Read in August 2026
August was another pretty good reading month, although a little more uneven than July. As I become more comfortable with the art of DNFing, I’ve also noticed that I’m less likely to keep going with books when I already suspect they’re heading towards a low rating. I do still sometimes hope that a book will manage to change my mind as I read on. Unfortunately, that rarely seems to happen.
In total, I finished 8 books in August, totalling 3,259 pages. That brings the average August book to 407 pages per book.
There was also one book that I started but abandoned after just 50 pages. Sometimes that’s all I need to realise that a book simply isn’t going to work for me.
The books I did finish covered pretty much the entire rating spectrum: one book received 2 stars, three received 3 stars, three received 4 stars and one even managed to earn the full 5 stars. That brings the average rating for August to 3.5 stars.
There was no variation in target audience this month: all the books I read were aimed at an adult audience.
I varied my reading formats a little more. I read two e-books and two audiobooks, combined listening with physical reading for one book, and also read 4 physical books from my own shelves.
There was a little more variety in genres too, with 3 different genres: romance (2), mystery (3) and fantasy (4).
Below you’ll find the list of the books I read in August, along with my star ratings.
Click the link to jump to the blurb and my review! As always, please be aware that both blurbs and reviews may contain spoilers, especially when it comes to later books in a series. I sometimes hide spoilers behind expandable or blacked-out text.
- Sanderson, Brandon – The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) ★★★★★
- Hazelwood, Ali – Love, Theoretically ★★★★
- Arena, Brittney – A Dance of Lies (The Edge of Glass #1) ★★★
- Horowitz, Anthony – Close to Death (Hawthorne & Horowitz #5) 🎧 ★★★★
- Corrigan, Moorea – Thistlemarsh ★★★
- Greenwood, Kirsty – Romantic Hero (DNF)
- Yokomizo, Seishi – The Honjin Murders (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi #1) ★★★
- Horowitz, Anthony – A Deadly Episode (Hawthorne & Horowitz #6) 🎧 ★★★★
- Bouazzaoui, Soraya – Aicha ★★
Sanderson, Brandon – The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) ★★★★★
Genre: Fantasy
The lord ruler owns the world.
For a thousand years the ash fell.
For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Every attempted revolt has failed miserably.
Yet somehow hope survives.
A new kind of uprising is being planned, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the courage of an unlikely heroine, a Skaa street urchin, who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a mistborn.
What if the prophesied hero had failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins here.
I first read The Final Empire years ago and my review then amounted to simply gushing in the style of “Wauw, sooooo good!” Which, honestly, still feels like a fairly accurate summary.
This time around, I reread it for a Mistborn reading club with the friends I originally had a Harry Potter reading group, so it was an extra fun experience to be able to dive back into this world with new explorers. And yes, this book is still a five-star read for me.
What stood out most on reread was just how well the entire trilogy is plotted. Knowing where the story eventually goes makes so many little details, seemingly throwaway lines and early hints stand out. It’s quite impressive to see how much of the story was already set up at the very beginning.
I did notice a few weaknesses this time, though.
For instance, many characters feel a bit incomplete. Apart from Vin and Kelsier, most of the crew remain fairly shallow characters. Breeze, Ham, Docks and Spook are all memorable names with distinct personalities and abilities, but if I am being critical, they often feel reduced to one defining trait rather than fully developed characters.
The explanations of the magic system are also repeated a lot, and there are scenes that feel like they exist primarily to demonstrate another aspect of Allomancy. It definitely highlights why this series is often recommended for those just dipping their toes into the fantasy genre for the first time, given the extent to which your hand is being held.
But really, at this point, those are mostly nitpicking, because this is and remains simply a fantastic book that I enjoyed immensely, even on rereading. The world is fascinating, the magic system is ridiculously fun, the atmosphere is fantastic, and the story builds to a finale that feels both spectacular and surprisingly complete for the first book of a trilogy.
And now I get to watch my friends discover all the things I already know are coming. Which may be the best part of this reread.
Hazelwood, Ali – Love, Theoretically ★★★★
Genre: Romantiek
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.
Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
I have been putting off reading Love, Theoretically for years because I wanted to save one of Ali Hazelwood’s original STEM romances for a rainy day. I didn’t want to reach a point where I had no more of these books left to look forward to. Which, in hindsight, is a rather silly way of looking at it.
So when I had a Sunday where all I wanted to do was spend the entire day reading something low-stakes and romantic, the timing finally felt right. I had just reread The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain, and I figured it was finally time to pick this one up.
And yes, I read it in a single day. I absolutely devoured it. I loved it. I may even think this is my favourite of the three.
Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it flawed? Probably. Did I notice? Not even slightly. I was too busy floating along in a haze of romance and swooning.
Hazelwood’s books are predictable in the best possible way. You can practically see each story beat coming, and often know exactly when and how it is going to happen. But isn’t that part of why we read these books? There is something incredibly comforting about getting essentially the same story repackaged with new characters, new scientific fields, and new variations on the same romantic chaos.
Sometimes, that is exactly what I want from a book. And Love, Theoretically delivered.
Arena, Brittney – A Dance of Lies (The Edge of Glass #1) ★★★
Genre: Fantasy
My protector is gone, revealed to be a monster. But I remind myself that I am not a damsel. I’m no princess bound within a tower.
I am a shadow.
Vasalie Moran was once a dancer in King Illian’s court, until he framed her for murder. Barely surviving her two years in the dungeons, she’s suddenly called to face her king. He offers her a deal: become his spy at the six-week royal Gathering and he’ll grant her freedom.
As Illian’s orders grow bloody and dangerous, forcing her to harm and betray those around her, Vasalie discovers that the monster she serves may be aligned with a bigger monster—one far closer to home. With her world threatened, Vasalie enlists the help of Illian’s brother and greatest adversary, the infamous King of the East.
As the rivalry between brothers escalates, with Vasalie caught in the middle, the horrifying truth of her past comes to light. If she wants to survive, she must decide who to trust, who to fight for, and how much of her soul she’s willing to damn in the process.
I have very mixed feelings about A Dance of Lies. The concept and some of the ideas were genuinely interesting, and the political manoeuvring was probably my favourite part, even if much of it was fairly predictable. Unfortunately, the execution often left me wanting more.
The book is an easy enough read, but a lot of the story and world-building remained on the surface. The pacing could be quite slow and repetitive, while the writing itself sometimes felt too reminiscent of other popular authors. There were also quite a few moments where I struggled with our main character, Vasalie. She gets away with an awful lot despite behaving so obviously suspicious. People trust her far too quickly, even though her behaviour and choices do not always warrant it.
I also found it difficult to connect with Vasalie emotionally. Given everything she has been through, I expected to feel much more of her emotions, but despite the fact that we are constantly inside her head, she remained remarkably distant and flat. The romance didn’t really help either, with relationships that, to me, fell entirely under the category of baseless instalove.
There were definitely things I enjoyed here, but there were also too many elements that felt underdeveloped, predictable, or simply lacking. The ending was very dramatic, perhaps even a bit too much so, although at the same time I felt it had a certain appeal. I originally thought I wanted to read the sequel, especially after the turn the story took, but so many other books have passed since then that I have to admit I’m just not invested enough to want to know what happens next.
A solid book with interesting ideas, but ultimately one that didn’t manage to grab me enough to really stick with me.
🎧 Horowitz, Anthony – Close to Death (Hawthorne & Horowitz #5) ★★★★
Genre: Mysterie
Richmond, London . Six attractive houses are tucked away in an exclusive and very upmarket gated Riverside Close. Surrounded by flowers and shrubbery, they’re sealed off from the busy main road and the realities of urban life. At weekends, with the gate locked, the residents enjoy the sound of birdsong, the whirr of mowers, the occasional snatch of opera through an open window.
Everyone knows each other. Everyone gets on.
That is, until the Kenworthies arrive. With their four big gas-guzzling cars, their noisy children and their plans to build a swimming pool in their garden, they quickly offend every one of their neighbours.
When Charles Kenworthy is found dead on his porch, the bolt of a crossbow through his chest, Daniel Hawthorne is called in.
But how do you solve a murder when everyone has the same motive?
The final reread before I can finally move on to the new Hawthorne & Horowitz book!
I remember not being immediately sold on the unusual structure of Close to Death the first time I read it. This time around, however, I appreciated it from the very beginning. Rereading the whole series so close together actually made me appreciate the change of setup even more. Rather than following the same formula once again, this book gives us a different way of looking at Hawthorne and, perhaps more importantly, a more organic way of learning more about him.
I also remembered quite a lot of the mystery, so there weren’t many surprises this time around. But that made it much easier to appreciate just how well the mystery is constructed. I could pay more attention to the red herrings, the actual clues, and the way everything is carefully put together.
All in all, another fantastic installment in this series. These books have become such comfort reads for me, and I would happily read many more in this format. Especially if Rory Kinnear continues narrating the audiobooks, because he does an absolutely fantastic job
Now I’ve finally finished my reread of the entire series. Bring on the new book!
Corrigan, Moorea – Thistlemarsh ★★★
Genre: Fantasy
Welcome to Thistlemarsh—a ramshackle estate where an impoverished orphan and a beguiling Faeirie collide in an enchanting novel of love, revenge, and ruin.
In the wake of World War I, the world is a decidedly unmagical place for Mouse Dunne. She once dreamed of becoming a Faerie anthropologist, but with one telegram, her world shattered. At the Battle of the Somme, her cousin’s body disappeared into the mud, and her brother was left with debilitating shell shock. It was time, she knew, to put aside childish dreams.
When Mouse receives news that her uncle has left her the Faerie-blessed Thistlemarsh Hall, a dilapidated manor in the English countryside, she must leave her brother’s side and return to her childhood home to claim her birthright. But there is a catch in her uncle’s If Mouse does not rehabilitate the crumbling house in one month’s time, she will forfeit her inheritance and any hope of caring for her brother.
It quickly becomes clear it’s impossible to repair the manor in the allotted time, until a mysterious Faerie appears with a proposition. He offers to restore Thistlemarsh…for a price. Mouse knows better than to trust a Faerie—especially one so insufferably handsome and arrogant—but she is out of options. There are dark and magical forces at work in the house, and Mouse must confront the ghosts of her past and the secrets of her heart or lose Thistlemarsh, and herself, in the process.
I was quite excited to read Thistlemarsh. The premise sounded right up my alley, and the book certainly started with an intriguing setup. Unfortunately, it never quite managed to live up to that promise for me.
For a book with so much magic, Thistlemarsh felt surprisingly unmagical. I kept waiting for that wonderful, mysterious feeling of being drawn into a strange and enchanting world, but it never really came. The world-building felt rather sparse, which made the magical elements feel somewhat hollow rather than fully realised. The story was very slow, and while I don’t necessarily mind a slow pace, there simply wasn’t enough happening to keep me invested.
The characters were another weak point for me. I never felt like I truly got to know them, and as a result, some of the supposedly more emotional moments fell rather flat. There is a plot twist that clearly wants to have an emotional impact, but by that point I simply wasn’t invested enough in the characters for it to affect me. The romance was particularly jarring: it seemed to come out of nowhere, with very little build-up or chemistry, and the way the story ultimately wrapped itself up as a romance felt rather bizarre and unwarranted to me.
I also struggled with the writing. I can see why some people might describe it as beautiful, but for me it often felt like it was trying a little too hard to be beautiful and ended up sounding unnatural instead. The dialogue in particular could feel clunky, wooden and stilted, which made it difficult to become fully immersed in the story.
There were definitely things I liked. The initial premise was genuinely intriguing, and there were moments when I could see the book I had hoped this would become. But ultimately, Thistlemarsh never managed to enchant me. For a story promising so much magic and mystery, I found it often quite boring, and by the end I was mostly reading to see how it would all wrap up.
A disappointing read, especially because I really wanted to love it.
Greenwood, Kirsty – Romantic Hero (DNF)
Genre: Romantiek
Gertie Bickerstaff writes happily-ever-afters for a living. . . . Or she did, until her own love life fell apart. Now her ex is thriving, her deadline is looming, and she can’t write a single word.
The last thing Gertie needs is more drama—like waking up to find a confused and rugged cowboy on her sofa. And not just any cowboy, but River Oakley, the villain from her unfinished novel. Somehow very real . . . and very shirtless.
River wants to go home. Gertie wants her life back. So they strike a deal: he’ll use his cunning ways to help her win back her ex, she’ll finish the novel, and, surely, he’ll return to whatever world he rode in from.
But as River Oakley proves to be so much more than just the bad guy, Gertie has to choose: the ending she thought she wanted . . . or the plot twist she never saw coming.
From the very beginning, I really wasn’t getting along with the writing, and I immediately developed an intense dislike for the main character. She came across as incredibly pathetic, and I found myself getting more and more annoyed.
I still pushed myself through the first fifty pages because I really liked the premise and wanted to give the story a fair chance. Unfortunately, things only got worse. I started skim-reading entire paragraphs and found myself actively dreading having to continue.
The humour was probably the final nail in the coffin. The author clearly wanted the story to be funny, over-the-top and a little melodramatic in a cute way, but it mostly came across as cringe and juvenile to me. I was getting second-hand embarrassment rather than amusement.
At that point, forcing myself to continue seemed rather pointless, so I decided to DNF.
Yokomizo, Seishi – The Honjin Murders (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi #1) ★★★
Genre: Mysterie
In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour – it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions around the village.
Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi household are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music. Death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house. Soon, amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi is on the scene to investigate what will become a legendary murder case, but can this scruffy sleuth solve a seemingly impossible crime?
I first heard about The Honjin Murders in Anthony Horowitz’s Close to Death, where he describes Japanese locked-room mysteries as some of the best around. So when I happened across this book in a bookshop in York, it felt like a sign that I was meant to buy it and find out if Horowitz was right in his assessment.
I really enjoyed the sparse, direct writing style. The book is essentially an account of the “facts”, with very little embellishment and barely any introduction to the characters, yet somehow it kept me turning the pages. It is short, straightforward and very easy to get through.
The solution to the murder was also completely bonkers. The narrator insists that we should be able to work it out ourselves, but I honestly don’t think I would ever have got there. That didn’t bother me, though. I tend to read mysteries like this to have the solution handed to me, and this particular solution was so wonderfully insane that I was perfectly happy to sit back and enjoy it.
The motive was perhaps stupid, although it did feel fitting for the time and culture in which the story takes place.
I would definitely be happy to read more of Yokomizo’s mysteries, especially if they are all this short and sweet. I could easily have read this one in a single cosy afternoon.
🎧 Horowitz, Anthony – A Deadly Episode (Hawthorne & Horowitz #6) ★★★★
Genre: Mysterie
The actors have been cast, the script written, and filming has already started in Hastings.
But when Hawthorne and Anthony visit the set, they find a far from happy family.
The director’s pretentious, the screenwriter’s an eco-warrior, the two stars hate each other, and the producer has run out of money.
And things are about to get much, much worse.
In the middle of shooting, the actor playing Hawthorne is stabbed – which leaves the real Hawthorne with no choice. He has to step in and investigate his own murder.
Because the killer may not have got the right man. Was it Hawthorne himself who was meant to be the target?
A Deadly Episode is a wild ride through a world that the author knows only too well, and the most personal case Hawthorne has had to deal with so far.
Finally having finished my rereads, I could actually read the new Hawthorne & Horowitz book!
And of course, it turns out that part of the story takes place in York. What a coincidence, considering I had just been there! I really should have read this before my trip!
I listened to the audiobook, once again narrated by the brilliant Rory Kinnear, who perfectly captures the dry wit and snark that make these books so much fun. While this wasn’t my favourite installment in the series, it still had all the charm, cosiness and dry humour I’ve come to expect from these books.
I did miss some of the usual Hawthorne and Horowitz dynamic, though. Horowitz spends quite a lot of the book investigating Hawthorne’s past on his own, trying to uncover more about him, which means there is considerably less dialogue and interactions between the two of them. We also don’t learn quite as much about Hawthorne as I had hoped, although I suppose that is partly the point. Horowitz has to keep teasing us with just enough information to make us want to keep reading.
Structurally, this felt like a bit of a mix between the earlier books and Close to Death. We get a new mystery, but also an old case that Horowitz investigates separately, with more of the story being told in hindsight rather than following the two of them solving everything together.
I suspect I might appreciate this one more on a reread, once I know where everything is heading. The resolution itself was perhaps a little too campy and silly for my taste, and ultimately felt somewhat lacklustre.
Still, it was another fun, cosy mystery, and at this point I am very much invested in finding out just how much Hawthorne is still keeping from us.
Bouazzaoui, Soraya – Aicha ★★
Genre: Fantasy
The ultimate female rage fantasy, Aicha is a fierce and devastatingly powerful romantic epic fantasy perfect for fans of The Priory of the Orange Tree and She Who Became the Sun.
The Portuguese flag has been planted across Morocco, its empire ruling with an iron fist. But eventually, all empires must fall.
Aicha, the daughter of a Moroccan freedom-fighter, was born for battle. She has witnessed the death of her people, their starvation and torture at the hands of the occupiers, and it has awakened an anger within her. An anger that burns hot and bright, and speaks to Aicha’s soul.
Only Aicha’s secret lover Rachid, a rebellion leader, knows how to soothe her. But as the fight for Morocco’s freedom reaches it violent climax, the creature that simmers beneath Aicha’s skin begs to be unleashed. It hungers for the screams of those who have caused her pain, and it will not be ignored.
I really wanted to love Aicha. The premise was intriguing and, on the whole, I really like what the author tried to do with this story. Unfortunately, the execution never quite lived up to the concept.
The story felt repetitive and very surface-level, with a lot of telling rather than showing. Despite plenty of brutal and devastating events, I never really felt their emotional impact, and I never became attached to any of the characters. The countdown should have created tension and urgency, but instead felt predictable, while the story itself dragged for much of the book before rushing through its ending.
The fantasy element, relationships and characters all felt underdeveloped, and even though I didn’t know the original myth, I found much of the story quite predictable because of the angle the author chose. I also struggled with the portrayal of the advertised female rage, which for me too often came across as impulsiveness and rash decision-making rather than something powerful or admirable.
There is a genuinely interesting idea at the heart of this book. I can see the book the author wanted to write, which makes the disappointment all the more frustrating. This version needed more breathing room. It could perhaps have worked much better as a shorter novella, where the lack of extensive emotional development would be less noticeable. Alternatively, it needed to be longer and more fleshed out, with the relationships and characters established much earlier so that the eventual events could carry the emotional weight they were clearly intended to have.
I thought about DNF’ing this book early on, but eventually (and hopefully) decided to keep reading. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have. An interesting idea, but ultimately underdeveloped and forgettable.
