Monthly Rewind: September 2025

B O O K S

In September, I read 7 books!

For transparency, books marked with an asterisk (*) signify books I received through work at PRH.

Bite Club (Morganville Vampires #10)

I can’t believe I’m almost done with my Morganville re-read! Bite Club isn’t one of my favourites of the series. Even when I first read it when I was 13, I don’t remember enjoying it that much because the POV swapped to Shane a lot, because he enters a vampire fight club, and he becomes really obnoxious. I completely forgot what an arsehole Shane used to be. I guess I liked Claire too much as a teen that I just brushed over Shane most of the time, but now I’m 27 and all I can think is Claire. I beg you, leave this damn town and go to your fancy university outside of vamp city.

The Eyes of Gaza

Written as a series of diary extracts, Plestia recounts the experience of Palestinians, all the while bombs rain around her as she depicts daily life in Gaza. Soon her words are seen by millions all over the world, dubbing her the “Eyes of Gaza”. While Plestia’s story revolves around the first 45 days after October 5th, The Eyes of Gaza is a potent reminder of the horror that Palestinians have faced for generations.

The Healing Season of Pottery*

After abruptly quitting her job, Jungmin is ready to return to life. She stumbles upon the Soyo pottery workshop and finds a community like no other – where everyone has a story and as her hands get busy maybe Jungmin would one day be ready to share her own.

I really am a sucker for the healing fiction genre. I get some people might find them boring or repetitive but sometimes you find one that really tugs your heartstrings and this is one of them.

Into the Midnight Wood*

David Carew knows there are at least 100 things wrong with Meredith Schwarzwelder, and he keeps track of them every day. Meredith is an irredeemable oddity who flirts with anyone in his path. It’s bad enough his roommate scares away any potential of a third inhabitant to their cottage home, but when the Midnight Woods at the edge of their home begin to feel a lot more sinister, David learns that there is more to his roommate than he initially thought.

Ever since finishing A Hex for Hunger, I’ve been craving to find another book that would make me fight for characters like Ambrose and Emery. And Into the Midnight Wood gets that itch like no other. Low stakes romantic fantasy with a plot that seems to go everywhere and anywhere that I usually wouldn’t like in most cases but MY GOD I loved Meredith so much. I would be a better man than David. If anyone breathed wrong in Meredith’s direction, I would’ve started swinging which, in his defence, he definitely does start doing that towards the end. Miscommunication trope working the best here because it made sense!

The Baby Dragon Café

When Saphira opens up her café welcoming pet baby dragons, she definitely wasn’t expecting the growing cost of keeping the fires (quite literally) in line. This place is her dream, but the dream isn’t selling enough to cover her costs. In comes, Aiden, the recluse of his family, who needs help raising the baby dragon his brother left behind. Safiya needs money, and Aiden needs someone to train his unruly dragon and together they slowly work together to become an unexpecting pair.

This book is a great example of why I dislike that publishing has taken to using tropes to describe books because now you’re left with books like this. Underwhelming and quite boring books where it feels like the tropes are doing all the hard work for the book.

(I don’t know how much those lovely marketing ladies in the HarperCollins TikTok lives are getting paid, but I know it is not enough for the number of times they get asked if they sell SJM. 😂Do check them out, they do pretty good deals for their books over there!)

Katabasis

I think everyone and their professors have already shared their thoughts on Katabasis and R.F. Kuang. I don’t really have any skin in the game, but I really enjoyed Katabasis! However, I feel like I enjoyed the concept of the plot more than its actual execution. Now that I’ve let the plot simmer in my mind for a few days, there was definitely a lot of stuff that I could nitpick over in the book, but in the end, I found it entertaining! Kuang herself calls the book nonsense literature, which I think suits the book rather well. Definitely a divisive book for fans of Kuang and for me, I would say I was thoroughly entertained, especially as someone who once considered staying in academia.

I never got around to reading Babel since its release fell during my sad girl unemployment era where I wasn’t reading many books, but Katabasis reminds me that Kuang is an entertaining writer. I didn’t enjoy Yellowface at all which also made me consider not even picking up Katabasis so I think it’s time I read Babel!

The Baby Dragon Bakery

You’re probably thinking, ‘C’mon, Zaheerah, you just said how much you disliked The Baby Dragon Cafe; why did you read book 2?’ Well, The Baby Dragon Bakery follows two characters who I really liked in Book 1: Lavinia, the part-timer, and her best friend, Theo. I was even rooting for them in their brief mentions then. I thought having the MCs be the two people I actually liked in Book 1 would improve the story but it didn’t.

Does becoming the main character mean you lose all common sense? Absolute juvenile writing and insufferable characters. These 24-year-olds act like they’re 16. I think the author should move on from using the miscommunication trope because it’s not working for her. None of these characters know how to be real people beyond the tropes they’re expected to follow. Reading the second book makes it painfully obvious how poor the worldbuilding is. Even the dragons aren’t interesting! How do you even manage that?

I read the teaser for the third book and I would’ve considered reading it because it follows Emmy, Aiden’s older cousin, and Luke, a business enemy. Now I don’t even want to touch the third book with a ten foot pole because of what I fear they’ll become once they’re the main leads.

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That’s it for this month! Tell me what went on in YOUR life this month! What sort of things was important for you this month? New obsessions? New TV shows? Or book? Any new song recs (I’m always open to new music!)? Best books you read this month?