What are you planning to tackle in September? I've always read the first and second novels in the Beartown and The Bloodsworn Sage back to back, and now I've returned for their finales which I'll be finishing back to back in September. Two series which I've LOVED so far, so I'm both sad and excited to round them out! Some new releases I want to get to are Hemlock & Silver, What Stalks the Deep (T Kingfisher is auto-buy for me) and also The Library of Hellebore (Cassandra Khaw is amazing at grotesque writing). Lastly, I had paused The Blade Itself a few months ago as while I was liking it, I was not really vibing at the time. Well, the time has come for me to get back to it! (Fantasy rejoices) Anything else I read will be a mood read!

I’m intrigued about why readers over 30 years old enjoy YA books. I don’t read YA myself, as the dialogue I've looked through felt somewhat immediate/childish, and I thought the themes would suit younger readers, yet I see intense violence and sex being quite frequent in those books. What pulls you into YA? Characters, pacing, or something unique? I'm genuinely curious, and would love to hear your thoughts in a friendly chat! 😊 Maybe you'll manage to convince me to try and read some YA.

When I was younger I would always read the very last page of a book because I wanted to know if I'd like the ending to save myself from both heartbreak and wasting money. I don't do that anymore, but whenever I know with absolute certainty an iconic scene will happen in a book, I skip around until I get to that part. So while searching, I'm spoiling things and when I get to the scene I read the whole thing before going back to where I actually am in the book. Sometimes it's not intentional though, the worst is when I look up a question online and it spoils something not even pertaining to the question! I have spoiled both the Caraval and OUABH series, the Poppy War Trilogy, AGGGTM: As Good As Dead, Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home, Beartown, and Long Live Evil (to name a few). I do have regrets because I always wonder what it would've felt like to be blindsided (which is the best), but sometimes I literally cannot continue reading unless I know what will happen because it stresses me out so much. Is this a me problem or does anyone else spoil things for themselves even a little bit?

Shameless plug! I promise this will be my only post in this forum, as it isn't a book promotion space. But as an indie author of a debut scifi/thriller novel, I figured my people were right here in the Pagebound forums. Forever After (by me, Derek Robinson) is a techno-thriller that ponders a future where consciousness uploading is a real technology. With a simple upload procedure, the minds of your loved ones can be captured and hosted within a hyper-realistic video chat app—EverChat. You never have to say goodbye. They live on, forever after their death. Their thoughts, memories, personality... it's all there, manifested on a screen. This is the world Brayden Cross lives in. He's an ex-operative who sees a murder shatter his family. On his pursuit for justice and revenge, threads continue leading him to EverChat. Is it just a stupid app? Or might it pose a vastly bigger threat than a killer on the loose? Ignore this post, or check it out if you're interested. It's free on Kindle Unlimited, and only a few bucks otherwise. Happy Pagebounding, friends!