Unboxing My Latest Book Haul (August 4)

Book Mail: A Roundup of the Book Mail I Received Last Week

There’s a special joy in receiving a week’s worth of book mail in the first week of August, just as summer starts its gentle slide toward fall. This book haul of new book releases is the perfect way to refresh your TBR pile, offering stories that promise adventure, reflection, and pure escape. Each title brings the excitement of potential book recommendations to share with friends or savor solo, and you might even discover early contenders for the best books of 2025. It’s a wonderful reminder that there’s always time for one more great read before summer fades.

Where to Buy These Books:

I want to note that I do not get paid to do these posts, I just love authors and the book industry. However, they do take time and energy to create. If you want to donate a few dollars to my coffee fund, which keeps this blog going, you can do so here: https://venmo.com/AshleyHasty or here: http://paypal.me/hastybooklist.

What I Wore:

Vest | Jewelry | Makeup

In the first week of August, when the air is heavy with summer’s golden glow and everything feels lush and alive, slipping into a matching white linen short and vest set instantly channels main character energy. It’s that perfect main character outfit—crisp, effortless, and undeniably chic, the kind of aesthetic clothing that turns even the simplest moment into a cinematic scene. Paired with your go-to gold hoop earrings and your new graduated rope necklace, it’s main character fashion that exudes style for confidence and fashion for self-expression. As you settle in with a fresh stack of book mail, fingers tracing titles that promise character-driven novels, stories of self-discovery, and books that inspire confidence, you’re reminded that this is living your main character life. It’s the art of curating your world—your wardrobe, your mindset, your bookshelf—to reflect who you are and who you’re becoming. In this moment, you’re embodying main character energy completely: poised, present, and ready to write your next chapter one page—and one perfect outfit—at a time.

This Week’s Book Mail Includes:

• Night Night Tyrannosaurus by Chris Ferrie and Melanie Mikecz - Say goodnight to your favorite dinos while learning fun facts and spotting shapes in this adorable bedtime board book perfect for little paleontologists!

• Night Night Ladybug by Chris Ferrie and Melanie Mikecz - Say goodnight to colorful garden friends while learning fun facts and spotting rainbow hues in this charming bedtime board book perfect for little nature lovers!

• When Bumblebees Go to Sleep by Claire Wrenn Bobrow and Natalia Vasilica - Drift off with Bumble the bee as he searches for the perfect flower to snuggle in, meeting sleepy animal friends along the way in this sweet, rhyming bedtime board book.

• Every Step She Takes by Kelley Armstrong - When a mysterious package shatters her carefully hidden new life in Rome, Genevieve must confront the dangerous past she thought she'd outrun in this gripping thriller from Kelley Armstrong.

• ZomRomCom by Olivia Dade - When zombie hordes overrun the city, a brave heroine teams up with her grumpy (and surprisingly chivalrous) vampire neighbor to save the world—and maybe fall in love—in this sharp, swoony paranormal romance.

• Asylum Hotel by Juliet Blackwell - When an architect’s photo of a crumbling seaside hotel reveals a ghostly figure, she’s drawn into a chilling mystery of haunted legends, deadly secrets, and murder that someone will do anything to keep buried.

• The E.M.M.A Effect by Lia Riley - A brilliant computer scientist and her best friend’s irresistible hockey-playing brother go from off-limits to perfectly matched in this steamy, AI-approved friends-to-lovers STEM rom-com where love just might defy all her careful calculations.

• Soul Searching by Lyla Sage - When a small-town upholsterer with secrets and a ghost-whispering woman in need of a fresh start become unlikely roommates, the spirits haunting their Wyoming home might just be the push they need toward an unexpectedly heartfelt—and hauntingly romantic—new beginning.

• The Dime Museum by Joyce Hinnefeld - Spanning generations and continents, this lyrical novel explores privilege, forbidden love, and the fragile ties that bind us, as one man in Venice grapples with his family's tangled legacy of wealth, loss, and hard-won hope.

• Lootie's World Run by Marie Leautey - Experience an awe-inspiring true story of grit, wonder, and humanity as Marie Leautey runs 680 marathons across four continents, capturing the beauty of our world and the boundless power of perseverance.

• Icing on the Murder by Valerie Burns - When a tyrannical wedding planner ends up skewered at a bridal expo, bakery-owner and bride-to-be Maddy Montgomery must catch a killer before her dream wedding turns into a crime scene!

• How to Break My Heart by Kat T. Masen - When a small-town café owner is forced to plan her best friend's wedding with the billionaire ex who broke her heart, sparks—and donuts—fly in this cozy, steamy enemies-to-lovers romance.

• The Truth Is in the Detours by Mara Williams - Two former friends with unfinished business are forced into a cross-country road trip where old wounds, buried secrets, and undeniable chemistry collide in this sharp-witted, heartfelt novel about family, forgiveness, and finding the truth.

• Jessica Harmon Has Stepped Away by Reyna Marder Gentin - When struggling editor Jessica agrees to help her famous, emotionally distant mother on a book tour, long-buried secrets and shifting power dynamics force them to confront the truth about their fraught relationship—and themselves.

• Becoming Sarah by Diane Botnick - Becoming Sarah is a powerful, multigenerational saga tracing a Holocaust survivor’s struggle to reinvent herself in America and the complex legacy of resilience and buried truths she passes down to her daughters and granddaughters.

• Bottom of the Breath by Jayne Mills - In this compelling blend of romance, mystery, and adventure, a woman journeys from Florida to the Grand Canyon to unravel a haunting family secret and confront the stormy truths threatening her marriage and sense of self.

• Photograph by Brian Freeman - When a murdered woman's only clue to her true identity is an old photograph, PI Shannon Wells races to unravel a chilling cold case filled with buried secrets, deadly twists, and haunting echoes from her own past.

• Veil by Jonathan Janz - When invisible monsters begin snatching people away, one grieving father will risk everything—even his sanity—to pierce the veil between worlds and rescue his family in this relentless, chilling horror tale.

• Acts of God by Kanan Gill - In this wildly inventive and darkly funny debut, a hapless detective's investigation into global existential crises collides with the meddling plans of a future scientist-god, unleashing a cosmic comedy of errors that questions the meaning of everything.

• The Feeding by Anthony Ryan - In this chilling postapocalyptic tale, a fearless young scavenger braves a deadly wasteland overrun by monstrous feeders to save her dying father, testing her cunning, courage, and will to survive against humanity's most terrifying predators.

• North Country by Matt Bondurant - Set in the bleak, icy expanse of the Adirondacks, North Country follows a disgraced veteran drawn into a violent underworld of drugs and crime, where long-buried childhood traumas and chilling secrets lurk beneath the frozen surface.

• Bat Out of Hell by Don Bruns - Inspired by Meat Loaf’s iconic album, Bat Out of Hell delivers a high-octane anthology of mysteries—including new stories from Andrew Child, Heather Graham, and more—guaranteed to thrill fans of crime fiction and rock 'n' roll alike.

• Soulmatch by Rebecca Danzenbaker - In a world where your past lives decide your future, sharp-witted Sivon uncovers a shocking destiny that plunges her into a deadly game of secrets, betrayal, and forbidden love in this pulse-pounding YA speculative romance perfect for fans of Scythe and Matched.

• The Mess Monster by Jessica Marie and Nicholas Child - When Lucy's messy room threatens her soccer dreams, she must battle the elusive Mess Monster by cleaning up her clutter in this playful, relatable story about taking responsibility.

• The Call of Wonder by Brian Cranley - Explore how faith and science can illuminate one another in The Call of Wonder, a thought-provoking journey that reveals they’re not opposites but two sides of the same enduring truth.

• The Collectors by Richard A. Danzig - In The Collectors, attorney Chance Cormac dives into the shadows of art fraud and the deadly black market for human organs, racing against corruption and danger to uncover the truth—and save his friends.

• The Ordeals by Rachel Greenlaw - In this lush and dangerous romantasy, illusionist Sophia DeWinter must survive deadly magical trials—and the rivals willing to kill her—to win freedom at an elite academy and escape the sinister grip of her cruel uncle.

• No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe - In this gripping, razor-sharp thriller, two women bound by a shared murder reunite years later to confront buried secrets, deadly enemies, and the unresolved love that might just save—or destroy—them both.

• The Bourne Escape by Brian Freeman - When an explosion kills his lover and shatters his memory, Jason Bourne is thrust into a deadly hunt across Europe to uncover the truth, rescue his mentor, and survive a web of betrayal where every answer could cost him everything.

• The Felons' Ball by Polly Stewart - When a beloved family friend is murdered after a notorious Southern birthday bash, his secret lover and the sheriff must unearth long-buried crimes and dangerous truths in a tight-knit Virginia town where the past is anything but dead.