books I’ve read lately

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ll know that I am an avid reader. As a teenager, I used to spend Saturday afternoons holed up in bed reading Nancy Drew. That later turned into an obsession with The Classics, of which I read many (including nearly all of Dickens), and nowadays, I tend to read lighter novels.

It took a while after having Jane to get back into reading. Around July of 2025 I decided to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited to cure my boredom while nursing. Jane was exclusively breastfed and she didn’t really start eating solids until 9 months, so we spent a LOT of time nursing.

I also wanted to spend less time scrolling on social media, so I switched to a different dopamine source: reading. Reading has always been a huge source of dopamine for me - I will admit that as a homeschooled teenager I would procrastinate my work until the last minute because I had to finish whatever novel I was currently reading. Even as an adult I struggle with not reading a book all in one go, although I like to think I have a little more discipline now…

Anyway, last month I canceled Kindle Unlimited because I’m trying to get a little more analog and off screens so much, but in about a year and a half I had read about 175 books. Recently I discovered I read on average 200 pages per day which is ridiculous.

I had ChatGPT give me recommendations and I ordered several books from Vinted. I have been enjoying physical copies! So, here are my thoughts on some of the ones I’ve read recently (in the last 2-ish weeks).

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Believe it or not, for as many regency romance novels I have read, I had never heard of Georgette Heyer. Apparently she was a big deal for a while and rightly so. I’ve now read three of her books, and they are all vastly entertaining. Heyer has a very distinct style, and I would say that her dialogues and character pictures are a lot more accurate than modern regency romance. Actually it’s a huge pet peeve of mine with modern regency to have them all speak in present-day English and even use words like “okay”. She actually incorporates accurate slang and Regency English. Yes, sometimes you wonder what on earth that word means, but that’s fine with me.

The Grand Sophy is one of the more unique romances I think I’ve read as you spend the entire book wondering if Sophy is even going to get married and then discover it at the end. It wasn’t so much of a plot twist but more of wondering how on earth the ending would come about. Heyer is excellent at writing comedy and this was especially prevalent with this book.

The book is about Sophy, who goes to live with her cousins for a time and finds they need their lives fixed, so she endeavors to improve their lives and remarkably, it turns out quite successfully. She is a likeable, unconventional heroine, and very amusing.

Clean read!

5/5 stars from me, and I’ll probably read it again.

Arabella by Georgette Heyer

Arabella is about a family who entrust themselves to the care of a single Marquis and how they change him and his life for the better. Arabella is a good-hearted, compassionate, heroine, and the Marquis is cynical, with dry wit and amused fascination for Arabella and her family.

Another very entertaining book, with a found family feel. Also, there’s a rather large age gap (24 and 37 I believe) if you’re into/not into that kind of thing.

Clean read!

4/5 stars for me!

Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

Edenbrooke is one of my favorite recent romances. This one is a very slow-burn, friendship-to-lovers story, and I loved every minute of it. There’s a lot of witty banter, which is definitely my thing! I wish I could read this book again for the first time.

It’s set in the English countryside on a beautiful estate, and is full of carriage rides, ballroom dances, walks in the countryside, picnics, lunches in the library. I wish this was a movie, because it would be so lovely.

The romance is swoon-worthy and the hero of the story is charming and a trifle infuriating. I’m not sure what else to say but you should read it - I loved it.

Clean read!

5/5 stars!

Blackmore by Julianne Donaldson

I was eager to read another book by the same author as Edenbrooke, and I was not disappointed! My copy ended up a little jumbled so I didn’t get the whole thing, but I did get some of the best scenes I think. This one is another slow-burn, forbidden romance, childhood friends-turned-lovers, and a heroine who is stuck within society’s rules and desperately wants out.

This one takes place mostly on a slightly more gothic seaside estate, with secret passageways and rumors of ghosts - it’s a cozy rainy day romance and while I don’t love it as much as Edenbrooke, it came a close second for me.

Clean read!

5/5 stars!

Penmarric by Susan Howatch

Woof so I did NOT know what I was getting into when I started this one. Penmarric is a years-long saga that tells the tale of three generations of one family, covering pre-WWI, WWI and WWII.

It definitely has more of that classic feel to it. What’s interesting about this one is that it tells the story from different people’s perspectives. So you end up seeing both sides of the story when there is conflict, which is really cool, I think. Anyway it’s about a family in Cornwall and there’s a lot of darker family drama. There are decades of love, marriage, ambition, infidelity, jealousy, and family conflict. Kind of reminds me of Poldark if you’ve seen the show (I’m about to start the book series). I liked it mostly for how well-written it was but it wasn’t inspiring and was just kind of depressing as dramas where everyone dies is. I feel like it pretty accurately shows the consequences of choices made.

18+ for content.

4/5 stars.

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

This is another sweeping family drama that encompasses three generations. While it seems to chronicle different people’s lives it doesn’t really come from their perspectives but has an overall onlooker’s/third person view to it.

This story is about an Irish family in New Zealand. It spans several decades, following the Cleary family through forbidden love, ambition, betrayal, sacrifice, and generations of heartbreak.

The main character is Meggie Cleary, who develops a deep attachment to a priest. He is torn between his feelings for her and his ambition within the church. Note that their age gap is 18 years and he meets her when she is 9, I think - yeah, yikes. Anyway, she eventually marries someone else but their relationship is full of suffering. And her love for Ralph, the priest, has consequences that ripple through the entire family.

At its heart, this is a story about the difference between loving someone and being able to build a life with them. It’s passionate, tragic, and all-consuming. It’s a heavy read, and emotionally devastating for sure.

18+ for adult content.

4/5 stars.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

This one is a diary written by the youngest daughter, Cassandra. I Capture the Castle is a coming-of-age story about first love, family, and learning to see life as it really is rather than as you wish it would be. It's witty, slightly heartbreaking, atmospheric, and fully of English countryside charm.

The family lives in an old, crumbling castle, selling furniture in order to buy food. They are very poor after their father, an author, cannot seem to write another book. Cassandra’s older sister Rose dreams of marrying rich to help their family escape from poverty, and it seems that may actually happen…

However, the romance becomes complicated and there is a lot of romantic yearning and emotional complexity. It’s much gentler than the previous two novels, though. The ending is open-ended, as well.

Not entirely clean, maybe 15+ for content.

4/5 stars.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

This novel got turned into a Hitchcock film and it is definitely a gothic psychological suspense. This one is not a sweeping love story.

The narrator of the story is a young woman working as a companion to a socialite when she meets Maxim de Winter, a wealthy widower. She marries him and they go back to live at his country estate, Manderly.

But the estate is dominated by the memory of his first wife, Rebecca. This makes our narrator even more insecure and she begins to think their marriage is built on secrets. Something is wrong and deeply unsettling and the truth about Rebecca’s death is darker than it seems.

Honestly, I’m about to go hunt down the movie because I think this one is going to be amazing on film. I’m not usually into a lot of phsyc thrillers but I do like a good gothic novel now and then and this fit the bill. Nothing was too scary but it was definitely suspenseful and mildly unsettling. I really enjoyed it!

Pretty clean.

4/5 stars.

Ok so, give me some book recommendations! And let me know if you’ve read any of these?