Overview: July and August Reading

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Soo...what are the chances anyone would believe that I follow the pre-Julian Roman calendar, and that's why July didn't get its monthly overview, and absolutely nothing was posted during August? Because that sounds way better than 'I got really busy with real life and had to put the blog on the backburner'. Even as I apologise for that and tell you that I'm back now, the truth is that my blogging will probably continue to be sporadic over the next few months, as I face the unenviable but unavoidable task of finishing my thesis.

To avoid the last two months being completely lost, I'm combining their monthly round-ups here, in a slightly more abbreviated form than usual. On the upside, after months of reading relatively little, the vagaries of real life seem to have bolstered my reading, and I'm back on track for meeting my goal of 200 books in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. August also saw a lot of comfort re-reading, which is quicker than reading a book for the first time, making the total for that month is unusually high.

Books read in July: 26
Books read in August: 33
Books read YTD: 156

Fiction Titles (July): 

• 24 (17 contemporary romance, 3 historical romance, 1 fantasy romance, 2 romance anthologies)

Fiction Titles (August): 

• 32 (18 historical romance, 13 contemporary romances, 1 steampunk romance)

Non-Fiction Titles (July): 

• 2 (1 history, 1 urban studies)

Non-Fiction Titles (August): 

• 1 (Mythography)

Noteworthy Novels

Contemporary

• Illegal Contact by Santino Hassell
• Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai
• Rouge Desire (Anthology)
• Saving Mr. Perfect by Tamara Morgan
• Once Upon A Rose by Laura Florand
• The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

Historical

• Starlight by Carrie Lofty
• Freedom to Love by Susanna Fraser
• Beauty Like the Night by Joanna Bourne
• An Unnatural Vice by K J Charles

Other

• Singing Electricity by Charlotte Stein (Anthology)

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• Once Upon A Time by Marina Warner

Noteworthy Settings & Sense of Place

• Safe Passage by Carla Kelly - set in Mexico during the Revolution, although readers should be aware that it centres the experiences of white Mormon colonists.
• Freedom to Love by Susanna Fraser - touching and sweeping romance between a British officer and a woman of the gens de couleur libres during the War of 1812.
• Starlight by Carrie Lofty - Incredible sense of place in working-class Glasgow, where mill owner meets one of his factory workers.

Kick-ass Characters

• Starlight by Carrie Lofty - Unionist, factory-worker heroine Polly is not here for your bourgeoisie shit. 
• Saving Mr. Perfect by Tamara Morgan - ex-jewel thief Penelope at a loose end now that her husband has put the nix on her career, and watching her and Grant trying to grope towards a new, happy life together is surprisingly poignant, partly because they are both so kick-ass in their respective fields. 
• Beauty Like the Night by Joanna Bourne - Sevie - sister of an infamous French spy, adopted daughter of an infamous English spy - was never not going to be awesome. See also: all of Joanna Bourne's other heroines. 
• Rouge Desire Anthology - The heroes and heroines we need - but probably don't deserve - in these dark times.