August crashed in with work and all that everyday normal life and stuff, putting a damper to my preferred way of life, ie. reading all day long 🤣 Still, I found myself even getting into a bit of story writing mode there, setting my books aside for a few days to write a novella of my own (The Refugee), which ran off on its own and I just struggled to keep up and get it written down! I have always done a lot of writing myself, too – blogs, short stories, poems, diary, novellas… though less in the recent years than I used to. Like many readers, I too have harbored the dream of some day publishing my stuff, but so far been simply publishing them in my creative writing blog Writings by Marilka.

In books my August ended up being 15 books of varied length (mostly in the regular range of 350-400 pages, with one novella in the mix and some 400+ ones), altogether 5646 pages. A pretty good month, with prett good books, some disappointments, but also some of top books of the year, like the Dearly Beloved duolgy and Immortal Rose.

• Sea of Charms (Spellshop 3), by Sarah Beth Durst – Charming fairy tale, as these always are, even though this one was a bit thick on the guilt-ridden shielding and the pushing the other own away “for their own good”, trowing a bit of a shadow on the otherwise lovely story.
• An Arcane Study of Stars, by Sidney J. Shields – Mixed feelings, enemies to reluctant lovers, secrets and ancient plots, where mere mortals are but pieces on the game board of powerhungry gods. One of those books I loved and hated in equal measure, loving the story but kinda hating the protagonist and antagonist both.
• The Dearly Beloathed duology: The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy & The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy, by Brigitte Knightley – One of the absolute best reads of this year, this enemies to lovers story does it elegantly and with lovely eloquence and finesse, without the infuriating dwelling and wallowing and sheer martyrdom (at least no much), changing if not the world, at least enough of it to accomodate their love.
• Heathermoor (Of Quirks and Curses 2), by Shannon Mayer – A wild ride from start to end, this middle book of the trilogy, leaving off in another damned cliffhanger (because, naturally). Secrets revealed, the truth unveiled, but can they save the world from evil or not?
• Prince of Swords (Arcana Academy 2), by Elise Kova – Another middle of the trilogy book, leaving me totally flabbergasted at the end. It was a “well, damn!” of a turn of events, after another wild race to save the world, in the unique concept of this world, as in erasing and recreating it.
• Adversary to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain 4), by Hannah Nicole Maehrer – Another “well, damn” ending, though this one with a resigned sigh, rigth after the anger of “no, you can’t end the series this way!” had burned away. It left me kinda sad, it wasn’t the endind I would’ve wanted, so it kinda deflated the otherwise fun and enjoyable experience of this last Villain book.
• The League of Dangerous Young Ladies, by J.A. Morgenstein – A young adult adventure with daughters of those goth monsters like Moriarty and Moreau and Frankenstein, racing to beat the bigger evil with the possibly smaller evil, in a game of, yeah, saving or ruling the world.
• A Witch in Notting Hill, by Alexandra Paige – A sweet palate cleansing magical realism romance about not only finding love, but finding also friendship and, maybe first and foremost, yourself in the process.
• No Charm Done (Oak Haven Witches 3), by Emily Grimoire – The delighful whimsical third last book of the series (losely set trilogy), where the third Melrose sister is in the spotlight, flipping in and out of time and space with the handsome con man (confidence man, as he prefers it) Elias, to change the fate of Oak Haven once and for all.
• Parcel of Stardust, by Ines Johnson – A novella made up entirely of letters (and a few other missives an news articles), a delicious delicate snack of a book.
• Rainbow in the Dark, by Ronnie James Dio (with Wendy Dio and Mick Wall) – Dio’s memoir up to mid-eghties, as he had it planned, even while living several decades more and another one passing before the book was edited and finally published. A thoroughly enjoyable read, even for a not-a-fan (of his music). Plus, it made me a fan – of his pre-Rainbow band Elf!
• A Date with Death, by Kelly Creagh – Expecting a comedy, I got a rather deep and sensual story instead. It was fun and funny too, but I rather loved this love story for how real it was in it’s unreal setting. A highly satisfying story.
• A Deadly Education (Scholomance 1), by Naomi Novik – First book of this YA trilogy, that barely reads as YA – I mean, the characters are teen, but it’s somehow easy to forget it because their youth barely plays into the story. A unique kind of magic and school system, where survival is not a given.
• Immortal Rose, by Alexandra Bracken – Hands down one of the top reads of this year. Magical realism mystery romance is but a diluted way of describing this beautifully written book, a mystery in a Victorianesque setting, in an imaginary version of Victorian England and London. The storytelling is exquisite, naturally slowing down the reading pace, begging for each word, each sentence to be appreciated and savored instead of simply devouring the story. But, fuck, that ending! Waiting for book 2…

Aug 9, Last night I finished the Dearly Beloathed duology (by Brigitte Knightley), a slow burn enemies to lovers romantacy written in equal parts (British) dry sarcasm and exquisite flowery beauty, in a setting where the duality of predefined good and bad, right and wrong is an absolute, weaving the inevitable love story in the supposedly impossible inbetween where the (preposed) right feels wrong and the (presumed) wrong feels right, where good and bad are not black and white.

This story, too, also includes the “I was hurt once so I cannot dare love anymore” trope that really is one of my least favorite ones, but somehow here it was handled in a way that didn’t make me pull my hair out. It wasn’t a guilt-ridden wallowfest, but more of a matter-of-fact attitude. Same for the mandatory “I push you away because that’s best for you (read: me)” martyrdom bit. Probably it was the style of writing, possibly the dual-POV, perhaps it simply wasn’t overdone.

In comparison, these aforementioned themes put the annoying damper on the otherwise so lovely and charming story of The Sea of Charms (by Sarah Beth Durst), that I read (on Kindle) before this duology. Just makes to show that the same themes, the same emotions if you wish, can be dealt with in many ways, some of them irritating, some not so much.

Aug 13, Just finished Prince of Swords (Arcana Academy 2), by Elise Kova. Well, DAMN. That’s all I can say. Well, damn. Yes, the good kind of well damn. Loved the book, but what an ending! And now to wait a year or smtg for the finale. After this twist. Well damn!

I also finished Adversary to the Villain (by Hannah Nicole Mahrer) today, and that one, too, left me in a stunned silence. This was the end to the Assistant to the Villain series and well. I did not quite expect this ending. Nor did I particularily like it. It could’ve gone one of two ways, and I hoped for the other. I imagined the other would be the author’s choice too. But nope. I’m left a touch disappointed. Feeling a bit torn.

In a way, I had two rather similar blows hit me, the difference being that in case 1, there’s another book to remedy the situation, while in case 2 that was it. Well, damn.

Aug 18, Quite often when I read (auto)bios/memoirs of musicians, I’m also intrigued into exploring their music, or music they talk about, that I don’t know – I mean, influences, early career, sidesteps, encounters, intrigues… all that not-so-widely-known jazz (well stuff at least I knew nothing about previously), but also just their music I hadn’t listened to before. While I obviously like to read books by and about artists I specifically dig, I also like to dig into books by (and about) artists I’m simply curious about, whose person I’m interested in even if I’m not a particular fan of their music.

Currently I’m reading Ronny James Dio’s Rainbow in the Dark, and while I don’t particularily like his singing voice when he got into heavy metal (I have something against the vibrato, and that sort of overporwering sound), he is an interesting persona. I mean, I got curious when having some discussion with my husband, and here we are. He doesn’t go into all that philosophy and such (that first got me interested) in the book, focusing on the musical side of his life, but I do enjoy the book a lot. And best of all, it lead me to some fab new music!

I don’t suppose I’ll be trying to listen to Dio (band) or Black Sabbath any more than I ever have, since I already know what I do and don’t like regarding those, but I did get curious about his early band, that had quite a few names along the way, with singles released under three of those names, and three albums under the name of Elf. The music of Elf from the early 1970’s is a delightful mix of Jerry Lee Lewis, old Chicago jazz, deep Southern R&B, 50’s high school dance rock ‘n’ roll, and 70’s British rock. I mean, style-wize they’re all over the place, and I totally LOVE IT!

Aug 20, What a delightful gem of a novella this – Parcel of Stradust by Ines Johnson – was!

A sweet snack of a book, a love fairytale written fully in letters and some notes and news articles. Not my favorite style, in general, but quite enjoyable at best. And this was quite “at best”, at least for me 

Aug 25, I spent my Sunday and last two evenings writing instead of reading, though this romantacy I wrote felt more like interactive reading, the story seeming to write itself as I went. When I started writing this story, I didn’t know what was going on, how things were going to unravel, or even what those things were. I knew where the story began, just not why, or what had happened to Matthias. I knew there was going to be romance, but I didn’t know who his love interest was going to be. I knew the events and fates of Matthias and the Dragonarans were entwined, because of course, but I didn’t know how. And I sure as hell didn’t want both Matthias and his love interest to be so awkward, but what can I do? They both were. So I really didn’t know how they would ever get beyond gaping and shy hand brushes, or if they really ever would.

It was a fun trip, the characters having a life of their own, me seemingly just along for the ride, acting as Matthias’ scribe, discovering the story as I wrote it.

Read the story: Writings by Marilka: The Refugee