One of my goals this year is to help you spend less time wondering what to read next and more time actually reading.

This week's releases couldn't have been more different. I traveled through space with a sentient patch of moss, spent time with professional hockey players, uncovered small-town serial killer secrets, wandered the halls of a gothic mansion, and stayed up far too late unraveling one incredibly dysfunctional family's secrets.

As always, these are simply my personal reactions. A book that didn't work for me may become your next five-star read, and one I couldn't stop recommending might not be the right fit for someone else.

Let's get into it.

🛸 Moss'd in Space

Read or Skip: READ

Rating: 4.75 stars

I knew this premise was unusual going in, but I was completely unprepared for how attached I'd become to a sentient spaceship made of moss.

At its core, Moss'd in Space is a cozy science fiction adventure about hope, healing, and finding where you belong. While Torian is searching for a way to save her chronically ill sister, Moss is simply looking for someone willing to believe it's worth another chance. Together, they form one of my favorite duos I've read all year.

The real magic of this book is its balance. It's funny without becoming silly, heartfelt without becoming overly sentimental, and cozy without sacrificing meaningful stakes. Every member of the crew adds something memorable, creating the kind of found family that makes you wish the adventure would never end.

Final thought: If you've been looking for a cozy sci-fi that delivers just as much heart as humor, this is an easy recommendation. Needless to say, I'll be first in line for book two.

🔪 Keep Them Close

Read or Skip: READ

Rating: 5 stars

David Ellis has done it again.

He's one of the only thriller authors who consistently convinces me I've solved the mystery...right before revealing I haven't figured out anything at all.

What starts as a murder investigation quickly spirals into a story about family loyalty, betrayal, old secrets, and just how complicated sibling relationships can become. Every time I crossed someone off my suspect list, Ellis gave me another reason to put them right back on it.

Despite all of its twists, the novel never sacrifices character development. The family drama feels just as compelling as the mystery itself, making the reveals land even harder.

Final thought: I stayed up until two in the morning because I couldn't stop reading. If you're looking for a thriller to binge in one sitting, make it this one.

🌲 Thornbird

Read or Skip: READ

Rating: 4.5 stars

Whenever an author jumps into a completely different genre, I'm always curious to see how it turns out. Thankfully, Elle Kennedy's first YA thriller absolutely delivers.

The mystery unfolds in a small town obsessed with the legacy of a notorious serial killer, and while the investigation takes a little time to fully get moving, Kennedy's character work easily carries the slower opening.

Once the suspense ramps up, though, the story becomes incredibly difficult to put down. The final act delivers exactly the kind of unsettling payoff I was hoping for, leaving behind that lingering sense of unease every good thriller should have.

Final thought: Whether you normally read YA or not, this is worth picking up if you enjoy character-driven mysteries with creepy small-town atmosphere.

🏒 Big Stick Energy

Read or Skip: READ

Rating: 4 stars

I enjoyed the first book in this series, but this one easily became my favorite.

Between fake dating, workplace tension, a family wedding, and two genuinely lovable main characters, this romance simply worked from beginning to end.

What impressed me most was how emotionally mature the relationship felt. Darcy and Eric continually show up for one another without trying to rescue or change each other, creating a romance that feels both supportive and believable.

Final thought: If hockey romances are your comfort reads, this is an easy recommendation. It's funny, sweet, steamy, and full of heart.

🕯️ Songbird in the Gallows

Read or Skip: SKIP (for me)

Rating: 3 stars

This was one of my most anticipated releases because the premise sounded tailor-made for me: a Bluebeard retelling, a gothic mansion, morally gray characters, forbidden romance, and a murder-sober serial killer.

There were definitely things I enjoyed. Blue was easily my favorite character, Grimlock was wonderfully atmospheric, and the quirky supporting cast gave the town a lot of personality.

Ultimately, though, I struggled with the romance. It developed much faster than I personally prefer, and I never fully connected with Saylor, making it difficult for me to become emotionally invested.

Final thought: This is much more a matter of personal taste than quality. Readers who love spicy dark romance with gothic aesthetics, taboo elements, and immediate chemistry may have a very different experience than I did.

Also Hitting Shelves This Week

Didn't see your next read above? Here are a few other releases arriving this week that caught my attention.

🎭 Main Characters

A literary romance told entirely through the perspectives of everyone except the couple at its center. Spanning two decades, it explores how one relationship shapes the people living it AND everyone watching from the sidelines.

Pick this up if you enjoy: Sally Rooney, David Nicholls, literary romance, relationship-driven stories, and unconventional narrative structures.

🎰 The Kings of Vegas

Imagine Succession set inside a Las Vegas casino empire. After her father's death, one woman returns home to battle her siblings, the FBI, organized crime, and rival casino owners for control of the family business.

Pick this up if you enjoy: family dynasties, crime thrillers, corporate power struggles, glamorous settings, and messy family drama.

🏡 The Housewife

A psychological suspense novel about a newlywed who slowly realizes her seemingly perfect husband may know far more about his first wife's death than anyone suspects.

Pick this up if you enjoy: domestic thrillers, controlling husbands, unreliable appearances, dark family secrets, and books by Freida McFadden or B.A. Paris.

Vote below for the July bookclub read...

We’re reading The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden in July! I’ve heard so many wonderful things about this book, and I’ve really enjoyed Arden’s past work (see: The Bear and the Nightingale). I also looooove historical fiction + fantasy so I have really high hopes for this ☺️

Don’t forget to check the Discord for this month’s giveaway winner 📱One of you will receive a hard copy of our July pick!!

Happy Tuesday, mis internet amigxs!!!

I wanted start this week's newsletter by sending sending my heart out to the people of Venezuela and all they are experiencing after the earthquakes last week. I can not imagine the horror and desperation. I've never been one to be hopeless, so I found this document as a wonderful resource for assistance and donations. Please share, as recovery will be long and the people of Venezuela need all the help we can provide right now in this moment. My post yesterday also included some local Tampa donation drop-off spots and I'll be sharing in IG stories as well. If you have reputable links, please provide them in the comments of this post as well. I'm happy to amplify.

JULY BOOK CLUB REMINDER

Tomorrow we GO BACK TO SCHOOL! Both our July book club picks are nonfiction!

Our regular book club pick for the month of July is P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became The Global Voice Of Puerto Rican Resistance by Venessa Diaz and Petra R. Rivera-Rideau (Audiobook)

Our nonfiction sidequest (you get 2 months to read) is Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer (Audiobook)

Both books are linked below--I suspect discussions will start on Cuban time after July 4th weekend, so you have plenty of time to get your books.

SUPPORT MY WORK

You can support the work I do to bring these lists together by becoming a Libritos or Lectores member. It's through those financially supportive memberships that I can show Bindery that we want to publish Latine literature and also how I make ends meet as a full-time creator. One of the benefits of a paid subscription is that they already have all of July Latine releases in their hands along with some pretty exciting news. I appreciate you all being here at whatever level you can support.

And without further ado, today's Latine releases...

Translated Horror

The Summer of the Serpent by Cecilia Eudave and translated by Robin Myers (Audiobook)

Romantasy

Cursed Ever After by Andy C. Naranjo (Audiobook)

Anthology (featuring Latine contributors)

These Kindred Hearts: A YA Romantasy Anthology edited by Shari B. Pennants (Audiobook) features Zoraida Cordova, Vanessa Montalban and Angela Montoya

xo,

Carmen

Hello, everyone! Happy New Release Tuesday, here are some releases we're excited for!

• Moss'd in Space by Rebecca Thorne (THIS IS PERFECT FOR MURDERBOT FANS)

• Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay (a master)

Hope you're all doing well!

Till next time!

-Ryn

Hi there book buddies!

You thought I forgot about the weekly reading update, didn't you? Nope! I just took the day off to celebrate my birthday. I'm 46 & fabulous, thank you for asking. 😜

We slipped away to Sequoia National Park to tent camp for the weekend, and though I had every intention of enjoying my book whilst in the hammock the entire weekend, I barely finished a page. Instead we did a driving tour and a few short hikes, plus lots of time tending the campfire (it was cold, yo).

Now we're back home and back to reality, though I'm finding it hard to focus on anything other than my current reads! Y'all suggested The Calamity Club as my next read, and, boy, I'm glad you did. The hype is REAL. It's SO good that I don't want to put it down, though I've been told to savor it if I can. I'm reading the physical book and listening to the audiobook, and, if I'm being honest, the audiobook is much better. But regardless how you read it, get your hands on this book asap! Now's a good time to tap into Audible (get 3 months free) since Libby holds on this book are going to be miles long!

I've also started the new Kate Thompson, The Secret Society of Librarians, and, as I expected, I'm loving it, too. If you've read her other work, then I guarantee you'll enjoy this book. I'm only 15% of the way into my advanced reader copy and already there are SO many Easter eggs from The Little Wartime Library and The Little Wartime Book Club. Her WWII books are all full of great characters, found family, and tight-knit communities. 10/10 recommend

Since my last update I finished A Great Act of Love and really, really enjoyed it. As I said in my most recent Last/Now/Next, it's a good one for adventure seekers. I especially loved the father/daughter connection in this book, along with the woman-reinventing-herself theme. Lately, I'm feeling the pull to be somebody completely new, so that really spoke to me. 4.5⭐️

I finally got the chance to read The Original, my most anticipated Spring release, and, y'all, it had me wondering WHY I WAITED SO LONG!? If you love Katharine Hepburn or Cary Grant films, this is a MUST read. It was like watching a film, with the terse, quick exchanges and abrupt scene shifts between chapters. It was seriously good reading, but I have a feeling it will not be for everyone. 5⭐️

Lastly, I decided to DNF The Correspondent for now. I tried reading on my Kindle and then tried audio, and neither format was speaking to me. It's a fan favorite, so I may try it again, but the dry narrative was a struggle.

ICYMI:

Paid subscribers got first dibs on the August Historical Fiction Heads Up! Otherwise, be sure to subscribe (and confirm) to my newsletter for access on July 1.

Hear It Here First:

I'll be sharing a bunch of stuff on Youtube very soon, including my book haul from the Great Bookstore Tour (very overdue). Be sure & follow me there if you like long form content.

Thanks, as always, for being here! Until next time, happy reading. 🤩

xoxo

c

Hey y'all!

Things have been absolutely crazy for me this week. I can now OFFICIALLY say I have pitched a book to editors and I am crossing every finger that it is received well. I really loved this author's book and hopefully we can get it into the world for everyone else to love it, too. I'm also working on my first nonfiction pitch & proposal for an author! Really getting my hands into all the pies over here!!!

Let's talk queries for a minute! I have received SOOOO many amazing queries in the short four months I've been an apprentice and declining queries is incredibly difficult for me. Everyone has such great ideas for creative and new books, but I want to feel SO strongly about their book that I would fight tooth and nail to get them the deal they deserve. Sometimes I do love something, but the manuscript is not QUITE there yet and I have to pass, which is hard!!! I've had quite a few that I've loved and wish it was just a little different and I've let the author know so the door is always open for them to bring it back to me if they've edited their work. If you are someone who has queried me , thank you!!! It blows my mind that people find my information and want to share their babies with me. If you are someone thinking about querying me, please do! I'd love to take a look at your work and maybe we will fit together like puzzle pieces in this big, daunting industry!

So, if you read last week I pitched (HA) the idea for a new content series featuring western media outside of literature. And, if you follow me, you'll notice that I did NOT do that. A few reasons: 1) I was so busy that I couldn't find the time to sit down and film it!! Crazy because it would only take a few minutes, but I was drained. 2) Unfortunately I do want to come up with a better title for it, if possible, so I may just integrate it into 'western wednesdays' for now. If the people hate it, then hey, the people have spoken!

Another content thing: I have been sitting on and kind of teasing my dissertation for well over three years now and I still want to share her with the world. I had thought to start a substack, but why not just do it here! Be on the lookout for that sometime in the near future as I dust off my 'Save a Horse, Write a Cowgirl' and get to editing. It would likely be in multiple parts due to its length.

Anyway! If you've made it this far, thank you for being here! I hope y'all have a great week!

xo Ellen

Sickos, we got the official book club picks ready to rock and it's Monday so I wanna know what y'all are reading this week in the comments while I lay out what I got goin' on. Let's boogie!

FICTION SICKOS BOOK CLUB

It's Jurassic July baby! We are reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, which needs no extra context, everybody knows what it is. It's my first time reading the novel after seeing the movie a billion times so I'm excited about seeing the differences. We might have to do a watch-along in the Discord for this one after people have had a chance to take 'er down.

HISTORY SICKOS BOOK CLUB

It's become my life's mission to introduce folks to this historian's work and that continues on with me going full dictator with Not Built in a Day: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire by Emma Southon (UK title: Servus).

Here's the blurb:

From acclaimed author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and historian Emma Southon, a groundbreaking history of Ancient Rome that explores how the empire was built, fueled, and shaped by its enslaved people.

When Julius Caesar conquered Gaul he boasted that he killed a million Gauls and enslaved a million more. This is the truth about the Roman empire: Rome could not function without slavery as it underpinned every single part of their economy. Without the millions of people snatched from their homes in the aftermath of war, kidnapped from the streets, sold into slavery as punishment, or born into it as “home bred slaves”, the Roman empire’s great aqueducts and temples could never have been built. There would be no coins or tiles to find in fields, no limitless manpower for the army and navy that conquered the Mediterranean, no marble palaces or underfloor heating, and certainly no life of unimaginable luxury for the one percent who didn’t even tie their own shoes. For the first time, Not Built in a Day tells their stories.

READING

REVIEW

THE HORDE: HOW THE MONGOLS CHANGED THE WORLD by MARIE FAVEREAU (scholarly historical nonfiction)

Progress: Finished

I ranted about this one last week and have a video recorded that'll likely go up tomorrow about a pretty bold revisionist take that Favereau slipped in the epilogue. Overall, there's a ton of good info here when Favereau sticks to the facts but it's a recommendation that comes with big caveats due to some unconvincing arguments and dry, repetitive writing. I'll be a adding a stack of Mongol recs to the pinned Master List this week.

WE WILL BE JAGUARS: A MEMOIR OF MY PEOPLE by NEMONTE NENQUIMO (Indigenous environmental memoir)

Progress: Finished

I was nearly finished with this last week and highly recommended it, then followed that up with more detail on YouTube. I also clipped that out for short-form so there's plenty of places to get my take on this but the bottom line is pick this one up.

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON: POLITICS, PEOPLE AND THE AIDS EPIDEMIC by RANDY SHILTS (historical nonfiction)

Progress: 457/605

Didn't finish this like I planned but we made good progress and I continue to appreciate the level of detail in this THICC BOI. Am discussing it more in-depth in the Discord forums as it's the History Sickos Book Club pick for June.

DEFIANCE: A MEMOIR OF AWAKENING, REBELLION, AND SURVIVAL IN SYRIA by LOUBNA MRIE (nonfiction memoir)

Progress: 102/417

Randomly picked this up the other night just to sample it and ended up chewing through the first hundred pages. The tag line you'll hear me say about this in the eventual review is definitely going to be some form of "daughter of an assassin for the regime joins the revolution" because I can think of no better way to describe it. That's some badass fantasy shit, but make no mistake, this is nonfiction and Mrie has one helluva story and is one helluva writer.

GUARDS! GUARDS! by TERRY PRATCHETT [City Watch #1, Discworld #8] (satirical fantasy)

Progress: 328/403

Finally! Finally, I have spread some Discworld book cheeks and I'm having a wonderful time. This gives me serious Monty Python vibes and I'm loving the zany nature of it all. We have a Discworld bussy forum in our Discworld where I've been dropping thoughts and highlights if that's your kinda thing. I'm in the home stretch and will likely finish tonight and resume the series after I finish Jurassic Park.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Currently watching the World Cup as I write this up (Japan is up on Brazil!), and that'll be on all week. For my re-watch I'm going with Narcos but I'll need a different background show for work (bcuz no habla), so I think I'll go with a random season of Alone. Of course, House of the Dragon, and I may even re-watch that while also taking in the weekly episodes (which I haven't started yet tbh).

I was planning on starting some other video games but instead started doing steppe people runs on Civilization VI. No regrets.

Hi folks, I have exciting news - I’m going to be an attending author at Fiction Fest next year, my first signing event!

https://www.fictionfest.co.uk

I had so much fun at Fiction Fest this year as an attendee, I’m so happy to be returning next year as a debut author. Dream come true.

Hope to see some of you there!

Disco x

Hey y'all,

For July, we'll be reading Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. It was one of my top five reads last year and I just can't stop thinking about it and I want you all to understand that feeling.

Moving forward, I'll send out a poll on Discord to see what people would like to see from this book club. Feel free to also comment suggestions here or in Discord. I've been picking the books the past few months, but I do want to bring the voting back soon.

XoXo,

Rae

We are making sure your bookish aesthetic is unmatched this summer. Your exclusive July vault is packed with over 60+ customizable Canva templates and mockups designed to make your feed shine. From detailed review layouts to giant reading wrap-ups, everything you need is just a click away.

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Hey readers and creators!

Summer is in full swing, and it’s time to give your bookish content a fresh, sunny upgrade. We are back with your monthly dose of design goodies here! Whether you want to review your latest beach read or show off your mid-summer stats, we’ve got you covered.

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I'm changing up Monday's posts! I'm going to try out moving my book reviews from Instagram to Bindery, and doing them in a weekly roundup style. I'll be giving a few bullet points about each book I read in the last week.

Honestly, I'm a little nervous about this because I do not like change, ha. But we're doing it! Also, come on over to my Discord server and share your own reviews with the friendly folks there!

Books marked with a * were gifted to me, books marked with a ^ I was paid to read.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman - This was a reread, and I've hollered enough about DCC that I won't subject you to too much more. I made my spouse listen to this on a road trip we took to try and get them into the series and it worked! Honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised given that they rarely read fiction, let alone sci-fi/fantasy.

The Maidenheads by Benny B. Johnson* - Y'all already saw my rave review of this! Honestly, it's a contender for a top book of the year for me. (And watch this space for my mid-year faves!)

Escala's Wish by David James^ - I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It's a D&D style story with a faerie trying to complete a task that will allow her to end her exile from the fae realm, and it's told with the framing of a bard telling the tale to a tavern full of people. It's not the most complex story and doesn't have the most three dimensional characters, but it was full of heart, action, and silliness.