Hello, August! Otherwise known as all hands on deck, crazy busy, what is a life outside of work time for student affairs professionals like myself. As I stare down the month of student leader training and scrambling to prep for orientation, my reading life has slowed down considerably.

Even so, I managed to get a few books in during July, which means it’s time for a monthly recap of the best of the best. In total, I read four books, two of which were audiobooks. Not my highest reading month, but it’s actually one higher than June, when I only read three! 

(Full disclosure: This post uses Bookshop.org affiliate links, which earn me a small commission if you choose to purchase). 

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Book Lovers by Emily Henry

I don’t think this is my favorite Emily Henry, but it’s definitely a lot of good fun and exactly what I’ve learned to expect from the Cincinnati-based author. 

Book Lovers really doubles down on the bookish in-references, and I am here for it. Both Nora and her love interest, Charlie, work in publishing, and there’s a lot of fun winking at small town romance tropes in this small town romance with a twist. It was an absolute delight, and I’m already eagerly awaiting her next book (which has been announced by the way. It’s called Happy Place and comes out next year!)

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Places We’ve Never Been by Kasie West 

Ahh, friends to lovers on vacation. My very specific genre krytptonite, here to deliver yet again. I absolutely adored this road trip romance about childhood friends reconnecting and, of course, falling in love. 

I wrote a full review of Places We’ve Never Been earlier this month, and you can check it out here: 

You Need to Read this Friends-to-Lovers Roadtrip Romance
A review of Kasie West’s “Places We’ve Never Been”medium.com

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The Sweetest Connection by Denise Williams 

This novella was a really cute three hour listen that slotted perfectly into my three and a half hour drive to Harper’s Ferry earlier this month. Would it have made my best books if I’d read more in July? Probably not. But it’s a sweet, well structured friends-to-lovers novella that has the extra twist of taking place at an airport, and I really enjoyed listening to it. 

The Sweetest Connection is part of a trio of airport novellas, which makes me wonder if tapping popular romance authors to write trios of novellas is a new trend for Amazon? And if so, is this what readers want? I struggle with this shorter length personally, so I’m not sure how onboard I am for this pattern. 

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Honorable Mentions

Sorry to this book for being the only one that didn’t make the cut for best books of July, but it took me well over a month to get through Jasmine Guillory’s By the Book, so I can’t say it was even close to a favorite. I wrote a review explaining why this one didn’t work for me, which you can check out here: 

“By the Book” Isn’t My Fairy Tale Ending
A review of Jamine Guillory’s Beauty and the Beast inspired romancemedium.com

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That’s all for this month, friends! Hope to get back into my morning and bedtime reading routines to give my life some semblance of structure in August, so here’s hoping for a longer list next month.

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