Everything I Read This Month | August 2025

Do you have a book type? A.k.a a genre that you tend to lean towards when you’re scanning the shelves at your favorite bookstore. My primary genre of choice for reading is crime/suspense, but The Art of Vanishing was definitely one of those books that leapt off the bookstore shelf for me… It’s from a subgenre that I enjoy reading, which combines art with a touch of theft and magical realism. The Accidental Rewrite, another novel I had the chance to read in the month leading up to my second year of nursing school, features the amnesia trope, but it is a heartwarming book that really makes you root for its main character.

So, without any further ado, I’m excited to share this month’s list of recommended books.

The Guest in Room 120 | Sara Ackerman

This is the second book I’ve read by Hawai’i-born author Sara Ackerman, after reading last years, The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West, and I enjoyed this dual timeline novel even more. The story is told from the POV of three very different women. Jane Stanford (the co-founder of Stanford University) and Iliahi Baldwin in 1905, and Zoe Finch in 2005, who is dealing with a bit of writer’s block when she attends a writers conference at the Moana. Unknown to her, she is staying in the very same room (120) where Jane stayed 100 years previously.

When notes start appearing under her door, Zoe turns to mystery writer Dylan Winters, one of the speakers at the writers conference. Together, they work to uncover what happened in Room 120 and who was responsible for Jane Stanford meeting her untimely end.

If you enjoy dual timeline novels, set in exotic locales with true events woven into the storyline, this is definitely a book you will want to check out.

Rating: A+

1905 As the mother of a university and a woman with an iron will, Jane Stanford has made her share of enemies. After a scare at her mansion in San Francisco and on the advice of her doctor, she flees to Honolulu and the fashionable new Moana hotel. But as fate would have it, the island is not as safe as it seems.



2005 Zoe Finch is a bestselling author who desperately needs a jump start on her next novel, and she makes a split decision to attend a writers’ conference at the Moana under an assumed name. As a storm brews offshore, she begins having nightmares that feel hauntingly real. Terrified, Zoe enlists the help of mystery writer Dylan Winters and, over the course of the week, races to uncover the shocking truth of what happened in the hotel one hundred years ago almost to the day.



1905 Iliahi Baldwin’s life changes the moment she lands a job at the Moana. Newly hired and reeling from a tragic loss, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with the formidable Jane Stanford upon her arrival, which leaves young Ili devastated when the unthinkable happens. Ili knows things, but some powerful people need the truth to remain hidden, and to cross them could prove disastrous.

Releases Sept 23rd

Death in the Aviary | Victoria Dowd

This novel, one in a series featuring journalist/amateur detective Charlotte Blood, has the essence of an Agatha Christie novel. Charlotte, under the guise of an ornithologist writing about a story about the Ravens that call Ravenswick Abbey home, is there to discover who murdered Charles Ravenswick, the heir to the family fortune. It soon becomes apparent that not only is she being watched, but her very life might also be in danger.

While a very interesting read, this book did drag a bit in parts between clues and revelations, but definitely a worthwhile read for fans of all things Agatha Christie.

Rating: A

A ‘locked lift’ mystery for Golden Age crime fans, from award-winning author Victoria Dowd.

New Year’s Eve 1928 – In the grand residence of Ravenswick Abbey, isolated in the wilds of Dartmoor, nine members of the household step into an ornate lift. The power fails. The lift stops. In the darkness, a single shot is fired.

When the light returns, Charles Ravenswick — the heir to the Ravenswick fortune — is dead on the floor. No one could have got in or out. All have motives, and none have alibis.

A year later, under the pretence of reporting on the family’s infamous ravens, sparky Charlotte Blood investigates. She finds a house haunted by suspicion and secrets. She must unravel the mystery and with it the terrible truth behind the entire Ravenswick family. Her search will not only lead her down a dangerous path, but it will also reveal dark secrets that lurk in her own life.

A Rather Peculiar Poisoning | Chrystal Schleyer

Set at a turn-of-the-century manor, this book gives off Downton Abbey vibes with a side of murder. Eloise grew up as the childhood friend of twin brothers Easton and Weston. While she’s always been in love with Weston since they were children, Weston, as the second son, must marry an heiress to make his way in the world. After learning of Weston’s proposal to a wealthy but plain heiress, Della Drewitt, Eloise accepts Easton’s proposal, under one condition. The twins’ younger sister stays at home instead of being sent off to a home where she can be looked after.

The book pivots between different times in the relationship between the characters as well as POV’s of Easton, Weston, Eloise, Della, and the ‘downstairs staff’, Violet, and Sadie. Pay attention to each clue as you read along because you’ll never guess the twist at the end.

For fans of Downton Abbey and Knives Out, if you like mysteries with a twist, this one to check out!

Rating: A+

A celebration at a turn-of-the-century manor takes a deadly twist, and everyone becomes a suspect.

Twin brothers Easton and Weston are both in love with their childhood best friend Eloise. But headstrong Eloise prefers the younger brother, Wes, which is why she is heartbroken when, unexpectedly, Wes proposes to an heiress, and Eloise finds herself engaged to Easton—the twin she cannot stand. Then, during a week of celebration, Wes is poisoned. Murmurs of nightshade slip through the manor, and everyone seems to have a motive.

Was it Della Drewitt—the heiress reluctant to marry Wes? Or did Easton decide killing his brother was the only way to secure Eloise’s affections? Or was it the housemaid Violet, Wes’s previous lover?

As guests turn into suspects, attempts to kill Wes become more relentless than the storms churning the estate—who wants him dead, and why?

Releases September 2nd

The Accidental Rewrite | Milly Johnson

I’ll admit, at first, this one was a hard one to get into. Mostly because certain characters were putting me off… which is exactly what they’re supposed to do. The Accidental Rewrite, which was originally published in the UK under another title, is a charming novel about self-discovery and finding your true self. After leaving her former boyfriend and life behind (sooner than she’d planned, as you’ll find out if you read the book) she goes to the last place where she had happy memories… It’s there that she’s attacked, her belongings stolen, and she loses her memory.

Thanks to a retired nurse (whose son owns the local Italian restaurant, which is now struggling due to the chain restaurant moving in next door), Polly, who now thinks she is Sabrina, the character she’d written about in her former life, is determined to figure out who she really is while helping out at the restaurant. In doing so, she finds more than she expected. Not only does she find her people, but she may have found true love.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it was just the sort of heartwarming story, with hilarious typos/retraction featured in the local paper throughout the book. I highly recommend this when you need a little rom-com.

Rating:A+

From the Sunday Times and internationally acclaimed author Milly Johnson comes her charming US debut–a witty, heartwarming tale that combines the humor and charm of 1980s rom-com Overboard with classic British flavor. Dive into this remarkable women’s fiction novel and join heroine Polly on her hilarious, touching journey to rewrite her own story.

What if it were possible to start over again? To leave everything behind, forget all that went before, and live the life you’d always dreamed of?

Polly Potter is losing the plot of her life. At work, her jerk of a boss is making her days unbearable. At home, she’s trapped in an unappreciative relationship with a man-child of a partner. She’s left completely drained by always putting others first. Amid this chaos, Polly finds solace in one place: the pages of her novel, where she shapes the world of the fearless and triumphant Sabrina Anderson, a character who embodies everything Polly wishes she could be. And thus a plan is born: Polly Potter is going to stop writing the life she wants and start living it.

Just as she makes her move–quitting her job, leaving her partner, and embarking on a road trip to start over–fate turns everything upside down. A wild turn of events leaves her far from home along the Yorkshire coast, in the hospital, waking up from a concussion, believing her name is Sabrina Anderson. She doesn’t know where she’s come from, but she feels she could heal in that seaside town, with the fresh air, seagulls, and a few kind strangers who take her into their lives. And into the heart of their joyful, boisterous Italian family restaurant–run by Teddy, the warmhearted son of her new landlady. When the restaurant is threatened, she knows she has the skills to help–and as her memory slowly returns, she must choose between Sabrina’s life or Polly’s. With her identity in question, Polly wonders: what if this new life could truly be hers? What if she could rewrite her story with a happier ending?

Previously published in the UK as The Happiest Ever After.

The Art of Vanishing | Morgan Pager

If you love art, and magical realism, this is a wonderful new release that you need to check out. It has night in the museum vibes, given the fact that the subjects in the paintings can move from painting to painting during the night, only remaining the poses the artists chose for them during the day.

Jean Matisse, who was frozen in time for over 100 years after his father painted him, along with his sister, younger brother, and mother in 1917, has ‘lived’ a rather quiet existence until a new cleaner, Claire, changes his life forever. It begins as a one-sided conversation, with Claire talking to him as she cleans, until one night she discovers that she can step through into the painting. From that moment, neither of their lives will be the same.

This book is one of the stories that you don’t want to put down until you find out how it ends. A must-read!

Rating: A+

Something magical is happening inside this museum.

Jean’s life is the same day in and day out. Frozen in time by his painter father, the legendary Henri Matisse, Jean observes the ebb and flow of museum guests as they take in the works of his father and other masters like Renoir, Picasso, and Modigliani. But his world takes a mesmerizing turn when Claire, a new museum employee, enters his life.

Night after night, Claire moves through the gallery where Jean’s painting hangs, mopping the floors, talking softly to herself to stem her loneliness, and gazing admiringly at the masterpieces above. The alluring man in the corner of the Matisse—is he watching her? Why does she feel a deepening pull to him, like he can see her truest self, her most profound secrets? Did he just move?

In an extraordinary twist of fate, Claire discovers she can step through the frame of Jean’s painting and into a bygone era, a lush, verdant snapshot of family life in France in the throes of the First World War. She and Jean begin a seemingly impossible affair, falling in love against the backdrop of the gallery’s other paintings come to life—glittering parties, exhilarating horse races, and windswept beach bluffs—which they can move through together and where Claire is seemingly the only outside visitor, alone in possession of this gift.

But as their happiness is threatened by challenges both inside and outside the museum, Claire and Jean find themselves in a fight to preserve the love they’ve hardly dared to dream of. Will their extraordinary connection defy the confines of reality, or will the forces conspiring against them shatter their carefully curated happiness?

The Midnight Hour | Eve Chase

I don’t know what I would have done if this book hadn’t ended the way it did. Nothing about this book was rushed, and everything unfolded with just the right timing… Set mostly between Notting Hill, London 1998/2019 (yes, the 1998 scenes are when the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts film Notting Hill was being filmed) and Paris 1998/2019, this book follows Maggie Parker, the daughter of a model who moved them to a small house in London after their father died (she has a younger brother, Kit) and simply walks out one day.

On her own, Maggie must rely on her newfound friendship/romance with Wolf. After yet another tragedy befalls them, Maggie and Kit must flee to Paris, where their Aunt, whom they barely know, keeps an apartment. Flash forward to 2019, where a body has been discovered in the basement of Maggie’s old Notting Hill home. Who could it be, and who is responsible for their murder? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Rating: A

Notting Hill, London: One May evening, seventeen-year-old Maggie Parker’s mother walks out of their front door and doesn’t return. With her little brother in tow, desperate to find their mother, Maggie is drawn into a labyrinthine world of secondhand shops and shadowy figures, far from the grand townhouses in her comfortable neighborhood.

As Maggie struggles to maintain a stable life for herself and her brother, she befriends Wolf, another young person also living on his wits alone. But can he help solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance—or will her growing feelings for him just cause her further pain, upending her life even more? When she discovers that her beloved house now holds a dangerous new secret, and Wolf is involved, Maggie, heartbroken, makes her escape.

Twenty-one years later, in her Paris apartment, Maggie gets a phone call that shatters her hard-won new life. While in London, the incoming owner of the Parkers’ old Notting Hill house is excavating the basement, unaware of what might lie beneath—and the clock starts ticking on buried secrets.