Books I Read in July | monthly wrap-up

This is coming a little late, but hey, better late than never! July started off as a really slow reading month, but within the last two weeks is when I really picked up the pace and read most of the books for the month. I read a total of 5 books, which is pretty good for me.

That being said, in terms of blogging, I…did not deliver. Lol. I only posted like three times, if that, during the whole month and my only explanation is really that I was in what one may call a ✨ creative slump ✨. It was not fun and I’m still not 100% back to my usual self but I’m hoping it’ll pass soon!

Going into August I’m feeling hella stressed. There is just so much going on this month and we’re wrapping up on summer break which is just ugh. But I don’t want to talk about that too much here because this blog is my safe space & it’s all positive vibes 😌

Anyways, without further ado, here are the books I read in July!

A WOMAN IS NO MAN by ETAF RUM
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Y’all…read this book. Right now. I actually have no words to explain exactly how much this story means to me and why it’s so important and needed to be told. To put it lightly, this book is not easy. It will make your heart ache and eyes water, but by the end you will feel grateful to have had the opportunity to read this.

A Woman Is No Man is told through two different timelines and takes place in Brooklyn, NY. It’s about the hardships women face in many cultures, still, through the pressure to marry young and have children. It was so realistic in many ways to the way women are still treated to this day which made it all the more difficult to read. I honestly can’t even justify it in words, but if you’re looking for a hard hitting contemporary with really important and relevant social commentary, this is definitely the one for you.

IN THE WOODS by TANA FRENCH
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
This is the first thriller I’ve read in a while, and let me tell you, it 100% gave what needed to be given (iykyk). It takes place in Dublin, Ireland and follows main character Rob Ryan. When he was younger, Rob and his friends went missing for 24 hours. Rob was the only one found and he has no recollection whatsoever of what happened to the other two kids he was with. Now, 20 years later, Rob is a police detective and assigned to work on a case that seems to have a lot of similarities to what happened to him all those years back. Now he has the opportunity to re-live the memories he tried to hard to forget and find out once and for all: what happened 20 years ago.

All in all, this was really well-written and keeps the reader guessing for the majority of the story. It did give me the creeps (especially because I read the more ‘thriller-y parts’ at night, while home alone 🙃) but I loved every minute of it since that’s what I’d expect from a literal thriller/murder mystery book. That being said, I just wasn’t the biggest fan of the end but I won’t say why because spoilers. Other than that it was so good!

PRIDE, PREJUDICE, AND OTHER FLAVORS by SONALI DEV
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Okay! I read this mainly for the desi vibes and representation. I did loooove all the mentions of food, which all sounded so delish and kind of really made me hungry. As you can probably tell from the title, this is a modern day P&P re-telling. One of the main characters is a chef and all his scenes were just filled with mentions of Indian recipes that I love and were by far my favorite parts of the book.

In terms of the actual plot and romance and substance, I felt very meh. I didn’t see much of a spark between Trisha and DJ, the two main characters, and all the character relationships in general felt kind of forced. This is part of a series I’m pretty sure, and while this book was enjoyable I didn’t like it enough to see myself continuing with the rest of the books.

ALL WE EVER WANTED by EMILY GIFFIN
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
So what drew me in about this book was the synopsis. We follow 3 different characters, Nina, Tom, and Lyla. Nina comes from a small-town, middle-class family but married a very wealthy man who comes from old money. They have a son who is a senior in high school and set to go to Princeton. Tom is a single-father to his daughter Lyla, and is considered over-protective but he really just wants the best for her. All three of these characters are thrown together when a ~scandalous~ photo of Lyla is taken and starts spreading through her school like wildfire. It’s suspected that Nina’s son is the one who took the picture and labelled it with a racist caption, which also forces Nina to re-think the person she has become and how she was capable of raising someone who’d do this.

Similar to A Woman Is No Man, this is a social commentary more on parenthood, social status, and what the upper class in America can get away with because of their racial and economic privilege. There were a lot of subtle remarks made by certain characters in this book that were so annoying to read but also so spot on to things I’ve actually heard people say in real life. This was definitely a very frustrating book to read for many reasons and it didn’t really resolve the way I’d have hoped, but everything turned out the way you would expect it to if this situation did happen in real life so I can’t really fault it for that.

TWEET CUTE by EMMA LORD
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is no surprise to you guys because I do have a full review of this book up on my blog! This was such a sweet story that was cute without being cringe, romantic but not overdone. I’m pretty picky when it comes to romance but Tweet Cute did deliver 😌

I don’t have much to say since I basically got all my thoughts out in my review sooo check that out if you’re interested and haven’t already. I would recommend this!

I’m going to try and get back to posting regularly,,,fingers crossed for it! Hope you’re all having an amazing August so far <33

I would love to know what your favorite book of July was! Have you read any of these books?