For the Love of Reading, August 2026

I read 7 books in the month of August. Here are my reviews.

Murder at the Toy Soldier by Maddie Day
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Murder at the Toy Soldier is a gentle, traditional cozy mystery that will likely appeal to readers looking for a light, wholesome read with an amateur sleuth and a close-knit community.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right fit for me, despite having enjoyed the series up until now. I found the main character so utterly wholesome and polite that she never quite felt a real person, and I wanted more depth and nuance in both the characterization and the dialogue. The writing style is straightforward and accessible, but with nothing challenging my mind it felt rather boring.

There were also a few details that pulled me out of the story. One in particular was a scene wher they reference discounted happy hour drinks, despite the novel being set on Cape Cod, where Massachusetts law prohibits traditional happy hour drink specials. A small inaccuracy like that tends to put me off.

Readers who enjoy very clean, comforting mysteries may have a different experience, but I personally prefer cozies with more layered characters, more natural dialogue, and a stronger sense of place.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Switzy by Emma Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Switzy is an immersive, stream-of-consciousness novel that follows an aging man with dementia who has decided to end his own life before the disease takes away what remains of his identity. As his thoughts drift between the present and the past, he reflects on his family, friendships, business dealings, regrets, and the countless choices that shaped his life. Through those reflections, he gradually comes to understand what truly mattered and what ultimately didn’t.

The narrative isn’t linear and mimics the way memory itself works through fragmented, circular, and unpredictable situations and dialogue. I appreciated that Cline didn’t smooth over the confusion, repetition, and uncertainty that define her narrator’s experience. The result is remarkably absorbing. Rather than simply telling us what dementia looks like from the outside, she offers what feels like a deeply empathetic glimpse of what it might feel like from the inside.

This isn’t a plot-driven novel. It’s a meditation on memory, identity, mortality, and the stories we tell ourselves about our lives and the quiet realization that the things we spend so much time worrying about often aren’t the things that matter most.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed The Pirate Queen, although I do think it could have been a little shorter. Ariel Lawhon tells Grace O’Malley’s story through three alternating stages of her life: maiden, mother, and matriarch and, while I appreciated why she made that choice, it sometimes made the story harder to follow. Just when a particular section would be getting interesting it would end and I’d find myself trying to remember the plot points of another time in O’Malley’s life. The setting is vivid and wild. Sixteenth-century Ireland is full of of adventure, political intrigue, sea battles, and swashbuckling. I do think the novel really shines in its final third. By then, the three timelines have converged emotionally, even if they never completely meet chronologically, and the story becomes much more compelling. I was completely invested in Grace’s journey and the choices she made to protect her family, her people, and her legacy. And the final chapter is really moving as she reflects on the live she’s lived. While I don’t think it’s quite as tight or compelling as The Frozen River, it’s still a very good historical novel and one I’d recommend to readers who enjoy strong women, fascinating history, and stories that blur the line between fact and legend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a solid return to Alice Hoffman’s world of witches where she blends magic into everyday life in a really meaningful way. The story is set primarily in Cambridge in the 1950s, with threads reaching back to the same area in the 1600s. The academic setting is rich and believable, and Hoffman weaves real history into the story with recognizable names like the Mathers appearing alongside her fictional characters. The result is a world that feels grounded in New England history while still leaving plenty of room for magic. The pacing is strong, the plot kept me interested, and I especially enjoyed the connections between the women of the past and those in the more modern storyline.

If you’re an Alice Hoffman fan, this will feel pretty familiar. Witches, generations of women, New England history, love, loss, persecution, and the ways women protect one another are all territory she has explored before. I wouldn’t call The Witches of Cambridge her most original novel, but there’s something comforting about a writer who returns to themes she knows so well and finding new characters and stories within them.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Unknown by Riley Sager
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Unknown by Riley Sager is a creepy, atmospheric thriller set on an isolated Vermont island, where events from the island’s past appear to be repeating themselves exactly one hundred years later.

Sager makes great use of the setting. The island feels appropriately cut off and claustrophobic, with its history always lurking just beneath the surface of what’s happening in the present. The connection between the two time periods adds another layer to the mystery and kept me wondering how much of what was happening could really be explained.

I also liked that the cast is made up almost entirely of women, with the notable exception of one particularly misogynistic male producer. The relationships among the women, and the different ways they respond to what’s happening around them, are a big part of what keeps the story interesting.

The eventual twist and big reveal require a bit of a leap, and I’m not sure the ending ties everything together as neatly or convincingly as it could have. But by that point, I’d enjoyed the ride enough that it didn’t ruin the book for me.

This is a good, creepy read with a terrific setting and an intriguing premise. It may not completely stick the landing, but it’s still one I’d recommend to readers who enjoy atmospheric thrillers, historical mysteries, and stories where the past refuses to stay in the past,

Judge Stone by Viola Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Judge Stone by Viola Davis and James Patterson is not the kind of book I would normally pick up, which made it an especially pleasant surprise. I absolutely loved it. It’s fast-paced, compelling, and exactly the kind of book that makes for a great vacation read.

The real strength of the book, though, is Judge Stone herself. She is smart, fair, and genuinely committed to approaching the cases before her without bias. She is also willing to take risks and stand up for the things she believes are right, even when doing so comes at a personal cost. By the end of the book, she felt like someone I wished I could know in real life.

There’s also plenty of moral ambiguity here. One of the central issues involves a doctor-assisted abortion in a state where abortion is now illegal, giving the story a definite ripped-from-the-headlines quality. The questions raised aren’t simple ones, and the book doesn’t shy away from the complicated intersection of law, morality, politics, and individual circumstances.

This was such an enjoyable read and a reminder that sometimes it pays to venture outside your usual reading habits. I would happily read another book featuring Judge Stone, and I really hope Davis and Patterson have plans to turn this into a series. She’s a character I’m not ready to leave behind.

Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Emily St. John Mandel’s Exit Party is the kind of book that leaves you sitting with it for a while after you’ve finished, trying to decide exactly what just happened. Mandel plays with parallel worlds, memory, art, identity, and the idea of all the different lives we might have lived if things had gone just slightly differently. There are connections and echoes throughout the novel, some of which I’m still trying to untangle, and I’m fairly certain there are things I missed entirely.

At some point, though, I stopped trying to keep every piece of the puzzle perfectly organized in my head and let the story take me where it was going. And I think that’s the way to read this book.

There’s also a dystopian element here that I found particularly unsettling. Mandel imagines a future shaped by an increasingly authoritarian and fractured country, and what makes it frightening is how little of it feels far-fetched. She doesn’t create some wildly unrecognizable dystopia. Instead, she takes things that already feel possible and follows them a few steps farther down the road. That underlying sense of “this could happen” gives the novel a tension that goes well beyond its more speculative elements.

What Mandel does so well is ground all of these big, strange ideas in ordinary human lives. Beneath the shifting realities and questions about what is real, this is still a story about choices, relationships, loss, and the paths not taken.

Did I completely understand everything that happened in Exit Party? I did not. But I’m still thinking about (and disturbed by) it, and I suspect I will be for quite a while.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There are quite a few ARCs on this list but most have been published already or will be published very soon. As always, I hope you found something here to add to your own TBR.