To Be Read: August 2023

Happy Saturday, friends! I’m so happy it’s the weekend. I have so many creative project ideas buzzing around in my head and I’ve been thinking about this August To Be Read blog post all week. I was pretty busy this week though so I didn’t have much time to sit down and finalize it until now.

We’re already a couple of days into August but I wanted to formally write down my To Be Read list for this month, so that when I finish the books I’m currently read I know what I’m planning to move onto next.

Murder by Page One by Olivia Matthews

Marvey is a recent transplant in the south, and she’s the new librarian in town. But while she’s getting to know her new town and its residents, she happens to stumble upon a murder in her best friend’s book store. With not much else to go on, the police think Jo may be to blame. It’s up to Marvey and her new friend Spence to figure out what really happened and how the can find out who the real killer is.

I love a bookish mystery so it really piqued my interest that the main character is a librarian, and most of this book’s events take place at an indie book store. I saw this was available on Libby and knew it had to be part of my August To Be Read list.

Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant by Darci Hannah

Lindsay Bakewell lives in a haunted lighthouse with her Newfoundland pup, Wellington. As if that wasn’t wild enough, there are always people (mostly teens) who come and trespass on her property, trying to figure out what the true story of the haunted lighthouse is.

That would scare the crap out of me. Haha. I would hate to have people lurking around my house at night. But now that it’s Halloween season, people are especially interested. When Lindsay finds a corpse in the yard, she must deal with helping to solve the murder case while also dealing with all of the Halloween activities going on in town. That may be difficult when her best friend Kennedy just announced that she wants to host a ghost hunting podcast inside the lighthouse on Halloween.

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns

In this book, Maddy Montgomery is jilted by her former fiance. But she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime when she inherits her Great Aunt Octavia’s house in Michigan. It’s like the beginning of all great Hallmark movies… go to the new home to regroup and figure your life out while you nurse your wounds.

But she doesn’t just have to live in the house… another caveat of her inheritance is that she must run Great Aunt Octavia’s bake shop. Maddy isn’t much of a baker herself but Octavia’s friends can help her with that. But when the mayor of New Bison is found murdered and Maddy’s figerprints are found on the knife?

Well, no on is going to be able to help her with that but herself! I’m looking forward to checking this book out. And I love that Maddy inherits her aunts dog. I love a good canine companion in a cozy mystery.

Love Lettering by Kate Claybourn

I want to read this book because I am so fascinated by the main character’s job. Meg is a hand letterer and has a job in NYC where she creates these cool custom journals (and maybe planners? not sure) for fancy manhattan ladies. She has a run in with a customer who she worked with previously, designing his wedding invitations. He comes back and wants to know how she predicted that his wedding wouldn’t go through. Very interesting. I’m over here rubbing my chin thoughtfully Haha.

Same time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan

I’m currently 5 weeks out on my libby hold for this audiobook, so I’m not sure if I’ll get to this one this month. But a girl can dream, right? This book is described as “the ultimate summer nostalgia read” which sounds great to me because I’m all about the nostalgia. I’m not always a fan of second chance romances, but I think this one sounds cute. There’s just something about the beach that makes anything seem possible.

Halloween Cupcake Murder by Various

I’ve read a few of these books in the past. The theme is usually a season (This time Halloween, but in the past I’ve read Christmas editions) and it is a collection of cozy mystery short stories by 3 different authors. This book features Darlene O’Connor, Carol J Perry, and Liz Ireland. I’m not familiar with all of the authors but I’ve really been enjoying the Santaland series by Liz Ireland so I’m looking forward to checking this one out.

Enjoy this post? Read more of my To Be Read lists here.

xo Marian