July has been a month for comfort reads. Cozy books, where nothing really bad happens. I’ve had enough of grief and loss, death and despair in real life, with the passing of my beloved cat, Loki at the start of the month. I couldn’t bear it in my fiction too.
So I wrapped myself up in simple, cozy stories of charmed books, the magic of small communities, romance amid magical geographical disasters, and the unraveling of a centuries old fairy curse.
Reading wrap-up for July
I read 6 books this month, including 2 novellas and 1 comfort re-read, as I strolled through Oxford and its surrounding towns, walked down the main street at Dove Pond, and holed up in a cozy cabin in the Scottish highlands during a cold winter blizzard.
(Click on the book covers to purchase the book on Amazon.)
The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins
Sarah Dove, like all the Dove sisters, has a gift — books speak to her. As the librarian in her quaint Southern town of Dove Pond, her gift helps her pair books and readers.
Grace Wheeler and her sister Hannah bounced from foster home to foster home, until they were taken in by Mama G. There, they found a home filled with love and nurturing care. Now, Mama G is suffering from dementia, and Hannah is dead, leaving her 9-year-old daughter Daisy in Grace’s care. She moves to Mama G’s hometown to take care of them, but has no intention of staying beyond a year.
Sarah’s books, though, have been whispering that Grace is the savior Dove Pond desperately needs. Will a bit of urging, a bit of romance, and the help of an especially wise book be enough to push Grace to embrace the challenge to rescue her charmed new community?
This was a delightful book that had me completely under its spell! If you love a good dose of Southern Magic — small Southern towns with a dash of magical realism and a cast of feel-good characters a la Sarah Addison Allen — you will love this book!
Love in the Afternoon & The Last Chance Hotel by Karen Hawkins (Novellas)
I loved The Book Charmer so much that I immediately read two of the novellas set in the same town.
Love in the Afternoon is the story of Sofia Rodriquez, a young widow who has recently moved to Dove Pond with her son Noah, who has Asperger’s, and IT whiz and game developer Jake Klaine.
The Last Chance Motel is the story of Evan and Jessica Cho Graham. On the brink of a divorce, Evan arrives at The Last Chance Motel in Dove Pond, which is being lovingly restored by his soon-to-be-ex-wife Jessica, to beg for a last chance at saving their marriage. To succeed, he’s going to need all the help he can get, even if it’s from the crankiest handyman in B&B history.
Both these novellas are absolutely delightful, and both feature a rather quirky ghost called Doyle. They’re absolutely perfect for a cozy afternoon read.
The House of the Witch by Clare Marchant
Now: When Adrianna arrives at the small, run-down cottage, near the sea in rural Norfolk, she can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Here she can forget her life in the city, and the problems she’s left behind there, at least for a while.
When Adrianna finds a mysterious bundle of notes hidden under a floorboard, she can’t shake the idea that they’ve been waiting for her. Especially when – in the rambling, overgrown garden – she finds a strangely-carved stone, drawing her into a centuries-old mystery…
1646: Between her work as the village midwife and the medicines she sells from her cottage, Ursula has no need for a man. But this ideal leaves her unprotected in a world where an accusation of witchcraft can mean certain death. So when she catches the eye of a powerful new local doctor, she must use every part of her cunning, or risk becoming his prisoner…
Can the two women – their paths bound by place and history – each find the keys to their own destiny?
What a wonderful premise, but the book fell woefully short of the mark. The execution left a lot to be desired, the book could have used a second round of edits, and the characters were one dimensional and flat. I kept at it because I liked Ursula’s story, until it, too, became repetitive and woefully under-developed. This is one of those books that’s all hype with no character.
The Geographer’s Map to Romance by India Holton
Professor Elodie Tarrant is an expert in magic disasters. Nothing fazes her, except her own personal disaster, that is: Professor Gabriel Tarrant, the grumpy, unfriendly man she married for convenience a year ago, whom she secretly loves.
Gabriel is also an expert in magic disasters. And nothing fazes him either, except the walking, talking tornado that is his wife. They’ve been estranged since shortly after their wedding day, but that hasn’t stopped him from stoically pining for her.
When magic erupts in a small Welsh village, threatening catastrophe for the rest of England, Elodie and Gabriel are accidentally both assigned to the case. With the fate of the country in their hands, they must come together as a team in the face of perilous conditions like explosions, domesticated goats, and only one bed. But this is easier said than done. After all, there’s no navigational guide for the geography of the heart.
This is another delightful novel from romance author India Holton. Her irreverent writing style, delightful characters, and quirky humor make it a rather fun caper! You’ll find yourself grinning ear to ear as you turn the pages of this book!
The Book of Lost Enchantments by Jessica Dodge
At 29, Nora Cameron’s life feels adrift. Her days are spent working in her parents’ bakery, and her nights are spent alone watching Hallmark movies. She yearns for something beyond her predictable existence, though she has no idea what that might be. That is, until fate intervenes, and Nora is swept into an unforeseen adventure to Scotland.
Guided by her grandmother’s cherished photo album from the 1940s, which documents her time spent as a medic-nurse in Scotland during World War II, Nora stumbles upon a mysterious old bookstore in Edinburgh. There, amidst the smell of old books and shelves lined with relics of forgotten lore, Nora’s eyes fall upon a peculiar little red book. As she delves into its pages, strange and unexplainable events unfold, including a sudden snowstorm that strands her in the Highlands with a handsome but surly journalist named Alistair.
Snowed in and at odds with one another, Nora and Alistair struggle to get along. With little else to do but tend the fire, Nora immerses herself in the red book’s tale of a young woman from centuries past, on a quest to save her grandmother and resist the pull she feels toward a dashing but aloof son of a Scottish Duke.
As the days pass, stranded in the cabin, Nora discovers a box of letters with an eerie connection to her grandmother’s past, uncovering a family secret buried deep in time. As the weather worsens and their supplies dwindle, bizarre events begin to escalate. With Alistair’s help, Nora starts to unravel the mystery, but what she uncovers not only threatens to fracture her idea of reality but may place her and Alistair in mortal danger.
If you’re looking for a cozy read with an intriguing mystery at the heart of it, give this book a go. I loved the way Dodge wove in the legend of the Cailleach into the story, and the “book within the book” really worked for me.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (comfort re-read)
The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
I first read the entire Outlander series in 2022, and was instantly captivated not just by Jamie and Claire’s love story, but by the sheer depth and breadth of Gabaldon’s vision and her writing.
Jamie and Claire are among my favorite fictional couples, right alongside Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara, and I when my heart was sore with grief over losing Loki, I wrapped their incredible love story around me like a warm plaid.
If you haven’t read the series, I highly recommend it. It’s one of those genre defying series — time travel, historical fiction, romance and adventure all rolled into one. I particularly love the way Gabaldon describes places, making you feel like you’re right there, along with the characters, watching events as they unfold. {Though to be fair, that element of her writing shines a bit later in the series.} I, for one, can’t wait for book 10, which is widely expected to be the last book in the series.
Over to you: What was on your reading list this month?
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