Hoohoo, friends of the blade!
I had a wonderful few days at home seeing friends and family, taking walks, enjoying nature. Then I had an equally amazing week in France with my mom. We stayed in Loches in the Loire region and I can absolutely recommend visiting this city. It’s simply stunning with its air of times past, a castle and so many flowers! It also has several bookshops that sell books in French and English! I bought some, of course. From Loches, we visited quite a few castles in the region, including Chambord and Chenonceau. All of the castles were beautiful but it’s really expensive and I really don’t need to see any more castles from within. 
The exterior is also beautiful and enough, really. But I loved the parks and exploring them!
Back in Leipzig, I went to my first music festival since 2014: the Full Force where I saw the band that formed me during my teenage years: Simple Plan. I am 12 again, screaming along to English lyrics I don’t yet properly understand.
There were also many other amazing bands which I loved, like Ice Nine Kills! And Sondaschule and Team Scheisse. I still don’t like festivals much but I’m going for the bands anyways. Depending on next year’s line up, I’ll probably go again!
Also my favourite yearly event in Leipzig was in June: Klassik airleben. It’s a classic open air concert by the Gewandhausorchester and this year they played film scores which was wonderful. We had a picnic, played cards and enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere. I loved it, as I do every year.
And since it’s the Euros, I also watched a shit ton of football, surprising even to myself but I’m currently enjoying it so much.
BOOKS I READ
Never Fall For Your Fiancée by Virginia Heath
The Merriwell Sisters #1
The last thing Hugh Standish, Earl of Fareham, ever wants is a wife. Unfortunately for him, his mother is determined to find him one, even from across the other side of the ocean. So, Hugh invents a fake fiancée to keep his mother’s matchmaking ways at bay. But when Hugh learns his interfering mother is on a ship bound for England, he realizes his complicated, convoluted but convenient ruse is about to implode. Until he collides with a beautiful woman, who might just be the miracle he needs.
Minerva Merriwell has had to struggle to support herself and her two younger sisters ever since their feckless father abandoned them. Work as a woodcut engraver is few and far between, and the Merriwell sisters are nearly penniless. So, when Hugh asks Minerva to pose as his fiancée while his mother is visiting, she knows that while the scheme sounds ludicrous, the offer is too good to pass up.
Once Minerva and her sisters arrive at Hugh’s estate, of course, nothing goes according to his meticulous plan. As hilarity and miscommunication ensue, while everyone tries to keep their tangled stories straight, Hugh and Minerva’s fake engagement starts to turn into a real romance. But can they trust each other, when their relationship started with a lie?
I really do love a historical romance now and then and I absolutely love the fake dating trope, especially when it comes with forced proximity which it does in this case! But for me, this was a bit too ridiculous at some points and I didn’t get warm with most of the characters. But I liked Payne, the butler, from the start and I even made memes about him. I’d love to read the story from his POV, it would be hilarious in the best sense.
Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese
The Wilmost Sisters #1
Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.
Soon their plan is in Fake date obnoxiously and convince the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash everyone’s hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.
To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to What if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?
Yes, I do love fake dating. And I loved how Bea and Jamie are polar opposites in everything except in their common goal to get their friends off their backs. Despite their differences, they grow closer, both emotionally and physically and I really liked how their relationship evolves. What I really enjoy in all of Chloe Liese’s books is their focus on neurodiversity and the characters’ acceptance of it. It was the same in this book and it made my heart so warm. I thoroughly loved Jamie and Bea’s story.
La Dernière Flamme by Tim Probert
Lightfall #1
original title: Lightfall: The Girl and the Galdurian
Dans le monde d’Irpa, Béa vit avec son grand-père, un Cochon-Sorcier fabricant de potions et gardien de la Flamme éternelle. Quand il disparaît mystérieusement, la jeune fille doit surmonter son anxiété maladive pour tenter de le retrouver. Sa rencontre avec Cad, un Galdurien aussi enjoué qu’intrépide, pourrait bien changer le cours de son destin.
Oui, j’ai lu un livre en français pour la première fois depuis quelques années. J’ai eu besoin d’un livre facile et un bédé semblait parfait! J’aimerais beaupcoup La Dernière Flamme.
And it’s here where I don’t want to think about writing French words anymore, even though I should really train. Funnily enough, speaking French is so much easier than writing it. While writing English is easier than actually speaking. Anyways, I truly enjoyed this graphic novel! It was both cute and grim. There was adventure and friendship, fun and some mysterious villainy. It read a lot like a D&D campaign and the author also wrote DnD books haha. It was wholesome while being interesting and having beautiful drawings! I’m really excited to get to the next instalments!
Better Hate Than Never by Chloe Liese
Wilmost Sisters #2
Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio shared backyards as kids, but as adults they won’t even share the same hemisphere. That is, until Kate makes a rare visit home – and their fiery animosity rekindles into a raging inferno.
Despite their friends’ and families’ pleas for peace, Christopher is unconvinced Kate would willingly douse the flames of their enmity. But when Kate drunkenly confesses she’s only been hostile because she thought he hated her, Christopher vows to make peace with her once and for all. Tempting as it is to be swept away by her nemesis-turned-gentleman, Kate isn’t sure she can trust his charming good-guy act.
When Christopher’s persistence and Kate’s curiosity lead to an impassioned kiss, they realise ‘peace’ is the last thing that will ever be possible between them. As desire gives way to deeper feelings, Kate and Christopher must decide if it’s truly better to hate than to never risk their hearts – or if they already gave them away long ago.
I’m not entirely sure why but some Kat and Christopher didn’t click with me as Chloe Liese’s other characters did. I liked them, but the whole enemies thing was a bit too much for me. It also was a bit too slow for me. During the first half nothing really happened and I found myself bored from time to time. I wish I could have loved this as much as the other books by this author, but I didn’t and I’m sad about it.
He’s A 10 by Jessica Yale
Genie Edwards, head of player care at Covenly FC, loves her job. Even if she does have to work with the club doctor who happens to be her ex-husband . . .
When Covenly qualify for the Champions League, they’re determined to stay there and smash their record transfer fee to bring in renowned ‘Number 10’ Tony Garrett, who urgently needs a career boost after recently being snapped falling out of nightclubs during a very public break up. When Tony is late to his first ever press conference, it looks like some things never change . . .
But soon Genie begins to suspect there may be more to this rough diamond than meets the eye – will she put her career on the line and take a second chance at love?
Or was everyone right about Tony all along?
I’m absolutely in a football mood right now, thanks to the Euros. And by chance I saw this in the bookshop and bought it, expecting it to be a fun, light romance with a bit of drama. What I got was a lack of communication, too much drama and not nearly enough of fun. I wanted to shake both the MC and the love interest on multiple occasions but especially Genie. She truly annoyed the hell out of me while I could understand Tony quite well for most part. This book could have been 150 pages shorter if Genie would have just opened her mouth and said her thoughts and wishes out loud for once and 150 pages less would have been good for this.
The Someday Daughter by Ellen O’Clover
Years before Audrey St. Vrain was born, her mother, Camilla, shot to fame with Letters to My Someday Daughter, a self-help book encouraging women to treat themselves with the same love and care they’d treat their own daughters. While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter. Shipped off to boarding school when she was eleven, she feels more like a promotional tool than a member of Camilla’s family.
Audrey is determined to create her own identity aside from being Camilla’s daughter, and she’s looking forward to a prestigious summer premed program with her boyfriend before heading to college and finally breaking free from her mother’s world. But when Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book’s anniversary, Audrey can’t help but think that this is the last, best chance to figure out how they fit into each other’s lives—not as the someday daughter and someday mother, but as themselves, just as they are.
What Audrey doesn’t know is that spending the summer with Camilla and her tour staff—including the disarmingly honest, distressingly cute video intern, Silas—will upset everything she’s so carefully planned for her life.
This was my favourite of the month! Ellen O’Clover manages to write stories that just capture your heart and soul, that are somehow extraordinary while showing ordinary emotions. I absolutely loved how the different relationships in this book were written, wether they were familial, romantic or of the friendship kind. I absolutely adored this story which had some fun parts but went very deep into the struggles of motherhood, trying to understand those close to you while also wanting something different for yourself. I loved The Someday Daughter and you can read my full review here.
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.
Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.
Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.
This is probably my least favourite Ali Hazelwood. It is much more serious than her previous books. There were still fun scenes but the atmosphere of the book was much more tense. I also couldn’t really connect to the characters. It was still a very enjoyable read though!
A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
Ashley Poston writes wonderful romances with depth and a touch seriousness. I always feel like they are lighthearted but then I start reading and then they always make me cry. A Novel Love Story was no exception. It deals with grief, hope, romance, friendship and the search for yourself. I love how Ashley Poston spins her characters and makes them come alive. I really liked Elsy and Anders and the setting of the fictional town of Eloraton. I also loved Elsy’s friendship with her book club and the fact that Ashley Poston slanders her own books. It was once again proven why Ashley Poston is among my favourite authors. For me, she can do no wrong.
BOOK HAUL
La Dernière Flamme by Tim Probert
Lightfall #1
original title: Lightfall: The Girl and the Galdurian
Dans le monde d’Irpa, Béa vit avec son grand-père, un Cochon-Sorcier fabricant de potions et gardien de la Flamme éternelle. Quand il disparaît mystérieusement, la jeune fille doit surmonter son anxiété maladive pour tenter de le retrouver. Sa rencontre avec Cad, un Galdurien aussi enjoué qu’intrépide, pourrait bien changer le cours de son destin.
A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
Les Fiancés de l’hiver by Christelle Dabos
Sous son écharpe élimée et ses lunettes de myope, Ophélie cache des dons singuliers : elle peut lire le passé des objets et traverser les miroirs. Elle vit paisiblement sur l’Arche d’Anima quand on la fiance à Thorn, du puissant clan des Dragons. La jeune fille doit quitter sa famille et le suivre à la Citacielle, capitale flottante du Pôle. À quelle fin a-t-elle été choisie ? Pourquoi doit-elle dissimuler sa véritable identité ? Sans le savoir, Ophélie devient le jouet d’un complot mortel.
He’s A 10 by Jessica Yale
Genie Edwards, head of player care at Covenly FC, loves her job. Even if she does have to work with the club doctor who happens to be her ex-husband . . .
When Covenly qualify for the Champions League, they’re determined to stay there and smash their record transfer fee to bring in renowned ‘Number 10’ Tony Garrett, who urgently needs a career boost after recently being snapped falling out of nightclubs during a very public break up. When Tony is late to his first ever press conference, it looks like some things never change . . .
But soon Genie begins to suspect there may be more to this rough diamond than meets the eye – will she put her career on the line and take a second chance at love?
Or was everyone right about Tony all along?
The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
Talasyn n’a connu que les Guerres du Typhon. Orpheline, elle utilise le pouvoir de la lumière pour se battre contre l’Empire de la Nuit. Alaric n’a connu que les ténèbres. Fils de l’Empereur et arme la plus mortelle des ombres, il use de sa terrifiante magie pour écraser la rébellion. C’est alors qu’ils se croisent sur le champ de bataille. Leur affrontement est inéluctable. Mais une menace plus importante se profile. Sauront-ils faire alliance pour la vaincre ? Ou se détruiront-ils l’un l’autre avant ?
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.
Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.
Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.
Watership Down by Richard Adams
C’est dans les fourrés de collines verdoyantes et idylliques que se terrent parfois les plus terrifiantes menaces. C’est là aussi que va se dérouler cette vibrante odyssée de courage, de loyauté et de survie. Menés par le valeureux Hazel et le surprenant Fyveer, une poignée de braves choisit de fuir l’inéluctable destruction de leur foyer.
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
Eighteen-year-old Aihu Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father. But after his unexpected murder, a heartbroken Ying is determined to discover why anyone would threaten a man who ultimately chose a quiet life over fame and fortune. Left with only a journal of her father’s engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assasin, Ying follows the trail to the capital and the prestigious Engineers Guild – a place that harbours her father’s hidden past.
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally – Aogiya Ye-yang, the nation’s taciturn eighth prince. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who has mysterious plans of his own.
The secrets hidden within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build – and with her life and the country’s future at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. And can she avenge her father if it means going against everything he stood for?
Throttled by Lauren Asher
Noah
Maya Alatorre is the sister of my teammate…and my new obsession.
Keeping my distance during the Formula 1 season should be easy, except I always find ways to see her.
Press tours. Pre-race rituals. Sponsor events and black-tie galas.
The more time we spend together, the stronger my desire grows.
Sneaking around with her is one thing, but wanting more?
Never going to happen.
She might be a distraction dressed like a daydream, but no woman is worth risking the championship title over.
Or so I thought.
Maya
Noah Slade is Formula 1 royalty and my brother’s biggest rival.
When I’m invited to join my sibling while he competes for the World
Championship, I promise to avoid Noah at all costs.
Twenty-one races. Two drivers who hate each other. And one forbidden attraction I can’t ignore.
Developing feelings for Noah wasn’t part of my plan.
But then again, neither was anyone finding out.
Turns out the man I was warned about happens to be the one I can’t stay away from.
Even if he breaks my heart once the season comes to an end.
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.
Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.
Die Gemäldespringerin by Sarah-Maria Köpf
Kunststudentin Mika traut ihren Augen nicht, als sie bei einem Besuch der Londoner National Gallery ihren verstorbenen Bruder auf einem der Gemälde sieht. Tief erschüttert verlässt sie das Museum und trifft auf den mysteriösen Nicolas, der mehr zu sein scheint als nur ein gutaussehender Fremder. Er erzählt ihr, sie entstamme einer alten Blutlinie, welche die Gabe besitzt, Gemälde zu bereisen und dadurch die wertvollen Werke zu erhalten. In der Hoffnung, ihren Bruder wiederzusehen, schließt sie sich der Geheimgesellschaft der Gemäldespringer an – nichts ahnend, dass sie dadurch in einen Kampf um Macht und Einfluss gerät. Denn der Rat, dem die Gemäldespringer unterstehen, hat viel mehr vor, als bloß Kunstwerke zu bewahren. Und Mika stellt plötzlich die wichtigste Schachfigur in einem Spiel dar, dessen Sieg oder Niederlage über das Schicksal der ganzen Welt entscheiden könnte.
ON THE BLOG
Matching Books & Football: Books set in Group A Countries
Matching Books & Football: Books set in Group B Countries
Matching Books & Football: Books set in Group C Countries
Review: The Someday Daughter by Ellen O’Clover
BLOG VISITS
posts by other bloggers I’ve loved to read this month
I wasn’t really blog hopping in June but I do have two reviews for you that I really enjoyed reading!
Rezension: Funny Story von Emily Henry by Friederike @ Friedelchens Bücherstube
Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros by Aimee @ Aimee Can Read
How was your June highlights? Which books did you read? What July reads are you looking forward to?
Until next time,
