I read quite a few books this month, and a lot of them were ARCs for my ARC August challenge (see below). In fact, I read so many books that I didn’t have enough time in my blogging schedule to feature them all (the one’s I didn’t get to will be featured in next month’s recap).

Here’s a look at this month’s books:

(click the covers for the full review)

Spartan Frost – 1/5 stars

Spartan Frost by Jennifer Estep

Never Fade – 4/5 stars

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

Zenn Scarlett – 3/5 stars

Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon

 Hexed – 4/5 stars

Legend – 5/5 stars!

Broken Forest – 2.5/5 stars

Broken Forest by Eliza Tilton

Countdown – 2/5 stars

Countdown by Michelle Rowen

And my favorite:

Dragon Keeper – 5/5 stars!

The Dragon Keeper

Statistically, I find this month fascinating. It has the lowest average rating so far this year, and I can’t help but think that it has something to do with the fact that I read mostly “obligation” books (Aka: books I read because I feel like I should). I made a deal with myself at the beginning of the year that I wouldn’t read anything because I felt like I had to – and you know what? It’s made for this single best year in reading I’ve ever had! The moral of the story? Don’t bog yourself down by mediocre books just because they are free. That’s not to say there aren’t some truly amazing titles available as ARCs, it just pays to be picky.

Now for the ARC August challenge recap:

 I am super excited that Octavia at Read. Sleep. Repeat. hosted this challenge because it gave me the motivation I needed to work through all of my outstanding ARCs. I’m happy to say that of the original six I plan to read, I got through four of them… And then read four additional acquisitions to boot! I never thought I would be at this point, but I finally have my Net Galley ARCs down to just two books – and it’s going to stay that way this time (by the way, for this challenge I considered only current ARCs eligible… it’s incredibly sad how many past ones I never got to before their release dates)!

ARCs Read:

You can definitely see what kind of arcs draw my attention. The clear winner for my favorite arc read this month is: All Our Yesterdays! I haven’t officially written a review for it yet, but suffice to say it was a 5/5 star rating and one that I will be talking about for months – I loved it! Spirit Animals was a close second, and that review is also forthcoming.

by Niki Hawkes