We're excited to announce that our July Book Club author, Tatiana Obey, will be joining us for an exclusive Zoom discussion of her novel, Sistah Samurai: A Champloo Novella!

This intimate conversation is your chance to connect directly with Tatiana, hear more about the inspiration behind the book, and ask any questions you have about the story, her creative process, and her work as a writer.

We're currently planning to host the event on Monday, August 25. To help us choose the best time for everyone, please take a moment to fill out the poll below with your preferred time.

We can't wait to see you there and dive into this incredible story together!

Non-fiction

• "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay candidly appraises the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up, and makes palpable the impact of European colonization and tourism.

• "My Favorite Plant" edited by Jamaica Kincaid

Kincaid gathers a sparkling selection of new and beloved poetry and prose about each author’s favorite flora.

Short stories

• "Ladies of the Night" by Althea Prince

With women's loves and lives as their focus, the stories contain dramatic twists and some humorous, others shocking and disturbing, all leaving a haunting melody behind.

Fiction

• "My Stories Have No Endings" by Gayle Gonsalves

Kai is a spiritual child who dips her ears into the wind where she hears the voices that tell stories from the forgotten past. Though she grows up in poverty in the Caribbean, her quick mind wins her a scholarship to the island's most prestigious all-girls' school where she's catapulted into a very different world

🗺️If you want to see more book recommendations from all the countries in the world, check out my Reading the World Spreadsheet.

And if you want to support this project, consider becoming a paid member of my Bindery!

So. In addition to reading a lot of books, I also am... writing some. Yes, it's true. I actually started all my social media to prep myself for writing and advertising. However, it turns out I really hate advertising myself and have terrible Imposter Syndrome. I also much prefer to keep it low key until I'm really, truly ready to get something together and publish it.

However, I also really, really need to get over that and let people read my stuff so I can actually improve and write something worth reading. So I decided to get creative and take advantage of what tools I have at my disposal.

Currently, I have two works in progress I am working on that are pretty different and definitely in need of something to motivate me to write while I get over my belief that nobody cares about what I have to write. I love to storytell and it's a thing I think makes all of us painfully, truly human. There is a magic in telling stories that everyone possesses in their own way:

The magic of fantasy tales, the magic of recounting personal stories, the magic of explaining your favorite show, the magic of telling someone about your job... whatever it is, there is something in us all that tells a specific story so well that's unique to us.

Well. I think I need to stop doubting my ability to tell a damned story. So. I am doing something crazy.

For Tier 1 and beyond members, I am adding some new features and actually putting together projects that will be exclusive to folks who want to be a part of this journey with me. They include:

• Cover art previews

• Draft chapters for each project

• Input opportunities for each project

• Author interview requests

• Early access to author interviews

The goal is to motivate me to stop being so shy and to actually hunker down and finish what I put my nose to. I tell stories because I love to tell stories and I would love to tell those stories to more of you. So. If you want to hear more of them and have a chance to help shape what they look like? You'll be getting that chance!

I've been sitting on this secret for months and I cannot wait for what's coming next. You can listen to my announcement in the Rebel Ever After feed wherever you get your podcasts, or read the transcript below.

Listen on:

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• Castbox

• Libsyn

Transcript

Hi folks. This episode is a little different because I have an exciting announcement to share about the future of Rebel Ever After. 

The too long, didn’t listen version is that the publishing company Bindery invited me to join their tastemaker program! While the Rebel Ever After podcast will remain free and distributed wherever you are listening to this episode, the Rebel Ever After community will live on the Bindery social platform for book lovers — and we have the opportunity to start our very own romance imprint with their publishing arm. How does Rebel Ever After, an imprint of Bindery Books, sound to you?

Now for the long version. As a culture critic and a queer author, I believe that the books we write have the power to change minds and help readers envision a better world. Romance in particular has always been a political genre that mirrors and molds societal norms. On a human level, romance novels can show readers what it feels like to thrive with real love, community, and purpose. I can’t think of anything more powerful than who deserves a happily-ever-after, and the many forms that happily-ever-after can take. 

For a brief, shining moment in the late 2010s and early 2020s, traditional publishers invested in the queer, diverse, and groundbreaking books that brought a new generation of readers like me to romance. Authors like Casey McQuiston, Jasmine Guillory, Helen Hoang, and Rachel Reid showed people that romance has more to offer them than straight, white, monogamous love stories ending with a marriage proposal and an epilogue baby. Many of those new readers were inspired to write their own romance novels, myself included. I can trace a straight line between books like One Last Stop and Beach Read to my debut romance But How Are You, Really. 

So are publishers nurturing this new generation of authors? Or did this industry see diversity as a fad that is no longer in style?

The current progressiveness of publishing is hard to quantify, but the general vibes are bad. When marginalized authors are given book deals, their books are often left dead on arrival without robust marketing investment. Authors who don’t receive the front list treatment are left to fend for themselves, promoting their books on their own with graphics they make on Canva and increasingly desperate email newsletters. They battle social media algorithms that are pay-to-play and hostile to posts that have a whiff of progressive or adult content. Both on the mic and off, I’ve heard from some of my favorite authors that their contracts are not getting renewed.

In the wake of the second election of Donald Trump, as well as the disappointing sales of my first book, I launched this podcast. In my grief and rage, I wanted to talk to other romance authors about what gave them the strength to keep writing as the country and our sphere of the publishing industry lurched backward. Because it is undeniable that we are in the middle of a regressive, conservative swing in culture, and romance is not exempt from that. From book bans at the state and federal level that target underrepresented authors, to corporations and algorithms that prioritize straight, white, and cis voices, it is hard for a progressive author to break through and reach their readers. 

Everyone knows that publishing is a broken system that pushes out underrepresented voices and fresh, bold stories. It does a real disservice to all of those new romance readers who want to read these books but aren’t finding them through the usual discovery channels, if they are published at all. 

Helping authors reach their readers quickly became a central goal of Rebel Ever After. I love talking to authors about the themes they explore on the page, how the regressive swing in the United States has impacted their careers, and what they want to see change within the romance genre. We dig deep into what readers adore about their books, from queer self discovery to the logistics of ghost-fucking.

I started this podcast alone using GarageBand and a microphone I stole from an ex. And it has grown into a wonderful community of romance lovers who share my values and hopes for the genre. I am honored but I’m also not surprised! Authors and readers crave deeper conversations about the books we love and the storytelling trends we swim in. We want respect for the romance genre, and together, we are building a community rooted in that shared goal.

That brings me back to my big two-part announcement:

1) Rebel Ever After is moving to Bindery — a home for book clubs and bookish tastemakers. 

2) If we grow a membership on Bindery, we might be able to start a Rebel Ever After publishing imprint. As a community, we could publish the diverse, queer, progressive romance novels of our dreams.

If you’re not familiar with Bindery, it’s a publishing company founded by industry veterans Matt Kaye and Meghan Harvey in 2023. Essentially, they partner with community leaders, or “tastemakers,” in the book world to create digital book clubs and launch small publishing imprints. Bindery saw the genuine love that influencers have for literature, and the power of our online communities to champion underserved voices. 

To put it simply, Bindery’s model gives creators the opportunity to acquire and publish books with their communities in mind, and Bindery manages the production, distribution, marketing, and publicity of those titles. Bindery is a new name in the industry, but it has already published best-selling novels, GoodReads Choice Awards winners, and Indie Next Picks. They distribute to Barnes & Noble and other big players, as well as indie bookstores and libraries around the world. On a recent trip to Europe, I saw Bindery titles for sale in London and Paris. I think Bindery is here to stay, and I am thrilled that they are pioneering a new publishing model that leans into how book discovery has changed. 

Now if you’ve read my work, you may know I am a big skeptic of startups. I am not inclined to trust industry disrupters or predatory tech bros who parachute into industries they don’t understand to eke out a profit. Romance specifically is vulnerable to outsiders wanting to capitalize on its profitability without investing in its community or quality storytelling. That being said, traditional publishing is in need of an overhaul, and no one company or indie press or zine maker or indie author can fix it alone. 

So I watched Bindery’s development over the years with curiosity and some suspicion. I sniffed around for gossip and looked at how they treat their authors. When my friend Nina Haines started her imprint Sapph-Lit, I had a front-row seat as she acquired and then published Kim Narby’s stunning debut novel Saturn Returning. It’s a propulsive and messy novel about friendship and love among queer women, and I am so happy it is out in the world re-traumatizing millennial readers.

Two years later, I can say that Bindery has won me over. I am impressed by the diversity of their authors, most of whom are debuts, some of whom were unagented; the freshness and transparency of their publishing model; and their commitment to fostering community among readers alongside the rise of micro-influencers. 

Most importantly, the books Bindery has published so far are good. Genuinely very good. Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove was one of my favorite books of 2025, and I couldn’t put down their gorgeous re-release of This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers. In May I was the conversation partner for the aforementioned Saturn Returning by Kim Narby. Bindery is publishing wildly talented new and diverse authors who have been overlooked by the Big Five, and we are all better for it.

But you know what their catalogue is lacking so far? A dedicated romance imprint that shares its vision of a more diverse and equitable world of books. That’s why they invited me to become a Bindery tastemaker. If the Rebel Ever After community creates a home on Bindery, that imprint is on the table. 

Up until now I’ve asked folks to support the podcast on Patreon. I basically retrofitted my existing Patreon to include Rebel Ever After content, and frankly it hasn’t worked as a monetization strategy. Because Rebel Ever After is not just a podcast — it’s a community, and this community needs its own space separate from my personal writing. 

What Bindery offers is a platform created for reader communities like ours. With the move to Bindery, listeners can play more of a role in the curation of the show. I also want to host events where members can meet their favorite authors during virtual Q&As and salons. I want to share writing by authors about their creative processes, publishing journeys, historical research, and thoughts on the genre. And I want to springboard diverse, queer, rebellious romance novels into the world — as a podcast, as a community, and hopefully as an imprint.

If you want to see what that looks like, you can go to rebeleverafter.binderybooks.com right now. My hope is that we will build up a big comment culture where we can discuss new episodes and what folks are currently reading. Subscribers will also get access to the Rebel Ever After Discord server, which is my favorite corner of the internet. 

To celebrate launching on Bindery, I’m throwing a big virtual party on August 26th at 8pm eastern. I will be joined by Erin Baldwin, Laura Piper Lee, and Adib Khorram. There will be games. There will be a rowdy group chat. There might even be sneak peaks at upcoming books by your favorite authors. And this event will be FREE for all Rebel Ever After Bindery members. 

So how do you join? You can create an account on Bindery right now for free. You will receive all the essential updates about Rebel Ever After, like new episodes, event announcements, and book recommendations from me. Or you can subscribe starting at $5 a month and become an official Rebel. Rebels will get exclusive content like virtual readings and discussions with REA authors, essays and opinion pieces, maybe some cover reveals and excerpts from new titles. And more to listen to and watch. 

This is a hard time to budget $5/month, and if a Bindery membership isn’t affordable for you right now, that is totally okay. I hope you will sign up as a free member. The main feed of the podcast will also remain free and accessible wherever you like to listen. 

That being said, I need to show Bindery that Rebel Ever After means business as a community in order for us to get our own imprint. If listeners show up and subscribe, we will be able to bring more swoony, progressive romances into the world, on shelves and ereaders, in libraries and brick and mortar bookstores.

That’s why I’m setting a goal of 100 Rebel subscribers by the end of September.

It’s a big goal, but I know we can hit it. Because romance readers love this genre. We are voracious and organized and determined to champion the love stories that we believe in. 

I’ll be honest: becoming a publisher was never a dream of mine because I could not imagine a world where that was possible. 

But the world is changing, and I want to read romance novels that push the boundaries of what a happily-ever-after looks like. From marrying your best friend for health insurance and then falling in love with him, like in Marisa Kanter’s Friends With Benefits. Or opening a cocktail bar with your polycule and queer friends as investors, like in TJ Alexander’s Triple Sec.  

I want to read beloved romance tropes made fresh and new when starring BIPOC characters, like The King’s Pregnancy Proposition by LaQuette and Love Is a War Song by Danica Nava. 

I want to publish authors who reach for joy and justice, escapism and resistance. And I know you do too. So let’s fuckin’ do it.

I need to thank every person who has listened to an episode of the Rebel Ever After podcast. I need to thank every author who has given me their time and wisdom and art. I need to thank everyone who has left a review or recommended the show to a friend or shared a quote on Instagram. I am so grateful for this community of readers and authors and listeners, and I cannot wait to start this next chapter of Rebel Ever After. I hope I’ll see you on Bindery soon.

Thank you for listening, and stay safe out there. 

Hello and happy Monday! I'm writing this post earlier than usual because I have been traveling the last few days, so this is really a roundup of books I read up through last Wednesday. I hope you will still trust me after I have woven this web of lies, lol. If this looks like a lot of books read over a shorter than usual time, it's because I finally finished up a few books that had been taking me weeks to finish due to a slight reading slump. Stupid World Cup and Love Island, taking up all my time! Glad those are over! (I'm not, I need more Brinity in my life!) Books marked with a * were gifted to me.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans* - Yes, everyone is right about this book! It's so lovely! It's heartfelt and funny, and I actually laughed and gasped out loud while listening. If you're an audiobook person, I do recommend that route, as it's done with half a dozen or so narrators, which really helps bring the letters to life. I loved that the main character was older and set in her ways, but not so much that she wasn't willing to listen to others' concerns and opinions. My only knock on it is that the ending veered a little tidy and overly sweet to me.

Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey* - Sadly, this is probably my least favorite Gailey book to date. It's soooo sloowwww. I did like the blending of cults and the supernatural, and it's fine by me if things never get fully explained. But you can't take what's obvious from like page five and try to make it a grand reveal at the end of the book. The main character kept making small discoveries but none of them ever felt like new information, which made it hard for me to want to keep going. Bummer.

Stops Along The Way by Anna Sortino* - Sortino is an author that I think is super underrated. She writes YA featuring disabled characters, mainly teens who are Deaf/hard of hearing. Her books are so great showing what it might be like to live every day with the specific disabilities her characters have. This one is more of that, plus a road trip story and a couple of gaming nerds. The MCs were so sweet. I love watching characters learn to understand each others' quirks so they can better love and take care of each other.

Waiting For The Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters* - This is a collection of short stories featuring Indigenous characters. The settings range from the colonization of this country to recent anti-pipeline protests. Peters delivers a churn of emotions with each story. These characters are losing family and culture, but they are also finding them and building them anew.

This week has mostly been about the fact that Small Town Slasher releases in just over two weeks, which is both exciting and nervewrecking. I hope more preorders come in.

I received another incredible blurb for the book:

“Fast-paced and blood-soaked, this entertaining thrill ride is a must read for slasher fans.”

—Justine Pucella Winans, award-winning author of How to Survive a Slasher

I am incredibly grateful that authors I admire have taken the time to read and support this strange, bloody little book. Every time another person understands what I was trying to do with Small Town Slasher, it makes the long and often ridiculous publishing process feel a little more worthwhile.

A lot of this week was spent preparing for release. I worked on promotional graphics, captions, website updates, event pitches, and all the other pieces involved in ensuring that people are aware of a book's existence when it's released. It's really challenging wearing all of the hats. Thursday is 100 days until Halloween AND the one month anniversary of Twisted Tales to Tell in the Night: Another Halloween Horror Anthology. If you haven't purchase your copy today and please leave a review once you read it. <3

I made some significant changes to my author website, including updates to the homepage, book pages, events section, and contact page. My website has needed attention for a while, but it is difficult to stop working on the books long enough to work on the place where I am supposed to tell people about the books. It is finally doing a much better job of showing who I am, what I write, and what is coming next.

I also started making a more serious attempt at TikTok.

Video content does not come naturally to me, and I am still trying to understand how people find an audio, immediately know what to do with it, film something, edit it, add text, and post it. I did manage to post my first trend-based Small Town Slasher video, though, and I am working on more content for the release.

I Wish I Was a Vampire has been with beta readers and my editor. The beta reading window ended Friday, which means the next stage is my editor and I sorting through the feedback and beginning the final editing process.

The book releases September 15, so there is not much time between finishing Small Town Slasher release work and moving directly into final preparations for my middle grade debut.

I continued reaching out to bookstores and other venues about future events.I would love to do more in-person appearances, but the financial and accessibility side has to make sense. Excitement does not pay for transportation, lodging, or the recovery time that often follows an event.

I have also been exploring programming that goes beyond a standard reading and signing, including conversations about slashers, horror films, nostalgia, disability in horror, and the way movies influence my writing. I want events to feel like something people are genuinely excited to attend, not simply an author sitting behind a table hoping someone stops.

I am preparing for my TBRCon panel, “Problems with the Final Girl Trope.” I am especially interested in discussing final girls who move beyond the narrow version of the trope we have seen so many times, including disabled characters and stories that allow more than one woman to survive.

I also made sure to ask for the panel questions in advance. Virtual events may remove the travel, but that does not mean they are automatically accessible or easy. Knowing what I will be asked gives me time to organize my thoughts and helps me participate without spending the entire panel fighting through anxiety.

Because it is Disability Pride Month, I wrote about what it means to be a disabled author. Disability affects how I write, travel, attend events, meet readers, and run Death by TBR Books. It is also woven into the stories I tell.

I am proud of what I have accomplished, but I do not want to pretend that I accomplish it in the same way or at the same pace as someone who is not dealing with the same limitations. Even virtual events can be challenging. Even good days can require recovery afterward. Both things can be true: I can love this work, and it can be incredibly difficult for me to do it.

When I look at the individual days from this week, it can feel like I spent most of them answering emails, changing website text, fighting with captions, or moving the same tasks from one list to another.

But Small Town Slasher is nearly here.

I Wish I Was a Vampire is moving through beta reading and editing.

My website is substantially better.

I am learning an entirely new platform, preparing for a major panel, pitching events, running a bookstore and press, and continuing to make plans for books that will not be published until next year. My youngest, Sidney, has been keeping me company while I write and edit and work on social media.

BOOKS

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives by Barbara Truelove
The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene
Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead

Currently reading: The Creed Falls Massacres by Jon Cohn and starting Kiss Slay Replay by Rachel Harrison tonight!

SHOWS AND FILMS

I have mostly been relying on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Law & Order: SVU, and my usual late 1990s and early 2000s comfort rewatches while I work.

For movies watched The Bay (the new shark one) and it was pretty bad. I'm watching Obsession for the second time tonight and I've also started my rewatch of all of the Spiderman's. Also Backrooms was a wild one!

That is all for this week. Please share what you have been reading and watching!

xoxo

Spooky Girl

Welcome back to Goosebumps Bookclub! Today we are wrapping up Return of The Mummy and kicking off Phantom of The Auditorium.

Join us tonight as we watch Return of The Mummy on Roku. Feel free to watch anytime this evening and come chat about it in the discord group chat!

How did everyone like Return of The Mummy? I gotta say the two Mummy books in the Goosebumps series have been really good! Exploring ancient tombs and pyramids is really fun and I can't believe we don't see more of it in horror books!

And Now to kick off Phantom of The Auditorium. We will watch it in two weeks! You can access it here.

Brooke's best friend, Zeke, has just been given the lead role in the school play, The Phantom. Zeke's totally into it. He loves dressing up in the grotesque phantom costume. And scaring the other members of the cast. Brooke thinks Zeke's getting a little too into it.

But then really scary things start happening. A message appears on a piece of scenery: "The Phantom Strikes!" A stage light comes crashing down.

Is someone trying to ruin the play?

Or is there really a phantom living under the stage?

Happy Sunday book buddies!

There was a lot of reading and creating going on this week, so let's cut straight to the chase. But before the books I must say The Odyssey is a MUST watch film. It was SO, SO good.

Alright, let's get to the books. I literally just finished The Parisian Heist on audio and have to say it was a fun summer suspense, especially if you're an art history lover. The dueling timelines married perfectly, complimenting each other in terms of tone and content. It's a bit more open door than I like, but it wasn't smutty. 4⭐️s

I finally finished The Secret Society of Librarians earlier this week and boy was it good! I didn't care for one aspect of the ending so I can't quite give it a 5⭐️ rating, but it was an absolutely terrific WWII story. Full of heart and wonderful characters, this is a must read if you've loved Thompson's previous work or love WWII stories. 4.75⭐️

As part of an ongoing research project (more on that soon) I devoured The Giver of Stars on audio. And, spoiler alert, it was just as good as everyone said it would be. Highly recommend it if you love strong female characters and a fierce group of friends. 4.5⭐️

If you follow me on any of my platforms then you've probably seen the video I shared yesterday claiming Cane River a must read historical fiction. It stole my heart, and it's been so hard to keep it under wraps since finishing last week. I cannot say enough good things about this multi-generational family legacy story. If I read over 500 pages in physical format in less than a week, you know it's good. An absolute banger that everyone should read. 5⭐️

I'm about six chapters into my physical copy of A Founding Mother and really am enjoying it. It's my first Dray/Kamoie, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm really enjoying the period appropriate, yet very approachable language. I know the BBFL book club members are really enjoying this one, and I have a feeling I will, too.

I've started my advanced reader copy of The Intrigue, and, no surprise to anyone, I'm already sucked into this tale. It's very cinematic, which is exactly what I was hoping for from SMG. I will read anything she writes.

My plan is to try to tackle both The Intrigue and A Time of Witches on my Kindle this week, and to listen to The Quarter Queen and Should the Waters Take Us on audio. I'm missing home terribly, so spending some time in Louisiana via a few audiobooks will help.

What are you planning to read this week? What books did you read last week? Any you recommend?

ICYMI:

• get the scoop on September historical fiction releases

• A few things I wanted to get off my chest

• If you liked these, you must read this

• Spy my summer TBR (view on TT or view on Insta)

• Should you read The Calamity Club?

• read my Elizabeth & Marilyn review

• check out the short-form May & June reading wrap-up

• hear all about my July TBR

• The full Cane River reading vlog + meet my new series exclusive to Bindery

• 14 Emancipation stories you should read

• another book & film pairing perfect for WWII fiction fans

Hear it Here First:

My hope is to share two Youtube videos this week starting with my May & June reading wrapup and my Top reads of 2026 (so far). I might debut one early on Bindery so watch for updates!

FYI, the BBFL will be reading The Shadow of the Wind in August, so get your library holds ready. Not a member yet? Join here!

Lastly, I've opened my Pango store again and listed a few new things there. I need help finding new homes for books, so I plan to sell any finished copies I don't plan to keep and giveaway ARCs I've read already. Stay tuned for a big ARC giveaway announcement soon!

P.S. I don't talk about it often, but I love Butcher Box. I save so much $$ on high quality meats all delivered straight to my door in recyclable packaging. I'm thrilled to share this special referral link for a FREE signature box (valued at $179) + FREE ground beef for life! It's only good for the first 5 subscribers, so act fast!

Have a great week, friends!

xoxo

c

The Letter Corner

Happy Sunday Book Friends,

Something I have wanted to bring to Ink & Ether since I discovered it, is finally happening.

I believe that books and letters live in the same world. They are both acts of reaching toward a story, toward another person, toward some part of yourself you haven't met yet. So when I discovered the Sunday Letter Project, it felt less like finding something new and more like recognizing something I had always been moving toward.

Ink & Ether will become an official Letter Keeper.

Here is what that means. Beginning in August at Communitea Coffee in Brea, there will be a letter basket. Inside that basket are letters written by real people who are looking for a pen pal — someone to write to, someone to be written back to. You can come in any time the shop is open, choose an intro letter that speaks to you, take a photo of it, and write back. No home addresses are ever exchanged. Everything goes through the Letter Keeper network safely and privately.

Send Locally or Abroad

You can also add your own intro letter to the basket to connect with pen-pals locally. Write a little about yourself, what you love, what you are reading, what you are looking for and leave it in the basket.

To connect with pen-pals abroad, you need to find a shop to send your intro letter to. You can find a shop in the Letter Keeper Network. Be sure to include us as the return address (see below) on the back of your letter and you're all set. Send it off and wait for a response. Easy!

This is community that does not require an algorithm. It is slow and intentional and a little bit magic, which feels very Ink & Ether to me. I hope you like the way that sounds.

To get you started, here is this week's letter writing prompt:

Write to a stranger about the book that changed something in you. Not your favorite book necessarily — the one that left you different than it found you. Tell them what it was, what it did, and whether you have ever recovered.

The basket will live at Communitea Coffee year round, even between pop-ups. So if you can never quite make it to an event, this is another way to find your way into the Ink & Ether community.

Return Address:

Ink & Ether
c/o Communitea Coffee
1015 E Imperial Hwy, Unit C1
Brea, CA 92821

Pages & Pour: Silent Reading Group

Last but not least, come join us for Silent Reading at Communitea Coffee today at 1pm.

This is for the introverts who want to do book club things without the book club socializing. Instead we each can choose our own book, and read at our own pace, in quiet community while enjoying an iced latte.

This may or may not be a ploy to give me more time to get some reading in but who isn't looking for a good excuse to read more. Right?

Hope you can join me today. But if you can't make it, look for the next one on Wednesday August 5th.

With gratitude,

The Keeper

Every Sunday after Link and I finish our walk, I sit down and think about what all of my books had in common. Sometimes there's an obvious theme. Other weeks, I don't notice it until I'm writing this post.

This week, every story was about what happens after life refuses to go according to plan. Not one of these characters ends up where they expected to be. Instead, they're forced to ask a difficult question: Who do I become now?

In The Sea Hides Its Dead, that question is wrapped in eldritch horror. Caroline enters an underwater cave expecting an academic expedition and instead finds herself trapped in a nightmare. But beneath the cults and cosmic horror is a story about breaking free from manipulation and learning to trust your own instincts again. The monsters are terrifying, but Caroline's greatest battle is reclaiming herself.

Brighter Than Before asks the same question in a much quieter way. Claire's marriage ends, the future she imagined disappears overnight, and she has to build a new life from scratch. I loved that the novel doesn't offer one grand, life-changing moment. Instead, it reminds us that healing often looks like a series of small, brave decisions that slowly become a new beginning.

Then there's Yes, Chef, which proves reinvention doesn't have to be dramatic to be meaningful. Jack is grieving both the loss of his mentor and the career he thought he'd have. Poppy is desperate to prove she's more than the image everyone has created for her. Together, they rebuild their confidence, their purpose, and eventually a future neither of them expected.

Not That Kind of Proposal surprised me for a similar reason. Underneath the witty banter and romantic tension is a story about letting go of the life you thought you wanted. Gracie spends so much of the novel believing her happily-ever-after looks one particular way, only to discover that the future she'd been mourning was never actually the one she needed. Sometimes the best endings are the ones we couldn't have imagined.

The only book that didn't fully land for me was The Last to Drown, but even it explored this same idea. Kaia joins the rafting trip hoping it will help her process profound loss. While the mystery didn't surprise me the way I'd hoped, I appreciated that the emotional journey centered on moving forward after tragedy rather than remaining defined by it.

I think that's why this week's reading resonated with me.

It's easy to think of books as escapes, but the stories that stay with me rarely encourage us to run away from our lives. Instead, they remind us that none of us get the life we planned.

• Careers change.

• Relationships end.

• Dreams evolve.

• The people we thought we'd become aren't always the people we're meant to be.

Maybe that's why I keep coming back to stories like these. Whether they're filled with sea monsters, wedding cakes, restaurant kitchens, or whitewater rapids, they all whisper the same truth: Starting over isn't failure.

The sea wall has broken during one of the worst hurricanes in known history, destroying New York City and the northeastern coast. Climate change ravages the world with power outages, water shortages, and the slow erosion of society inland.

So mudlarks are born.

People who can enter the ravaged city and scavenge for things the government needs that live under the brackish water of the city. Neko and Iggy, two seasoned mudlarks with their own license and crew, take their apprentices Harriet and Jules on a job that's a little legal a little illegal that changes everything.

Neko finds a master CD of her vanished mother's old band The Nightjars. This request from a mysterious client makes her ask something that's plagued her for the last twenty years: is Jenny Sweet still alive somehow?

I finished Mudlark and had dreams about it. Moving, emotional, sometimes a little too busy, but man it stuck to me so badly. This wasn't about the apocalypse or survival or high-octane action. This was about the struggle of mothers and daughters, the meaning of motherhood, love and purpose and how they don't always intersect, and what it means to let go.

Heavy on the musical themes, a lot of that is lost on me. I am not a big music person, but it didn't detract from the meaning of the story at all. I got to watch the present-day and past-day perspectives of Jenny and her interactions with her daughter, Neko, as the girl grows up and as her relationship with Neko's father - Max - deteriorates. We see Jenny's perspective on herself and interactions with Neko, then present-day Neko's interpretation of those moments.

Neko idealizes her father, then slowly becomes disillusioned with him. She also repeats her mother's patterns in a different, subtler way despite not having her around after the age of 13 when the hurricane hit. She carries immense guilt with her over her mother's disappearance, a childhood acting-out gone awry meant her mother was in their apartment. Right where the blast zone of the breaking sea walls were.

We follow Neko's life and her complicated relationship with the ghost of her mother and her own guilt. When she gets the chance to uncover the mystery of Jenny Sweet and kindles the hope she might be alive, she jumps on the opportunity and becomes singular to it. Iggy, her partner of twenty years, struggles to understand or reconcile this dogged pursuit of a mother who's been out of her life more than in it and it causes them to expose their feelings about their relationship, each other, the futures they want, and how a relationship can slowly fray over time no matter how strong.

As someone with a strained relationship with her mother because I felt alien to her my whole life, this hit so many chords for me (pun!). I also watched my dad descend into the cruel abyss of dementia until I lost him and have had many relationships face the question of whether or not the futures we want are irreconcilable. I was very touched by a lot of themes in this book and a lot of parts it explored. It broke my heart so badly, but I also welcomed it because it was about the tragedy of change and acceptance. There's a certain kind of complexity to being a misunderstood daughter with a mother who can't comprehend you, but likewise it changes as you grow and understand the truth: your parents are, in the end, just people. Specht captures that layered experience from both angles - the mother doing her best and the daughter who feels like she's the problem.

I loved watching Neko piece together her mother and learn how to lay down the specter of her. She had unknowingly shaped her life around this understanding of Jenny and the weight of her sense of responsibility for everything that happened. her subtle mirror to her mother and Max's relationship, her unknowing reticence at motherhood that echoed Jenny's, her desire to help without grand dreams of heroism... there are parts of our parents that make their ways into ourselves whether we want it or not. We become echoes of them - less strong and faded, but the same song. Neko and Jenny shared so much across time that they never got the chance to see in one another, but I got to see it as the reader. It was so bittersweet and I just wanted to yell at Neko that Jenny loves her and tell Jenny she's a good mom.

The ending, I felt, gutted a part of me. So much upheaval and change that I was dizzy about it. Things I thought would be immutable truths of human connection broke and reforged, changing the entire trajectory of lives beyond just Neko and Iggy. But that's always how it works, right? We stagnate and get comfortable for a while until something in us chafes for change as we grow without noticing. We become archons of change and growth and it means we need a bigger cage or a wider enclosure. Neko and Iggy show us how there are ways we change that are too much to hold onto - perpendicular winds that take us in all sorts of directions where we can't follow each other not matter how hard we try.

Mudlark was bitter and warm and hopeful and lost at the same time. In the vein of Station Eleven or Shark Heart, Specht takes an experiment with a setting and uses it to share an intimate story of mothers and daughters and how to forgive ourselves. I loved this a lot more than I expected to and I hope, when it releases on the 21st, you do the same.

Welcome to your sneak peek of this month's Early Warning System!

Every month, The Page Ladies Book Club rounds up the most anticipated upcoming releases so you can discover exciting new books before they hit the shelves. Whether you're a fan of romantasy, fantasy, thrillers, mystery, horror, romance, or literary fiction, August is packed with books worth adding to your TBR.

👀 Sneak Peek

Here's just a taste of what's featured in this month's guide:

• ✨ Eyes of Kings by Chloe Gong

• 🩸 A Bargain So Bloody by Vasilisa Drake

• 🔮 Dreamland by Olivie Blake

• 👑 Steelborn by Taylor J. Larue

• 🖤 Heart of Glass by Jennifer Hillier

• 👻 The Unknown by Riley Sager

...plus dozens more exciting releases coming throughout August!

🔓 Unlock the Full Guide with The First Editions

Upgrade your membership to access the complete August 2026 Early Warning System Pre-Order Guide, including:

• 📚 Every major August release organized by publication date

• 🏷️ Genre tags to help you find your next read

• ✨ Deluxe and collector's edition highlights

• ❤️ Our most anticipated picks of the month

• 📅 A convenient, easy-to-browse guide designed to keep you ahead of every new release

As a The First Editions member, you'll also receive exclusive book club resources, printable reading guides, member-only content, and our complete monthly Early Warning System to help you stay one step ahead of your ever-growing TBR.

❓️Which August 2026 release are you pre-ordering first or looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments!👇

Thank you for being part of our community. We can't wait to share even more great books with you!

Happy reading! 📚✨

If you're already planning your late summer reading list, you've come to the right place! Welcome to The Page Ladies Book Club Early Warning System, your monthly guide to the most anticipated August 2026 book releases.

Whether you're looking for the next viral romantasy, an edge-of-your-seat thriller, a cozy romance, literary fiction, horror, mystery, or fantasy, we've rounded up the books readers should have on their radar before publication day.

📚 Where to Pre-Order

Support independent bookstores by shopping our curated Bookshop.org list:

👉 Bookshop.org August Pre-Order List:
https://bookshop.org/lists/august-pre-order-list

Prefer Amazon?

👉 Shop Our Amazon August Pre-Order Idea List:
https://amzn.to/4fvQilW

Simply tap either link to browse and pre-order your favorites.

🌟 August 4, 2026 Releases

💕 Romance, Romcom & Contemporary Fiction

• The Project by Annie Lord (Romcom / Fiction)

• Done and Dusted (Deluxe Edition) by Lyla Sage (Contemporary Romance)

• The Roman Holiday Rule by Andra Loy (Romcom / Magical Realism)

• Autumn at the Cat Cafe by Kathleen Fuller (Cozy Romance)

🐉 Fantasy & Romantasy

• The Iron Hex by Victoria S. Walsh (Fantasy Romance)

• Steelborn (Deluxe Limited Edition) by Taylor J. Larue

• Eyes of Kings by Chloe Gong

• A Bargain So Bloody (Deluxe Limited Edition) by Vasilisa Drake

• To Dance with Death by Brittney Arena

• Sunsplitter by S.A. MacLean

🔎 Mystery & Thriller

• Crescendo by Robert J. Harris

• A Stranger in Corfu by Alex Preston

• The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian

• The Unknown (Deluxe Edition) by Riley Sager

📖 Literary & Contemporary Fiction

• The Wild Beneath by Kelly Anderson

• Etna by Paul Yoon

• Appraisals by Claire Boyles

• A Dog in Georgia by Lauren Grodstein

• Breathing Under Water by Jacqueline Friedland

• Mona Acts Out by Mischa Berlinski

• Kitten by Stacey Yu

• Everything That Is Beautiful by Louise Nealon

👻 Horror

• Slash or Pass by Thalia Sanchez

• Queen Mab by Emily McBride

✨ Deluxe Editions Worth Collecting

Collectors won't want to miss:

• Steelborn

• A Bargain So Bloody

• Done and Dusted

• The Unknown

featuring sprayed or stenciled edges, illustrated endpapers, foil stamping, exclusive artwork, and other beautiful collector details.

🌟 August 10 Release

• Between Sky and Sea (Black Heart Tribunal #1) by Katy Tearle (Fantasy / Paranormal Romance)

🌟 August 11 Releases

Fantasy & Romantasy

• Spellfire by Agatha Willow

• The Magic We Made by Meg Cabot

• These Vile Hearts by Melody Robinette

• Splintered Kingdom by Gretchen Powell Fox

Mystery, Suspense & Thriller

• Brimstone Hollow

• Mia

• Freight

• Stay Buried

• Saint Delilah

• Dreamland (Deluxe Edition)

Fiction

• Bury Your Dead

• Hocus Pocus

• Bad Influence

• A Hard Habit to Break

🌟 August 18 Releases

Thrillers

• What They Did

• That Night

• The Secret Dinner

Horror

• The Sleeping Sisters

• The Minimalist

• These Walls Remember

Fantasy & Sci-Fi

• Siren Says

• Once Written in Gilded Blood (Deluxe Edition)

• The Two of Us at the End of the World

Romance

• Fireworks

🌟 August 24 Release

• A Kingdom of Magic and Rain by V.I. Davis (High Fantasy Romance)

🌟 August 25 Releases

Fantasy & Romantasy

• Heir of Prophecy

• A Curse of Shadows and Ice

Mystery & Thriller

• Heart of Glass

• The Camino

• Find Me

• They Say a Girl Died Here

Horror

• The Devil Knows Her Name

• The Sunken, the Adored

Romance

• The Cozy Nook Bookshop

📖 August 2026 Genre Highlights

❤️ Romantasy

August is packed with magical romances featuring vampires, witches, monsters, kingdoms, fairy tale retellings, arranged marriages, and enemies-to-lovers stories.

🔥 Thriller & Suspense

Psychological thrillers, legal thrillers, espionage, noir mysteries, survival stories, and supernatural suspense dominate this month's lineup.

👻 Horror

From Southern Gothic and folk horror to Lovecraftian nightmares and psychological terror, horror fans have plenty to look forward to.

📚 Literary Fiction

Readers looking for emotional family dramas, historical fiction, and contemporary literary novels will also find an impressive selection.

⭐ Most Anticipated August 2026 Books

Some of the biggest releases we're watching include:

• Eyes of Kings by Chloe Gong

• Dreamland by Olivie Blake

• The Unknown by Riley Sager

• Done and Dusted Deluxe Edition by Lyla Sage

• Heart of Glass by Jennifer Hillier

• The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian

• Heir of Prophecy by Analeigh Sbrana

• The Devil Knows Her Name by C.N. Vair

• A Bargain So Bloody by Vasilisa Drake

• Steelborn by Taylor J. Larue

📚 Shop the Complete August 2026 Pre-Order Guide

Ready to fill your TBR?

✨ Support independent bookstores by shopping our Bookshop.org list:

https://bookshop.org/lists/august-pre-order-list

🛒 Or browse our Amazon Storefront August Pre-Order List:

https://amzn.to/4fvQilW

Just tap the links above to grab your most anticipated August releases before they hit shelves!

💛 Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through them, The Page Ladies Book Club may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Your support helps us continue to provide free books to our young readers book clubs and the content we share! Thank you for supporting our community!

Join The Page Ladies Book Club

Every month our Early Warning System rounds up the biggest upcoming releases across fantasy, romance, mystery, thrillers, horror, literary fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, cozy reads, and more so you'll never miss a book worth adding to your TBR.

Which August 2026 release are you pre-ordering first? Let us know in the comments!

"All that purple? The Heater? It only blooms twice a year. You just happen to be here at the right time, but in a few months all this purple will turn brown. This place ... it wont look like this forever. But maybe that's what makes this special, what gives it meaning. If we all went on forever, if this went on forever, would we even be able to understand how beautiful this is?"

GENRE: Romance
RATING: 5/5
FORMAT: eBook ARC
Tropes: Scottish Highland Roadtrip, Poet/Bagpiper MMC, Family Rekindling, Forced Proximity

Review:
This is my first book by Naina Kumar and I fell in love with her writing and the whole book! I really loved following along with Neelu and Jacob in this book, going on a road trip with them in the highlands and spending time in Aberdeen too. OH AND AN MMC who is a bagpiper AND a poet who wears glasses? What else could we want🤭

We get to see them come together, through Neelu's POV in this book. We also get to learn about Neelu and her dad's relationship plus we get to understand more about Jacob and his grief. I did love how Grief was addressed here as a theme and how we got to dive into it. I also really love how we get to see both characters address their vulnerabilities in a single POV book and how they help each other through their strengths.

Just a Highland Fling focuses on finding love between two people while also just finding your home in your person. It's about rekindling your relationship with your loved ones and finding your chosen family. It truly was a wholesome book and the only thing I could ask for (other than for more about Neelu & Jacob) is that I wish we could have learned more about Neelu and her father. We definitely get to see and understand some of what happened but it was something that I wanted to dive deeper into.

Seriously though, this book was SO fun to read and so wholesome! I can't wait to read more by Naina Kumar and go back to read her two other books.

I was provided a free advance reader copy and I’m sharing my honest thoughts.

The Library is Looking So Fine Tonight - Link Roundup

Hello my loves! It's been a hot second, but I'm back with a link roundup for my library reveal! I'll add some pictures alongside the links (some of which are affiliate - your girl has to eat, after all 😊)

First:
I'm reading: an arc Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst - I've read two chapters over the past few weeks because my reading slows SO MUCH when I'm working 65+ hour weeks at the ranch. BUT I'm loving it!
On the sound system: Rose Betts' "You Never Looked Back"
What I'm dreaming of: A hot fudge sundae with cashews and a g&t

Okay! Here's a link roundup with any discounts or freebies laid out for you (I don't gatekeep)

💛 This is the newest addition to my library, a burnt orange barrel chair graciously sent to me by Wayfair for their Tried & True program: https://creatorlink.shop/3RksoAI

💛The shelves are the Billy shelves from Ikea, and the color I used to paint them is Sherwin Williams Fairfax Brown * However I would not suggest painting the white shelves from Ikea - they now add a paint-resistant coating that even with sanding/ planing I could not get the paint to adhere properly!

💛The Switchcovers and Outlet covers I got from Etsy, from a seller (StillwaterMNCNC) who graciously gave me 15% off (and they're PERFECT)

💛 The paint is Storms in Paris in Matte Ceramic Interior from Tonester Paints

💛 The star mirrors are from Amazon and at time of purchase were $9.99! They have not budged from the first day I stuck them to the ceiling in a very specific pattern 🤩

Are there any other links you'd like? Let me know in the comments and I'll get them for you! Happy Saturday 💛💛

Hello darling rebels. I just got back from two weeks in the UK and Paris, and I am still speaking in bastardized French like that "girl who makes her vacation her entire personality" meme genre. Bonjour merci tres bien!!

I saved two books to read on my trip because they are destination romances: The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn and In Every Possible Way by Alicia Thompson. Kate and Alicia are gorgeous, meticulous writers who fold prose like laminated buttery croissants. Their 2026 releases are career highlights that show off their dedication to craft, to knee-weakening chemistry, and to subtle progressive edge.

In Every Possible Way by Alicia Thompson

My travels took me to the United Kingdom first, where I visited family in West Sussex. Ireland is distinctly not the UK, but I was able to pretend I was in Dublin with the help of Alicia Thompson's new novel and many, many Irish pubs.

I'm a big fan of Alicia's work. Her romances are full of heart, cleverness and aching sexual tension. In Every Possible Way is more tender and magical than her other titles — it's a multi-day, wandering adventure through Ireland following a birthday wish gone wrong. The conversations between Jess and Eamonn channel the soul-baring unlikeliness of the Before trilogy. I recommend it for folks who enjoy a soft, thoughtful dose of magical realism and folklore in their contemporary fiction.

The book is told from the first person POV of Jess, who wakes up in a field in Ireland without a phone, passport, or any clue how she got there from a parking lot in Florida. Luckily for her, she is adopted by a calm and generous love interest, car mechanic Eamonn. Our hero has been alone for a long time, still processing the death of his mother during his incarceration for car theft and arson. This is the first time I've read a contemporary romance about a formerly incarcerated hero where his criminality wasn't eroticized or trope-ified; Thompson writes about Eamonn's past with care and intention.

In Every Possible Way is also one of very few contemporary romance novels published post-Dobbs that discusses abortion. Jess shares her story of terminating a pregnancy during college with Eamonn as they get to know each other. It is not a traumatic memory, and she talks about it as a sliding-doors moment where her life could have been completely different. It is a good example of abortion-positive storytelling that avoids shame or stereotype.

I am interviewing Thompson soon for Rebel Ever After and I look forward to asking her how she approached including abortion as a small part of Jess's backstory. If you have any questions for her about In Every Possible Way, or her other romance novels Love in the Time of Serial Killers, With Love, from Cold World, The Art of Catching Feelings, and Never Been Shipped, drop them in the comments.

The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn

I'd only read one book by Kate Clayborn before now: her 2019 romance Love Lettering. It's a beautiful story about a hand-lettering artist who loves old signs that other people fail to notice in New York City. Clayborn has a gift for enriching familiar settings with fresh texture and life. Her newest romance, The Paris Match, fully embodies that strength.

Up until now I've avoided reading romances set in Paris because, to be honest, it always felt like an on-the-nose cliché to me. The American idea of Paris has been commodified and packaged, from Eiffel tower pajama sets to Carrie Bradshaw weeping on the Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge. Don't get me started on Emily In Paris.

But! Thanks to my public school education (shoutout Madame Thomas, you scared the bejesus out of me), I speak passable French, at least enough to ask if I can get some more milk in my coffee. I always wanted to visit Paris, less for the Paris! of it all, more because France is the only non-English speaking country I had a shot at navigating.

After a week in the UK, I took the Eurostar from London directly to Paris, where I met up with my boyfriend. The Paris Match was the perfect read to prepare me for my first experience of the city. With deep affection, Clayborn illustrates the uninterrupted beauty, history, and joy of Paris.

Our heroine Layla flies in for her former sister-in-law's wedding two years after her own divorce. She has been dreading the trip, and her unease increases when the bride has second thoughts. Layla is forced to work with the best man, Griffin, to get the wedding back on track, but Griffin wants to be there even less than she does. He lives with intense nerve damage and trauma from a tragic house fire, and his constant physical pain is misread by those around him as rude unkindness. Layla and Griffin connect over their outsider status and explore Paris on their own terms, getting to know one another at street cafes and in art museums, over delicious food and delicate perfume.

As for its themes, content warning for a backstory spoiler! We learn over the course of the novel that a key reason Layla's first marriage ended is that she never wanted children, and her ex-husband changed his mind about parenthood. After years of subtle pressure to give in to his desire to have kids, Layla opted for divorce (good for you, girl). Layla does not regret her decision, but she is still hurt by the lack of respect shown for her deeply held conviction not to become a mother.

Heroines who do not want children are slowly becoming more common in contemporary romance, but it is rare for their choice to be explored in depth. The Paris Match affirms Layla's desire to remain childfree while depicting the impact it has on relationships and how society treats her. As a woman in my thirties who does not want children, I saw myself in Layla and her breakup with Jamie, as well as her anxiety that Griffin will be disappointed in her if they build a life together without becoming parents.

Clayborn weaves interior reflection with exterior beauty to create a lush reading experience. The Paris Match is almost as good as visiting Paris. Considering the city's current heatwave, I might recommend the book over the city itself.