Week of September 1, 2025

And just like that, it’s one of my favorite months of the year. I LOVE fall and I’m giddy about the next 4 months. Having the windows open with a brisk breeze makes me so happy. Wearing a sweatshirt with a pair of shorts makes me happy. Football is back and that makes me happy. (GO BIRDS! 🦅) So even though for a lot of people, leaving the beach and closing up the swimming pool and leaving summer behind equates to sadness, for me it’s the opposite. I love the changing seasons - just like I look forward to the warm sand in my toes after a cold winter, I eagerly await the cool days and colorful leaves, especially after a particularly muggy summer. So I’m glad those days are right around the corner. The school buses are out and about, Facebook has been flooded with back to school photos, and it’s time to dig out some fall recipes and start baking. I’ll find one of my favorite fall recipes and put one up in the next week or so to share.

I also want to share a little bit about what’s going on in our house this month. You may have read my post about me going on a GLP-1 medication, which I started in mid July (https://karenskindle.beehiiv.com/p/well-this-was-unexpected-6d826f2f8cb3284e) and it’s going pretty well for me. I’m feeling a little run down, however, and I think I need to titrate down my dose a little bit. It’s working a little too well, perhaps. I lost 8 lbs last month, and although I’m excited about finally losing weight after being stalled for 10 years despite all my best efforts, this is too drastic. I’d like to have a little more of an appetite than I currently do, and I need to be able to fuel myself better than I currently am. There’s isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for ANYTHING, I know that for certain, and my journey back to health with the help of this medication will be my own. But along with that, I need to take responsibility for all parts of the journey, including diet and exercise and not just focus on the scale. So I’m going to adjust and see where it all falls. Slow and steady wins the race. It took 10 years for me to reach this point - I don’t need to solve everything in 4 months. If it takes me 18 months to get back to the fully healthy person I hope to be, so be it. 🙂 

And now, on to the book stuff:

• As always, here’s my rating scale for your information:

  ⭐️ Did not like this book, would not recommend. Lots of errors, plot holes, not worth the effort to read, most likely didn’t finish. But I’m giving this author a single star for making the effort to publish a book. Not everyone’s even gotten that far, so yay for you.

  ⭐️⭐️ Didn’t really like it, multiple issues with style, plot, syntax or characters. Most likely forced myself to finish it. Would consider other books by the same author but I might have to be convinced.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoyed the book. Perhaps there were issues with plot or style but it was an enjoyable read. I could see recommending it if it were of a specific genre or trope or series. Most of what I read could easily fall into this category and I’d be a happy camper.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a good book. Like a really good book. I will think about this book when I’m finished, and there’s a really good chance I’ll buy it for my personal library if it was a KU read. I’d recommend it to other readers of the same genre or trope. I’ll definitely search out other books by this author, probably as soon as I’m finished reading.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow. Just wow. Amazing book, amazing story. If there were flaws in the book I’m completely overlooking them because in my mind the book was sheer perfection. I didn’t want the book to end and I’m immediately adding it to my favorites and my re-read pile. And if there’s an audio version I might have to buy that, too. I have a book hangover, I miss the characters, and I feel actual, physical loss in my life when this book is finished.

Thanks for joining me this week! Let’s dive in!

1. The Summer We Made Promises, by Hope Holloway & Cecelia Scott ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 358 pages.

   Genre/tropes: Contemporary romance

   This was book 4 of the series that I started last week and it’s still holding my attention! These characters are all very good and I’m enjoying seeing where the rest of these stories will go. I know there’s at least one more book to go but it looks like possibly more to come. There isn’t much to say about this book without knowing the 3 that came before it, but suffice it to say that this series is a very pleasant beach read.

2. Just a Bit Wrecked, by Alessandra Hazard ⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 207 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM romance, enemies to lovers

   I saw a list of favorite MM authors on Reddit and this author was mentioned multiple times so when I saw this book I thought “why not.” I’ll tell you why not. It was TERRIBLE, that’s why not. This was utter rubbish. There’s literally nothing redeeming about this book. Plot holes, dull characters, completely implausible in lots of ways. Just don’t bother with this one.

3. Except You, Cora Rose ⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 268 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM romance, gay for you, friends to lovers

   This book wasn’t a continuation of the Whit and Sem series, but Magnus and Sem are in this book. Magnus’ brother, Max, is the MMC in this book and he’s feeling all sorts of guilt. Guilt about how badly he treated his gay brother and he wants to redeem himself. So he decides to learn about what it means to be gay. He goes to a gay bar to “study” up on the gay way of life and Beau befriends this poor, lost straight guy. Beau becomes his gay bestie and, yes, you guessed it, Max falls for Beau. It’s a slow process, and as far as this straight girl can tell, there’s nothing realistic in this book at all. But do I wish it happened in real life? Of course I do! It’s sweet as hell. Max is adorable as he falls for Beau and realizes that the love he can get from a man is every bit as good or even better than the love he can get from a woman. But he still couldn’t actually bring himself to say that he’s gay, and I think that bugged me in the end. Anyway, it’s a cute, spicy read, and Beau makes it all worth it.

4. Soul Eater, by Lily Mayne ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 329 pages

   Genre/tropes: Fantasy, MM Romance, Paranormal, Dystopia

   Wow, I have no idea what to think. Can you even call it MM romance if one of the characters isn’t human at all? Fantasy isn’t my typical genre, but this book was hyped up a lot on a Reddit blog that I read and so I thought I’d give it a try. It was really out there in terms of the physical relationship between the two main characters. Like sex between a human and a non-human shouldn’t actually work, right? But the romance? Surprisingly, not such a stretch. Compassion, it seems, can cross the monster/human boundary, as we’ve seen in books and movies for years. So the love story of Danny, the human, and Wyn, the monster, was actually quite sweet. And as the book progresses, we find that Wyn has more humanity in his non-human soul than most actual humans do, and the fact that Danny sees that and loves him for it is a beautiful testament to love. This was a surprisingly lovely read.

5. Final Appeal, by Lisa Scottoline ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   Kindle Unlimited, 352 pages

   Genre/tropes: Legal thriller, mystery

   I always enjoy a legal thriller, and I’ve never read a Lisa Scottoline book, even though she’s a Philly girl and I LOVE having local references in books I read. This is an oldie, apparently only her 2nd book, but I enjoyed it. It wasn’t hard to follow the plot, and I really loved her writing style. This story follows lawyer Grace as she uses her smarts to hunt down clues to prove that her boss Armen didn’t, in fact, commit suicide. Of course there’s a plot twist that no one saw coming (dun dun dun!) and I’m not sure I really saw the “why” in the end, but it was a good story, nonetheless. I will be looking for other books by this author for sure.

6. Frog, by Mary Calmes ⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Edition, $4.99, 175 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM romance

   Very short read and definitely an ‘opposites attract’ situation. Sure, who doesn’t love a cowboy, but I had trouble reconciling Weber and Cyrus together. Leaving that aside for a minute, the “found family” aspect of the story for Weber was very fulfilling, even if it was a little bit Hallmark-ish in its simplicity. For example, the instant Cy’s nephews met Weber they forgot all about their father abandoning them that very day and never had a moment of doubt that Weber was the new father figure they needed all along. And the moment Cy’s parents met Weber it was immediately apparent that HE was the only thing that had been missing from their son’s life for the past 40 years. It was all very sweet, but far too simplistic for my cynical (realistic, perhaps?) brain to truly accept. In the world of fiction, anything goes, of course, so in that sense you can say it was a lovely story. Similarly, Cy seemed awfully flighty and prone to very dramatic reactions for someone who was supposedly a neurosurgeon. (Can you tell I had some trouble with this book?) Anyway, it was ok, but there are better books out there. This was another read I found through a Reddit blog and it clearly that blog was hit or miss for me this week. I’d say you can safely skip this book. I do have another Mary Calmes book on my TBR so I’ll give her another shot and see how it play out. Stay tuned.

That’s it for this week! As always, you can keep up with all of my reading on my Goodreads if you want to. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12921106-karen

Love, Karen