Welcome to another My Month is Booked linkup! So sorry that I dropped the ball last month! It seems you can generally tell which months I was on a longer-than-2-weeks vacation by how many books I read, haha. I finished 11 books while I was on vacation and 5 last month!
My Month Is Booked: (August +) September 2026
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Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, by Heather Fawcett – Agnes Aubert is type A, selfless + kind owner of a cat rescue — when she’s forced to move it + discovers her new landlord is using her charity as a front, she is absolutely appalled. (It probably doesn’t help either that he is also a magician/the failed Dark Lord who tried to end the world a couple years ago.)
I’ve been seeing this one pop up on my feed + since I love cats, of course I had to read it! Since I read a bunch of sad/dark books last week, I needed a palate cleanser and this was a really cute cozy fantasy (with a little romance). :]
The Moonflowers, by Abigail Rose-Marie – After being commissioned to paint a portrait honoring her grandfather, Benjamin, for his contributions to Darren, Kentucky, Tig Costello arrives in the rural Appalachian town to try to find out more about him. But the person who knew him best is a woman named Eloise Price, who’s been confined to a state institution for murdering him 50 years prior. Through their talks, she learns more about her family and the secrets that the town has tried to keep hidden.
This was a beautifully written novel and touches on a number of heavier topics (domestic abuse, suicide, abortion) + is one of my favorite free books that I’ve gotten from Amazon First Reads so far. Although it is a work of fiction, it is based on the realities that women faced (and unfortunately still face).
The Bookstore Sisters, by Alice Hoffman – Isabel Gibson left her family home years ago, happy to leave everything behind, but when a cryptic letter arrives in her mailbox, she reluctantly returns to Maine to help to revive the family bookstore with her sister.
A short story from Amazon First Reads written by the author of Practical Magic (which I still need to read)! This felt like a Hallmark movie in book form, but I used to hunker down every fall/winter with Linda at Please Save A Cat + we’d watch a bunch of Lifetime/Hallmark movies while covered in cats/dogs and it was one of the best times of my life, so sometimes you just want something happy/predictable. If that’s what you’re looking for, this is perfect!
I Think We’ve Been Here Before, by Suzy Krause – The end of the world is near. Marlen and Hilda find this out the same week that Marlen reveals he’s been diagnosed with a terminal illness. While they navigate the time they have left together, their daughter struggles to find her way home Berlin, where she’s been studying abroad.
This book jumps from different characters’ perspectives and did get a little confusing at times, but it was a really unique read + definitely makes you think. If you found out the world would be ending, would you believe it? Deny it? Continue to hope? What would you spend it doing? Who would you spend it with?
The First Witch of Boston, by Andrew Catalano – A historical fiction based on the true story of Margaret Jones, the first woman to be found guilty of witchcraft in 17th-century Massachusetts.
You know from the start how this one will end, but somehow you still find yourself hoping that people will be logical, reasonable human beings rather than short-sighted bigoted hypocrites…but alas. This book made me so, so angry (with society). While things are certainly better (one would hope) now, the disrespect and abuse still continue.
From Below, by Darcy Coates – Told in a dual-timeline from the days before the sinking of the SS Arcadia and present-day, where the team is going back down for footage for their documentary.
This is the first book I’ve read from Darcy Coates and I’d say she definitely does dread well. There was definitely an ever-present sense of foreboding throughout. The start felt a little slow + the end felt a little rushed, but overall, it packed up most of the questions I had well. As a diver though, I hated one of the characters pretty early on and figured they’d be the one who’d do monumentally stupid things that would compromise the safety of everyone. 1 star for his character.
The Fourth Daughter, by Lyn Liao Butler – Chef Liv Kuo was on her way to a promising career as a chef in New York until a traumatic event leaves her unable to venture outside her apartment. When her grandmother contacts her asking for help to find her fourth daughter, who was taken from her when the girl was still an infant, Liv agrees to fly to Taiwan to help with the search.
A dual timeline novel that made me want to go back to Taiwan night markets and eatttttt. If you’re looking for a good family drama with a bit of romance while learning a little more about Taiwan history, this would be a great pick! (Maturity of the main character seems more in line with someone in their early 20’s rather than mid-30’s, but the traumatic incident was quite traumatic, so who knows if maybe she was mature before this?)
The Answer Is No, by Elizabeth DeNoma + Frederik Backman – Lucas is about to enjoy a perfect night of video games, wine, and pad thai, when he is interrupted by the apartment board requesting to see his frying pan because he must be the guilty party who left it next to the recycling room the night before.
(It kinda just derails from there + I know this short story sounds completely ridiculous, which it kinda is, but I like the way this makes fun of the absurdity of humanity/how society behaves.)
Happier Here With You, by Amy Gail Hansen – A widowed, overworked museum curator/food historian receives an invitation to visit her estranged great-aunt at her Wisconsin farm. While there, she opens a box of old recipes and discovers pieces of her family history.
This book will make you want to live your life at a slower pace + enjoy the little things/spend time with loved ones. <3 I really liked learning more about the Women’s Land Army through this book too (did not know anything about it before this). If you don’t like Hallmark movies/predictability, this will not be your jam, but this was a great palate cleanser after reading some of the others I’d read.
The Replacement, by Liv Constantine – A Hollywood actress attempts to revive her career after tabloid gossip and box office flops threaten to make her irrelevant. When she lands a role in a promising new film alongside a young up-and-coming costar, it feels like a comeback may be possible…but things in her life are not quite how they seem.
Another Amazon First Reads freebie! This is a short story (only 48 pages) and to me, was intriguing enough to pass the time as I was waiting in line to get into an airport lounge. It was pretty predictable + the ending seemed very haphazard though. The main characters are very unlikeable.
The Magic of Us, by Beth Merlin + Danielle Modafferi – As a radio host, Elliot West has built her entire brand on rejecting love and is on the cusp of great success in her career…but when a tarot card reader casts a spell on her + she wakes up the next morning in a life with “the one [she let] get away,” she starts to question everything she thought she never believed in.
“What if” you had a chance again with the one you didn’t take a chance on? Elliot is very set in her ways, super jaded, and doesn’t realize how she’s hurting other people as a result of her hurting, so the first 3/4 of this book was quite frustrating, but it gets better. (Her best friend + the male main character are awesome.)
The rest of these are my September reads! (Considerably less because I’m no longer on vacation, haha.)
Red String Theory, by Lauren Kung Jessen – Rooney is a Chinese-American artist whose work is based on the Chinese legend that soulmates are connected to each other by an invisible red thread. She longs to break free of her mother’s (a famous artist) shadow and make an [anonymous] name for herself. Jack is a CA-based scientist who’s as by-the-book as they come — after a chance encounter, they spend a spontaneous evening together + he gives her his number, but she types it in incorrectly… Will fate intervene? Does fate exist?
If you’ve watched Serendipity, this has the same vibes. It was a cute story overall and I liked how it connected the story using Chinese mythology. I loved the description of Rooney’s artwork and would love to see what that’d look like in person.
The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion – Don Tillman is a professor of genetics who approaches all things in life in an evidence-based manner. He does not do well with social norms/rituals, but when a friend tells him he would make a “wonderful” husband, he decides to start up “The Wife Project” to find a suitable partner for him (by way of a very extensive questionnaire). When he meets Rosie (who does not fit any part of his Wife Project), he decides to sideline his own project to help her with finding her biological father.
My book club will be reading the The Rosie Effect for this month’s book club, so I figured I should read the first book in the series prior to starting on the sequel! This was a really cute read! :]
Yesteryear, by Caro Claire Burke – Natalie lives the picture-perfect tradwife life in a charming farmhouse with her handsome husband and their beautiful children, makes bread from scratch, and has an enormous social media following. …but it’s all for show. She has a producer, she outsources the work on the farm, she has nannies taking care of all her children. She is in for a very rude awakening when she wakes up one morning to find herself in 1850.
This was an intriguing read + really makes you think! I’m looking forward to watching the movie if they do end up coming out with it at some point! When I heard the premise of this novel, I will admit, I was kinda looking forward to reading it mostly because, given the lack of consequences for so many things that are happening in this country, I was hoping I’d get to see some satisfying comeuppance. The story ends up showing you what can happen when you’re raised all your life to believe certain things + end up feeling like you’re trapped/don’t have many options. I still disliked the main character immensely + she is still wildly deranged, but you do gain a better understanding of how she got there. I was just expecting cray from the start.)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V.E. Schwab – This spans the lives of 3 women growing up in very different times:
Maria in 1532 Santo Domingo de la Calzada – She is young, beautiful, and dreams of escape, but knows there is no way to do so unless she plays the game in a world run by men.
Charlotte in 1827 London – After a moment of forbidden intimacy leads to her being shipped off to London, she jumps at a chance for freedom from a beautiful widowed woman.
Alice in 2019 Boston – After an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning everything, she sets off to find answers (+ revenge).
I actually got a signed copy of this book for completing the summer reading program at my local library! This was 535 pages + 18 hours as an audiobook. The writing itself is beautiful + lyrical, but the pacing did drag. If toxic lesbian vampires + feminine rage is your thing (I liked how the script gets flipped where men think they’re the predator and end up actually being the prey), read this one! (It’s by the same author as The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.)
Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang – Juniper Heyward and Athena Liu both went to the same Ivy League and are both talented writers…so why is Athena drowning in success while no one’s ever even heard of June? When June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she decides to steal Athena’s just-finished draft of her newest novel. Just for inspiration, right? But if she edits it, it’s her work, isn’t it? After all, it was only a first draft. Why not rebrand under a new name with a ethnically ambiguous author photo and could-maybe-be-Asian last name?
This has been on my TBR for a while now! I was actually supposed to go to an author event for R.F. Kuang ~1.5 weeks ago, but because work has been insanely busy, I lost all my half-days off and gave up my spot since there’d be no way I could make it there in time. :'( The main character in this book is…how can I put this? Deeply, deeply unlikeable and completely delusional. I saw a reviewer write “if white audacity were a novel” and I would not be able to disagree with this. The casually thrown in microaggressions and racism thrown in were masterfully done. I will definitely be reading more books by R.F. Kuang!
- Have you ever read a book with a main character you hated (but where you liked the book anyway)?
- What’s on your TBR this month? (I’m going for FAFO and satisfying comeuppance ones for me…)
3 comments
Red String Therapy sounds so interesting to me. I’ll look into it! I thought The Rosie Project was a fun book too. Yesteryear will be an interesting movie. I had mixed feelings about the book–I’m not always a fan of time travel and I had trouble connecting with the main character anywhere along the way.
I don’t know if my comment posted before.
I loved The Rosie Project and it’s sequel.
Two books I want to definitely read this month are The Wash Ashores by Hannah McKinnon and Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.
Thank you for hosting the link up!
Amy Rae D. recently posted…My Month is Booked… August 2026 Edition
You read such a wide variety of genres and on so many diverse topics too. It sounds like they both were pretty great reading months.