So in late June and most of July I went *a tad bit crazy* with book buying, so my August book haul is a smaller one, because, you know, life is all about balance…and because I’d like for my TBR to not fall and crush me to death in my sleep.

I don’t ask for much.

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Technically, I may have actually acquired Final Girls at the very end of July. Final Girls was my July Book of the Month pick, and I signed up for Book of the Month at the very, very end of July—like I barely squeaked in there in time. So I requested Final Girls sometime at the end of July and it arrived sometime either at the end of July or beginning of August. Either way, it wasn’t on my July book haul, so here it is.

I have a full, in-depth, spoiler-free review of Final Girls here, so I’ll be brief. Final Girls tells the tale of Quincy Carpenter, the only survivor of a gruesome massacre at a cabin where she was staying with some college friends. The media lumps Quincy in with two other real life “final girls”, Sam and Lisa, who survived similar massacres. When Lisa turns up dead and what appeared to be a suicide turns out to have been murder, Sam shows up on Quincy’s doorstep…literally. While Quincy has been working hard to put shed her final girl image and put the past behind her, it doesn’t look like Sam has been doing the same. Soon, Quincy starts to wonder if Sam is being totally honest with her—and if there may have been more to the massacre in the woods than she remembers.

This was a really good read, definitely kept me guessing, and, in my opinion, was very well written! If you like thrillers, twisty-turny mysteries, and books that are a little bit dark, I think you’d really like this one.

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

Continuing on the Book of the Month train, Little & Lion was my August pick. Little & Lion is a YA contemporary novel dealing with some pretty deep issues like mental illness, sexuality, and family strife. It follows Suzette, who returns from her New England boarding school to be with her family in LA and provide emotional support to her stepbrother, Lionel, who is struggling with bipolar disorder. Things are far from simple as Suzette finds herself falling for the same girl her brother is in love with, and ends up being the only person who knows that Lionel is off his medication as his condition spirals out of control.

I haven’t read this one yet, but I am really, really looking forward to seeing how it handles the matter of mental illness, as well as addressing sexuality and bringing some interesting, diverse characters to the forefront. I’ll definitely let you know what I think!

The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones

The Hearts We Sold was the book in my OwlCrate for the month of August, which was amazing! To see my full OwlCrate unboxing and what I thought of all the items included, click here to check out that post.

The Hearts We Sold is about Dee Moreno, a young woman who lives in a version of our world where demons openly exist and are happy to make deals with humans in exchange for one of their limbs as payment. Feeling trapped when Dee finds out her scholarship for her boarding school has been pulled and not wanting to return to a home filled with alcoholism and oppression, Dee ends up making a deal with a demon called the Heart-monger who, instead of taking limbs, takes his client’s hearts.

Then Dee falls for James, one of the other members of her Heartless troop, and has to deal with all of the implications of not having ownership of one’s own heart, ranging from the romantic implications to the simply human ones, all while getting roped into battling something otherworldly that is trying to get through a series of voids and into the human world to destroy it.

This book sounded so interesting, I devoured it almost immediately upon getting it, and I loved it. It was well written, I loved the cast of characters, and it was so emotional and heartwrenching (no pun intended at all). You can find out more about why I loved it and read my full review by clicking here. Also, I felt it fit really well with the August OwlCrate theme of “Something Wicked This Way Comes”.

A Map for Wrecked Girls by Jessica Taylor

A Map for Wrecked Girls was released on August 15th and I grabbed it up as soon as I can, because I first heard about this book through The Book Lover Survival Tag << link, which was thought up by Penguin Teen in honor of the release of this YA novel. A Map for Wrecked Girls is about sisters Emma and Henri, who end up shipwrecked on a beach with only one other person, a young man named Alex. Trapped, Emma and Alex grow closer, but problems develop between Emma and Henri. They must find their way back to each other and learn to work through their issues in order to survive and escape their ordeal.

I was really drawn in by the promotional efforts of Penguin Teen leading up to the release of this book, and I think the premise sounds really interesting. I am looking forward to reading this one, and will most likely review it here, so stay tuned!

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle

I stumbled across Spellbook of the Lost and Found on Goodreads one day when I was perusing August YA releases (it was released on August 8th), and it sounded shadowy, mysterious, and really compelling. In Spellbook, Olive and Rose begin to mysteriously lose little things, and before she knows it, Olive seems to think Rose has lost something else and that something strange is going on with her. Even more strange, diary pages written by someone named Laurel begin appearing all over town, and then Olive encounters three strangers named Ivy, Hazel, and Rowan, who are hiding out in an abandoned housing estate. They draw Olive in and Olive believes they are missing something, too. The group eventually discovers an ancient spellbook which they think can help them get back the things they are missing, but it may actually be leading them to something much darker.

The whole plot of this one sounds very convoluted and cryptic, and it’s unclear how all the pieces of it fit with one another, so I really wanted to read it and see how the puzzle pieces together. It sounds dark and strange, it takes place in Ireland, and the trio Olive meets kind of reminds me of the book The Elementals by Francesca Lia Block, which I thought was beautiful.

What books did everyone else get in the month of August? Anything you’re super excited about? Let me know in the comments! You know I’d love to talk. <3