Hi my little darlings! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’m so happy to be back. I’ll do a little catch up on my adventures at the end of the month with my wrap up, but today, I thought I’d expose myself for all the books I’ve been gifted and haven’t had the chance to read yet, and all the ARCs I haven’t read yet either!
Earlier this year, I got overwhelmed with all my bookish commitments, and a little burnt out, so I decided to take a step back, and spend a couple months just reading for fun — whether it was doing a fair amount of hate reads, rereads, or buddy reads, I just needed to read for me, and not for the purpose of content creating. While I was on my break, I was still getting sent books, ARCs, and all that, so everything has just piled up. Anyways, I’m back now, feeling better, and I’d really like to tackle this pile of books that I’ve been procrastinating on because it feels very “1 step forward, 3 steps back” right now. *’s denotes an ARC.
Bellegarde by Jamie Lilac
I’ve been so excited for Bellegarde ever since it was announced, but for some reason just never picked up a copy! It sounds entirely up my alley, and that pink cover is just so gorgeous.
Beau Bellegarde, a second-born son, makes a deal: if he can turn Evie Clément, the unapproachable baker’s daughter, into the winner of the Court Ball, making her the most desired bachelorette in Paris, he inherits the family fortune, but his target has plans of her own.
Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop.org
Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America by Julia Lee
A goal of mine this year is to read more memoirs, and so I’m really intrigued by Julia Lee’s Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America.
Julia Lee is angry. And she has questions.
What does it mean to be Asian in America? What does it look like to be an ally or an accomplice? How can we shatter the structures of white supremacy that fuel racial stratification?
When Julia was fifteen, her hometown went up in smoke during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The daughter of Korean immigrant store owners in a predominantly Black neighborhood, Julia was taught to be grateful for the privilege afforded to her. However, the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King, following the murder of Latasha Harlins by a Korean shopkeeper, forced Julia to question her racial identity and complicity. She was neither Black nor white. So who was she?
This question would follow Julia for years to come, resurfacing as she traded in her tumultuous childhood for the white upper echelon of elite academia. It was only when she began a PhD in English that she found answers―not through studying Victorian literature, as Julia had planned, but rather in the brilliant prose of writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. Their works gave Julia the vocabulary and, more important, the permission to critically examine her own tortured position as an Asian American, setting off a powerful journey of racial reckoning, atonement, and self-discovery.
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Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl by Joya Goffney
I read Joya Goffney’s debut, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, shortly after it came out and I really liked it and always meant to pick up her sophomore novel, but never got around to it! Now that it’s staring at me from my TBR shelf, I’m hoping to get to it sometime next month.
Monique is a preacher’s daughter who detests the impossible rules of her religion. Everyone expects her to wait until marriage, so she has no one to turn to when she discovers that she physically can’t have sex.
After two years of trying and failing, her boyfriend breaks up with her. To win him back, Monique teams up with straight-laced church girl Sasha–who is surprisingly knowledgeable about Monique’s condition–as well as Reggie, the misunderstood bad boy who always makes a ruckus at church, and together they embark upon a top-secret search for the cure.
While on their quest, Monique discovers the value of a true friend and the wonders of a love that accepts her for who she is. Despite everyone’s opinions about her virtue, she learns to live for herself.
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Court of the Undying Seasons by A.M. Strickland
Once my friends find out this has been on my TBR and I haven’t read it, I’m sure I’ll be getting a ton of texts — a bunch of my friends are big vampire girlies. I think I might wait till it’s a little cooler and gloomier to read Court of the Undying Seasons, but I am very much intrigued by this concept.
When nineteen-year-old Fin volunteers to take her secret love’s place in their village’s Finding, she is terrified. Those who are chosen at the Finding are whisked away to Castle Courtsheart, a vampire school where human students either succeed and become vampires, fail and spend the rest of their lives as human thralls…or they don’t survive long enough to become either.
Fin is determined to forge a different learn how to kill the undead and get revenge for her mother, who was taken by the vampires years ago. But Courtsheart is as captivating as it is deadly, and Fin is quickly swept up in her new world and its inhabitants – particularly Gavron, her handsome and hostile vampire maker, whose blood is nothing short of intoxicating. As Fin begins to discover new aspects of her own identity and test her newfound powers, she stumbles across a string of murders that may be connected to a larger ritual – one with potentially lethal consequences for vampires and humans alike. Fin must uncover the truth and find the killer before she loses her life…or betrays her own heart.
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Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle*
I’ve yet to read A Deadly Education, but I did really enjoy Ninth House. The comparison titles for Curious Tides is a big part of what drew me in — as well as the cover, but I’m also thinking that this will be a perfect fall read!
Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.
Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.
To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.
And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.
Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop.org
A Disaster in Three Acts by Kelsey Rodkey
I’m really curious about A Disaster in Three Acts because I think the concept is strong, but I wasn’t the biggest enthusiast of Last Chance Books so we’ll just have to see how this one lands for me! One of my friends really liked A Disaster in Three Acts though, so I’m hopeful!
Saine Sinclair knows a little something about what makes a story worth telling.
Your childhood best friend refuses to kiss you during a pre-adolescent game of spin the bottle? Terrible, zero stars, would not replay that scene again. The same ex-friend becomes your new best friend’s ex? Strangely compelling, unexpected twist, worth a hate-watch. That same guy–why is he always around?–turns out to be your last shot at getting into the documentary filmmaking program of your dreams?
Saine hates to admit it, but she’d watch that movie.
There’s something about Holden that makes her feel like she’s the one in front of the camera–like he can see every uncomfortable truth she’s buried below the surface. Saine knows how her story’s supposed to go. So why does every moment with Holden seem intent on changing the ending?
Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop.org
Forgive Me Not by Jennifer Baker
I didn’t realize that Forgive Me Not comes out today, and so I’m bumping it up to the top of my list! I had every intention of reading it prior to publication date and that just did not happen (as is the case with most of these).
All it took was one night and one bad decision for fifteen-year-old Violetta Chen-Samuels’ life to go off the rails. After driving drunk and causing the accident that kills her little sister, Violetta is incarcerated. As a juvenile offender, her fate is in the hands of those she’s wronged—her family. With their forgiveness, she could go home. But without it? Well…
Denied their forgiveness, Violetta is now left with two options, neither good—remain in juvenile detention for an uncertain sentence or participate in the Trials, potentially regaining her freedom and what she wants most of all, her family’s love. But the Trials are no easy feat and in the quest to prove her remorse, Violetta is forced to confront not only her family’s pain, but her own—and the question of whether their forgiveness is more important than forgiving herself.
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A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft
Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely adore Saft’s debut and sophomore novels — Down Comes the Night and A Far Wilder Magic, which is also why I’m so nervous about A Fragile Enchantment. Not to mention, it’s regency era fantasy, which is just so, so, cococore.
Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never let herself long for more. The magic in her blood that lets her stitch emotions and memories into fabric is the same magic that will eventually kill her. Determined to spend the little time she has left guaranteeing a better life for her family, Niamh jumps at the chance to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding in the neighboring kingdom of Avaland.
But Avaland is far from the fairytale that she imagined. While young nobles attend candlelit balls and elegant garden parties, unrest brews amid the working class. The groom himself, Kit Carmine, is prickly, abrasive, and begrudgingly being dragged to the altar as a political pawn. But when Niamh and Kit grow closer, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more—until an anonymous columnist starts buzzing about their chemistry, promising to leave them alone only if Niamh helps to uncover the royal family’s secrets. The rot at the heart of Avaland runs deep, but exposing it could risk a future she never let herself dream of, and a love she never thought possible.
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Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare
I read the first book in the Canary Club series earlier this year, and really loved the setting and the intrigue of it all! I can’t wait to dive back into the world of Canary Club, and to see how Lena Aldridge fends for herself this time.
Harlem, 1936: Lena Aldridge grew up in a cramped corner of London, hearing stories of the bright lights of Broadway. She always imagined that when she finally went to New York City, she’d be there with her father. But now he’s dead, and she’s newly arrived and alone, chasing a dream that has quickly dried up. When Will Goodman—the handsome musician she met on the crossing from England—offers for her to stay with his friends in Harlem, she agrees. She has nowhere else to go, and this will give her a chance to get to know Will better and see if she can find any trace of the family she might have remaining.
Will’s friends welcome her with open arms, but just as Lena discovers the stories her father once told her were missing giant pieces of information, she also starts to realize the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And they might just place a target on her back. Especially when she is drawn to the brightest stage in town.
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Hot Dutch Daydream by Kristy Boyce
I received Hot Dutch Daydream in the same package as the majority of the books on this list, so it really hasn’t been sitting here waiting to be read for that long! I do think this will be one of the last books I read though, since I haven’t read Hot British Boyfriend, and I feel like I should probably read the first book in a series before moving onto the next.
No one has ever accused Sage Cunningham of being easily distracted. She has a plan, and she won’t be swayed. She’ll spend the summer interning in her mentor’s lab in Amsterdam, and then she’ll be ready for college. All she needs to do to pay for the summer abroad is agree to serve as the au pair for Dr. Reese’s three-year-old.
Sage has it all down to a science, but she doesn’t anticipate the surprise arrival of Dr. Reese’s teenage son. Ryland is spontaneous, flirty, and impulsive–everything Sage isn’t. He’s a talented artist, but he’s desperately in need of someone to keep him focused. And as nannying proves harder than Sage had expected, it turns out she might need help too.
The two strike a deal. Sage will stop Ryland from going out with a different girl every day, and Ryland will pitch in with his little brother.
Spending the summer stuck together is the perfect way to keep distractions to a minimum. Right?
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I’m Not Done with You Yet by Jesse Q. Sutanto
This is the only book on this list that hasn’t been released yet, so a small part of me wants to prioritize it and read it ahead of publication date. I’ve loved almost everything of Jesse Q. Sutanto’s that I’ve read, although I’m starting to feel like her books are a little predictable and formulaic after reading so many. Still, they always make me chuckle, and I’m always curious to see what she has in store for us next!
Jane is unhappy.
A struggling midlist writer whose novels barely command four figures, she feels trapped in an underwhelming marriage, just scraping by to pay a crippling Bay Area mortgage for a house–a life–she’s never really wanted.
There’s only ever been one person she cared about, one person who truly understood her: Thalia. Jane’s best and only friend nearly a decade ago during their Creative Writing days at Oxford. It was the only good year of Jane’s life–cobblestones and books and damp English air, heady wine and sweet cider and Thalia, endless Thalia. But then one night ruined everything. The blood-soaked night that should have bound Thalia to Jane forever but instead made her lose her completely. Thalia disappeared without a trace, and Jane has been unable to find her since.
Until now.
Because there she is, her name at the top of the New York Times bestseller list: A Most Pleasant Death by Thalia Ashcroft. When she discovers a post from Thalia on her website about attending a book convention in New York City in a week–“Can’t wait to see you there!”–Jane can’t wait either.
She’ll go to New York City, too, credit card bill be damned. And this time, she will do things right. Jane won’t lose Thalia again.
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In These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academia Anthology*
I love a good dark academia story, and some of the writers involved with this anthology are ones that I love, such as Olivie Blake and M.L. Rio! I think this will be another perfect read once it gets a little chillier!
In these stories, dear student, retribution visits a lothario lecturer; the sinister truth is revealed about a missing professor; a forsaken lover uses a séance for revenge; an obsession blooms about a possible illicit affair; two graduates exhume the secrets of a reclusive scholar; horrors are uncovered in an obscure academic department; five hopeful initiates must complete a murderous task and much more!
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A Million Quiet Revolutions by Robin Gow
I have friends who loved A Million Quiet Revolutions, and I’ve also had friends who DNF’ed it or wasn’t its biggest fan, so I’m really intrigued to see how I feel about it. The premise is definitely intriguing to me, so I’m hoping to give it a go soon!
For as long as they can remember, Aaron and Oliver have only ever had each other. In a small town with few queer teenagers, let alone young trans men, they’ve shared milestones like coming out as trans, buying the right binders–and falling for each other.
But just as their relationship has started to blossom, Aaron moves away. Feeling adrift, separated from the one person who understands them, they seek solace in digging deep into the annals of America’s past. When they discover the story of two Revolutionary War soldiers who they believe to have been trans man in love, they’re inspired to pay tribute to these soldiers by adopting their names–Aaron and Oliver. As they learn, they delve further into unwritten queer stories, and they discover the transformative power of reclaiming one’s place in history.
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Ode To My First Car by Robin Gow
I think I might do a Robin Gow marathon one day, and read A Million Quiet Revolutions and Ode to My First Car back to back! I’m really excited for this one.
It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.
Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.
As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.
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Out of the Blue by Jason June
I’m not a big mermaid person, but I know a couple of my close friends really liked Out of the Blue, which makes me excited to read it! I’ve seen it floating around for a while now, but just never picked it up just because I don’t really gravitate towards fantasy that much!
Crest is not excited to be on their Journey: the monthlong sojourn on land all teen merfolk must undergo. The rules are simple: Help a human within one moon cycle and return to Pacifica to become an Elder–or fail and remain stuck on land forever. Crest is eager to get their Journey over and done with: after all, humans are disgusting. They’ve pollluted the planet so much that there’s a floating island of trash that’s literally the size of a country.
In Los Angeles with a human body and a new name, Crest meets Sean, a human lifeguard whose boyfriend has recently dumped him. Crest agrees to help Sean make his ex jealous and win him back. But as the two spend more time together and Crest’s pespective on humans begins to change, they’ll soon be torn between two worlds. And fake dating just might lead to real feelings…
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Private Label by Kelly Yang
I’ve heard nothing but the most wonderful things about Kelly Yang’s books for years, but have just never gotten around to picking one up, so when I received a gifted copy of Private Label, I was stoked! That being said, this one seems to cover some heavier topics, so I’m waiting until I’m in the right mindset before reading it!
Serene dreams of making couture dresses even more stunning than her mom’s, but for now she’s an intern at her mom’s fashion label. When her mom receives a sudden diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, all that changes. Serene has to take over her mother’s business overnight, dealing with ruthless investors who do not think a seventeen-year-old can run a fashion empire, while trying to figure out what happened with her dad in Beijing. He left before she was born, and Serene wants to find him, even if it means going against her mom’s one request—never look back.
Lian Chen moved from China to Serene’s mostly white Southern California beach town a year ago. He doesn’t fit in at school, where kids mispronounce his name. His parents don’t care about what he wants to do—comedy—and push him toward going to MIT engineering early. Lian thinks there’s nothing to stick around for, until one day, he starts Chinese Club after school . . . and Serene walks in.
Worlds apart in the high school hierarchy, Serene and Lian soon find refuge in each other, falling in love as they navigate life-changing storms.
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Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin
I’ve heard some really, really good things about Serpent and Dove, but never got around to reading it! I’m really excited, since it seems to be a pretty well loved YA fantasy. Serpent and Dove snuck onto my TBR cart right between Eras Tour and me traveling, which is the biggest reason I haven’t gotten around to it.
Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they are burned.
Sworn to the Church as a Chasseur, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His path was never meant to cross with Lou’s, but a wicked stunt forces them into an impossible union—holy matrimony.
The war between witches and Church is an ancient one, and Lou’s most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse than fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, a choice must be made.
And love makes fools of us all.
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Some Mistakes Were Made by Kristin Dwyer
I actually just got Some Mistakes Were Made, so I don’t think it’s as bad as some of the other books on this list! It came at the end of last month with a large chunk of some of the other books on this list, so I simply just haven’t had time to get around to it yet.
Ellis and Easton have been inseparable since childhood. But when a rash decision throws Ellis’s life—and her relationship with Easton— into chaos she’s forced to move halfway across the country, far from everything she’s ever known.
Now Ellis hasn’t spoken to Easton in a year, and maybe it’s better that way; maybe eventually the Easton shaped hole in her heart will heal. But when Easton’s mother invites her home for a celebration, Ellis finds herself tangled up in the web of heartache, betrayal, and anger she left behind… and with the boy she never stopped loving.
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Something Like Possible by Miel Moreland
At this point, I feel like I’m the last person on earth who hasn’t read a Miel Moreland book! I love the premise of Something Like Possible, especially as a fellow “girl with a plan” girlie, and I genuinely cannot wait to get to this one soon.
On the worst day of her life, Madison is dumped by her girlfriend, then fired as said (ex)girlfriend’s campaign manager… plus she accidentally rear-ends the student government advisor―the one person whose good word might help her win a spot at a prestigious youth politics summer camp.
But Madison is nothing if not a girl with a plan, and she isn’t going to let a little thing like heartbreak (or a slightly dented bumper) get in her way. Soon, she has a new junior class president candidate to back―although the two of them might be getting a little too close on the campaign trail. Between navigating her growing crush and corralling a less than enthusiastic election team, Madison has had it with unexpected changes to her carefully laid plans. But when she and a group of queer classmates discover a pattern of harassment within the student government, Madison’s forced to shift gears once again.
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The Carnivale of Curiosities by Amiee Gibbs
The Carnivale of Curiosities reminds me of a mix between The Night Circus and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which makes it one of the books I’m most looking forward to on this list!
In Victorian London, where traveling sideshows are the very pinnacle of entertainment, there is no more coveted ticket than Ashe and Pretorius’ Carnivale of Curiosities. Each performance is a limited engagement, and London’s elite boldly dare the dangerous streets of Southwark to witness the Carnivale’s astounding assemblage of marvels. For a select few, however, the real show begins behind the curtain. Rumors abound that the show’s proprietor, Aurelius Ashe, is more than an average magician. It’s said that for the right price, he can make any wish come true. No one knows the truth of this claim better than Lucien the Lucifer, the Carnivale’s star attraction. Born with the ability to create fire, he’s dazzled spectators since he was a boy.
When Odilon Rose, one of the most notorious men in London, comes calling with a proposition regarding his young and beautiful charge, Charlotte, Ashe is tempted to refuse. After revealing, however, that Rose holds a secret that threatens the security of the troupe’s most vulnerable members, Ashe has no choice but to sign an insidious contract.
The stakes grow higher as Lucien finds himself drawn to Charlotte and her to him, an attraction that spurs a perilous course of events. Grave secrets, recovered horrors, and what it means to be family come to a head in this vividly imagined spectacle—with the lives of all those involved suspended in the balance.
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The Luis Ortega Survival Club by Sonora Reyes
Oh, I’m so excited for this one! I read and loved Sonora Reyes’ The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, so I was genuinely so stoked to receive this one in the mail. It just so happened that I received it when I was also trying to take a step back from bookish content creating for a bit, which is the only reason why I haven’t gotten to it yet.
Ariana Ruiz wants to be noticed. But as an autistic girl who never talks, she goes largely ignored by her peers, despite her bold fashion choices. So when cute, popular Luis starts to pay attention to her, Ari finally feels seen.
Luis’s attention soon turns to something more, and they have sex at a party—while Ari didn’t say no, she definitely didn’t say yes. Before she has a chance to process what happened and decide if she even has the right to be mad at Luis, the rumor mill begins churning—thanks, she’s sure, to Luis’s ex-girlfriend, Shawni. Boys at school now see Ari as an easy target, someone who won’t say no.
Then Ari finds a mysterious note in her locker that eventually leads her to a group of students determined to expose Luis for the predator he is. To her surprise, she finds genuine friendship among the group, including her growing feelings for the very last girl she expected to fall for. But in order to take Luis down, she’ll have to come to terms with the truth of what he did to her that night—and risk everything to see justice done.
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The Siren by Katherine St. John
I’m pretty sure I’ve had this book since it was published in 2021, which makes this the worst case by far. It sounds entirely up my alley, but I just keep putting it off for some reason — I think there’s a part of me that says it’s because it’s been out for so long, so what’s a couple more weeks (or months)?
In the midst of a sizzling hot summer, some of Hollywood’s most notorious faces are assembled on the idyllic Caribbean island of St. Genesius to film The Siren, starring dangerously handsome megastar Cole Power playing opposite his ex-wife, Stella Rivers. The surefire blockbuster promises to entice audiences with its sultry storyline and intimately connected cast.
Three very different women arrive on set, each with her own motive. Stella, an infamously unstable actress, is struggling to reclaim the career she lost in the wake of multiple, very public breakdowns. Taylor, a fledgling producer, is anxious to work on a film she hopes will turn her career around after her last job ended in scandal. And Felicity, Stella’s mysterious new assistant, harbors designs of her own that threaten to upend everyone’s plans.
With a hurricane brewing offshore, each woman finds herself trapped on the island, united against a common enemy. But as deceptions come to light, misplaced trust may prove more perilous than the storm itself..
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The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson
Given that we’re in a heat wave right now, and it’s nearing the end of summer, I feel like I have to prioritize The Summer of Bitter and Sweet! I know a couple of my bookstagram friends love this one, so I’m definitely curious to give it a go.
Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She’ll be working in her family’s ice cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend—whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort—and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago without a word.
But when she gets a letter from her biological father—a man she hoped would stay behind bars for the rest of his life—Lou immediately knows that she cannot meet him, no matter how much he insists.
While King’s friendship makes Lou feel safer and warmer than she would have thought possible, when her family’s business comes under threat, she soon realizes that she can’t ignore her father forever.
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The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero-Lacruz
I’m so intrigued by the premise of this one, but have been putting it off because it is fantasy, and I really think that I’ve been fantasy’ed out (hopefully not forever) because of a certain book!
Reina is desperate.
Stuck living on the edges of society, her only salvation lies in an invitation from a grandmother she’s never known. But the journey is dangerous, and prayer can’t always avert disaster.
Attacked by creatures that stalk the region, Reina is on the verge of death until her grandmother, a dark sorceress, intervenes. Now dependent on the Doña’s magic for her life, Reina will do anything to earn—and keep—her favor. Even the bidding of an ancient god who whispers to her at night.
Eva Kesare is unwanted.
Illegitimate and of mixed heritage, Eva is her family’s shame. She tries her best to be perfect and to hide her oddities. But Eva is hiding a secret: magic calls to her.
Eva knows she should fight the temptation. Magic is the sign of the dark god, and using it is punishable by death. Yet, it’s hard to deny power when it has always been denied to you. Eva is walking a dangerous path, one that gets stranger every day. And, in the end, she’ll become something she never imagined.
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Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé*
I started reading this the other night, but then my power went out and I decided that I didn’t need to read a thriller in the dark (and that I should conserve my battery). I loved Ace of Spades, so I’m certain that I’ll really enjoy Where Sleeping Girls Lie too.
Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school, after being home-schooled all her life. Misfortune has clung to her seemingly since birth, but even she doesn’t expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think Sade had something to do with it.
With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the girls collectively known as the ‘Unholy Trinity’ and they bring her into their fold. Between learning more about them—especially Persephone, who Sade is inexplicably drawn to—and playing catchup in class, Sade already has so much on her plate. But when it seems people don’t care enough about what happened to Elizabeth, it’s up to she and Elizabeth’s best friend, Baz, to investigate.
And then a student is found dead.
The more Sade and Baz dig into Elizabeth’s disappearance, the more she realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she thought. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface…secrets that rival even her own.
Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop.org
Since there’s 25 of these books total, I’ve decided to make it into a Bingo, and then reward myself with little treats every time I hit a bingo. I’ll keep y’all posted on how this goes!
Have you read any of these books before? Let me know!
