I read a total of 5 books during September which is just shy of halfway to my goal. I did a lot of traveling this month to see family (and they don’t always let me read when I would like to LOL). This month’s “theme” was books my best friend, Mina, has recommended to me and I bought and then never read. So I tried to pick up as many as I could remember her recommending. The only one she didn’t recommend was Shades of Earth by Beth Revis, which I talked about last month with the first two in the trilogy. I just wanted to finish the trilogy before moving on to her recommendations.

While Lovely War by Julie Berry wasn’t exactly recommended to me by Mina she discovered it at Barnes & Noble while we were hanging out one day and told me it looked really good and interestingly enough we ended up reading it concurrently during September unbeknownst to the other till I asked if she had read it before while I was halfway through. Lovely War is a breathtakingly beautiful story about two couples who manage to find love during WWI and it is mostly told from the point of view of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, but Hades, Ares, and Apollo also tell parts of the stories that pertain to them. I loved this book so much! The writing an and storytelling is absolutely top notch and the characters feel so real. The amount of research that Berry did to tell this story is exquisite. She delivers an accurate account of what it would have been like for Aubrey, Colette, James and Hazel. I especially loved the twist of the story being told from the point of view of Aphrodite, it adds a layer to the story that just makes the story even more immersive. This was most defiantly a five star read for me and I highly recommend it if you are into historical romance or just a beautiful story.

This was the first real recommendation I read for the month. She recommended this when I was going the my pirate/sea phase back in July. I like A Touch of Gold by Annie Sullivan and I gave it four stars, but I did find it to be pretty predictable in where the plot was going to go. Which was a bit eh for me personally. I wanted more from it. I kinda wish it had started in a different direction. I wanted Kora to be a bit stronger of a heroine (although she did eventually get there…kinda). I wanted there to be a stronger bond between Hettie and Kora, cause I love me some strong female friendships especially when they are your only friend and they are also family. I also wanted more form the romance parts of it. To me it was just lacking in places and was just a bit eh for me. In reality it was probably more of a 3.5 star book but I do what to tread the second one that comes out in 2020, even though I think that with a bit of fleshing out and a few tweaks to the ending this could have been a stand alone and probably should have been, but we will see when the sequel comes out.

THIS BOOK! I literally CANNOT with how much I loved this book. Ahdieh is a fantastic storytelling goddess and I don’t think anybody could convince me otherwise. This is the first book of hers that have read but I am now highly anticipating her new release The Beautiful which comes out in October. I also cant wait to get my hands on The Dagger and the Rose which is The Wrath and the Dawns‘s sequel. Shahrzad is literally everything I want in a heroine. She is intelligent, driven, sassy, loving, flawed, and strong. She holds her own against her new husband Khalid, the Caliph, who kills his brides at sunrise. Let me tell you Khalid is not a easy man to hold your own against, but my Shazi stands up to him like a boss. I do love Khalid I think he makes a great partner for Shazi. They pair really well together. Where he is all hard lines and stone she is soft and fluid. Where she conflicted and unsteady he is sure and stable. I adore them as a couple and I adore them as characters! This quickly became an All Time Favorite!

The last recommendation for September was Compulsion: Heirs of Watson Island by Martina Boone. This has been on my TBR for actual years. This one, much like A Touch of Gold, was a bit eh for me. I didn’t find it to be at predictable and unlike A Touch of Gold, Compulsion was an actual 4 star read. I wish there was a bit more back story about the founding families. Like I wish there had been a prologue about them just so as a reader we know whats happening between the families cause that isn’t exactly explained a whole lot. Much like Barrie, the reader is thrust in the middle of this small South Carolina town’s founding families controversies without really understanding its roots and how and why it began. It definitely has some Southern Gothic vibes to it which I am here for and it is a bit of a slow build up, but it also part of a trilogy so that probably the cause for the pacing. I do want to pick up Persuasion If anything to just find out what happens next with Barrie and Eight. I love Eight cause A) he has the ability to know exactly what people want which personally I think is a fantastic quality in a boyfriend and B) hes is protective enough for it to be cute but not enough to be creepy. He also tends to be the voice of reason which I love. I liked Barrie i just wish she had a bit more gumption to her. Shes got the sass part down, but she is often unsure of her self and what she truly wants and when she does she often ignores it in favor of pleasing others. I wish she followed her instincts a bit more.