Normally I’m a bit earlier with my book subscription skips/renewal recap but sometimes life gets busy or you lose yourself in a good book, literally. Anywho, this coming month is thankfully a rather quiet one after how crazy the last few have been. A bunch of my subs are on an off-month for one reason or another which will hopefully give me time to catch up on my physical and ARC backlog.
Confirmed Book Picks:
Aardvark Book Club (Renewed)
As always, at the time of this post Aardvark’s book picks are not confirmed, but because this post is so late in the month, the book titles are essentially locked in based on the four full days of clues so far. August’s book options are:
A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
She’s a Doll by Barbara Truelove
Lost and Found by Tarah DeWitt (signed)
The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Country People by Daniel Mason
The Women in White by Sarah Pekkanen
In addition to the main six options, Aardvark is also doing a reprint of their special edition foiled hardcovers for The Tainted Cup and A Drop of Corruption to match A Trade of Blood.
The Tainted Cup is one of my favorite fantasy reads and RJB is one of my must-read authors so I am definitely renewing my Aardvark subscription for at least A Trade of Blood. I already have the other two books in the series when they were first offered in the April lineup last year and the rest of the August’s book options aren’t quite my thing. I considered filling my Aardvark box which Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle from last month’s lineup along with Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay, but sadly the latter sold out last month so I’m likely just doing a single book box this month.
Goldsboro Fellowship: The Castle and the Cloister by Laura E. Weymouth (Renewed)
The Castle and the Cloister is a book that I wasn’t necessarily planning to buy on my own, but have heard quite a few people who have it as a highly anticipated read given it’s a rare epic fantasy penned by a female author. I know a lot of FairyLoot Epic subscribers were disappointed this wasn’t selected for their quarter 3 pick which makes Goldsboro picking it up an even sweeter deal. While I normally do not enjoy books with notable motherly elements or storylines, the early reviews and hype for this book convinced to give it a shot. It also helps that this is one of Goldsboro’s nicer Fellowship Editions with a strikingly different evening colorway variation on the dusk jacket and lovely matching endpaper art.
The Broken Binding Fantasy: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Renewed)
Part two of the Susanna Clarke set, like all TBB sets featured in their subs, it’s all or nothing affair. That said, I’m a big fan of Alice Caoi’s illustrations whose work is striking for these two books. Piranesi is also a very well-known title that I’ve had on my TBR for years, renewing this sub was a no-brainer decision on top of the outstanding bonus illustrations and high-end specs like sewn binding and acid-free paper.
Surprise Book Picks:
Illumicrate (Skipped)
A Viper Among Kings by Sydney Olivia
This was a book pick and release that the Illumicrate staff were very excited for both for the book itself as well as their redesigned edition. While Illumicrate’s sub curation has been on a roll this year, this one is one of the few that didn’t really catch my interest especially when it follows A Snake Among Swans which are are two sapphic epic fantasy trilogies back to back, the former being a book that suits my tastes better. I’m also trying to be selective with trilogies as they’re quite the commitment monetarily as well as book shelf space-wise so this was a pass for me.
Illumicrate Afterlight (Sold)
The Romance Revival by Christina Lauren
This is another Afterlight pick that doesn’t really spark my interest, though I Christina Lauren books are quite popular. I’m curious to see what Afterlight does with the design given that they’ve been taking bigger creative swings this year, but I’m happy that my copy will be going to someone else who will be able to appreciate it more than me.
Illumicrate Starbright (Renewed)
Scion by James Islington
Starbright has been truly popping off this year and I’m so thankful that I was not only able to get an invite for it, but also that it’s shipping from the US warehouse which saves at least $17 vs getting their books from the UK Store. On top of that, Scion was one of my most anticipated Scifi reads of the year, I am still shocked that Illumicrate was able to get the license for this book. James Islington is an author that’s been on my TBR for years and I’m very curious to see how his scifi debut is. I’ve heard this is a quick-paced, action-packed snappy scifi thriller and it sounds really promising! Most of my more recent scifi reads have been standalone picks so this is one of the few trilogies I’m on-board with committing to!
Owlcrate Adult Fantasy (Skipped)
Immortal Rose by Alexandra Bracken
Minor spoiler, but this is an overlap book pick as it’s FairyLoot Adult’s September book pick. While this book sounds interesting and the premise involving perfume and scents to be quite different compared to the fantasy romance norm, I’m not quite interested enough to buy the book though I could be convinced to read an ebook rental of it. I plan to also skip FairyLoot’s edition of this book next month as well but if I were to keep one, I would’ve kept Owlcrate’s as their designs have had a remarkable improvement this year and I like the artist lineup announced.
FairyLoot Adult (Sold)
Steelborn by Taylor J. LaRue
Since the time I drafted my last skip/renewal post, I was offered an invitation to subscribe to FairyLoot’s Adult Book only subscription after being on the waitlist for well over a year. While the YA+Adult sub was by no means poor, the YA sub in particular having the most consistent book curation this year across FairyLoot’s subs, I opted to drop the YA portion as I was receiving too many books per month for me to keep up with.
This month’s adult book pick is Steelborn which was I fortunate to have the opportunity to ARC review ahead of time. While it was a pretty good fantasy romance story, I didn’t love it personally and found it to be a bit slow and derivative. Given it’s the start of a planned trilogy, I didn’t enjoy it enough for the big investment the series will require. That said, the artist lineup for this book look stellar so I’m sure this one will end up with a beautiful edition.
Off Months / No Renewals:
- Illumicrate Mindsight
- The Broken Binding Scifi
- The Broken Binding SF&F (Sept. book pub date was pushed back, no book set for the month)
- Inkstone
Recap:
No going to lie, I’m quite relieved that August is a more relaxed and chill month after the how many subscriptions I renewed in July on top of sequel book sales and books bought secondhand (I was thrilled to find a copy of Inkstone’s The Red Winter for sale which was a favorite read earlier this year). Three SE renewals plus a single book box from Aardvark is a very manageable amount which will help balance out June and July. Looking ahead, September is a similar month with not very many renewals planned so I think we’re doing good! The wallet is happy, the bookshelf space is dying, and my physical TBR will hopefully stop growing-