2025 August Reading Wrap

Here’s my August 2025 reading wrap-up: four books, ranked from my least to most favorite, with mini reviews and recommendations.

Books read: 4
Pages read: 1,455
Average rating: 4.3 deer stars

Honorable Mention – Heated by JC Gardner

If you read my post in Deer Thoughts, about this book, then you know that for the sake of being unbiased, I did not give this book an actual rating since my mom wrote it (love you, mom). Therefore, I’ve given this book the honorable mention spot. It was a quick read, fast pacing, dual-POV, had funny moments, and was outside of my typical genre, which I appreciated. I liked how short it was and I think it’s a good in between book if you’re looking for a quick palate cleanser or if you want to dip your toes into the urban fiction genre.

3. Spark of the Everflame

I started my journey with the Kindred’s Curse Saga in August, and the first book had me feeling iffy about the series. If you’re new to fantasy romance, this could easily be a five-star read. But as someone who is very familiar with the genre, I found myself feeling as if I’ve read elements of this book before, with similar world-building, tropes, and plot devices. Along with the predictability, the FMC was also very frustrating to read about. I rated this book three deer-stars and would say I maybe recommend it.

2. Piranesi  

Wow. What a welcome surprise this book was. It’s ironic because I was wary to start the buddy read with my friend, as I wanted to jump into Glow of the Everflame right away, since I like to binge read series all at once. But I am so happy I read this book. I rated it five deer-stars. I went in thinking this book was about Greek Mythology but it wasn’t at all. I stayed along for the discovery of what this book was actually about. I can’t get into specifics without spoiling the plot, but if you’re looking for a book with magical realism, mystery, beautiful writing, and a MMC who has the heart of Patroclus from The Song of Achilles, then give this one a try.

1. Glow of the Everflame 

I know what you may be thinking: “How is this book #1 of the month after I gave Spark of the Everflame a low rating.” Well let me tell you something, I enjoyed reading Glow of the Everflame so much, I wanted to take every negative or critical thing I said about Spark of the Everflame back. The plot evolved into something new and unpredictable, same with the world-building, the world continued to build into something more unique, there was court politics, found family, magic, high tension and slow-burn between the FMC and MMC *chef’s kiss*. This was one of those books I didn’t want to end, wanted there to be more pages, had my jaw dropped at the end. While Piranesi is also a five deer-star read, Glow of the Everflame takes the #1 spot because, at the end of the day, I’m a fantasy romance/romantasy girly, and this book is the blueprint for everything I love in the genre.

So, those are my August reads! Have you read any of these—or are they on your TBR? Let’s talk in the comments!