As yet another month draws to a close, I’m looking back and reflecting on what I got accomplished. Today marks two weeks that I’ve been blogging, and I’m so grateful for all of you that have come along to join me for this crazy ride!

I’m hoping to get in the habit of doing a monthly wrap-up to summarize the books I read, updates on any challenges I’m participating in, and any other exciting tidbits I can think to provide. So, without further ado …

What I Read

This month, I tackled 12 books and had a lot of fun!

My Reviews

Average Rating: 3.75
UNSUB – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lovesick Gods – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (reread!)
The Liar’s Girl – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
All the Things We Never Knew – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I Let You Go – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Two Girls Down – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Daughter of the Pirate King – ⭐⭐⭐✨
I See You – ⭐⭐⭐✨
Strangers – ⭐⭐⭐✨
The French Girl – ⭐⭐⭐ (review to come)
The Late Show –  ⭐⭐⭐
The Favorite Sister – ⭐⭐✨

Have any of these books been on your radar? I’d love to know what you think of them!

Highlight Reads

My absolute favorite reads this month were UNSUB, The Liar’s Girl, and Lovesick Gods! Slight disclaimer, I was involved in the editing of Lovesick Gods, so I’m a tad biased, but I had so much fun re-reading it in preparation for the release of the sequel!

UNSUB

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

A riveting psychological thriller inspired by the never-caught Zodiac Killer, about a young detective determined to apprehend the serial murderer who destroyed her family and terrorized a city twenty years earlier.

Caitlin Hendrix has been a Narcotics detective for six months when the killer at the heart of all her childhood nightmares reemerges: the Prophet. An UNSUB—what the FBI calls an unknown subject—the Prophet terrorized the Bay Area in the 1990s and nearly destroyed her father, the lead investigator on the case.

The Prophet’s cryptic messages and mind games drove Detective Mack Hendrix to the brink of madness, and Mack’s failure to solve the series of ritualized murders—eleven seemingly unconnected victims left with the ancient sign for Mercury etched into their flesh—was the final nail in the coffin for a once promising career.

Twenty years later, two bodies are found bearing the haunting signature of the Prophet. Caitlin Hendrix has never escaped the shadow of her father’s failure to protect their city. But now the ruthless madman is killing again and has set his sights on her, threatening to undermine the fragile barrier she rigidly maintains for her own protection, between relentless pursuit and dangerous obsession.

Determined to decipher his twisted messages and stop the carnage, Caitlin ignores her father’s warnings as she draws closer to the killer with each new gruesome murder. Is it a copycat, or can this really be the same Prophet who haunted her childhood? Will Caitlin avoid repeating her father’s mistakes and redeem her family name, or will chasing the Prophet drag her and everyone she loves into the depths of the abyss?

The Liar’s Girl

Genre: Mystery

Will Hurley was an attractive, charming, and impressive student at Dublin’s elite St. John’s College-and Ireland’s most prolific serial killer. Having stalked his four young victims, he drowned them in the muddy waters of the Grand Canal. Sentenced to life imprisonment when he was just nineteen, Will is locked away in the city’s Central Psychiatric Hospital.

Freshman Alison Smith moved to the Big Smoke to enrol in St. John’s and soon fell hard for Will Hurley. Her world bloomed … and then imploded when Liz, her best friend, became the latest victim of the Canal Killer-and the Canal Killer turned out to be the boy who’d been sleeping in her bed. Alison fled to the Netherlands and, in ten years, has never once looked back.

When a young woman’s body is found in the Grand Canal, Garda detectives visit Will to see if he can assist them in solving what looks like a copycat killing. Instead, Will tells them he has something new to confess-but there’s only one person he’s prepared to confess it to. The last thing Alison wants is to be pulled back into the past she’s worked so hard to leave behind. Reluctantly, she returns to the city she hasn’t set foot in for more than a decade to face the man who murdered the woman she was supposed to become.

Only to discover that, until now, Will has left out the worst part of all …

Lovesick Gods

Genre: Urban Fantasy, M/M Romance

Heroes aren’t meant to act like their villains—or fall in love with them.

The elements touch everyone on Earth—Fire, Water, even Light—but every so often someone becomes more attuned to their elemental leaning and develops true power. When an evil Elemental known as Thanatos arrived in Olympus City, it saw the rise of its first hero—Zeus. But the death toll caused by defeating Thanatos changed Zeus, who by day is young detective Danny Grant. 

It’s been six months since Thanatos terrorized the city at the start of Lovesick Gods. Danny should be used to his duty behind the mask, but the recent past haunts him. His girlfriend left him, he snaps at the barest provocation, his life feels empty—he needs an outlet, any outlet to pull him out of his depression.

Enter notorious thief Malcolm Cho, the Ice Elemental Prometheus. There was a time when Danny welcomed a fight with Cho, filled with colorful banter and casual flirtations that were a relief compared to Thanatos. Even as a criminal, Cho had recognized the threat Thanatos posed and promised to help Danny stop him, but the day Danny needed Cho, he never showed. Cho was the reason so many people died that day—including Danny’s mother.

Danny decides to teach the man a lesson and fan the fire of their attraction into something more. At worst, he’ll get some no-strings-attached sex out of the deal and finally blow off steam; at best, he’ll get Cho to fall in love with him and then break his heart to spite him. Danny doesn’t expect to fall for Cho in the process, and he certainly can’t predict the much darker threat on the horizon.

Popsugar Challenge Check-In

This year, I’m participating in the Popsugar Reading Challenge. I was able to tackle 7 books that fit reading prompts. Check out my full list in the original challenge post.

✅ A book about feminism: The Favorite Sister

✅ A book about mental health: All the Things We Never Knew

✅ A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift: Unsub

✅ A book by two authors: Strangers 

✅ A book set at sea: Daughter of the Pirate King

✅ A book with characters who are twins: I See You

✅ A book that’s published in 2018: Two Girls Down

Total Progress: 11/40

Coming Up Next …

Tune in later this week for my reading plans and goals for March!

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