Y'all I made a meaningful dent in my TBR pile! It felt incredible to finally read By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin, a fluffy fun cowboy romance published earlier this year by Berkley. I also read the newest book in the Spell Shop series by Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms, in preparation for our event together at Northport Books. Next week I will share an edited transcript of our conversation about why escapism is a necessity, not a luxury.

As we hit the last two weeks of August, here are the books in my tote bag.

Til Quest Do Us Part by Ivelisse Housman — I'm almost done with this cozy romantasy publishing in December from Ace. It's like The Princess Knight by Cait Jacobs meets the Zelda franchise and I haven't been able to put it down since my arc arrived in the mail. Pre-order it for sure.

When the Duke Loved Me by Lydia Lloyd — I'm on a Lloyd kick following the release of her newest historical romance Rogue Around the Edges. Her books are wildly sexy and smart, and this one features her trademark Typically Self-Composed Man In a Horny Panic. Really good enemies to lovers, too.

Unfinished Business by Clare Osongco — I'm slowly reading this genre-bendy book about a woman whose recently deceased mother is haunting her company's Slack. The love triangle has just introduced itself (both men are alive, for the record), but what's hooked me is the commentary on workplace culture and the extractive manipulation of a business taken over by venture capital. This book feels like a cousin to my debut novel But How Are You, Really and I want the heroines to get lunch and talk about quitting their shitty jobs!!

Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube — I'll be honest, I borrowed this best-selling TikTok smash from the library to make fun of it with my boyfriend and we both wound up engrossed. Originally self-published as Spit or Swallow, this book is about a basilisk/man training a young virgin in the sensual arts (to put it politely). It is pure erotic romance, and it delivers. It's got me thinking about how BookTok has destroyed the genre divisions between erotica, erotic romance, and romance, with all three lumped together under the label of "smut." If you pick up Kiss of the Basilisk expecting a classic romance, you will probably not enjoy it. But if you go in wanting to read erotica with training kink and hot snake men, this is the perfect book for you.

What are you reading? What should I add to my TBR?