Everything I Read This Month: September 2025

Everything I Read in September 2025

I didn’t expect to get much reading done this month since we had about two weeks away in Scotland for our honeymoon, but I still managed eight books! Abby Jimenez’s The Friend Zone series was a quick read on the whole, and made for fun light reading for in-between moments on the trip, and I finished up the audiobook of Everyone is Lying to You on the plane. All in all, my books this month were engaging and witty, with an emphasis on romance.

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

Of the 8 books I read this month, here are my top 3 favorites:

• Soul Searching by Lyla Sage
• Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados
• Caught Up by Navessa Allen

Table of Contents:

September 2025 In Books

Romance & Contemporary Fiction

Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados

5/5 Stars

This book has such a unique style, both in terms of the writing itself and in terms of the story, that I am having a hard time thinking of how to describe it here. The story is simple, with a meandering plot that follows Isa Epley, a twenty-one-year-old who comes to New York City with her friend for a summer adventure. The girls are broke and have to come up with under-the-table ways to make money in the city, all while swirling through the city’s nightlife with a broad cast of characters. Tensions run high between the friends, in the way that they so often do, and the narrative is written with such simplicity and honesty that the emotions are immediately recognizable to the reader.

Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Caught Up by Navessa Allen (Into Darkness Book 2)

5/5 Stars

The second book in Navessa Allen’s Into Darkness series, Caught Up follows Nico “Junior” Trocci and Lauren Marchetti. The book is in the same universe as Lights Out (book one in the series) and shares many of the same characters, but we get a full backstory and character development for the two main characters and the people directly around them. This is a second chance (dark) romance with plenty of wit and an entertaining dog character who often steals the show. 

Caught Up by Navessa Allen is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza

3.5/5 Stars

As far as topics go, a murder mystery centering on a trad wife mega influencer is pretty engaging. The two main characters are former best friends who fell out under mysterious circumstances, but come back together when the influencer wants to share her story. The first half of this audiobook had me hooked, but the second half fell kind of flat for me. There were a lot of characters who all kind of blended together and it got kind of convoluted. The narrators were great (part of why I was so hooked at first), but I might have had an easier time following if I read the actual book. If you’re into thrillers, definitely give it a shot.

Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez* (The Friend Zone book 1)

3/5 Stars

As someone who loves all things Abby Jimenez, I was surprised to be a little let down by this book. Don’t get me wrong, it was still an enjoyable read — and Kristen’s (the FMC) little dog, Stuntman Mike, is a great character — but I found a lot of the miscommunication between the love interests frustrating. Kristen deals with debilitating periods and various health conditions relating to her uterus, and so she decides she can’t be with Josh, the love interest, because he wants a big family and she is planning on having a hysterectomy. The whole time, I just wanted to scream at the characters to just talk to each other. This book leads into the second book in the series, though, so I stuck with it. 

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez* (The Friend Zone book 2)

5/5 Stars

Picking up more or less where The Friend Zone lets off, The Happy Ever After Playlist was definitely my favorite of the three books in this series. This book is about Kristen’s best friend, Sloan, and also has plenty of cameos from Stuntman Mike — and another dog, Tucker, who causes the inciting incident that leads to Sloan meeting her musician love interest. I don’t want to give too much away for this one, because Sloan’s story really starts at the end of the first book, but it is definitely a recommended read! 

The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez* (The Friend Zone book 3)

3/5 Stars

The third book in this series by Abby Jimenez, Life’s Too Short is the most removed book of the series; the characters from the first two books make cameos (and the MMC was briefly in The Happy Ever After Playlist), but it largely reads as a standalone story.

Much like The Friend Zone, this book had me wishing the characters would just be honest with each other (and themselves). Vanessa (FMC) is a travel blogger who convinces herself that she has the same life threatening disease that her sister had, and decides that she does not want to start treatment for it. Fine — all her reasoning makes sense — except she doesn’t actually have a diagnosis. She talks a lot about how tough it is to get a diagnosis — and her reasonings make sense — but I just was frustrated with how she handled everything (especially since she was fostering her addict sister’s baby…) especially with how the story turns out. Meanwhile, Adrian (MMC) falls for Vanessa (his neighbor) and takes ZERO initiative in learning about her via her YouTube channel, despite everyone around them both being religious viewers of hers, so it comes as a total shock to him that she may even have this life threatening disease that she has been incredibly open about online and in her personal life. So the combination was just kind of frustrating. In all…not my favorite.

Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan*

4.5/5 Stars

I’d been looking forward to reading this book before watching the Netflix movie version, so I downloaded it from KU for my flight back from Scotland. Ideally, I think it would be best to listen to the audiobook, since the author — Julia Whelan — is a fantastic narrator. Regardless, the novel was a quick and heart wrenching read. It sounds all nice and sweet, but it’s a deeply emotional book. There are funny parts, for sure, and Julia Whelan’s writing was both engaging and well-researched. If you go into it knowing it’s not a light and breezy rom com, I think you’ll enjoy it.

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

Fantasy

Soul Searching by Lyla Sage

5/5 Stars

Lyla Sage’s latest reads more like a romance than anything else, but since there’s a big supernatural component, I decided to file this one under fantasy. It is set in the same universe as the author’s Rebel Blue Ranch series, but with a supernatural twist.

Collins (FMC) reluctantly returns home to Sweetwater Peak, Wyoming, her tiny home town, because her photography career has fallen apart — and she’s lost her ability to communicate with ghosts. By returning home, she hopes she can reconnect with her companion shades, while establishing independence from her family at the same time. And that’s how she winds up staying with Brady, love interest and the newest resident to the Sweetwater Peak community. The book has all of Lyla Sage’s character and heart, while exploring a slightly new type of story. In all, I really enjoyed it! Can’t wait for book two! 

Soul Searching by Lyla Sage is available from Amazon here and Bookshop.org here.

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*Some of the novels featured here were gifted to me as part of various book review programs in which Cats & Coffee participates.