Updated weekly. Currently 47 unread books on my Kindle. Regretting nothing.
So, here's the thing about being a reader who also built a reading planner: people assume my TBR is pristine. That I read things in order. That I finish what I start.
I do not.
My reading life looks like someone juggling six open books at once, switching based on mood, abandoning one mid-chapter to start another because a friend texted "you HAVE to read this", and occasionally rereading something for the fourth time just because I was tired and needed a guaranteed hit.
This page is the honest version. What I'm actually reading this month — the ones I'm halfway through, the ones that just wrecked me, and the ones staring at me from the stack, waiting their turn. I update it as I go.
I track all of this in my own planner, by the way — the one that started this whole mess. If you've seen it, you know the drill.
Let's get into it.
📖 Currently Reading
Onyx Storm — Rebecca Yarros
I am deep into this. I know, I know, everyone's already read it. I was late because I made myself reread Iron Flame first to make sure I remembered who was alive and who was not, and that took longer than expected because I kept stopping to highlight things.
I'm about two-thirds through and I have Opinions. I'm not ready to share them yet because I suspect the last quarter is going to make me throw my Kindle across the room in either joy or grief, and I'd rather wait and see which.
Verdict so far: if you loved the first two, you will love this. If you bounced off the first two, nothing here will convert you — this is for the people who are already in.
✅ Just Finished This Month
The Paris Apartment — Lucy Foley
Read this one on a flight. Specifically, a delayed flight, which felt appropriate because the book is also about being stuck in a small space with people who may or may not be lying to you.
Lucy Foley writes exactly the kind of mystery I like — locked-room, unreliable narrators, the setting is practically a character, and the reveal is paced so you get there about four pages before the protagonist does. I finished it in one sitting. I have zero regrets.
Read it if: you like cosy-adjacent mysteries with a lot of atmosphere and not a lot of gore.
Funny Story — Emily Henry
Emily Henry is an auto-buy author for me at this point, which means I am probably incapable of reviewing her books objectively. Whatever. This one's about two people whose exes get together, so they pretend-date each other out of spite, and obviously the spite dating becomes real dating because it's Emily Henry and that's the point.
What I love about her: the banter is actually banter. Not the thing other romance books call banter which is really just two people being vaguely annoying at each other. Real, earned banter.
Read it if: you need a book that makes you laugh out loud in public.
The Thursday Murder Club — Richard Osman
Cosy mystery set in a retirement village. Four elderly friends solve a murder. That is the entire pitch, and it works so well that I'm now three books deep into the series.
The thing no one tells you about cosy mysteries when you're in your twenties is that they are deeply restful. There is nothing at stake for you, the reader. Someone is dead, yes, but in a cosy way. Nothing is going to jump out at you. You can read it before bed without regret.
Read it if: you've been doomscrolling and need to feel like a human again.
🕯️ Next on the TBR
Haunting Adeline — H.D. Carlton
I've been avoiding this one because I know what's in it and I'm not sure I'm in the headspace. But every single person in my DMs has told me to read it, so I'm pencilling it in for the end of the month when I've got a quiet weekend and emotional bandwidth to spare.
I will report back. Probably with trauma.
A Fate Inked in Blood — Danielle L. Jensen
Viking romantasy. I have no other information and I need none. Adding it to the pile.
What about you?
I read The Bookish Letter replies religiously — so if you've got a book I should add to the pile next month, reply to the most recent letter and tell me.
Specificity helps. "Dark romance that won't traumatise me" gets you better recs than "something good."
See you on Tuesday.
— Clara
P.S. If you're new around here and haven't grabbed the planner I built to keep all this sorted, it's here. No pressure — but it's what I use to track every book on this page, and it's the reason my reading life doesn't fall apart.