lot of times I want to scream plot twist and I find it very fun and very fascinating series so far. I decided to listen on audiobook and the narrator is simply amazing. Definitely check that out. If you're looking to binge on a series that you might not be interested in on a physical copy but on an audiobook level is such an amazing time on that and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I definitely have finished some books you're going to be hearing on this next season. One of them is Symbol of Hope which is from an indie author by the name of Amber Page. That one is a fantasy romance inspired. It's about our main character who she was raised in a village and one day a king comes by, says that she is his daughter and the heir to his throne. So she was taken away, spirited away from her mother and there she learned to live court life and also as well she was given a locket from a boy from her village saying that, hey, I promise you that I will come and visit and find you and bring you back. Well, time has passed. Still no guy, never heard of him again. And then she's being courted know another guess, you know, things go down, things go situations. She comes across hard times and everything and she learns to navigate that. It's very interesting read to see the romance played out in it. Another one I read was Blood Mercy by Bella Roth. That was a hunky chunky book. I will say that. That was. Kind of a hard read just because of the fact that it is heavy on the world building. And I wouldn't say it was painful to read all that world building because it was told in a way that made you want to know more. It's like you're learning history of this world, and you can't help but sit there and just, okay, what else is going in this world? What else is about it? But, yeah, other than that, it has a very epic romance in this. What I love about this one, and I'm going to be doing a book review with another book scrammer on this. These people is considered like there's vampires in it, but they're not depicted like the way that we are familiar. I mean, as readers are familiar with vampires being depicted. They're very highly moral. They don't drink blood without permission, and they definitely don't drink human blood without permission, for sure, even though it's very vital to them. I enjoyed it. I think it's got Cassia, who is our female main character. She is actually considered the bastard's daughter of the king, and she's severely looked down upon, manipulated, not physically abused or anything, but definitely very treated like she does not belong there. She's a tool. She's supposed to be used, and that's about it. So Cassia has a very hard trust issue with people, anybody with the court. So when she met Leo, she falls in the same category. We can't trust people. And I love how Leo approaches Cassia, not forcefully, not, oh, let me charm her and get under her skin, or anything like that. It was a slow burned romance. He was able to show Cassia how to be loved and to trust him through small things, small gestures, small things that he said to earn her trust and not just, hey, I trust you. Oh, I love you. Oh, blah, blah, blah. So I found that very interesting. I felt like that was a very great romance and very epic, and I really enjoyed it, and I can't wait to talk about it. Another two books that I read was Caravah Hall by Stephanie Garber. This is the second book that I picked up by Stephanie Garber. I can tell you that I enjoyed once upon a broken heart more than Caravah Hall. Caravah hall was definitely a lot darker and a lot deeper compared to Once Upon a Heart vibes. There is definitely physical abuse, domestic abuse, more violence in the Caravahal series. I think I'm going to do a book review on that one just because of fact that I kind of like what all the things that it approached, and it definitely whiplashed you quite a bit. And the ending was pretty epic, and I couldn't believe it. And then the Wendy by Erin michelle sky. Now, I didn't give a very high rating on that one just because of the fact that I felt that this is a Peter and Retelling I thought it was a really good way of storytelling. It kind of stuck to. 1s Know, Disney version that we're all familiar with storyline. But she put her interesting twist to the story that I thought it was super unique and I felt so compelled to keep reading. But unfortunately her writing style got to me a little bit just because it's very factual and intellectual. Because the main character is intellectual. She thinks in fact, she thinks in black or white, never gray. And I think that could be interesting way of storytelling. But for me it just felt like very long winded, very long narrative, inner dialogue and things like that. I felt like the story kind of was dragging a little bit concerning that I wanted to read a lot more of it, and I wanted to continue the series, but I just felt like I was trudging through it. So much for the sake of understanding and get to hear the story that I just don't think I will continue the series just for that reason. I just felt a little disappointed because this was a good story. I felt how she was creative and the whole story and the plots was so good, but I just couldn't do it. I just don't agree with my style anyways. To tell a story like it's a history book and it's not my thing. I think it's a book that could be reached to many other people, but just not me. It wasn't a winner, it wasn't a flop, but it was just not my thing. I try to focus on a lot of Peter Pan retellings this month just because it's not a normal retelling that you come across. I've only scored one out of the three that I really liked one of them. And what was funny was that it was like hooked Peter Pan reimagined by Annette K. Larson. I liked it because of the romance aspect of it, not because it's a Peter Pan retelling in that book. I didn't get Peter Pan retelling vibes at I can see where the author was trying to go with it and there was more blanket ways of her trying to mimic a Peter Pan retelling, but it was just very lost with just it was more of a historical fiction book more than a fantasy retelling. I'll just give you that. It was still good. I'm not going to lie. It was still good. I love the romance, but when you're looking for Peter Pan retelling, that's just not the book that you should be going for. And then one that really flocked for me was Hooked by MC Frank. I did not like the writing style of it and I just didn't like how the plot progressed. It seemed know, when I read the synopsis, it said know, it was years later they finally meet up again and things like that. But I just felt like it just took forever to get to that point. And by the time it finally got to the next point of the story, I just was lost. I was bored and I just didn't really care for it, so I just didn't care. Think main character was Guinevere, but her nickname is Know. I'm like, where do you get Wendy from? Guinevere? Like maybe a middle name or something like that. But it just didn't make sense to me to be called Wendy when your name was Guinevere. I don't know, maybe that's just me nitpicking things, but that's just my opinion. Okay? That's what I read in August. What I'm currently reading is Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross. It was a little bit of hard start for me, I'm not going to lie. I wasn't really getting into it. But now that I hit page to 100, that's pretty big difference on how long it took me. But now we pick page 100. 2s Some things has changed, situations have changed, and I'm now really invested in the book. Literally. I finished that today and I was like, I just don't want to do anything just to continue reading this. Obviously that's not the best idea ever and I can't do it. Obviously I wanted to finally like, okay, I want to know what happens next. And there was actually a quote in there that I thought was touching. It was probably the best quote. They're writing letters between each other and this is the best discussion on grief I've ever read. This one is a good one, so let me read that. But time will slowly heal you, as it is doing for me. There are good days and there's difficult days. Your grief will never fully fade. It will always be with you. A shadow you carry in your soul. But it will become fainter as your life becomes brighter. You will learn to live outside of it again, as of impossible as that may sound. Others who share your pain will also help you heal. Because you are not alone, not in your fear or your grief or your hopes or your dreams. You're not alone. I think that was beautiful to read because I have experienced my own season of losing someone, that family member that was close to me. It just felt like I was alone. And it's easy to feel like I'm the only one dealing with this hurt and the only one who's going through it. But I find that there's so much healing in the fact that I'm not by myself. And it helps me pull up, helps me be more present. I think that's what helps me move forward too, as well, is that I know that even though there's days that are hard, that I'm sad and I'm missing that person, that there is a new tomorrow and it will be brighter, it will be better. And I understand that this grief will never truly go away. But I have other things to also keep my eyes on, to give me hope. And I felt like that was a beautiful quote. It describes that season that I went through and now that where I'm at. It honestly does describe that, and I thought that was amazing. Another two books I'm doing now is blade of Ash by CFE Black. There is a podcast in. Interview that's coming up that I'm excited to share with you that's going to be live, I believe, in October, so definitely be out on the lookout for that because that's a very exciting interview that I'm going to share soon. And I'm doing Throne of Glass. Read along. It's technically a reread for me, so it's like revisiting the whole story even though I know exactly what it's about. It's like the details of it is fresh and so far I'm halfway through it and I'm like, oh. 2s So I'm excited to share with that. Definitely go to my website. I do have a schedule of when all those chapters are going live on my podcast. Definitely look that up. I can't wait to share with you on that one. Preference to say it has spoilers. Obviously it's a read along, but just read along with me. I would love to hear what you think, some questions and all that fun stuff. So, books I'm planning on reading in September, don't hold me to any of this because since I'm a mood reader, it will change, it will probably change, but lately I've been in the mood to read my TBR, so if that correlates for anything, let's stick with that. So, first off, I want to read obviously the last book of the Fallen Kingdom series. I am very excited to finish that one. I'm ready to understand what's the conclusion for that series just because there's so much happening, every single book, so many things are changing and so many unexpected things are changing that I'm just like I don't know how this book is going to end. There's so much has happened already and I don't know. Another book that I have in my radar for an audiobook is Zahara by S. J. Jones. It's a 16 hours audiobook. I cannot wait to dive into this because it's been correlated to be like Sailor Moon and I am a Sailor Moon fan since I was a kid and I'm wondering 1s if it's anything like that then I'm excited to read it. I'm all for it, so looking forward to that. I'm going to try to pick up a new indie author by a book called Among Thieves by MJ khan. Khan. 2s Hopefully I said her name right. I see her in Want it. She written a duology and I believe her second book just recently released, so I'm going to start that series to see if that's something it's supposed to be like a heist kind of thing story as well. So I'm hoping, and I probably shouldn't have my hopes too high, but I'm hoping it will give me the same vibe as Six of Crows. I'm kind of in that heist move mood. I'm not into the epic fantasy at the moment, so I'm going to try that and see if. Like it. I'm going to finish Heart of Fire, which is part of a trilogy that Amanda Bouchette has written. I have been following her books for a while now and I finally want to finish it because I know she has a fourth book out right now in that same world, but just different set of characters. So I'm looking forward to reading that. I love her book so much that I'm thinking about upgrading my copies over to the newer versions of it, just so I have have nicer versions. When I originally purchased the series, I got it from Thrift Books and they're pretty worn out copies and they're also like the original graphic covers of her series and she's recently updated them. So I'm definitely looking into purchasing those for my collection, 1s which I won't get into it too much. I actually read it. I'm putting a few romance novels on my TBR this month. I know that's not fantasy, but I have a whole bunch in my physical collection and I'm trying to slowly get them out of the way because they've been on my shelf too long and I just realized I don't have very much physical books that I'm reading at the current moment. There's a lot of books on Kindle Unlimited that I might be picking up to read. There are some arcs that I need to work on that are due in a few months. And then I'm thinking about obviously finish working on The Gray of a hall series. We'll see about the Once Upon a Broken Heart second book because I know that third book is coming out soon. So yeah, I want to also just kind of give you an idea of what season two is looking like. The last month and a half I have been working on preparing season two, which runs from September to December. I have a lot in store. There's several indie authors I'm interviewing. I do have a bookstagrammer who's coming on, who's doing a book review, which is going to be in two parts. I am doing a throw in a glass read along. So some indie authors that I invited on is like Christy Nichols, CFE Black and Amber Page. Some of the few people that I have, they graciously came on, just talked about their books and their experiences as an author. I'm always looking out for guests. If you're a bookstagrammer someone who works in the fantasy trade, like book covers, narrators, things like that, I'm actually thinking about bringing them on to talk to them about who they are and how they've been getting into what they do. I am looking for more indie authors, so definitely I have a link to be a guest. Or if you have any questions, email me, Instagram me. I'd love to answer any questions you may have. I know that sometimes being on a podcast for the first time can be a little nerve wracking, but I can honestly tell you. I'm not a bad person. I try to make things as natural as possible and enjoyable experience for you as an author and to let you talk about yourself and who you are. And I want to invite you on to talk about it, just to get also just about myself. Recently I've been thinking about getting into some book hobby crafts. So I've been thinking about book bindery, book journals, things like that, to kind of just start having crafts to enjoy for myself. I am looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to sharing everything with you. And please tell me what you think. Please tell me about what you're reading. I love to have conversations. Well, that's all I have, readers. I'm looking forward to sharing my journey with you, keep up to date with on Instagram, to see all the things I'm reading about to read and hopefully I will eventually read. All right, we'll talk to you later, readers. Bye.
