I read SO MANY great books this month! Since I don’t really have any major life updates, we’ll just jump right to them.

Books I’ve Read

It has been a busy month. I participated in two readathons along with doing some mood reading. So, I’ve split my reading recap into three parts to discuss everything in a (hopefully) more organized manner.

Trope-ical Readathon

Trope-ical Readathon is one of my favorite readathons. I never miss it, and it always pushes me to read so much. This time was no different! I completed all of the common challenges, as well as the team science fiction book and challenges. Here’s everything I read to complete the prompts:

• Absent/Dead Parent(s): Mimic Arcanist by Shami Stovall (3.75⭐)
• Hand-Picked Crew: Path of Vengeance by Cavan Scott (4.25⭐)
• The New Kid in Town: A Crooked Mark by Linda Kao (4⭐)
• Multiple Timelines: Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (5⭐)
• Love Triangle: The Defiant Heir by Melissa Caruso (4.75⭐)
• Recent Loss: Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston (5⭐)
• An Audiobook or Ebook: The Pattern of the World by J. T. Greathouse (3.75⭐)
• A Comfort Read: Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love by Rita Rubin (4⭐)
• Found Family: Amari and the Great Game by B. B. Alston (4.5⭐)
• Food Themes: In the Case of Heartbreak by Courtney Kae (3⭐)
• Revenge: Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun (3.5⭐)
• Bookish Themes: The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence (4.75⭐)
• Book with Movie Adaptation: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (4.75⭐)
• Team Science Fiction Book: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (3.75⭐)
• Book with Space Institute Trope: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (4.75⭐)
• Book with Alternate History: Wonderstruck by Allie Therin (4.5⭐)

Magical Readathon

I also participated in the Magical Readathon this month. My character, Padwin, was finishing up his second year studying to become a dream walker. He needed scores in five classes to pass the term, which required reading 8 books total. I’d also planned to have him summon an impling by reading Witch King by Martha Wells, but I didn’t have time to get to it. Here’s everything I read for Padwin’s classes (the ratings link to my review, if available):

Alchemy (Grade earned = Ordinary)

• Stone to Copper (First in a series): Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston (5⭐)

Art of Illusion (Grade earned = Qualified)

• Levitation Spell (Read without touching the floor): Path of Vengeance by Cavan Scott (4.25⭐)
• Voice Altering Spells (Audiobook): Mimic Arcanist by Shami Stovall (3.75⭐)

Spells & Incantations (Grade earned = Ordinary)

• Charm – Short Trip (Read a manga/comic/graphic novel): Clark & Lex by Brendan Reichs (4⭐)

Psionics & Divination (Grade earned = Distinguished)

• Intro to Tarot (Same symbol in title or cover as card from random tarot generator): A Game of Wings and Marks by Rebecca Crunden (3.75⭐)
• Reading the Future (Book set in future): Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (4.75⭐)
• Omen – Lily (Lily on cover or in title/author’s name): Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (4.5⭐)

Lore (Grade earned = Ordinary)

• Tale of the Guide (Bookseller’s recommendation): Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (4.75⭐)

Mood Reading

I also managed to do a little mood reading that didn’t fit for any of the readathon prompts. Here are the four extra books I managed to squeeze in this month (the ratings link to my review, if available):

• How to Bite Your Neighbor & Win a Wager by D. N. Bryn (3.75⭐)
• The Unbound Empire by Melissa Caruso (4.75⭐)
• Unexpecting by Jen Bailey (3.5⭐)
• Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen (4.75⭐)

Progress On My 2023 Reading Goals

Goodreads Challenge

I’ve set my annual reading goal at 100 books for the year. I read 23 books in August. This brings me to 169 books for the year so far! I met my goal for the year back in May and am aiming to just read as much as I can now. 🙂

NetGalley Progress

I want to end the year with at least 150 reviews completed for NetGalley and a feedback ratio of at least 81%. In August, I completed 3 reviews for NetGalley, which brings my total up to 136 reviews. My ratio increased a bit to 87%! So, I’m well on my way to meeting my goal as long as I don’t go on a requesting spree. 🙂

Make Some Progress On My Backlog

This year I’ve set the goal of having at least 25% of my reading be from my owned TBR purchased prior to 2023. This could include books on my physical or digital shelves, excluding ARCs. In August, I read 6 books from my shelves, which was 26%. This brought books from my shelves up to 21.3% of my total reads for the year. I inched up on this goal a bit this month, but it is still going to be a struggle to reach that 25% target by the end of the year, especially considering how many ARCs I need to read.

Re-Read More Books

Last year, I didn’t get to re-read much of anything. This year I’d really like to return to some of my favorites. So, I’ve set the goal of re-reading at least six books. I continued making progress on this goal in August. I re-read one book, Red, White & Royal Blue, which means I’m at two re-reads for the year. I’m hoping to re-read at least one book per month for the rest of the year, which will get me to my goal.

Participate in Challenges

I’ve got a few different challenges going this year. Here’s a quick update on each one of them!

POPSUGAR Challenge

I’ve completed 35 out of the 40 main prompts and finished 60% of the bonus prompts, as well. This means I completed one prompt this month. So, I’m still slowly chugging along with this one.

12 Months, 12 Books, 12 Friends Challenge

The Year-Long Scavenger Hunt

This scavenger hunt is being hosted by Jordyn @ Birdie’s Book Nook. So far, I’ve found all the prompts at least twice! I think I’m going to stop tracking this one now and consider it successfully completed. 🙂

Magical Readathon: Adventure in Aeldia

Since he was at the academy to complete the autumn term, Padwin didn’t do any adventuring this month.

Finish Five Series

I plan to finish or catch up on the following 5 series by the end of this year:

• A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons
• Timekeeper by Tara Sim
• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman

I didn’t manage to make any progress on this goal in August. 🙁

Final Thoughts

I did manage to do a few blog posts along with my reviews this month. You can find those in my blog archives if you are interested in checking them out.

Overall, this has been another good month of reading. My average rating was 4.22. My favorite was The Defiant Heir, but there were so many this month that I enjoyed. What was your favorite book from August? Let me know down in the comments!

Thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and engaged with comments and/or likes! I appreciate all of you and always enjoy reading your input in the comments. I hope everyone has a great September!