there have been a few books in my small yet mighty journey of reading where i felt it in my soul that i could've DNF-ed, but i am somehow too stubborn to let a book go unfinished and just suffer from beginning to end💀 i think for me it's simply to say that i finished the darn thing and know how it ended.

anyone else?

Just a reminder to all you lovely questers that the fall 2025 readalong is now live! Based on my last post, it seems we should have a really solid number of people participating in reading The Spellshop to get their readalong badge! Personally, I have it slotted into my Plan for October, so I'm really excited to jump in on the discussions that'll already be happening in the book forum 🤗 Happy reading everyone, and if you like The Spellshop just a reminder that there is another recently released book in the series - The Enchanted Greenhouse!

I'm not one to really reach for non-fiction books (mainly because I use reading as a form of escapism) but this was genuinely an amazing read. It was a hard read, don't get me wrong, but wonderfully written. There were times in the book where I would put my kindle down and just stare blankly into space because I found it difficult to imagine the realities of this illness. And the fact that it's all factual amplifies that feeling of despair and grief. I was grieving people I never knew. I think this is an incredibly important read.

The Fall Readalong has officially started! Check the Discuss page to see the book picks & badge. If this is your first Pagebound readalong, click the purple info icon next to the Fall Readalong header on Discuss for more info. A few reminders:

• If you've already finished a readalong book, you can earn the badge by commenting or posting in the forum
• Keep posts authentic! Please do not post "Just posting for my badge", or "This was good" (ie a post that is a review). Not sure what to post? Comment instead :)

This season, a few of the Top Contributors are hosting unofficial readalongs in their Quests. These are meant to help build community in the Quest, and encourage everyone to work towards the next badge level together! You will not get a special badge for participating in these, and the convo should still happen in the book's forum, not the quest forum. Here's a list of Quests hosting a readalong; might be a good time to join one of these Quests if something catches your eye ;)

• Sapphic Vampires Quest: Carmilla
• Monster Romance Quest: The Orc Prince
• Games and Trials Quest: Phantasma
• LGBTQ+ Sci-Fi & Fantasy Quest: A Treachery of Swans
• Fantasy and Sci-Fi with a Side of Romance: Raven Scholar
• Cozy Fantasy: The Spellshop (already included in the PB-wide Fall Readalong!)

As for product updates, we've made some quality of life improvements since our last check-in (example: search taking you to Books instead of Users when you press enter) but our largest improvement has been in site performance. Response times were getting pretty crazy with all the new traffic, and we're now consistently at low response times :) We also started beta testing the app! Still working through bugs so it's perfect for launch, but progress is well under way. We're hoping for a September launch but ofc will depend on how beta testing goes this month.

Lastly, we've been seeing such amazing convos in the book forums and the Pagebound Club. It's amazing to have a community this thoughtful, nuanced, and respectful. You all make Pagebound such an incredible community, so thank you!

Happy Reading, Jennifer & Lucy 💜💙

ive realised that when im reading i am patiently waiting for the book title to appear and it irks me when it is not mentioned. its like a mini easter egg and when it FINALLY appears it has me like

for the cowboy romance lovers, i just finished crossroads by devney perry and you best believe i was damn excited when the title was mentioned 🙂‍↕️

what are your thoughts – do you care if the title is mentioned or not? would you rather it be seperate and instead you figure out yourself if theres a hidden meaning? keen to read everyones thoughts, lets discuss!!