July TBR: 2020

Since we’re now a few days into July, I thought I’d share my To Be Read list for this month. My apartment is slowly getting taken over by books. There’s no room on the shelves, and there are several teetering piles of novels in the bedroom, so I’ve had to put myself on a physical book buying ban until we (hopefully) move in September to (hopefully) somewhere with more space for shelves. I’m still getting monthly boxes from Illumicrate and Fairyloot, and I’ve still treated myself to the special edition Shades of Magic box, but I think, unless there are any other incredibly amazing special edition boxes coming out between now and then, I shall have to be sensible and wait. But that does mean I’ve bought a lot of books on my kindle recently, which is awesome because I like being able to highlight. I’m currently writing again, and I find it really inspiring to be able to see all the awesome lines in other books to keep me plodding on. 😀

Anyhow, here is the list of books I’m hoping to read this month:

• The Damned by Renee Ahdieh. Actually just finished this one before I started writing this post. It comes out soon so wanted to get the review out there ASAP.
• A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer. Again, I’m cheating a bit, but I did read this in July and it was on my TBR for this month. I’m trying to go through some books with some deep character development as writing research.
• Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin. For the same reasons as above, I wanted to see how Reid’s character arc is played out throughout this book, so I’m rereading it. It’s also not a bad shout since book two comes out in September.
• Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. For the same reason as the other two, I want to reread this.
• City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. I feel like I missed the hype boat around this one, and I’m not entirely sure if I’ll like it or not but I got a free trial of kindle unlimited, so my plan is to read this before the trial is up and then probably go and buy the rest of the series on kindle if I do enjoy them.
• Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron. This is an E-ARC I just got approved for on Netgalley. A few of my friends are also planning on reading it this month so we’re hopefully going to buddy read it.
• The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant. My god, this book is STUNNING and I love the comp titles it was compared to– Les Mis meets Six of Crows, how could I possibly resist? I’d been planning on reading it this month anyway, but my friend Karoline recommended it to me, so it’s definitely going to get read this month!
• All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace. This book feels like it has been around forever, but I’ve struggled to get hold of a copy in the UK, which makes me think the U.S. just got it ridiculously early (or that this is for the paperback release and for some reason the hardback was almost impossible to get in the UK). I remember seeing the premise for it when I was looking at entering Pitch Wars, since Adalyn was one of the mentors I was considering applying to, and absolutely loved the sound of the book, so I was super excited to see it appear on Netgalley. Now I get to read it!
• Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi. This one has been on my shelf for some time, courtesy of the wonderful Moon Kestrel so I’m hoping to get around to finally reading it this month. She also told me to go ahead and read it, so obviously now I will.
• Circe by Madeline Miller. This one has also been sitting on my shelf in forever. I was motivated to buy it because I really liked Song of Achilles and because the cover of this book is just breathtaking, but it’s been sitting waiting for me to pick it up and I’ve just unfortunately never felt like it until now. I got recommended it again by Nikki of Books and Lemon Squash, so now is definitely the time for me to go for it.
• Soulbinder by Sebastien de Castell. Recommended by Lis of Careful of Books This is yet another book that has been languishing unread for too long. I always meant to get around to it, but there always seemed to be something else I had to read and it just never happened.

And that’s it haha. I thought it would be quite a short list this month but it surprised me how many books I plan to get through. I am planning on doing a kind of ‘My Friends Recommended Me This Book’ post sometime in August, where I’ll have fellow book bloggers explaining what they thought I’d like about some of this month’s reads, which I’m very excited about, especially as it means I’m being told to pick up some of the books that have been gathering dust on my shelves for a while.

What is everyone planning on reading this month? Let me know in the comment section, I always love hearing about new books that haven’t already made it onto my shelf 😀