Best of August

Byyyyeeeee August! Hello 'Ber months!

Here are our faves for last month.

Best Book of the Month:

Blodeuedd - A Trade of Blood by

"Best book goes to Trade of Blood!!"

Carole -  The Score by Elle Kennedy

"A couple goodies, but this was the best."

Best Movie of the Month:

Carole -  Pressure (2026)

"Surprisingly really, really good."

Blodeuedd - Nadda this month

"I remember no movies..."

Best TV show of the Month:

Blodeuedd - The Marlow Murder Club (S1 -2) & Patience (S1-2)

"Nothing like British murders in summer. I also watched The Boroughs :)" 

Carole - A.P. Bio (S1-4)

"Pleasantly surprised I liked this so much! It was fun."

Best Cover of the Month:

Blodeuedd's pick

Carole's pick

Book Review: A Lady of Large Fortune by Tiffany Thomas

Author: Tiffany Thomas

Title: A Lady of Large Fortune

Genre: Historical Romance, What If, Variation

Format: Ebook

Pages: 498

Published: July 22, 2026

Where I got It: Kindle Unlimited

Summary: 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman of large fortune may fall in love at her leisure and choose her own fate.

Elizabeth Bennet has spent years quietly holding her family together. With Longbourn entailed away and her father content to leave its management in her hands, Elizabeth has learned to be practical, capable, and useful. Then a flood in London takes the lives of her aunt and uncle Gardiner, leaving three young children in need of protection—and Elizabeth with more responsibility than ever.

But beneath the damaged house in Gracechurch Street lies a secret no one could have imagined: a Roman treasure, hidden for centuries, that changes the course of her life—in more ways than one.

Rewarded by the Crown for her discovery, Elizabeth becomes exactly what society values most: a lady of large fortune. But she chooses to keeps her good fortune a secret from everyone, determined to keep her family safe from gossip, greed, and imprudent schemes.

Retired militia colonel Fitzwilliam Darcy knows too well what a fortune can cost. His father’s extravagance left Pemberley wounded, his sister vulnerable, and Darcy sacrifices everything, including his hopes for a love match, to prudence and rebuilding. Yet when he comes to Hertfordshire, he does not expect to meet again the muddy, courageous young woman who once rose from a hidden cellar with a Roman coin in her hand.

But wealth does not solve every difficulty, and the past has a way of reaching for what it was never owed. Darcy and Elizabeth must work together to restore their happiness and protect the future of those they love.

Review:

I was itching for some P&P variations, and I stumbled upon this in Kindle Unlimited, so why not? 

Here we are with Darcy and Elizabeth. Tale as old as time, but a little different. What if Darcy's father was a spendthrift who ran Pemberley to the ground and left it to Darcy to fix? What if Elizabeth found a way to have riches and save her family? 

I had fun with this one! It was pretty sad at some points. Poor Darcy...Poor Lizzie.

There was a LOT of changes to the story, but it was still the same at its core. I enjoyed watching our characters interact and find their ends. Some happy, some not. Especially Wickham. His ending was def well-deserved. 

It was weird not seeing more of the Gardiner children, minus a cameo in London and then quickly mentioned in the epilogue. This was a big deal and a huge change in the story, but we didn't really get to see them. 

But yes, I enjoyed the changes made. They were refreshing and new. Super sad, though. I wish we would've seen more of the aftermath of the Gardiner children having to move in with them. Maybe a scene or two with Elizabeth with the kiddos. But the ending was nice and fitting. I liked this overall! It was good. 4 stars from me. 

Blodeuedd's Monday Review: A Match Made at Matlock

By: Jan Ashton, Julie Cooper, Amy D'Orazio, Jessie Lewis

Narrated by: Stevie Zimmerman

Series: The Engaged to Mr Darcy Series

Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins

Release date: 04-01-22

Publisher: Quills & Quartos Publishing

Pride and prejudice variation/audible

I enjoyed this one, but at the same time it shows that it is written by many authors and I would have preferred a Darcy Lizzy book.

Now it is about a houseparty and there are so many POVS. Viscount Saye and his Lillian that he is trying to catch, Lizzy and Darcy obvi who are engaged but her father is dragging his feet letting them marry and I wanted more of them!

Then there is there cousin Georgette with her own love troubles, her friend Sarah who also would like to find romance at this party.

So lots of romances going on.

Good narration, enjoyable, but obvi hey I want more Lizzy

Viscount Saye, eldest cousin of Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley, is startled one wintry day by the news that his beloved, Lillian Goddard, is to become engaged to another. Unwilling to lose her, he quickly plans a party at his ancestral estate to woo her away from her suitor. Twenty ladies and gentlemen respond to his invitation, eager for a fortnight of revelry in Saye’s inimitable style.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, at last engaged to his beloved Elizabeth Bennet, finds himself stymied by her father. Mr Bennet has consented to the engagement but forces them to endure a prolonged courtship, with too much time spent apart. Getting Elizabeth to the house party is only the first in a series of frustrations and challenges that confront them. Will their love and attachment prevail?

Georgette Hawkridge has all the finest qualities of a lady of fashion. Alas, she has fallen in love with a decidedly unfashionable man, an affection they have kept well-concealed. Two weeks is a long time to hide, however, and the truth of what they mean to one another—and the man her suitor really is—must eventually emerge.

Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam attends his brother’s party with no thought for anything but time among friends; after all, he is too poor to marry, an idea that rankles, particularly when he must watch love bloom around him. Then he meets Sarah Bentley, a pretty, wealthy girl with a predilection for admiring the unlovable, but will he know his heart before it’s too late?

Amid masques and marvels, love will abound; attachments will be formed, tried, and tested, and one couple’s engagement will come to an end. For all who heed the summons, it will be an unforgettable fortnight at Matlock!

Book Review: Luster by Raven Leilani

Author: Raven Leilani

Title: Luster

Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Romance

Format: Paperback

Pages: 240

Published: August 4, 2020

Where I got It: My shelf (gift)

Summary: 

Luster sees a young Black woman fall into art and someone else's open marriage. Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties--sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She's also, secretly, haltingly, figuring her way into life as an artist. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage--with rules. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren't hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and falling into Eric's family life, his home. She becomes a hesitant friend to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie is the only Black woman who young Akila knows.Razor-sharp, darkly comic, sexually charged, socially disruptive, Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life in a tumultuous era. It is also a haunting, aching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.

Review:

I was given this book as a gift, but I have been curious about it. There was a lot of interest when this first came out a few years ago. 

Here, we follow Edie as she tries to make sense of her life. She starts up an affair with a man whose wife is okay with an open marriage...but with strict rules. Edie soon finds herself unemployed and falling face-first into her lover's family life and home. 

I feel like people love or are meh about this book. I don't know where I fully sit on this book. 

There were some things I liked and some things I didn't. 

My biggest issue was the writing style. It felt so...choppy. It didn't flow right and kept taking me out of the story. It felt so jarring! I did like the observations and the inner monologue parts, but the story itself felt so choppy and disjointed. 

I also can't buy this as a romance. It felt so awkward, and I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop at any minute. This really should just be a...not chick lit but something else. I'm blanking on a good genre to shove this in. 

Honestly, I liked reading about Edie and Rebecca the most. I enjoyed seeing that relationship form and morph. I also adored little Akila! 

And the ending....left me feeling nothing. It just ended. 

But yes...some good, but a lot of bad. I'll give this 3 stars. Maybe the audio would've been a hair better!