July 2023 Goodreads Update 1

NetGalley is really hard on my TBR. As a librarian, I have the option to read books before they are published. I got carried away and downloaded a bunch of them. So here we go.

My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine - Cassie finds a fantastic deal for a room in an apartment in Chicago. Her roommate is super hot and hardly ever home. Oops. He's a vampire. Sounds cute. It comes out August 29.

The Lost Manuscript by Mollie Rushmeyer - Mostly this was a cover grab. It's listed as Christian Mystery/Romance/Historical Fiction. What? Anyway, Ellora is trying to find her grandmother's lost manuscript with help from Alex, her ex-husband. This one comes out August 1.

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas - More vampires, but not the cuddly kind. This one is set in 1840s Mexico on a ranch that is frequently beset by vampires. This comes out August 29.

The Fraud by Zadie Smith - Another historical fiction. This is about a Scottish housekeeper in London, a Jamaican former enslaved person who is the star witness in a fraud trial, and a guy who claims to be the heir to an English estate and title. It is based on true envents in the 1870s. This one publishes September 5.

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman - So this is weird. It starts with a girl in a cult who is not allowed to read books, but she falls in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Then time travel happens. It's Alice Hoffman, who writes truly beautiful weird stories. So here we are. It comes out August 15.

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski - This is not from NetGalley. I picked this up at the bookstore a couple of weeks ago. This is the first in The Witcher series which is based on a video game. Not my normal fare, yes? Yes. But I have heard how fabulous this series is, even if you've never played the game. There is also a long-running television series starring Henry Cavill, which I can't watch until I read the books.

The Ten-Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow - The beginning of this summary sounds like The Secret Garden. The ward of a wealthy man just putters around the mansion. Then she finds a book that seems magical. This is another one I picked up at the bookstore.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas - I have finally caved to the publicity. People have been yelling about this book for years. It's by the same author as the Throne of Glass series and the Crescent City series. Have I finished either of those series? No. It's fine.

The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty - This is the sequel to City of Brass that I loved a lot in May, I think. I got this one in paperback because it's a massive book and big chonkers make my hands hurt.

The Do-Over by Lyn Painter - I heard raves about this on a podcast and even remembered it long enough to put it on my TBR after I got out of the car! That says a lot. This is a romance book set up like Groundhog Day, except it's Valentine's Day. Emilie is about to tell her boyfriend she loves him when she catches him cheating. She has to relive this day over and over until something changes. I love the Groundhog Day movie, so I'm here for the premise.

The Secret of Clouds by Alyson Richman - Yuri is the son of Kiev emigrees to the U.S. and he is born with birth defects from the event that sent his parents out of their home country. Maggie is his homeschool teacher and then stuff happens. That's basically what the summary says. Again, I heard of this from a podcast that raved about it.

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo - I thought I had read this, but when I heard it reviewed on a podcast, I realized I had not. So here I've added it. I know I have another book by this author on my shelves. But also, the cover!

So there we have it. All the books I've added to my TBR in the last couple of months. I weeded the list a while back, so we are still under 1000 books on the list. I would say I've read a bunch of books and winnowed the list down, but we all know I don't read as fast as I add. I couldn't sell that explanation if I tried.