August was a lot. LD worked her way through the entire Nadia Stafford series in a single week, finished Stage Dive, and started the Dirty Billionaire Trilogy. CJ picked up a 5-star fantasy throuple, a Gothic jazz story that almost earned an extra star on vibe alone, and a beach novella that is exactly what a beach novella should be. And EM read her current favourite book for the second time and wrote the review to prove it. Between the three of them: a hitwoman who is genuinely a good person, three sisters who each thought they were the one who killed their mother, a reformed hitman with a twirled mustache, a billionaire who did not plan to end up on a tour bus, and a ghost who might not know she is one.
Here’s everything CJ, EM, and LD read and reviewed in August, with full spoilers.
CJ’s August Reads
CJ covered nine books this month: a small town thriller, a rivals-to-lovers weather romance, a Gothic jazz debut, a childhood friends reunion, a bookstore with a failing social media strategy, a necromancer fantasy, an Easter kingdom with cherub bodyguards, and a throuple between a wraith, a witch and a historian.
Starlight Grove Series — Catherine Cowles
Across the Vanishing Sky | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical | Book 1
A small town thriller with unconventional family dynamics, romance, and an underlying missing persons mystery. CJ started it one day and finished it the next. The emotional depth caught her off guard in the best way.
Standalone — Chelsea Curto
In Stormy Weather | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical
Quincy runs The Rainy Day Show, just hit a million followers, and is competing for a Science and Operations Officer position with the National Weather Service… against her childhood academic rival Sebastian Dunn. A rivals-to-lovers story with science; CJ was in from the first page.
Grimlock Series — Alta Hensley
Songbird in the Gallows | ⭐ 3/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical | Book 1
A reformed hitman with a twirled mustache, a jazz singer running from the organization that murdered her father, and a town that dresses in mystical costumes once a year so the fae don’t steal them away. The Gothic jazz vibe alone almost carried this one to a 4-star. Almost.
Windy City Series — Liz Tomforde
Rewind It Back | ⭐ 4.25/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖🎧 | Book 5
Childhood best friends turned first love turned six years of complete silence, are now unexpectedly stuck living next door and working together. Rio is an NHL player in Chicago and Hallie just moved to the city for her dream internship while quietly drowning in debt from lying to her sick dad about medical trial funding that was never being granted. CJ was hooked from the beginning.
Hope Harbor Series — Brittänee Nicole
Bonfire and Bliss Bookstore | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical | Book 2
Penny owns the Bonfire and Bliss Bookstore, which two years in is still struggling to find its footing. Her engagement ended a year ago when her ex realized the book store was a business and not a silly hobby project. This brings us to her old friend Monty, the last person she expected to end up with and the first one who actually shows up. CJ gave this one five stars.
Wicked Games Series — Kaylie Smith
Phantasma | ⭐ 3.75/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical | Book 1
A Gothic manor that teleports to new locations to host a death game run by demons, a necromancer looking for her runaway sister, and a phantom love interest with amnesia hiding a massive secret. Phantasma throws a lot at you, but the surprising part is how well it works.
Standalone — C.A. Orfei
Grove of Trees | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Leprechaun crime lords. Cherub bodyguards named Huck, Pudge, and Honey. A literal Easter kingdom where the vibe is eggs and virility. CJ went in ready to laugh at the premise and came out fully engaged by a soul-speaking, shadow-wielding chosen one’s messy love life. Grove of Trees should not work as well as it does. And yet, here we are. She’s definitely reading book two.
Standalone — Devney Perry
Picture This | ⭐ 4/5 | No steam | 📱 Amazon Original
An 80-page Amazon Original novella, out the day CJ read it. Delylah is back in Montana for her best friend’s wedding, which means she’s back in orbit of Noah, the best friend’s older brother and her longtime crush. A glamping tent during a storm, a shy confession, and a perfectly timed interruption that almost derails everything. Exactly what a one-sitting beach-chair book should be.
Devour Me Series — Emily Rath
Devour Me | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical | Book 1
Birdie is a PhD student whose summer funding just got cut, which means no housing, which is a catastrophic problem for a woman who aged out of the foster system and has been on her own a long time with nothing to fall back on. A free apartment above a witchy little shop on Burr Island with a job at the register solves her problems, but being part of a throuple with a wraith bound to an evil witch, and the local Coven leading good witch solves the rest in ways she did not anticipate. CJ went in with no clue what to expect and came out needing to talk to someone about it immediately. Five stars.
EM’s August Reads
EM read one book in August. It is currently her favourite book; she has read it twice, even though it made her cry a little.
Standalone — Charis Cotter
The Swallow | ⭐ 4.5/5 | 📖 Physical
Two girls (Rose and Polly) move into a duplex with an attached attic, and since both feeling invisible (in completely different ways), they become friends. Rose’s parents are always away, Polly’s house is full of foster kids and a new baby and not much room for her. Rose is pale, dresses in dark clothes, looks out over a cemetery, and suspects she might be a ghost. A ghost story that is sad and sweet, it’s currently EM’s favourite book, and she’s already read it twice.
LD’s August Reads
LD read, well reviewed.. sixteen books in August. She went through the entire Nadia Stafford series in one week, finished out Stage Dive, and started a Meghan March trilogy she had no intention of stopping mid-series. She also worked through two Emily Henry books, two more Ali Hazelwood standalones, and a psychological thriller with a villain death that was deeply satisfying. One intriguing hitwoman. One tour bus nobody planned for. And a mother who let her husband die on the floor while she watched.
Standalones — Ali Hazelwood
Two Can Play | ⭐ 3.7/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook
An enemies-to-lovers novella set in video game development. Viola lands the project of her career — developing the adaptation of her all-time favorite fantasy series and the one person standing in her way turns out to be connected to her in ways neither of them planned for. The miscommunication that drives the whole thing is, for once, actually believable.
Love, Theoretically | ⭐ 4.2/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook
A theoretical physicist moonlighting as a professional fake girlfriend. A nemesis on the hiring committee for her dream job who turns out to be the older brother of her only repeat client. Ali Hazelwood’s formula with an extra layer that makes it stand apart. Elsie Hannaway is brilliant, she’s broke, and she has been performing a version of herself for so long that it takes someone genuinely paying attention to see who she actually is.
Standalones — Emily Henry
People We Meet on Vacation | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook
Poppy and Alex have been best friends for nearly a decade — every summer, one trip, no matter what. Two years ago something happened in Croatia and they haven’t spoken since. This book is about all of it, jumping back and forth between every summer that built them and the Palm Springs trip Poppy orchestrates to try and fix what broke. LD found the dual timeline worked exactly as intended here.
Happy Place | ⭐ 3.4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook
A couple that broke up five months ago hasn’t told any of their friends. They’re about to spend a week together at their friend group’s beloved Maine cottage, the last week before it’s sold, pretending to still be together. The first quarter requires patience. The second half makes it completely worth it.
Stage Dive Series — Kylie Scott
Lead | ⭐ 4.6/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Stage Dive Book 3
Jimmy Ferris is the lead singer of Stage Dive, freshly out of rehab, and has successfully driven away every single person hired to help him stay sober. Lena Morrissey is no-nonsense, recently fired, broke, and absolutely unwilling to take any of his shit. Their story is messy and LD liked it more than she expected to.
Deep | ⭐ 4.1/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Stage Dive Book 4
Ben Nicholson is the quiet one. The private one. The one who keeps his walls so high that even the people closest to him can’t see over them. Lizzy Rollins has had a crush on him for years. Then Vegas happens, a pregnancy test comes back positive, and suddenly the most emotionally unavailable man in rock music has to figure out how to show up for someone other than himself.
Stage Dive: The Complete Series Review | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook
Four books. Four band members. One series that kept getting better as it went. LD’s verdict: absolutely worth reading, and Mal is still her favourite fictional drummer.
Nadia Stafford Series — Kelley Armstrong
Exit Strategy | ⭐ 4.1/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Book 1
Nadia Stafford is a former cop turned hitwoman who runs a lodge in Canada. She took this career to keep the doors open and she is, somehow, genuinely a good person — and Kelley Armstrong makes you understand exactly how she got here. Exit Strategy is the book where Nadia takes her first job working with Jack, and there is no going back after this.
Made to be Broken | ⭐ 4.7/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Book 2
A teenage mom that works for Nadia goes missing with her baby near Nadia’s lodge. Nadia can’t help but try to find out what happened to them and what she finds changes her. This is the book where the weight of what she does starts to accumulate in ways she can’t set aside, and where an old journal surfaces that forces her to look at how her choices ripple outward.
Wild Justice | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Book 3
The confrontation LD had been waiting three books for. The man who killed Nadia’s cousin is identified, and Nadia finally gets to choose for herself what to do about it — at enormous cost, and in exactly the way a hitwoman who is also a good person would. A perfect five stars.
Double Play | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Book 4 (released with Perfect Victim as a duo)
Jack is in Ireland wrapping up old business so he can retire (semi-retire?) and settle down with Nadia. Nadia is at the lodge waiting for his daily phone call. He misses it. That is very unlike Jack. And then a man from Contrepasso shows up at her door telling her Quinn is missing. Book four is a race across two countries and it does not slow down.
Perfect Victim | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 📖 Ebook | Book 5 (released with Double Play as a duo)
LD does not read physical books. She is an audiobook person through and through. But when she found out there was a Nadia Stafford book featuring Ty Cypher from the Rockton series, she tracked down the ebook and read every word. Zero regrets.
The Nadia Stafford Series: Complete Review | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook
Heck yes it’s worth reading. Every single book. LD came in not sure what to expect and finished wishing there were more books. This series deserves more attention than it gets.
Haven’s Rock — Kelley Armstrong
Murder at Haven’s Rock | ⭐ 4.1/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Book 1
After everything that happened with Rockton, Casey and Dalton are finally doing things their way. Their town, their rules, their own cabin away from everyone else. It feels like a genuine fresh start. And then someone goes missing in the forest before Haven’s Rock even officially opens. LD is still not ready to leave this world.
Standalone — Margot Hunt
The Stone Sisters | ⭐ 4.6/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook
Blithe Stone was a narcissist who spent thirty years tearing her three daughters down from the inside out, let her husband die on the floor rather than call for help, and told her middle daughter she had never loved her specifically because she was a girl. The night after her wedding, Blithe is found dead. Each of her three daughters believed she was the one who killed her. The twist at the end owns itself completely.
Dirty Billionaire Trilogy — Meghan March
Dirty Billionaire | ⭐ 4.2/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Book 1
Holly Wicks won a TV singing competition and got a record deal and a fake relationship with a man who does not keep his flings quiet. Christmas Eve, a bar, a stranger who calls her his wife to get a harasser to back off — and one week later they are married in Vegas. Creighton Karas is domineering and crass and unexpectedly complicated, and Holly walks out at the end of book one. You will need book two immediately.
That’s a Wrap on August
Twenty-six reviews between the three of us. Three five-star reads. A hitwoman who genuinely made LD wish there were more books. A throuple that CJ went into with zero expectations and came out of needing to debrief immediately. A bookstore that finally found its footing. And a tour bus that Creighton Karas absolutely did not plan on.
Standouts this month: Devour Me, Wild Justice, Bonfire and Bliss Bookstore, The Stone Sisters, Made to be Broken, Lead. A perfect dead villain. A perfect hitwoman. A perfect five-star throuple.
We’ll be back in September with more.
Browse all LD reviews on Plot Twisted → plottwisted.ca/category/reviewed-by-ld
Browse all CJ reviews on Plot Twisted → plottwisted.ca/category/reviewed-by-cj
Browse all EM reviews on Plot Twisted → plottwisted.ca/category/reviewed-by-em
Plot Twisted. 🔥