Birthstone Book Covers: August 2025

It’s that time of the month again! Time for one of my favorite posts.

Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the gemstone in the title.

August has one birthstone – Peridot.

Rules:
📚 Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Black ) and link back to her so she can check out your post.
📚 Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone.
📚 HAVE FUN!
📚 Nominate people if you want!

**Beautiful Redemption** **by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl**

**The Inquisition** **by Taran Matharu**

**The Girl With No Reflection** **by Keshe Chow**

**A Storm of Swords** **by George R.R. Martin**

What are your favorite books with green book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this August?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Bewitching Book Covers: A Mastery of Monsters

Geez, it’s been forever since I’ve done one of these. Over two months, huh? It’s also been a little bit since I’ve posted in general. I definitely didn’t intend for either of those things to happen, but, oh well. Anyway, let’s get into showing off a Bewitching Book Cover.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Bewitching Book Covers (formerly Tasteful Tuesdays, and before that, Majestic Mondays), is a series where I highlight an awesome looking book cover and talk about what I like about it. That’s it, that’s pretty much the point of this post.

This week, the book cover that I’m highlighting is A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury. This is a pretty recent release that’s been on my radar for a couple of months.

A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury

SERIES: A Mastery of Monsters #1

LENGTH: 592 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Margaret K. McElderry

RELEASE DATE: 29 July 2025

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Ninth House meets Legendborn in this thrilling first book in a dark academia fantasy series about a teen who’s willing to do anything to find her brother – even infiltrate a secret society full of monsters.

When August’s brother disappears before his sophomore semester, everyone thinks the stress of college got to him. But August knows her brother would never have left her voluntarily, especially not after their mother so recently went missing.

The only clue he left behind was a note telling her to stay safe and protect their remaining family. And after August is attacked by a ten-foot-tall creature with fur and claws, she realizes that her brother might be in more danger than she could have imagined.

Unfortunately for her, the only person with a connection to the mysterious creature is the bookish Virgil Hawthorne… and he knows about them because he is one. If he doesn’t find a partner to help control his true nature, he’ll lose his humanity and become a mindless beast—exactly what the secret society he’s grown up in would love to put down.

Virgil makes a proposition: August will join his society and partner with him, and in return, he’ll help her find her brother. And so August is plunged into a deadly competition to win one of the few coveted candidate spots, all while trying to accept a frightening reality: that monsters are real, and she has to learn to master them if she’s to have any hope of saving her brother.

Book Cover Rating: 🪶🪶🪶🪶 • 4 feathers from a monstrous bird

A Mastery of Monsters has one of the simpler book covers of those that I’ve reviewed previously, but I still enjoy it. It isn’t as simple as other covers I’ve highlighted in this post, either. There’s a lot I like about it either way.

I really like how the background is primarily green. Green is one of my favorite colors, so I’m definitely biased on that front, but I also think it complements the rest of the book cover really well. The title font is also really cool looking, and I love the shade of gold chosen for it. Green and gold also normally go together really well too, and the same is true here.

The bird is centered really nicely, and it being pinned with a pair of knives is also interesting. My favorite thing about this part of the cover art, though, is probably the monstrous bird-like shadow behind the bird. I really like the stuff it’s implying, and it just makes the cover look more awesome.

So yeah, here’s yet another beautiful book cover. What do you think about this cover art? Have you read A Mastery of Monsters? If you have, what did you think of it?

Anyway, as always, thank you for reading, and I hope that you have an excellent day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 7/14 – 7/20

So… yeah… this is late. I don’t have an excuse. It was just a bit of a rough start to the week for me, I guess. At least I can say it’s not Thursday this time? (I hate that I can say that.)

Though last week wasn’t great in the reading books department, it was pretty good for the blog posting department. I finally did more than two posts in a week in July 2025! Yay! Four would’ve been better, but, oh well.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get on with the weekly wrap-up!

Wednesday 7/16: Can’t-Wait Wednesday

Last Wednesday, I did another Can’t-Wait Wednesday again. One more week and it’ll be a streak!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings. It focuses on books you’re looking forward to reading, usually new releases.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: A Mastery of Monsters

Thursday 7/17: June Reading 2025

On Thursday, I posted my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up for June 2025. It was posted later than I’d have liked, but with all the stuff at the beginning of this month, I’m not surprised or too disappointed it took this long. For those who don’t know, monthly wrap-ups are when I go over the books I read over the past month, as well as my stats over on The StoryGraph.

Monthly Wrap-Up: June Reading 2025

Sunday 7/20: Birthstone Book Covers

This past Saturday, I participated in Birthstone Book Covers. Birthstone Book Covers is a fun little post created and hosted by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black.

Each month, for the post, you feature book covers that are either the same color of the month’s birthstone or include the color in the title. This month was July, and its birthstones is ruby. So the color of the month was red.

Birthstone Book Covers: July 2025

Books I Read Last Week

💖🎁 Wrapping It All Up 💖🎁

So yeah, my blog activity was pretty decent part week, and I’m happy with it. Regarding books and reading them though… yeah that could’ve been better. I dunno what it is about the summer months – I just have more trouble than normal getting into books and stuff.

This week I’m just planning on some of the usual stuff. Like, I’ll participate in or do some of the usual suspects. You know. I also want to try and finish a book and maybe do a review of it before the end of the week. Hopefully.

Last week was cleaning week, so we cleaned the house and stuff. Other than that, it’s pretty much just the same old kind of thing going on. Just watching what we’re eating and taking care of ourselves.

Anyway, as always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Birthstone Book Covers: July 2025

Like last month, t’s a little later in the month again, but I’m here again participating in another Birthstone Book Covers!

Birthstone Book Covers is a fun monthly post created by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.

July has one birthstone – Ruby.

Rules:

📚 Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Black) and link back to her so she can check out your post.
📚 Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone.
📚 HAVE FUN!
📚 Nominate people if you want!

**What Feasts at Night** **by T. Kingfisher**

**The Forest King’s Daughter** **by Elly Blake**

**The Dragon Heir** **by Cinda Williams Chima**

**The Shadow Throne** **by Jennifer A. Nielsen**

What are your favorite books with red book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this July?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Birthstone Book Covers: June 2025

It’s a bit later in the month than I usually get to it, but I’m here again participating in another Birthstone Book Covers!

June has three birthstones – Alexandrite, Moonstone, and Pearl.

June is one of the harder ones for me, for whatever reason, even though you can do a lot of different things with June birthstone colors. There’s teal of course, for alexandrite, and there’s also white for moonstone. But pearls are also iridescent, so they’re kind of rainbow. So yeah, lots of options. I’m basically going the pearl route this time around, so it’ll be colorful covers galore.

Rules:

**The Bridge Kingdom** **by Danielle L. Jensen**

**A Thousand Nights** **by E.K. Johnston**

**The Gilded Mirror** **by K.E. Barden**

**A Letter to the Luminous Deep** **by Sylvie Cathrall**

**The Book That Broke the World** **by Mark Lawrence**

What are your favorite books with teal, white or iridescent/rainbow/colorful book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this June?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Bewitching Book Covers: The Stardust Thief

Oh wow, it’s been a bit since I’ve done this post, huh? This is what I get for going with the flow on this blog, I guess. Happy Saturday everybody, by the way. Now let’s talk about a Bewitching Book Cover.

This week, the book cover that I’m highlighting is The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah! I’ve been meaning to get to its sequel, The Ashfire King, but I’ve been both distracted and busy, so I’m hoping doing this post will hype me up to read it.

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

SERIES: The Sandsea Trilogy (Book #1)

LENGTH: 467 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Orbit Books

RELEASE DATE: 17 May 2022

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, The Stardust Thief weaves the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp.

Neither here nor there, but long ago…

Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.

With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.

Book Cover Rating: ✨✨✨✨ • 4 handfuls of magic

Ahhh, it’s been so long since I’ve read this (ei: about two years, lol). But seeing as The Stardust Thief’s long-awaited sequel has finally released, I thought it was finally time to gush about this book cover art.

I’ve always loved this book cover; and I actually owe it to the cover for getting me to pick up this novel. It really caught my eye, for some reason. I think it was the colors and the way they supplemented one another, along with the book’s really interesting sound title. So I guess let’s start with that – I really like the colors and how they’re used here.

If you’ve read any of my Bewitching Book Cover posts before, you know that I have trouble resisting a cover when it has purple on it, particularly when it’s used well. I also happen to like how the fire is integrated well in a cover, and this book has they too, which I of course enjoy. The bonus is that the range and purple complement one another really well, which bumps the cover up when higher in my rating.

The font used for the title and author also looks very nice. I especially like the presentation of the title – the little extra swirl on some of the letters is pretty in a simple way. And it’s not overly detailed, which I enjoy about it. The way the dark purple and gold colors used for the fonts of the title and author’s make respectively, is also pretty cool. I love a good contrast, as well as complementary stuff on covers, so this novel having both makes it extra great.

So yeah, here’s yet another beautiful book cover. What do you think about this cover art? Have you read The Stardust Thief? If you have, have you also read The Ashfire King, its sequel?

Anyway, as always, thank you for reading, and I hope that you have an excellent day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Birthstone Book Covers: May 2025

Hey everybody, it’s been a few days. Happy Saturday – I hope everyone’s enjoying their weekend so far! It’s that time of the month again!

May use one birthstone – Emerald. So the color of the month is green!

**The Lightning Thief** **by Rick Riordan**

**The Runaway King** **by Jennifer A. Nielsen**

**The Inheritance Games** **by Jennifer Lynn Barnes**

**The Sunbearer Trials** **by Aiden Thomas**

**The Iron Trial** **by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare**

What are your favorite books with green book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this May?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Bewitching Book Covers: Five Broken Blades

Hey everybody! Hope you’ve been having a good weekend! Mine’s been somewhat busy, personally, which is why the book review I had been planning on isn’t quite ready. But I thought how it’s been quite a bit since I’ve posted a Bewitching Book Covers, so I decided to squeeze it in!

This week the book cover I’m highlighting is Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland!

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

SERIES: The Broken Blades #1

LENGTH: 512 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Red Tower Books

RELEASE DATE: 7 May 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

It’s the season
for treason…

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness—from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers—each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal—it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.

Book Cover Rating: 🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️ • 4 unbroken blades

So, as much as I like this book cover art and would love to give it a rating of five unbroken blades, I still don’t love it that much. Even with the addition of the lovely sprayed edges, though the edges are still buffing this cover up for me. (Actually, I think without the colored edges, I’d have given this cover art three unbroken blades.)

Anyway, even though the sprayed edges are definitely the best part of the cover for me, I’m gonna talk about the other stuff I enjoy about the book cover of Five Broken Blades before that. Firstly, I really like that there are actually five swords on the cover. I feel like some books I’ve seen that have a number of something in their titles don’t manage to have the same number of the thing on the cover art. So I’m giving this cover props for having the proper amount of the thing in its title.

Next, I really like the shade of red used for the base color of the cover. It’s just such a perfect shade, which is why I think a lot of red book covers tend to use it. Especially with the thorns wrapped around the swords on the cover, there’s a bit of A Court of Thorns and Roses energy going on here. The swords do look a bit short, however, even though I think they’re supposed to be katanas? I dunno, though – I’m not really super well versed in swords.

Now I’d usually discuss the title and author font here, but I honestly don’t have a lot to say about it. It’s fine, I guess, and I like the contrast, but nothing about it especially pops out to me. So I’m gonna talk about the pretty sprayed edges instead. I love how the colored edges solely incorporate only the colors already used on the cover itself. That’s a really cool detail. The red sky looks amazing, and I love how black is used to make the character and foliage on the side of the book to look like they’re made of inky shadows. And the golden sun just tops everything off.

So yeah, here’s yet another beautiful book cover. What do you think about this cover art? Have you read Five Broken Blades?

Anyway, as always, thank you for reading, and I hope that you have an excellent day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Birthstone Book Covers: April 2025

Hi everyone, hope you’re all having a good week so far! Mine has been really… meh, I suppose. Like, it hasn’t been even close to the worst week I’ve ever had, but my allergies have been acting up the past few days, which has sucked. But other than that, this week’s been fine.

Anyway, Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.

April has one birthstone – Diamond. Which is a precious stone that’s generally colorless on its own (though there are variations). Because of this, the general consensus for book cover color this month is white.

This also tends to be one of the harder months to do, but I honestly haven’t struggled with it yet. Famous last words, I know. So! Book covers that are mostly white, here we go!

**The Silvered Serpents** **by Roshani Chokshi**

What are your favorite books with white or mostly white book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this April?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Unpopular Bookish Opinions

Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday! It’s been a few weeks since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Unpopular Bookish Opinions. This is in regards to being a reader, a book reviewer or it can be about opinions you have on books that go against the grain.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s go!

#1: Relationships in Romance

I’m not into romance novels. I think most of them aren’t really realistically written to what relationships are actually like and what kind of people that people would actually dare/marry and actually have a successful relationship with. It’s just… ugh.

#2: Large Guys

This one is kind of similar to the first one, in that it’s very closely related to romance novels (as well as romantasy), but I’m so tired of huge guys. And I don’t mean guys with supernaturally large 🍆 – though that’s gotten annoying as well – but guys that are like mountains next to their love interest. I also garw it when they’re also described as being humongously tall, but then the author actually adds height descriptions in like inches or something, and the guy turns out to be like 8 inches taller than the girl or something. Then why are you describing him like he’s three feet taller than her or something!!!!

#3: Listening to Audiobooks

Now I’m not saying that I don’t consider using audiobooks as reading because that’s absolutely not true. Listening to audiobooks definitely counts as reading novels! What I’m talking about here is that I personally don’t care for listening to audiobooks. It kind of gives me a headache for whatever reason.

#4: Booktok

A lot of people seem to be obsessed with Booktok and it’s recommendations. Well I’m tired of the biggest recs from this platform being either not-very-well-written romantasy or dark romances. Like, I’m glad that people are reading, but I want to learn about other books that are my type! Come on!

#5: Organizing Bookshelves by Color

Now I think that bookshelves organized by color can be very pretty. I like seeing what some people’s look like when I’m on Instagram or YouTube or whatever. That said, it also tears me apart to see books from the same series separated in order to do this. I could never violate the series I own in such a way.

#6: Re-Binding Books

I hate this. I’ve seen people make some really nice looking covers on Instagram and stuff, but it feels like they’re mutilating the book and I can’t stand it.

#7: A New Cover Release Based on the Upcoming Adaptation (Movie or TV Series) of a Book/Series

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. I hate movie covers – they always look terrible to me.

#8: When Authors/Publishers Release a New Cover for a Book or Series That is Less Than 10 Years Old

Let the books/series have at least a decade! It never seems like the books/series are old enough to justify a new cover, otherwise. It doesn’t help that I often find the original covers to be better.

#9: Romantasy Book Titles

The titles based off of A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Curse So Dark and Lonely are getting really old. Actually, they got old about five years ago. Recently, I saw a book with a title that was almost a mix between these two books specifically and it hit me then how much I despise this way of titling things. It’s not new and fresh anymore guys – it’s overused and annoying, and it’s certainly overstayed it’s welcome at this point.

#10: Most Blurbs/Book Descriptions on Books

And last – but certainly not least! – this. This is absolutely my biggest pet peeve when it comes to books. I actually love the idea of book descriptions in books to entice and attract the reader and get them pumped for reading books. But I’ve found so often nowadays that the blurb either outright lies or misconstrues things that happen in the book, OR the blurb is talking about and spoiling something that happens in like the second half of the book. The worst ones are the book descriptions that do both! Ugh!! I hate this so much! There’s just so many bad blurbs in books lately!

What are your unpopular bookish opinions? Are they about books and social media? Are they about what people tend to think or like or dislike about books?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar