september 2024 reading wrap up
here's a wrap up of the books i finished... and the books i did not finish this month...
At the start of the month, I was a little unsure what to read. I had an incredible reading month back in August and I was on a bit of a high… Until I ended up DNF-ing two books in the row in September at first.
1. Wildfire, Hannah Grace
The first time I read Hannah’s first book, Icebreaker, I fell in love with it. I love Nate and Stassie and I thought some of their scenes were adorable. It used to be a 4.75-star read and I got myself a physical copy to annotate and keep on my shelf. But after a reread, I brought my rating down to 3 stars.
Since then, I haven’t caught up with the author’s updates. I initially didn’t want to pick up Wildfire, but I ended up adding it to my 2024 TBR so here we were.
I did not like Wildfire.
I found myself bored, and I didn’t really resonate with the main characters, Russ and Aurora. I also hated how Aurora brought up her “daddy issues” every chance she got, and after reading about it 5 times, I just DNF-ed the book at 46%.
Verdict: DNF 📚🚫
2. Cross The Line, Simone Soltani
After Wildfire, I decided to pick up another romance book. Cross The Line by Simone Soltani is a an Formula 1 contemporary romance between an F1 driver and his PR manager. You might like it because of the cover (which is amazing BTW), and because it has the brother’s best friend trope.
Like the previous book, I managed to get through half of the book before DNF-ing eventually. I thought the book was alright and the whole time I was reading it, I was waiting for it to be great. I think I got my expectations too high for the book because I saw a lot of people overhyping it on Twitter.
Regardless, I’ll still recommend this book if you love F1, sports romance, and Lauren Asher’s Dirty Air Series. I think it might satisfy your cravings if you’re looking for something to read under those categories.
Verdict: DNF 📚🚫
3. The Hollow Boys Series (Books 1-4/5), Monty Jay
**Check Trigger Warnings before starting**
With 2 DNF’s in tow, I needed a chance to redeem myself — that’s how I ended up picking up The Hollow Boys Series, which was recommended by a close reader friend (Hey KJ!). It’s a New Adult contemporary dark romance that’s about 4 best friends (Alistair, Rook, Thatcher, and Silas) who are college students in a gothic town. It has shitty rich people, a murder mystery, and a fiercely loyal friend group that will literally do anything for one another.
The series has 5 books in total but I only managed to read the first four books because I fell into a two-week slump after finishing the second book. Despite that, I’ve been enjoying the series so far! It’s a series of interconnected standalones so I got to follow four of the boys’ stories and their twisted minds.
I can’t wait to finish the series next month with the last book, The Oath We Give.
Verdict:
The Lies We Steal (#1): 4.5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Truths We Burn (#2): 3.25/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Blood We Crave (#3): 4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Blood We Crave - Part Two (#4): 4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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