Hooked on Books discussion

Welcome to the revamped “Best & Worst” monthly showdown!
This month’s theme: High Five & Dumpster Dive 🙌🗑️

Here’s how it works:

1. Your Best Read (High Five 🙌) – Celebrate the books that soared
2. Your Worst Read (Dumpster Dive 🗑️)– Roast the ones that tanked

Don’t just name them — make your case! At the end of the month, voting opens to the entire group, and they’ll choose based entirely on your reasons. Voting will be open for 1 week.

🏆 Which book will rise as Epic of the Month?
💀 Which will be doomed as Dud of the Month?
The title is on the line — and it’s your pitch that decides it.

R

1. Your Best Read (High Five 🙌) – Celebrate the books that soared
I read a few really good books, but The Perks of Being a Wallflower was my only 5 star read.

I really liked this book, it did take a bit to get into with the "diary" type entries, but overall fantastic story. I was in high school in the mid nineties and the story took me back to high school. Charlie's HS experience was different than mine, but I remember what it was like being a teen and trying to fit in. The mental health part of the book really got to me for personal reasons.

2. Your Worst Read (Dumpster Dive 🗑️)– Roast the ones that tanked
The Dragonian's Witch was not good! It was a quick read that I muddled through to complete X of an A-Z Female Author Challenge. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy but this one was very corny.

Don't forget to explain why, so we can vote for your books!

1. Your Best Read (High Five 🙌)
Book - When the Stars Go Dark
Author - Paula McLain
Date Read - 8/13/25
Rating - 5 Stars
Genre - Historical fiction & Mystery
Why - This has to be one of my favorite books I've read so far this year. It was beautifully written and very well researched by the author. Anna, a missing persons detective, was quite the flawed character, and she did come to realize just how much so at the end of the book. She tried very hard to be a good person and do the right thing, but she never healed from her own trauma that happened to her when she was a young girl. This caused her to go overboard when taking on cases so much that she ignored everything else in her life.

2. Your Worst Read (Dumpster Dive 🗑️)
Book - Diamonds and Daggers
Author - Nancy Warren
Date Read - 8/15/25
Rating - 2 stars
Genre - Cozy mystery
Why - I really need someone to explain to me how Lucy is still among the living? Honestly, by all rights she should have died like 11 times by now if not more. Is every main character in a cozy mystery dumber than a turnip? So far all of the ones I have read except for 1 or 2 this is the case. And I swear Lucy makes dumber and dumber decisions as the books go on. Usually by book 11 a character shows growth. This is not the case with home girl here. It really is ridiculous. Let's take for example an incident where Lucy agrees to go talk to a man she doesn't know. He tells her to go down a dark hallway, past the bathroom, and there was a room past the bathroom and that's where she should meet him. What dumbass agrees to this? She does this and wonders why someone hits her over the head and when she wakes up the diamonds she was wearing are missing. Well duh! Then we have to read about how dumb she thinks she is throughout the book. We get it, we don't need to be beat over the head with the same information over and over again.

We also have the incident where Sylvia bullies Lucy into wearing her very expensive said jewels to a gala. Despite Lucy being a dipshit, Sylvia is a bully when the jewels are stolen. She is downright mean to Lucy and very threatening, and no one calls her on it. I would have set Sylvia on fire. I don't get some of these characters, I don't get their decisions, and I don't know why I keep reading these.

Your Worst Read (Dumpster Dive 🗑️)– Roast the ones that tanked

Here... just here....

Pucking Around by Emily Rath

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Big sigh. This book.

Let me preface this with a disclaimer. I like the “reverse harem” / “why choose?” trope. I don’t care about the order of operations: who’s with who first, how they get there, or what creative furniture is involved. I also love stupid, cheesy dialogue and over-the-top lines that make me laugh, even when they’re nowhere near smart or groundbreaking. That is not the problem here.

The problem? Is it the sketchy doctor/patient power dynamic? No. The wet-noodle FMC? Also no. It’s that this thing is nearly 800 pages long when it maybe, maybe, had enough story for 300. The conflict is paper-thin, and the insta-love kills any tension before it starts. If you’re going to have a woman and three men end up together, you need an actual climb to get there. We can’t all just yell "Yay! Let’s do it!" like horny cheerleaders and call it a plot.

Rachel, our wet-noodle, is annoying. I have no idea why these guys are so obsessed with her. Caleb and Jake have the closest thing to a relationship arc, and Ilmari? He’s just a random add-on, like a DLC nobody asked for. If I wanted that experience, I’d just play The Sims and set someone on fire. Instead, my brain is the thing in ashes.

When Rachel asked herself if she should stay or go, I was screaming, GO! Let these men rest in peace! Ugh.

I wanted messy, chaotic fun. What I got was a very long book where the only real journey was how fast my enthusiasm died.



View all my reviews

🏆 Which book will rise as Epic of the Month?



After becoming a big fan of Denise Grover Swank this year with her Rose Gardner series, then the Spin off for Rose Investigations, this darker spin-off series features protagonist Harper Adams and brings back the anti-hero but excellent James Malcolm from both of Rose's previous series. This August release is the third in this series and I loved it. 5 star rating, hope this series continues awhile. The romance heats up, the mystery deepens with her family, she spends this book solving a murder close to her - dark, excellent, and unique.

💀 Which will be doomed as Dud of the Month?



This one was about what i expected it to be - low budget slasher - but I think the author could have tried harder to tie some incoherent strings together. Writing style was okay for this but the villainry was too unrealistic and there were improvements to be made. 2/5 stars