bookish bethie

• june reading wrap-up •

June has come and gone (what is time, etc) and was full of some pretty great stuff (if you ignore the news) what with the return of BTS and everyone going full hyperfixation on Sleep Token. And also I read some very, very good books!

Faves this month include:

🐦‍⬛The Raven Scholar

💍For Pleasure or Worse

⚔️The Knight and the Moth

☀️Problematic Summer Romance

🌊Echo Fort

On the writing front, my F1 romance is currently with beta readers (!!!) and I am in the midst of swapping my sad-girl popstar romance from dual pov to single, which is…a whole lot of work!!!! But I do think it’s flowing better now.🤞

• book recommendations •

I’ve been a bit quiet here lately as I attempt to pivot a wip from dual pov to single (!!!!), but rest assured I have been reading and finallyyyyyyy watched kpop demon hunters.

• rose in chains •

One of the best feelings in the world is when you feel absolutely feral for a book.

And that’s precisely how reading Rose in Chains made me feel. I was rabid, ravenous, couldn’t get enough. I devoured this book—and at the end basically crashed entirely out from the intensity of the huge reveals and cliffhanger.

This dark romantasy (definitely check any trigger warnings, and take care of your mental health while reading this) follows Briony Rosewood, the princess of Evermore whose twin brother—a prophesied savior—has just been killed in battle. She is captured alongisde other Evermore citizens, who are auctioned off to wealthy enemy families in Bomard. That’s how Briony finds herself purchased by Toven Hearst: the boy who both bullied her in school and fascinated her, and whose terrifying family is extremely well-connected within Bomard’s society.


There’s angst and tension, political intrigue and extremely high stakes, and the kind of quick pacing that is the very definition of “unputdownable.” That said, there are a few weak points—honestly, the magic system left me confused in some places as the plot progressed. (Maybe I was reading too fast?)

But. BUT. This book is a very good time and easy to obsess over. If you were a fan of The Auction (iykyk) you’ll see the huge amount of work that Julie Soto put into adapting this into an original story with the shape of that fic, but distinct enough to stand on its own (and avoid, you know, a lawsuit). The changes will have those who love the fic gasping as loudly as those who are reading it with no prior knowledge.

I definitely will be picking up the next in the series. I NEED to know where the story is going to go!

• mid-year reading check-in •

here we are at the last day of june, which means it is time for my annual mid-year reading check-in!

to absolutely no one’s surprised, my faves thus far include a variety of prickly and/or bookish ladies, immersive writing, and clever banter.✨

what have you been reading and loving this year?

• great big beautiful life •

extremely unsurprisingly, let it be known that i enjoyed gbbl a whole hell of a lot.

it was amazingly cinematic and beautifully atmospheric and covered so! much! ground! and expertly navigated timeframes and tricky easter eggs and very complicated families and a lot of feeelings, all while being a love letter to journalists and delivering a genuinely great romance.

was it my fave emhen? it was not.

• may wrap-up •

May was a whirlwind as I was in Vietnam for fun and then Thailand for work – but it was an *increble* reading month for me AND I managed to finish second-pass edits of my F1 romance draft (last night, but hey, it counts!).

• you between the lines •

The second I saw that this was “sorority girl gets her MFA in poetry,” I was all in. And with the very first page, I knew this book was going to be very, extremely For Me.

It follows Leigh, a burnt-out, people-pleasing copywriter who leaves her job to pursue her dream of becoming a poet—and discovers that Will, her high school crush who hurt her deeply, is also in her cohort.

Slow-burning and character driven, this book is emotional and angsty in all the best ways, delves into the nuanced layers of the characters, has excellent mental health rep, delivers sizzling spice, and the writing? It’s stunning.

• zodiac academy •

please welcome the outrageously gorgeous luxe edition to the collection✨💙

• book recommendations •

• the princess and the pack •

If you’re anything like me (perpetually overwhelmed eldest daughter with a perfectionist streak), then a low stakes, high spice royal romance with a why-choose streak is probably exactly what you need right now.

Luckily, Fallon English has you covered with her debut, “The Princess and the Pack.” Yes, it *is* omegaverse (MFMM😎), but if you’re new to the genre, I promise she makes it extremely accessible!

Here’s what you can expect:

👑royal romance

💐Bridgerton vibes

💕insta-love (omegaverse version)

🔥slow burn, of a sort

✨social and class dynamics

This book is such a delightfully sexy, breezy read! It’s easy to love Ivy, Cillian, Oran, and Sloan, and Fallon has set up a story with *seven* royal siblings, so it seems we’ll be getting more of this world and these characters—and I for one am very excited, especially to learn more about Rose (a true black car girl) and her betrothed.👀

So if you need a quick read that packs a very spicy punch, add “The Princess and the Pack” to your TBR expeditiously.✨

• recs for the p&p lovers •

Whether you swoon for a grand gesture, love charged banter, or are here for the drama, these recs are all a delight.

• on midnight shores •

Julie Olivia’s Never Harbor series is back! And this time we get a forbidden romance between the small-town good girl and the tattooed art gallery owner she’s had a crush on for years.🔥

A slower-paced, character-driven story, On Midnight Shores follows Bonnie Davies, the only girl in a family of six brothers, as she finds herself without a graphic design internship the summer before her senior year of college. Panicked and dejected, she ends up working at her hometown art gallery – owned by the brooding, tattooed Rafe Cohen, who she’s had a crush on for years.

I loved both Bonnie and Rafe, and really enjoyed how Julie balanced a story about gaining confidence in art, life, and love, along with the challenge of never being seen as adult in a small town.

But this isn’t just a coming-of-age story—it serves up some serious spice (he, ahem, teaches her👀) along with a lot of Davies family drama. You’ll see plenty of familiar faces from the first two books in this interconnected series, along with very clever Peter Pan references sprinkled throughout.🐊🧚

If you’re looking for something both sweet and spicy, I absolutely recommend this one – as well as the entire series!✨

• march reading + writing wrap-up •

well, march brought me pneumonia and my birthday, the return of f1 and an f1 fantasy team that has only delivered negative points so far—but it also brought lots of great books (You Between the Lines was the stand-out, I am enjoying the hell out of the Artefacts of Ouranos series, and I have a lot of thoughts about This Book Will Bury Me) AND ALSO!!!! I FINISHED MY F1 ROMANCE!!!!

• drive me home •

f1 is so back (but no, i don’t want to talk about ferrari), and so is carly robyn!🏎️

with drive me home, the third and final book in her drive me series, she serves up a frothy and oh-so fun f1 driver x teammate’s little sister story that does a great job of balancing the slow-burning attraction between Lucas and Charlotte, the on-track action, and off-track drama.

You can expect:

⛅️grumpy x sunshine

🛍️ fashion-forward fmc

🏁 tattooed mmc

❤️he falls so hard

🔥a slow burn worth the wait

If you’ve read the other books in this interconnected series of standalones, you’ll see many familiar faces throughout drive me home – but if not, never fear, you won’t be lost!

• whet (aka, deep end) •

If there’s one thing about me, it’s that if Ali Hazelwood wrote it, I’m going to enjoy it. So, yes, of course I loved this, the horniest and angstiest of her books yet that is basically a blend of the best parts of Check & Mate and Not in Love.

I love that this not only tackles all of the messiness and awkwardness of being in the weird limbo of adulthood that is college, from juggling a grueling schedule and attempting to take care of your mental health to navigating complicated friendships, exploring sexuality, and learning the value of trust.

And ofc Ali manages to do all of that while also making you laugh out loud, feeling like an Olympic-level diver who is also a genius is relatable, weaving in some familiar faces (!!!!!), and having you going *oh* in a very italicized way, if you know what I mean.

(Also, I def stopped to look up different kinds of dives while reading, and omg pro divers might just be magic??)

• february wrap-up •

i don’t know about y’all, but the last couple weeks of feb (and mars retrograde) *really* did a number on me, and i am SO GLAD we are through with that.

luckily, i had some great books to escape into, made a lot of headway on my F1 romance draft (THE END IS IN SIGHT!!!!), got some feedback on my rivals-to-lovers draft and have an edit plan (i think, i hope), AND i think i have an idea of what might make my popstar-returns-to-her-hometown draft really sing.