Hello everyone! As you can see from the title of this post, I'm gonna talk about the books and fanfictions that I read last month. Yes, other than watching movies and TV shows I also enjoy reading, especially romance, and there are some tropes that I like to read about more than the others, you'll see them in this post. So without further ado, let's jump right into the fictional works!
1. Destiny's Surrender by Beverly Jenkins
Yeah, I know how "typical" of the cover is, and I can assure you it won't be the only one in this post. So Destiny's Surrender is a historical romance novel about a sex worker who has somewhat of a relationship with one of her recurring clients, who is definitely of a different social standard than her (I believe he was of a family of merchants from Spain) who privately "worked" for him for a few months before the events of the story started. The story started with the female lead realizing that she's pregnant with the client's baby. I personally like this book, because of the drama and conflicts that are created because of the class differences and the racial differences and how the characters in the story navigated it. I know a lot of people have some issues with the pregnancy trope, I personally enjoy it and there's gonna be a few of books in this post, but if you can push that part of the story aside (which I guess is pretty hard because it's one of the main conflicts in this book), it's still an enjoyable book to read. 3.5/5 stars from me.
2. Love is a Laserquest by arabella505
This one is an Arctic Monkeys fanfiction. I personally have never read any Arctic Monkeys fanfictions before this one and I am happy to say that this fanfiction made me want to read more. The story has your typical childhood friends to lovers trope, which I fell in love with because of this fanfiction. It told a story of Lily who is Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys' vocalist)'s childhood best friend who was in love with him since she was 16 and how her feelings developed through the years, through all of Alex's relationship and parts of their lives. It has the friends with benefits part which I like, because it added so much of drama and angst to the story. The part when their relationship started to change was so well done. This story made me think of some Arctic Monkeys songs in a new way. I think I screamed when I reached because the slow burn aspect was just *chef's kiss*. 5/5 stars.
3. The Enemy Trap by Maren Moore
The Enemy Trap told a story of a story of a woman named Sophia who once dated the number one US hockey player, Hayes Davis and their breakup wasn't really a good breakup. But since they're still in the same circle, Sophia's best friend who is also dating Hayes's friend, set them up on a Parent Trap-esque dinner that is on a cruise and let them finish their problem on that cruise for the whole night by themselves. But, in those situations, alcohol always wins and they ended up hooking up that night which lead to a whole new problem of Sophia being pregnant. Due to Hayes' reputation, his lawyer (or was it his publicist?) asked them to be each other's fake fiance and giving the baby announcement along the way. I saw this novel on my goodreads recommended section after I rated another book. It was labeled as "a fake relationship romance book" also one of the people who reviewed it said that it gave them a "late 90s/early 2000s romantic comedy movies" and I was so intrigued because those are my two favorite things. After reading the book, I enjoyed the beginning and the middle very much but towards the end it became pretty absurd to me because another conflict was added literally on the third or second to last chapter of this book, and mind you they're not big chapters which I think was very unnecessary because the pregnancy and the fake engagement were the main conflicts and to add more conflicts, at the end of the book was a little overwhelming. But I do like the vibes that this book gave me. 3/5 stars.
4. Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks
Yes, another typical historical romance cover, but don't judge a book by its cover, okay? So yeah, Never Seduce a Scot, as the title suggests, was set in Scotland and told a story of a lair's deaf daughter from the Armstrong clan called Eveline. She hadn't spoken a single word ever since her horse riding accident 2-3 years before the events of the novel. No one knew that she was deaf, not even her family, so everyone thought that she was just daft. The King put out a decree to settle the long rivalry between the Armstrong and their rival clan, the Montgomery by arranging a marriage between her and the lair of the Montgomery clan, Graeme Montgomery. So the story mainly tells about her new life being the wife of the rival clan, and how the clan members were gonna accept her and also some of her past and how she became deaf and chose not to speak a single word to anyone. I love this book, it was a reread. I read it for the first time when I was in high school but I think I didn't finish it back then because I wasn't in the mood. But once I gave it a go for the second time, I enjoyed it so much. My heart goes out to Eveline everytime I read how hard it was for her to be accepted in the Montgomery clan and how Graeme found out about Eveline being deaf, I absolutely love that part. I have a special place in my heart for damaged hero/heroine. I love reading about them. 5/5 stars from me.
5. Forget Me Not by Q.B. Tyler
Forget Me Not tells a story about Olivia who was in the process of a divorce with her husband, Bennett, when she suddenly got a call that Bennett was in a car accident and had a memory loss. He was stuck in 2017 when they were still happily married to each other even though it was already 2019. He also didn't remember the time when he got drunk and started to cheating on Olivia. Actually Bennett's family prefer the mistress rather than Olivia so that added up to the reasons why they should get a divorce. But Bennett didn't want to and just as if life was going in Bennett's way, Olivia and him were advised to live together for a while so that Bennett's memory could come back. That was the summary of the story. I like a good marriage/relationship in trouble stories and this one is combined with my other favorite trope that is memory loss. Anyway I love how Bennett really adored Olivia, making her feel like she's the most amazing woman in the world. I almost forgot to mention that Bennett and Olivia had some difficulties in having kids which was also one of the reasons why they had a fall out, and if you don't like that stuff or might need a trigger warning for it, there you go. But when I was reading it, I didn't find any part that quite touch me in a way that would make me love it. So yeah overall it's a good book but I think I need more push for it to be one of my favorites. 3.5/5 stars
6. Talon by Carian Cole
Talon is a part of the Ashes and Embers Series that told the story of each member of the band Ashes and Embers (I think that's what the band is called) and as the title suggest, this book told Talon's story. It started when our female lead, Asia already had enough of going on dates and meeting guys that don't like her due to very shallow things like how she dresses. So she joined this experiment thing that her boss held that is basically about 2 people who are told to be compatible and they have to stay married for at least 6 months. That's where she met Talon who was in the experiment because his mother told him to. Things started to get interesting when they both realized that they weren't each other's type. Asia wanted a "clean cut" type of guy with short hair, no tattoos, tidy outfits. While Talon liked blonde supermodels with long legs and big boobs, and both Asia and Talon were just totally different from the type that they mentioned. But what I like about them os that their willingness to work this relationship out and not throwing it out on the drain. Them moving in together, and mind you Talon bought a house for Asia that suit her personality. Asia flew on a plane immediately when she got the news that Talon was severely ill when he was on tour. I also like the fact that Asia got all overwhelmed to have somewhat of a family and a place for her to call home after meeting Talon and his family because growing up, her family had a lot of issues with her father and brother being in prison and all, like that part of life semi missing in her life but now she has them. Talon and Asia, they're just such a sweet couple who just love and support each other in each point of their relationship, I love them, I want what they have. 4/5 stars for me.
7. Bound By Honor by Cora Reilly
Bound by Honor is a mafia book that tells a story of the daughter of the leader of Chicago mafia, Aria, that is betrothed to the leader of New York mafia, Luca, who is known to be made man (meaning the first time you started to kill another person who is your rival in the mafia world) when he was 11 and was also ruthless. Her first time meeting Luca was just kinda confirm what she thought of him so for years from her bethrotal and she was terrified of him like scared shitless of him from the moment that she saw him. So for 4 years or so, she wasn't excited of her going to be married to Luca. She didn't meet him again until a few days before their wedding but when they met again, she realized that he was different from what people have said about him. Even when they were already married he actually appreciated her, kinda, on the wedding night at least. So what I think about that novel was, it's good. I'm not one who enjoy mafia romance that much because I've read enough of it on my wattpad days, but this was enjoyable. I like it when the couple in an arranged marriage/marriage of convenience actually put effort and try to make the relationship work and not just sulking, swore off the marriage and all. So this was an enjoyable book to say the least. 4/5 stars from me.
8. All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
All Your Perfects is a "marriage in problem" book, it began with how the main couple met, and that's in the female lead, Quinn,'s ex fiance's apartment hallway. They found out that their respective partners at the time were cheating on them with each other. So Quinn's ex fiance had an affair with Graham (the male lead)'s then girlfriend, and then they started to get to know each other after that. Then the next chapter set in the present time, with Graham and Quinn already married for 7 years and they're not happy due to this standard that Quinn had about having children and all also the expectation that Quinn's mother had about it as well. So that's your trigger warning if you're not okay with reading about that. This was my first Colleen Hoover book. Like I know of her and her books but I just tried with this one and I really like this book, I had a whole lot of roller coaster ride of feelings. I was happy, mad, sad until ugly crying when I was reading this book. The frustration that Quinn had with not being able to be "the best" person on her own version, I can relate to that feeling of feeling like failing everyone around you so I cried so hard when it felt like all hope was lost and when she was reading the letters from Graham. God, it was so painful because I get it, I relate to it in a way. I even cried at the part when I think you weren't supposed to cry in. It's just so painfully beautiful, like I think that's the phrase I would use to describe this book as a whole. I'm actually reading another Colleen Hoover book at the moment because of how much I enjoy this book. 5/5 stars from me.
Okay, that's most of the fictional works that I read in the month of August. There are some that I didn't mention because I tend to forget a lot of the storyline due to reading too many stories. Overall this was probably one of the best reading month in my life because I got to read a lot of books. That's it for this post and I'll see you on the next one!
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