Reader Rayna

Another end of the month, another wrap up. Man, how time flies.

I fully thought I was going to read more than I actually did, but I ended up playing a lot more video games than I intended to, too. I ended up getting Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced as I haven’t played that game since the original came out 13 years ago and had a great time with it. Of course, like any Ubisoft game, the controls were jank as all hell and pissed me off more than not, but it’s fine. The story was great, though.

Then I decided to get the Ezio Collection of Assassin’s Creed, as he’s my main man when it comes to AC. Brotherhood was my first AC game, so stepping back into Ezio’s shoes has been nice, though again: the controls piss me off lol

Otherwise, been playing Final Fantasy XIV like usual, especially since it just had a recent patch update, and the most recent Fan Fest just happened, as well, revealing one of the new jobs we’re getting in game, as well as a little more of a peak into the story a bit more. I’m excited and can’t wait for more to be revealed to us in October!

But yeah, as for reading, I read Heir of Fire and picked up a couple of other books, but nothing was really doing it for me. I wanted to just keep reading more of the Throne of Glass series, but kept telling myself to just wait and that I can only read one book per month. WHO SAID THAT!? Me, apparently. I make the rules, so I’m changing up what I’m reading in August, as you can see by what I shared in my August TBR post.

Hope everyone else had a great July! August is my birth month, and also just busy with life things, as well as events my wife and I are going to (live concerts with Hugh Jackman and Cynthia Erivo (separate events lol)), so I’m hoping that it’s a good month!

Books I Read

Click on a cover to go to its Goodreads page!

• Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas – I’d forgotten how much I love this installment in the series, but I finished it and wanted to immediately jump into Queen of Shadows. I held back, though, to pick up some of the other books from my TBR, but this book is full of so much emotion, action, and change. There’s a lot going on in the plot, so many characters introduced and being placed on the chess board, that it becomes that much more complicated. Check out my cumulative review post here!

Started But Didn’t Finish

• Witch Queen Rising by Savannah Stephens – I’m sad to say that I DNFed this book at 7% into it (34 pages) because the writing was extremely clunky and I found myself constantly zoning out in many of the scenes. Things that should have been expanded upon and explored weren’t, and there were so many descriptive elements of her surroundings that everything else felt like it wasn’t important. I won’t be picking this book back up, but it might work for someone else.
• Bride of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes – I was not expecting the regency tone of this book when I first started reading it, and though I was semi-enjoying it, I skimmed so much into the end of the book because I was curious about a few things that I ended up making myself not interested in continuing it. I might pick it up again, but maybe not, we’ll see.
• Violet Thistlewaite is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz – This is a cozy fantasy story following the events after the evil Guy is defeated (no really, that’s his name), and it starts off very cute and grumpy/sunshine in nature. I didn’t get far into it as I just kind of fell out of interest in reading in general for the month. I’m going to pick this back up again, I just ran out of time in the July.

The Stats

What I Talked About

• May and June 2026 Wrap Up – I combined the two months into one wrap up because I really didn’t do much reading, but I still wanted to talk about what I accomplished, started, and hauled. Check out the post here!
• Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag 2026 – I answered some questions about my reading for the first half of the year. Check out the post here!
• Top Ten Tuesday: Book Titles That Include the Word Crown – A fun one this week where the first word I thought of was “court,” but decided to go for “crown” instead. Check out the post here!
• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want to Read by New to Me Authors – Gestures vaguely to most of my shelves, but I picked some of them to talk about in this week’s TTT! Check out the post here!
• Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Live in My Head Rent Free – We all have those books or characters that we just can’t get out of our head, even years later. Well, here’s my list! Check out the post here!
• August 2026 TBR Hopefuls – You know it, you love it, it’s time for the hopefuls list for August! Check out the post here!

Book Haul

Click on a cover to go to its Goodreads page!

The Legacy saga by Melissa K. Roehrich – I’ve heard so much about Roehrich’s work for months now that when I saw the whole series in store I decided to just pick the whole thing up to give it a shot. It actually sounds really good, and I could tell I would vibe well with the writing style, so I’m excited to get into it when I do get around to reading it.

• The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham – I’ve followed Cindy for a while on YouTube, so when I saw that she was coming out with a book, of course I was curious about it. It’s got a kind of low rating on Goodreads, but I’m going to give it a try and see what I think.
• Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne – When I went to the signing with my wife for Rebecca’s last book in her Tea series, she had mentioned this book coming out later this year, so I put in my preorder as soon as I was able to. It’s got French flaps and pretty art inside, even as a paperback!
• Six of Crows: A Darker Shore – Letters from Ketterdam by Leigh Bardugo – As soon as I read Crooked Kingdom I will read this book, I promise. I know this was a special release for the ten year anniversary of Six of Crows, and I’m so glad I finally read the first book this year so that I now understand the hype of the first one, at least. I’m excited to see what this special collector’s book has in store.
• When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker – I got a hardcover copy on PangoBooks so that it would match the sequel I got when it came out. The size of the paperback was honestly way too big, so I’m glad the hardcover actually looks like a normal sized book lol
• We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark – I’ve been eyeing this cover version since I saw it come out, and I finally grabbed a copy on PangoBooks. Still overpriced for the resell, in my opinion, but I’m glad to have a copy for when I’m ready to give it a go.