Instagram Reading Wrap Up: August 2017

Here's my monthly wrap up of all the books that I read in August, which I originally posted on Instagram. I've been posting monthly wrap ups of all the books I read each month on Instagram (A.K.A. Bookstagram) for a while now, and I've decided to start posting them here as well.

Here are all of the books that I read, or in the case of Francesca Zappia's Eliza and Her Monsters, finished reading in August. @authoremmachase's Royally Matched and @jrwardauthor's The Angels' Share were both books that I was reading for the second time in preparation for the release of the third and final books in their respective series. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to read either of those books last month, so I'm going to read both Royally Endowed and Devil's Cut this month. I absolutely loved @kasiewest's book, Lucky in Love. 😀 I really liked @lainit's Strange the Dreamer, but I definitely thought that it was a very confusing book. I'm definitely going to read the sequel, though. 😀 Despite the fact that a lot of people seem to absolutely love Eliza and Her Monsters, I unfortunately hated it for the most part. Honestly, there quite a few times that I considered DNFing the book, and I've only done that with two books in the years that I've been reviewing books for my blog. While I wish that I had been able to read at least one or two more books that were in my August T.B.R., I still feel like I had a pretty good month reading wise as far as how the month of August was for me. 😀 #bookstagram #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookworms #bookworm #bookblogger #bookblog #strangethedreamer #lainitaylor #bourbonkings #theangelsshare #jrward #luckyinlove #kasiewest #royallymatched #royallyseries #emmachase #elizaandhermonsters #francescazappia

A post shared by Taylor Glissman (@tmswriter6) on Sep 1, 2017 at 10:07pm PDT

Books I Read in August 2017:


Royally Matched (Book #2 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Lucky in Love by Kasie West

The Angels' Share (Book #2 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

Strange the Dreamer (Book #1 in the Strange the Dreamer series) by Laini Taylor

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia


Related Posts:


Book Review: Royally Screwed (Book #1 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Book Review: The Bourbon Kings (Book #1 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

Book Review: The Angels' Share (Book #2 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

OwlCrate Unboxing: May 2017 (Comic Explosion)

Book Review: Hard Rules (Book #1 in the Dirty Money series) by Lisa Renee Jones

Given the fact that the romance genre is one of my top favorite genres of books to read, and it’s my #1 favorite genre of books to review for my blog; I’m always looking for new authors who write books that are a part of the romance genre to check out. Hard Rules is the first book by Lisa Renee Jones that I’ve ever read, and I’m thrilled to say that I absolutely loved it. While the romance genre is one of my top favorite genres of books to read, I definitely can’t deny that the romance genre is a genre that tends to be full of clichés, and can oftentimes be rather lacking in originality. That being said, Hard Rules is in many ways unlike any romance novel that I’ve ever read.

The one thing that really sets Hard Rules apart from all of the other books in the romance genre that I’ve read over the years more than anything else is definitely the overall tone of Jones’ writing. The overall tone of Hard Rules is definitely darker than any book in the romance genre that I’ve ever read, and the tone of the book also has a certain level of mystery and intrigue to it that I’m not used to seeing when it comes to books within the romance genre. That definitely made reading Hard Rules a rather refreshing and enjoyable experience for me. While I’ve never watched Sons of Anarchy before, based on what I’ve heard about the show, I’m guessing that people are comparing Hard Rules to that show because of the somewhat dark and mysterious tone of Jones’ writing. Regardless of whether or not I’m right about why people have compared Hard Rules to Sons of Anarchy, reading this book definitely made me want to watch Sons of Anarchy. One thing that I think Jones handled very well throughout the entire book is the way that she maintained the darker, more mysterious tone of the book without ever letting it ruin the romance and steaminess between Shane Brandon and Emily Stevens.

The other thing that makes Hard Rules so unique compared to all of the other books in the romance genre that I’ve read over the years is the fact that the element of mystery and intrigue that’s present throughout the book pretty much revolved entirely around Emily. In the past, whenever I’ve read a book in the romance genre where one of the characters is portrayed as being at least somewhat of a mysterious person who has a secret, it has always been the guy who has filled that role. By having Emily be the one who’s filling that role in this book, I feel like Jones is offering people something new and fresh with Hard Rules.

Jones definitely excels at writing Emily in such a way that she’s a very likable character, despite the fact that she apparently has a dark secret that instead of finally revealing it to the reader at the end of the book; Jones reveals a whole new plot twist that further added to the mystery that surrounds Emily. While I spent pretty much the entire book feeling very anxious and excited to learn what exactly Emily’s secret and actual backstory is, I’m honestly not the least bit upset that Jones doesn’t reveal any of that information in this book. If anything, the way Jones ends the book got me even more excited to read the second book in the Dirty Money series, Damage Control, than I already was before I even finished reading this book.

Book Review: The Angels' Share (Book #2 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

Right off the bat, I have to say that despite the fact that I think The Angels' Share has a lot of the same problems that The Bourbon Kings had, I actually liked The Angels' Share even more than I ultimately liked The Bourbon Kings. If I’m being completely honest, I’m not sure exactly why that is. In many ways, this book didn’t really introduce any new storylines; it pretty much just continued the storylines that were featured in The Bourbon Kings. The main storyline that J.R. Ward continued to focus on in this book was the aftermath of William Baldwine’s death, and the family having to deal with all of the debt that they’re in. While my thoughts on Ward not really introducing more subplots into the series as it continues with future books may change, I honestly really liked that Ward pretty much just continued the storylines from the first book. I think that really helped add to the soap opera quality that this series has, which is what drew me to The Bourbon Kings, and made me want to read it when I discovered that book. Plus, it makes a lot of sense to me that Ward didn’t just completely move on from the subplots and the various conflicts that were featured heavily in The Bourbon Kings, since it was established early on in this book that it had only been about a week since Lane had returned to his family’s estate in order to check on the family’s cook, Miss Aurora Toms, who had had a health scare at the beginning of The Bourbon Kings.

One of the things that I definitely loved the most about The Angels' Share is that I felt like J.R. Ward did a much better job of writing this book in such a way that it felt like much more of an ensemble story compared to The Bourbon Kings. The Bourbon Kings really focused primarily Lane, and Lizzie to a certain extent, since she’s the woman he loves and wants to be with, and while they are two of my favorite characters from the series, as I was reading The Bourbon Kings the first time that I read it; I just found myself wishing that Ward had been better about giving all of the other characters more “screen time” in that book. When it comes to The Angels' Share, Ward really seemed to do more with the character Sutton Smythe by having chapters where Sutton was interacting with people outside of the Bradford family, such as her father and various people that she does business with. I really liked seeing Sutton get some more character development beyond her relationship with the Bradford family in this book, but it did feel rather random to me that out of all the characters in the series that Ward could have focused on some more in this book, she chose to focus on Sutton a little bit more. That being said, I’m not complaining about Sutton getting a little bit more character development in this book. It just seemed rather odd to me that Sutton was one of the characters that Ward chose to develop a little bit further in this book.