Side Quest Reads
When one book a month just wasn’t enough, we added optional side quests.
Here are some extra books the club chose to read together.
September 2026:
While we are waiting for Grim Tidings to be published on the 15th, many of us are going to tackle this behemoth of a romantasy read. The audio is a whopping 24 hours long!
This story follows a secret assassin who kills her husbands (and men who deserve it) by kissing them. Unfortunately, this works on all men but one. This book should be packed with 24 hours of excitement, so buckle up and clear your schedule.
July 2026:
We read THREE romantasy books during the month of July.
First, we chose Dire Bound by Sable Sorenson after a few us were curious about this popular Booktok read. It was so fast-paced and action-packed that we immediately added a space to discuss Fury Bound, its sequel.
Daggermouth was re-released this month, and many of us chose to listen to the audiobook together since it featured the one and only Teddy Hamilton. We started this one later in the month, so we will be continuing it throughout the month of August.
June 2026:
We kicked off the summer with this romantasy novel (which turned out to be the first of many side quests into the genre) in honor of the release of Ballad of Falling Dragons.
This book is a bit of a slower burn, but the MMC is absolutely worth the wait.
The Wolf King and The Night Prince were absolutely crushable romantasy reads about a human princess who gets (lovingly) kidnapped by a wolf in order to set her free from her impending marriage to a horrible human being of her father’s choosing. It had spice. It had action. It had some kind of mysterious life-essence bond. What more could you ask for?
We read the first two books in the series, and my only complaint is that the final book in the trilogy won’t be out until November. I would also highly recommend the audio for these because the male narrators SLAY.
May 2026:
April 2026:
If you’ve been with us for awhile, you’ll know that we’re big Ashley Poston fans here. This side quest was her most recent book, in anticipation of her next release in June. Sounds Like Love was a story about a woman who returns home to spend more time with her mother as she progresses farther into memory loss.
There is magic, music, creativity, mystery, and love at the center of this one, and most of us cried by the end. Don’t worry—there is a happy ending. And if you have had the experience of losing a loved one to dementia, I might recommend skipping the author’s note at the end. That made me cry like a baby.
February 2026:
The Improbable Meet-Cute: Second Chance collection on Amazon is a series of six second-chance themed novellas. My favorite thing about them, besides how absolutely crushable they are, is that they have paired audio available within the app so that you can listen as you read, or switch back and forth between reading and listening seamlessly.
10/10 for convenience and flexibility. Personally, I also find that trying out new-to-me authors in this format is a delight.
January 2026:
A few members of the book club tackled this one in January, and I think everyone was surprised by how heartfelt it was. Personally, I was not at all expecting to fall in love with a ghost or a book whose plot mainly surrounded a funeral but….there I was, crushing on a super hot ghost and crying at how beautifully celebratory this funeral turned out to be.
It is easy to become jaded when romantic love doesn’t work out, and watching Florence fall back in love with her hometown, her family, and love itself was just….ugh. I ADORED it. I cannot say enough good things about how this book was a much-needed change in point of view for me. 10/10, will recommend to anyone willing to listen.
December 2025:
This extra Christmas read took me by surprise—I knew that I was looking forward to a Meghan Quinn read (isn’t she delightful?!), but I cannot emphasize how much silliness was packed into this book. This was exactly the right amount of ridiculous to offset the number of cozy, Hallmark-y offerings out there, and I, for one, cannot be enjoying it more.
If you are looking for something silly and lighthearted this season, this is a great place to begin. Also—this is technically the sequel to How My Neighbor Stole Christmas, but it can be read as a stand-alone.
October 2025:
Our extra-curricular reading this month took on the form of six novellas that were a part of Amazon’s Scared Sexy Series. Some were fun, some spooky, but the one thing they all had in common was some serious spice.
If monster romance and curse-breaking are your jam, then you will really enjoy these. Best of all, they could be read (or listened to) in a single sitting.