Everything I Read This Month: July 2025

Everything I Read in July 2025

This was a strong reading month for me overall, and I am happy to announce that I now understand the hype that writing duo Christina Lauren receive from readers. I have read four books from this writing team and enjoyed them all. Beyond the rom coms, though, I read some great new releases, including These Summer Storms and Smoke on the Wind. John Green’s non-fiction discussion of the history of tuberculosis rounded everything out, giving me a spread of genres for the month. Read on for my thoughts and book reviews on each!

(Please note: I have denoted books that are currently available with Kindle Unlimited with an * after the title below)

Of the 14 books I read this month, here are my top 5 favorites:

• The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
• The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
• These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
• Smoke on the Wind by Kelli Estes
• Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

Table of Contents:

July 2025 In Books

Romance & Contemporary Fiction

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren*

5/5 Stars

The FMC, Jess, is a single mother and data analysis mastermind who matches with the founder of a DNA-based matchmaking company (which serves as the basis of The True Love Experiment below). The pair sort of fake date in the sense of the company wanting to test the match, so they pay Jess for her time getting to know the founder. They hit things off, but everything is thrown into question when the science behind their match seems to fall apart, at least according to Jess. 

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren*

5/5 Stars

This was my first book by Christina Lauren, and it is technically the second part of a duology, set to follow The Soulmate Equation. It didn’t really matter that I read them out of order, but if you haven’t started either, I’d recommend going in order.

Anyway, this book has a funny writer protagonist who finds herself on a reality dating show where she is set up with a series of men who fit various romance tropes, all while she is falling for the producer of the show. There is witty banter galore, lots of romance trope jokes, and even some moving character growth. 

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

5/5 Stars

A marriage of convenience love story, Christina Lauren’s The Paradise Problem deals with a MMC from an ultra wealthy family who marries the FMC in college so they can get better housing. They wind up staying married, since there is a clause in his inheritance that he has to be married for a certain amount of time in order to gain access to his inheritance. However, his family is getting suspicious and demand that he bring his wife to his sister’s wedding on a beautiful and remote island. It’s very White Lotus-esque (with a dash of Succession, especially with the father) and his family are super toxic. Still, the witty banter and personal growth is remarkable and I could not put this one down!

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The Unhoneymooners Christina Lauren*

3.5/5 Stars

With a pretty chaotic and hilarious opening scene, this book is full of family drama and witty banter right from the start. There are fake identities and fake dating that gets out of hand. The protagonists go on their siblings’ honeymoon after the entire wedding party and wedding guests get food poisoning, except for them. The problem is, if they get caught faking their relationship to get the trip (which FMC’s twin sister won in some contest), they have to pay back the money. Chaos, obviously, ensues. If there wasn’t as much of a third act breakup — or if it didn’t feel so rushed — it would have been a 5 star read for me. 

The Unhoneymooners Christina Lauren is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers

3.75/5 Stars

An emotional crime thriller, this book follows the sisters of two missing young women who vanished without a trace in ostensibly related disappearances. The protagonist, Nic, is in a rut with no real prospects after getting a DWI and dealing with the trauma of losing her sister. She goes about trying to solve her sister’s disappearance with Jenna, the sister of the other missing girl, and they get into all kinds of trouble with that. The audiobook was super engaging (great narrator), but the story got really convoluted and kind of ended all of a sudden. It was ok, not my favorite, but also not my usual genre, so take that with a grain of salt. 

The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The Front Runner by Elsie Silver (Gold Rush Ranch Series Book 3)*

3/5 Stars

The third book in Elsie Silver’s Gold Rush Ranch series, this installment follows Mira, the vet we know from the first two books, and Stefan, a rival ranch owner who is considered to be a bad guy by pretty much everyone in books one and two. Mira and Stefan get pushed together when he boards an orphaned horse from Gold Rush Ranch with one of his horses who lost a foal. They embark on a fake dating situation (kind of unclear why; I guess in exchange for her helping with the horse? I missed that part) but he is clearly in love with her. They both have baggage, though, and all of Mira’s friends at Gold Rush Ranch hate him. There’s a third act break up that felt very unfair and unreasonable and the ending was rushed. Entertaining enough, but not my favorite from this series by a long shot. 

The Front Runner by Elsie Silver is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean

5/5 Stars

A rich people drama read, These Summer Storms was gripping and engaging from the start (also, the narrator was great — highly recommend as an audiobook). Stuck on an island in the Northeast US with her family for her father’s funeral, the protagonist and her siblings are thrown into a series of inheritance games to find out what their father has left them. The protagonist is estranged from the family, but has to stay because, if she leaves, no one can get their inheritance. It takes a while to find out why she is estranged, but the story reveals layers upon layers of complex family drama that the author reveals methodically and movingly. Great for fans of Succession and The Inheritance Games book series. 

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager

2/5 Stars

I wanted to like this book so badly, but it just fell flat for me. I’ve followed the author on social media for years and have always loved her content, so I powered through the audiobook based on that. It’s set in a museum and full of magical realism (which I’m realizing might not be to my taste — I either want reality, historical lore, or full blown fantasy) because the protagonist can enter the paintings and starts to date one of the men in the artwork. The FMC has a secret that she keeps for no particular reason that sort of blows up in her face (again, for no particular reason) and then COVID hits and everything shuts down so she can’t explain things to her painting-lover. Then there’s an art heist? I don’t know. It was just trying to do too many things. The writing was good, I thought, but the plot fell flat. 

The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Lights Out by Navessa Allen

4/5 Stars

A (very) dark romance that is surprisingly funny, Lights Out is the first book in a series by Navessa Allen. The trigger warnings are nothing to balk at, but I was really surprised at how many times I was literally laughing out loud at the audiobook. Besides the two main characters and love interests, there is a cat with a surprisingly large role in the story (don’t worry, nothing bad happens to him) and he is absolutely hilarious. 

Lights Out by Navessa Allen is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Some Like it Scot by Pepper Basham*

1/5 Stars

I wanted to like this book, but it just was not for me. It suddenly started harping on religion halfway through when it isn’t being marketed as a religious book.

It felt very trad-wife coded, cumulating in the cast of characters basically deciding that the FMC could just slot in to replace a female family/mother figure to raise MMC’s nephew. The characters were pretty one dimensional and the plot just wasn’t engaging. The descriptions of Scotland were nice.

Some Like it Scot by Pepper Basham is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

4/5 Stars

This has been on my TBR for a while, but I only picked it up once I heard they were making a movie out of it. Based on Kylo Ren fan fiction, this story is a fake dating trope romance with Ali Hazelwood’s famous witty banter and basis in STEM (the protagonists are both scientists at Stanford; he is a professor and she is a grad student). The two main characters embark on a fake dating situation to benefit them both, though it really feels like everyone’s lives would be better off if they were just honest with the people they were trying to deceive. If you set that logic aside, though, it is an entertaining read that deals with a whole slew of issues, including sexual harassment in academia. In all, not my favorite AH book, but still a great read! 

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Fantasy

Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent*

4.75/5 Stars

A novella from the Crowns of Nyaxia series by Carissa Broadbent, this short story is all about Lilith and Vale, a renowned vampire in the series who was the General of the House of Night until Vincent (who we know from the first book) took over the Nightborn vampires. Lilith has been set on discovering a cure for a plague that is crushing her town, and she enlists Vale’s help in finding a remedy. What starts as a simple transaction becomes more complicated, though, as she becomes more enmeshed with the vampire world. 

Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Historical Fiction

Smoke on the Wind by Kelli Estes*

5/5 Stars

Currently available on Kindle Unlimited, this is a dual timeline story with a contemporary and a historical aspect to the plot, so I opted to list it under historical fiction. This book follows two women in two different times who are making the arduous trek along the West Highland Way for two very different reasons. With robust research and compelling characters, this book is a great fit for fans of Outlander and books about Scotland, along with historical fiction generally.

Smoke on the Wind by Kelli Estes is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Non-Fiction

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

5/5 Stars

A relatively quick read (or listen — which I recommend, as the audiobook is narrated by the author), this new book from John Green follows the history of tuberculosis and the modern trends of the disease, discussing its role in shaping pretty much everything in our society. The writing is engaging and personable, following the story of a young man with TB that the author met and got to know well. In all, it is thought provoking and moving, for both its historical and contemporary context. 

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

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