July 2025 Book Reviews
July is historically a very busy month for me—this July doubly so. In between my regular work responsibilities going into overtime, I am currently planning a flying trip to the UK at the end of August (in addition to my usual slower-paced end-of-year trip). More on that later.
For now, just know that if you ever want to see more reviews than I post here in my featured blog posts, I do have a GoodReads account. I will always do my best to go back and cover any books that I don't have read and reviewed in time for a certain month's feature. Once I'm back in slow season, you'll almost certainly see a lot of delayed summer reads pop up.
For now, though, peruse what I've got below. And thanks as always to the publishers and authors who send their work my way!
Bookish Candle: Frostbeard's July Candle of the Month is a real winner. Game Master's Guide has fantasy-inspired notes of mead and leather. I really love the honey smell of this one, and I definitely hope they go into more TTRPG-inspired candles in future. Use my link to get 20% off your purchase of this and other book lovers' candles!
Tea Pairing: For something that's good hot or iced, the Pride and Prejudice-inspired Picnic at Pemberley is a favorite. It's a rose and jasmine green tea that's a little lighter than my usual strong black teas, but the floral notes make it an excellent pairing for this month's fantasy and dark academia-tinged selections. Check out Chapters' full catalogue of bookish teas, and use my code KARA15 for 15% off your order!
A MASTERY OF MONSTERS
by Liselle Sambury
Available July 29
August Black's college plans changed after her mother disappears. But her time working at the local Tim Horton's is cut short when her brother Jules disappears, leaving only a cryptic note behind. Soon, August is being approached by strange local organizations, one of which claims to be preparing the world for an oncoming monster apocalypse. It's a claim she's not especially prepared to believe, until she herself is attacked by one of these Monsters.
With her brother's life hanging in the balance, August finally agrees to undergo training and testing to become Master to a Monster of her own: the handsome, bookish Virgil. If the two cannot bond by the end of the trials, Virgil (like many un-Mastered Monsters before him) will be incarcerated. But if August succeeds, the two will become a powerful pair. With the odds stacked against her in an organization that thrives on connections and academia, August fights for her life and the lives of those around her, while uncovering the gory history of two interlocked organizations with their own ideas of how to use these Monsters.
A Mastery of Monsters is a unique approach to issues of prejudice and injustice, demonstrating that insidious ideas can exist just about anywhere provided they have the support and funding to do so. As the first in a trilogy, it raises as many questions as it answers. But it also crafts a unique world, enclosed mainly in two settings, but with plenty of room to expand outward across the remainder of the trilogy. What's most appealing about this book, however, is the greyness. There are so many different experiences in this book, all unique to their respective characters, all complicated. There's no shorthand to quickly decide which characters are "right" or "good"; rather, we must learn with August as she tackles her own trauma and unpacks centuries of history... hopefully quickly enough to save the people who matter to her.
SOULMATCH
by Rebecca Danzenbaker
Available July 29
200 years after World War III, reaching your 18th birthday means its time for your kirling: a process through which people learn the identity of their reincarnated soul. At best, this could mean discovering your life's purpose, gaining an inheritance from your past lives, and perhaps finding a soulmate. At worst, you could be held liable for your past lives' crimes and fined exorbitantly for past suicides. Sivon is terrified of the latter of these—particularly the chance that she could end up being Flavinsky, a notorious bad soul long overdue for rebirth. While that tragic soul is indeed in her group, the results of Sivon's kirling are far more unusual: there is no record of her whatsoever. She is a new soul, the first in 40 years, and the world is clamoring to get to know her... for a variety of reasons.
Under the guard of secret service agent Donovan (whose own kirling revealed himself to be the newest life of the legendarily good soul Shepherd), Sivon assumes the new soulid of Carrefour and attempts to navigate the world's curiosity. Her unique status earns her both allies and detractors, and indeed attempts on her life. But things get even more complicated when she allies with the North American prime minister, whose nephew Janus also happens to be her longtime crush. Between attempts on her life and the discovery of long-buried information, Sivon soon comes to a shocking realization about her new soul status. It may be that kirling is not as flawless as the world believes, and many souls' true pasts are about to come to light.
Soulmatch, while following the typical YA dystopian romance tropes to a tee, does offer a little more to chew on along the way. The early parts of Sivon's journey, from the fashion to the press to the machinations of a white-haired politician, get extremely Girl on Fire at times. Within and around those tropes, though, it carries a compelling message about the changes we all go through as people, the possibility of redemption, and the vicious cycles of incarceration and unaddressed struggles. The final 100 pages are dense with exposition, to the point that you may need a diagram, but all the pieces do fit together very nicely by the end.
THIS BOOK MIGHT BE ABOUT ZINNIA
by Brittney Morris
Available now
In 2024, Zinnia Davis is fighting to gain a Harvard acceptance, supported along the way by her book-loving best friend. But his latest gift to her, a fantasy novel titled Little Heart, throws things into confusion. The story tells of a mother giving away her baby, a princess with a unique heart-shaped birthmark. Zinnia is adopted and has that same birthmark, but it's the little details that make things hit a bit too close to home. Could Zinnia's favorite author actually be her birth mother?
In 2006, a girl named Tuesday Walker is trying to get her life back on track after giving away her baby. She still maintains feelings of a sort for the baby's father, but a new coworker is beginning to seem like a much stronger match. As she sorts out her feelings, she keeps a diary, turning her story into a fantasy epic. But things become fraught when Tuesday learns the truth of her baby's father's family and their connection to her family. And then her diary disappears.
This Book Might Be About Zinnia covers a lot of feelings in a relatively short space: the feeling of having a family but wondering about your "real" one, the grief of giving up a child, the disconnect between a privileged life and the trauma of being a caretaker for a parent. While Zinnia's goals are initially set on crafting an interesting essay for her Harvard application, she soon learns that her desire to excel could be costing her things that really matter—and making her less aware of the world around her. YA novels can often miss the mark when it comes to how teens think and talk, but this turbulent novel (with an ultimately satisfying ending) hits the nail on the head time after time.
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